mauvebutterfly
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 720
Registered: 05-03-2015
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I think that I've gotten pretty good at scripting, but I have this one challenge idea that I'm stumped on how to implement.

You are in a room with a bunch of enemies (all of the same type) and you need to kill all but one of them before doing something else.

Is there a way to check this with scripting? I can check if there is a specific enemy within an area, but I don't know how to have the check fail if there are two or more enemies of the same type in that area.

(Actually, an awful idea that just occurred to me is that I could replace all the enemies with scripted enemies that all look and function identically to the regular enemy they would be replacing but are tracked as separate enemy types by the game engine. Shudder.)

I had the idea that I could simply have a variable increment every time you kill one of the enemies, but due to hot tiles it is easy (and in fact necessary) to kill multiple enemies on the same turn, which isn't something I seem to be able to track with scripting either.

Am I missing something obvious? Or am I going to have to change my challenge and/or redesign the room?

I swear I'll finish this hold someday...

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106th Skywatcher

Dragon Fogel
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 2434
Registered: 06-21-2014
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I'm no expert on scripting, but I can see a few options.

Possible-but-tedious: check every individual tile that the enemy can step on and increment a variable for each of them you find. If you're desperate enough to go for this, don't check at every turn as that will more than likely cause slowdown; just check at the "something else" point.

Otherwise, the easiest architectural tweaks would be:
-add a single enemy of another type and you have to keep that one alive. This may not be preferable due to specific enemy properties or movement, though.
-add a specific place to lead the last enemy to. Award the challenge when the enemy is on that tile, the other thing hasn't been done yet, and there are no other enemies in the room. Since you know where the last enemy has to go, it's easy to check that every other tile is enemy-free.

Insoluble
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 1638
Registered: 09-04-2014
IP: Logged

Dragon Fogel wrote:
Possible-but-tedious: check every individual tile that the enemy can step on and increment a variable for each of them you find.

This shouldn't be tedious to script at all. You can use nested loops. Have one loop check for enemies in each square of a row by incrementing _MyScriptX and have the other loop run the first one for every row on the screen by incrementing _MyScriptY. Since you really care about ensuring that there is exactly one enemy left, you don't actually have to count them. Just run the nested loops, and once the variable has gotten to 2 or more you can immediately exit the loops for that turn. That should cut back on any slow down at least (though I really don't think there will be all that much.)

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Links to neat forum tools that I always have trouble finding:

robin
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 842
Registered: 09-01-2004
IP: Logged

I have such a script. When I'm home, I'll post it here.

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robin
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 842
Registered: 09-01-2004
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robin wrote:
I have such a script. When I'm home, I'll post it here.

http://forum.caravelgames.com/viewtopic.php?TopicID=40149&page=0#399086

Look what I found

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Jacob
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 3746
Registered: 10-01-2004
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What about something like this:
Start with a variable = number of monsters, defined by the architect
Subtract 1 each time monster killed
When you go to do something else (e.g. step on a certain tile):
if variable =1, fine (open a door or whatever). if variable != 1 then fail (close a door?).

Of course, this depends on there being no other monsters in the room that you could kill to decrement the variable, and depends on what exactly you want to happen specifically.

Edit: of course, this also disregards monster type, so forget it.

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My Holds and Levels:

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[Last edited by Jacob at 09-02-2016 05:27 PM]

mauvebutterfly
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 720
Registered: 05-03-2015
IP: Logged

I know this is a few months late, but thanks everybody for helping out with this. I have it implemented now and I think it's working properly.

Making relatively good progress on the hold, so you guys might even get to see the room in a year or so

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106th Skywatcher

GerAvos
Level: Delver
Rank Points: 51
Registered: 05-28-2016
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mauvebutterfly wrote:
I know this is a few months late, but thanks everybody for helping out with this. I have it implemented now and I think it's working properly.

Making relatively good progress on the hold, so you guys might even get to see the room in a year or so

Cool dude, looking forward to your hold and many others!