random power-up spawn (MOTD styled) in Scripts

Created on: December 16, 2015, 03:27:22 am

death_reaper0
Scripter
588 Posts
661 Respect +1

this is a script for a power-up that randomizes and stays forever until its picked up, like in Mob Of The Dead on bo2 or Shadows Of Evil in bo3. there can be as many locations as you like and will pick between max ammo, double points and insta-kill. they will stay untill picked up

first go into your _zombiemode.gsc inside of your mod and under this line:

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	level thread players_playing();

place

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	level thread free_powerup();

then at the bottom of the GSC place this

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free_powerup()
{
level._effect["powerup_grabbed"] = loadfx( "misc/fx_zombie_powerup_grab" );
free_powerup = GetEntArray("free_powerup", "targetname");
if ( !isDefined( free_powerup ) || free_powerup.size < 1 )
{
iPrintLnBold( "YOU HAVENT PLACED THE POWER UP IN RADIANT OR ITS KVPS ARE WRONG" );
return;
}
else
for (i = 0; i < free_powerup.size; i++)
{
    free_pow = spawn("script_model",free_powerup[i].origin);
    free_pow thread wait_for_powerup();
}
}
wait_for_powerup()
{
self endon( "collected" );
rand = randomInt(3);
if (rand == 0) 
modl = "zombie_ammocan"; //max ammo
else if (rand == 1) 
modl = "zombie_skull"; //insta
else 
modl = "zombie_x2_icon";//double points
self setmodel(modl);
self thread maps\_zombiemode_powerups::powerup_wobble();
while(1)
{
players = get_players();
for (i = 0; i < players.size; i++)
{
	if(distance(players[i].origin,self.origin) < 64)
	{
	playfx (level._effect["powerup_grabbed"], self.origin);
	if (modl == "zombie_skull"){players[i] thread maps\_zombiemode_powerups::insta_kill_powerup();}
	if (modl == "zombie_x2_icon"){players[i] thread maps\_zombiemode_powerups::double_points_powerup();}
	if (modl == "zombie_ammocan"){players[i] thread maps\_zombiemode_powerups::full_ammo_powerup();}
	playfx (level._effect["powerup_grabbed"], self.origin);
	self delete();
	self notify( "collected" );
	break;
	}
}
wait .1;
}
}

lastly open up your map in radiant and right click on the 2D view and go script->origin
give it the targetname

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free_powerup

copy this as many times as you want to, this is where a power-up will spawn

have fun, please credit if used

Last Edit: December 16, 2015, 05:30:06 am by Harry Bo21

Reply #1 on: December 16, 2015, 03:46:28 am

Harry Bo21
Scripter
6,875 Posts
908 Respect +1

just for good coding practice, in the event the user is doing it wrong ( which is often the case )

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free_powerup = GetEntArray("free_powerup", "targetname");

// here
if ( !isDefined( free_powerup ) || free_powerup.size < 1 )
{
    iPrintLnBold( "YOU HAVENT PLACED THE POWER UP IN RADIANT OR ITS KVPS ARE WRONG" );
}

for (i = 0; i < free_powerup.size; i++)
{
    free_pow = spawn("script_model",free_powerup[i].origin);
    free_pow thread wait_for_powerup();
}

So it "doesnt" crash the game and still explains the issue

Also i dont understand why you are "spawning" a model, when you could just have the user place models in radiant and use them? the model it uses can still be changed like this, with no need to spawn anything

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self.exists = true;
while(self.exists == true)
{

This is irrelevent, its "always" set to true right before, even though you set this to false, the thread is killed anyway by the endon?

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rand = randomIntRange(1,4);
if (rand == 1){modl = "zombie_ammocan";}//max ammo
if (rand == 2){modl = "zombie_skull";}//insta
if (rand == 3){modl = "zombie_x2_icon";}//double points

should really be

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rand = randomIntRange( 3 );
if (rand == 0)
  modl = "zombie_ammocan"; //max ammo
else if (rand == 1)
  modl = "zombie_skull"; //insta
else 
  modl = "zombie_x2_icon";//double points

You could also have just "spawned" a power up, and killed the "timeout" thread, which would have saved 75% of this code, as its already written

nice work, but i think theres still some things you need to consider in future

* PS * Unless already done so, you should also be "precaching" the models. These will prob be loaded by the powerups script anyway, but that may not be the case for all users

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PrecacheModel( "" ); // Called BEFORE zombiemode::main();

and no need to declare things undefined if you are declaring them in the very next line

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modl = undefined;

** EDIT ** and another, your calling something on something you deleted just beforehand....

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playfx (level._effect["powerup_grabbed"], self.origin);

just above

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self delete();

self is undefined or non existant now

you are also "notifying" this ent, after deleting it too, which prob means the thread wont kill ( maybe )

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self notify( "collected" );

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level._effect["powerup_grabbed"] = loadfx( "misc/fx_zombie_powerup_grab" );

Also either in the wrong place, as needs to be "before" zombiemode::main or is totally irrelvent as is already loaded in the power up scripts

Last Edit: December 16, 2015, 04:00:37 am by Harry Bo21

Reply #2 on: December 16, 2015, 04:16:09 am

daedra descent
Community Daedra
2,789 Posts
230 Respect +1

Quote from: Harry Bo21 on December 16, 2015, 03:46:28 am

just for good coding practice, in the event the user is doing it wrong ( which is often the case )
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free_powerup = GetEntArray("free_powerup", "targetname");

// here
if ( !isDefined( free_powerup ) || free_powerup.size < 1 )
{
    iPrintLnBold( "YOU HAVENT PLACED THE POWER UP IN RADIANT OR ITS KVPS ARE WRONG" );
}

for (i = 0; i < free_powerup.size; i++)
{
    free_pow = spawn("script_model",free_powerup[i].origin);
    free_pow thread wait_for_powerup();
}
So it "doesnt" crash the game and still explains the issue

That will still crash the game or cause a bunch of errors unless you return it:

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if ( !isDefined( free_powerup ) || free_powerup.size < 1 )
{
    iPrintLnBold( "YOU HAVENT PLACED THE POWER UP IN RADIANT OR ITS KVPS ARE WRONG" );
    return;
}

I have to disagree about that being "good practice" though. When it comes to these type of things, Treyarch and Infinity Ward both use the assert functions as they not only stop the map and give you whatever message you pass them, it also gives a stack trace(error log) in console so its easier to debug.

Reply #3 on: December 16, 2015, 04:21:18 am

Harry Bo21
Scripter
6,875 Posts
908 Respect +1

if you use developer, which im guessing by this he doesnt - nor will most of the people who download this, so i posted what i thought was "appropriate", but yes there should have been a return

and in either case the "good practice" was referring to "putting a handle in for a potential error rather than just leaving it to crash the game with no explination", which is pretty much what you yourself posted anyway DD...

Last Edit: December 16, 2015, 04:23:08 am by Harry Bo21

Reply #4 on: December 16, 2015, 04:33:30 am

death_reaper0
Scripter
588 Posts
661 Respect +1

sorry, im pretty tired. i just had a coffee and i'll rewrite it

Last Edit: December 16, 2015, 04:33:47 am by death_reaper0

Reply #5 on: December 16, 2015, 04:35:16 am

Harry Bo21
Scripter
6,875 Posts
908 Respect +1

Quote from: death_reaper0 on December 16, 2015, 04:33:30 am

sorry, im pretty tired. i just had a coffee and i'll rewrite it

lol no biggy, just helping ya bro

it works either way, i call this "clean up". I often go back through my work multiple times after its finished and find the same kind of mistakes

Reply #6 on: December 16, 2015, 04:38:44 am

death_reaper0
Scripter
588 Posts
661 Respect +1

Quote from: Harry Bo21 on December 16, 2015, 04:35:16 am

lol no biggy, just helping ya bro

it works either way, i call this "clean up". I often go back through my work multiple times after its finished and find the same kind of mistakes

a lot of the extra stuff was kinda a fail safe cause when testing i had multiple problems, like the model not disappearing and the power-up function running forever, but i'll see if i can make it all work better

Reply #7 on: December 16, 2015, 04:45:01 am

Harry Bo21
Scripter
6,875 Posts
908 Respect +1

Quote from: death_reaper0 on December 16, 2015, 04:38:44 am

a lot of the extra stuff was kinda a fail safe cause when testing i had multiple problems, like the model not disappearing and the power-up function running forever, but i'll see if i can make it all work better

remember some of it is prob just coding preference

I like to leave a "default" path, for if other checks failed. thats why i changed that last statement from if 1 2 3 to

if 0 or 1 or "any other"

then even if a bad value gets passed, should still default

learned a lot about this kind of thing with case statements

Reply #8 on: December 16, 2015, 04:55:13 am

death_reaper0
Scripter
588 Posts
661 Respect +1

Quote from: Harry Bo21 on December 16, 2015, 04:45:01 am

remember some of it is prob just coding preference

I like to leave a "default" path, for if other checks failed. thats why i changed that last statement from if 1 2 3 to

if 0 or 1 or "any other"

then even if a bad value gets passed, should still default

learned a lot about this kind of thing with case statements

also a little problem on your end, you had the random range with 1 number, but luckily i picked up on that, anyway the new script works a little better then the last one. also for PrecacheModel, they should already be called in _zombiemode_powerups, so there shouldnt be a need to do it again, which i found through testing

Reply #9 on: December 16, 2015, 05:02:27 am

Harry Bo21
Scripter
6,875 Posts
908 Respect +1

Quote from: death_reaper0 on December 16, 2015, 04:55:13 am

also a little problem on your end, you had the random range with 1 number, but luckily i picked up on that, anyway the new script works a little better then the last one. also for PrecacheModel, they should already be called in _zombiemode_powerups, so there shouldnt be a need to do it again, which i found through testing

pretty sure the first defaults to 0 if left empty, but you only need this anyway

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randomInt( 3 )

that will return 0, 1 or 2

you dont need range, you just need a random number up to a certain value

also the model i meant, if people have ported say the BO3 insta kill model ( or just felt like being fancy and changed it to some other model, i dunno, people are weird lol ), yours wont work. So "I" precache whats needed in my scripts at the top, and people can comment it out if they want ( although they should not need to )

its "defo gonna work" vs "should work assuming the user hasnt messed with something at some point so things are not as they should be"

to ensure this i thread it in zombiemode along with the tesla etc that treyarch did, because that is "at" the precache stage, so anything added to your scripts "init", is valid for precache. Also easy to find as all treyarchs important scripts are threaded there

then I thread off that ( if i need to ) and flag_wait( "all_players_connected" ); for anything i wanted to run after zombiemode::main()

Last Edit: December 16, 2015, 05:08:57 am by Harry Bo21

Reply #10 on: December 16, 2015, 05:08:38 am

death_reaper0
Scripter
588 Posts
661 Respect +1

Code Snippet

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rand = randomIntRange( 3 );
if (rand == 0)
  modl = "zombie_ammocan"; //max ammo
else if (rand == 1)
  modl = "zombie_skull"; //insta
else 
  modl = "zombie_x2_icon";//double points

[/quote]
what i meant is you said to use range by mistake, and i picked up on that and fixed it, otherwise it will always be 0 which makes it always max ammo

Reply #11 on: December 16, 2015, 05:09:44 am

Harry Bo21
Scripter
6,875 Posts
908 Respect +1

Quote from: death_reaper0 on December 16, 2015, 05:08:38 am

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rand = randomIntRange( 3 );
if (rand == 0)
  modl = "zombie_ammocan"; //max ammo
else if (rand == 1)
  modl = "zombie_skull"; //insta
else 
  modl = "zombie_x2_icon";//double points
what i meant is you said to use range by mistake, and i picked up on that and fixed it, otherwise it will always be 0 which makes it always max ammo

yea i know (coz i copy pasted and adjust yours and missed it lol ), I thought puting one value in made it "assume" the first value is 0, pretty sure it does, as unless specified, cant go lower.

anyway, despite this, just need randomInt instead, your range will never vary into negatives

P.S, added the return that was missing that was mentioned earlier

I se youve cleaned it up, still one ( very minor and could be ignored completely, i mention only coz its good to mention lol )

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	self delete();
	self notify( "collected" );
	break;

you dont need the break, for two reasons

firstly, the break wont be breaking from the while() loop, itll be breaking from the players loop, so the while loop would continue and run the player loop again anyway

if you do need to break from a loop, from within another loop youd do something like this

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early_break = false; // variable we will use to pass something to kill the other loop
while( 1 )
{
    for ( i = 0; i < players.size; i++ )
    {
        if ( i == 1 )
        {
            early_break = true;
            break;
        }
    }
    if ( isDefined( early_break ) && early_break )
        break; // break again, so you break from the parent loop
}

but secondly

the notify is killing the thread anyway, so that line doesnt even get read

next you should look into "weighting", so it has a higher chance of being a certain one, than others. If you need a few pointers for that let me know, but its pretty interesting to come up with your own way of weighting, as the practice can carry over to anything else you do that you want to "weight"

Last Edit: December 16, 2015, 05:39:24 am by Harry Bo21

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random power-up spawn (MOTD styled)