A plea for definitions....

[andylegate]

Okay, for quite awhile now, I've been doing "Monkey see, Monkey do" when it comes to ALCscripting.

I've had some success in venturing out on my own on some of it, but more failures and screams for help than those successes. While I know that many here are more than willing to help, it also comes down to how many are able to help in this area, and considering the expected large increase in Age Writers learning, you (that understand ALCscripting) may be come swamped.

We are also finding ourselves having to use more and more ALCscripting to get the job done. I don't mind this, but I would like to understand better, as it would help me from screaming for help so much. That and it would help add not only myself, but I think many others to the ranks (lower ranks rather) of those that can lend a hand in helping with questions.

With object animations, we now how a virtual explosion of ALCscripting to add to our Ages if we want to add object animations, and wavesets, etc, etc.

I've thought about having a repository for scripting on the Wiki. A place where Age creators, if they so feel like it, can post some of their ALCscripting of things they have done and that work well. But then the way things keep changing made me, think...oh......wait a sec......

In anycase, that wouldn't help ME as much as UNDERSTANDING what things are would.

I can't find any night school courses on ALCscripting, and USCA and Aiken Tech here don't offer any either

I'd like to know some of the following, and I bet many others would too. It would help some of us that look at the Wiki, see a blend file, look at it, and can follow what is going on:


waiton
waittocmd
nextstate
setforewards --(ahem, which btw I thought was spelled "forwards")
setbackwards
key
msg
curstate


I'm sure others could throw some more in here, but at least these would help me better understand object animations. I've taken a guess at some, and got my door to work right, but there is more to do, and less that is understood. Such as adding sounds to the same said animations.

While I don't pretend that this would make me an expert, it would help to at least know WHAT those command lines are doing, so that I may know how to use it.

It's sort of like changing the oil on the car.....you get handed a oil filter, oil, wrench, and told to go to town, only you've never done it in your life. Chances are you'll either figure it out, or really screw up your car. But if someone takes a few minutes to point at the oil pulg, oil cap, and where the old filter is, there's a much better chance of NOT screwing up the car.

[Kato]

You're free to add whatever you like to the Wiki at any time--including to the Requested Tutorials and Articles page.

-Kato

[Whilyam]

We need more people available who know what things do. Someone from the dev team who's job it is to make sure features are explained. This should be a high priority as any MORE content-creation must be relatively understandable.

[Nadnerb]

Well, for a while there I was making it my job to keep everyone informed by writing tutorials right and left. Then I got into actually developing. One can only do so much at once. And of course, there are times when you're just out of town and don't get to do much other than spectate. (just like now)

Anyway, (no offense to anyone present) it just so happens that threads like this annoy me, because it looks like people are just whiny about there not being sufficient wiki filler. Remember that anyone can edit it, and when you have your questions answered, it's a good idea to see if that answer has been put on the wiki yet, and if not, put it there.

I love to answer specific questions on the forum, but I hate having generalized requests for information thrown out there, because such generalized requests invariably require infinite amounts of work to sate. (ie, they never stop coming) It's like saying, "wouldn't it be nice if there was somone with enough free time to answer every possible question before we ask it?" Hell yeah it would, but that's not gonna happen. Until then, you'll just have to come to us with your problems.

[andylegate]

:shrugging:

I added it as a request (along with the other 6 requests that are there) to have added to the ALCscripting tutorial that is in the Wiki, where none of the above commands are explained, discussed, etc, etc.

I'd add it to the wiki myself except for one small problem: I don't know what they mean either.

I'm not saying this has to come from the Dev Team either, nor am I whining about it. I posted here a question: What do these mean?

[Nadnerb]

*returns to the forum in the morning in a more pleasant state of mind*

It occurs to me that I have explained the following keywords (though perhaps not in detail) in the past, but here goes:

[object].logic.actions.responder.states.cmds.[cmd].waiton the command with this value set will not be executed until the message it specifies has been received. This will block the execution of the following commands as well.
[object].logic.actions.responder.states.cmds.waittocmd this is a table that maps callback messages to responder commands. Each row contains a msg id and a command key, which is the waiton value
[object].logic.actions.responder.states.cmds.nextstate after a state has been executed, the responder prepares to execute the next state when it is next notified. The indexes are in the order they were defined with the first state being 0, and the rest going from 1, 2, etc.
[object].logic.actions.responder.states.cmds.[cmd].params.cmds.setforewards this is a valid cmd flag when the [cmd] is an animcmdmsg. It sets the animation state such that it will play forwards when it continues. Blame Cyan for the spelling.
[object].logic.actions.responder.states.cmds.[cmd].params.cmds.setbackwards this is a valid cmd flag when the [cmd] is an animcmdmsg. It sets the animation state such that it will play backwards when it continues.
[object].logic.actions.responder.states.cmds.waittocmd.key This is the waiton value of one or more of the cmds in the state.
[object].logic.actions.responder.states.cmds.waittocmd.key.msg This is the user id of one of the callback messages that should be received by the responder.
[object].logic.actions.responder.curstate this is the "current state" of the responder. When you first link into the age, this will be the first state to be excecuted when the responder is notified. (if you come back to the age later, the current state may be saved from your last visit, depending on the synch flags on the responder)

Also, I would like to point out that there IS a set of wiki articles about Alcscript. This is where you would put these lines, should you understand them and/or find them useful. Perhaps another page with complete script examples would be useful, but it seems to me those are better suited to being placed in the specific feature articles that they pertain to.

[andylegate]

Thank you. NOW things make a bit more sense to me.

[Whilyam]

I don't mean to sound like I'm whining, but I do need to know how things work initially. I'd write wiki articles if I knew what the features did.