Taxi Dropoff like in VC

[jarjar]

I was thinking the other day, one thing that SA is missing that was pretty cool in VC is the way that if you died in a mission a taxi would spawn at the hospital and transport you to where and who you mission for. It would be good idea and would like to try to convert it.

 

But my question is do you think it would be possible or am i thinking to far outside of the box. I will get some code of VC of the taxi dropoff script soon and put it here so people can have a better look at it to see if it is possible.

[lfighter]

some one is making a driver mod the taxi realy drives you there

[Demarest]

I will get some code of VC of the taxi dropoff script

There is no taxi dropoff script. You specify the locations for a taxi to appear first thing in the game. On each mission, you specify where the taxi takes you to. The engine handles the rest. You could easily code simulate it though. With trip skip though, how many people would be willing to start a new game just for that redundant feature?

[DeeZire]

I tried it with the codes from VC and the opcodes cause SA to crash - they are unsupported. As Demarest said, it would be fairly easy to script in manually but repetitive as you'd have to code it in as part of every mission failed routine if you get wasted.

 

I'd find it handy though, it can be a PITA to have to trek from a Hospital to the mission start point again.

[Demarest]

Actually now that I think of it, it wouldn't be very hard at all. Bear with me...

 

You can add threads to the END of main and still have it be compatible with the release game. The problem is STARTING the thread as most mods require a create_thread line and putting that in main trashes the offsets making it INcompatible. The Darkpact technique subverts that process by putting the create_thread into an auto-triggered mission.

 

Meanwhile, when you create a thread, you can hand it any number of variables. When you add global variables, you're taking an extremely surefire risk of making it INcompatible with the release game. However, when you pass threads variable through the create_thread command, they are made to be locals of the new thread.

 

Last but not least, so long as you honor the mission size limitation, you can modify missions to hell and back and as long as you're not adding to the amount of global vars, it's compatible.

 

Where am I going with all this? If you made a thread at the end of main that waited X seconds, checked for player defined, if fading... however you felt like setting it up and then put_actor $PLAYER_ACTOR @0 @1 @2 then end thread, then all you'd need is a create thread label, x, y, z command in each missions wasted/busted subroutine and voila. You'd have it. That's bare bones. To make it OPTIONAL for a player (as you should) would take a bit more tweaking.

 

This sounds like fun. I'll gladly put it to the front of my to do list. Work's pretty fierce this week so I won't be able to get too far with it until the morning. Anybody feel like compiling a set of coords for the some/all the different mission sphere locations? They should all be readily handy in the code itself. If not, I'll get to it. Not sure exactly how long this will take, but I AM on it

Edited September 8, 2005 by Demarest

[Y_Less]

Sounds good, you're really trying to get this darkpackt thing going arent you?

[jarjar]

Actually now that I think of it, it wouldn't be very hard at all. Bear with me...

 

You can add threads to the END of main and still have it be compatible with the release game. The problem is STARTING the thread as most mods require a create_thread line and putting that in main trashes the offsets making it INcompatible. The Darkpact technique subverts that process by putting the create_thread into an auto-triggered mission.

 

Meanwhile, when you create a thread, you can hand it any number of variables. When you add global variables, you're taking an extremely surefire risk of making it INcompatible with the release game. However, when you pass threads variable through the create_thread command, they are made to be locals of the new thread.

 

Last but not least, so long as you honor the mission size limitation, you can modify missions to hell and back and as long as you're not adding to the amount of global vars, it's compatible.

 

Where am I going with all this? If you made a thread at the end of main that waited X seconds, checked for player defined, if fading... however you felt like setting it up and then put_actor $PLAYER_ACTOR @0 @1 @2 then end thread, then all you'd need is a create thread label, x, y, z command in each missions wasted/busted subroutine and voila. You'd have it. That's bare bones. To make it OPTIONAL for a player (as you should) would take a bit more tweaking.

 

This sounds like fun. I'll gladly put it to the front of my to do list. Work's pretty fierce this week so I won't be able to get too far with it until the morning. Anybody feel like compiling a set of coords for the some/all the different mission sphere locations? They should all be readily handy in the code itself. If not, I'll get to it. Not sure exactly how long this will take, but I AM on it

Thanks for the help. The reason i asked is i was working on one of my mods the other day and i thought, why isn't the taxi dropoff in SA, being that it is alot bigger then vc and usaly you do a mission millies away from where you start it, and the hospitals are along way away from the start.

 

I would love to start working on it and see what i could do aswell. Would be a cool mod. The way you put it, it sounds pretty easy. I will have a look. If you could mabye do up a little basic layout of what it should look like, i'm sure i could work out how to do it, you will be forever in my det. Thanks agian Demarest.

[Demarest]

The way you put it, it sounds pretty easy.

That's why I put it that way See, we can do a lot with some things, but we normally only have to use certain aspects/techniques. This WILL BE a simple mod to create, it just requires a different approach than most people use. I'm kind of used to it by now because savegame compatibility has been my focus lately and this should fit into that flawlessly

 

And now that my 2.5 days of working sun up to past sun down are in the books, I can FINALLY get started on it. Hope hunting the coords down ain't so bad since nobody offered any assistance with that

[jarjar]

The way you put it, it sounds pretty easy.

That's why I put it that way See, we can do a lot with some things, but we normally only have to use certain aspects/techniques. This WILL BE a simple mod to create, it just requires a different approach than most people use. I'm kind of used to it by now because savegame compatibility has been my focus lately and this should fit into that flawlessly

 

And now that my 2.5 days of working sun up to past sun down are in the books, I can FINALLY get started on it. Hope hunting the coords down ain't so bad since nobody offered any assistance with that

Leave me to the spawning of the taxi. I will work that out for you as i find that pretty easy. You do what you can do, leave the rest to me. Thanks a lot for you hep with this, really thanks. I tink this mod will be relly cool but i am not as good as you are as making a new scripting area. When ever i do it the bloody thing screws up. So thanks for you help.

[Demarest]

i am not as good as you are as making a new scripting area.

What does that mean?

 

I have no intentions of using a taxi at all. In fact, I haven't given it much thought at all because until the morning, I haven't had time to. But my initial thought was that if within X seconds, you press a key combo, you're warped back to the center of the mission sphere that corresponds with mission you were wasted or busted on. Fast and simple.

 

No offense, but I often work alone. I didn't mean to give off the impression that this was a group effort. To me, it was more of a request filling than anything. I posted the steps and explained how they'd work in case somebody else felt like pursuing it either because A) I couldn't get to it right away or B) in case they wanted to apply the concepts behind it to similar mods. I believe you're dealing with B, no? You're free to check out my source code when I'm done. I "have to" release the source code because if somebody's using a SCM that's used Darkpact to inject script mods, they're going to need to add that code manually. Naturally, comprehensive instructions will be included and it will have a release thread that will field any questions suggestions. If you DO decide to take this on yourself, be careful. It will be utilizing a thread to be created in MAIN. This thread HAS to be dead before a person saves or they will blow compatibility out of the water. Previous mods/tools that use this technique are generally covered because they're over quicker than a person could abuse them. This however can't be, so you have to keep that in mind.

[jarjar]

i am not as good as you are as making a new scripting area.

What does that mean?

 

I have no intentions of using a taxi at all. In fact, I haven't given it much thought at all because until the morning, I haven't had time to. But my initial thought was that if within X seconds, you press a key combo, you're warped back to the center of the mission sphere that corresponds with mission you were wasted or busted on. Fast and simple.

 

No offense, but I often work alone. I didn't mean to give off the impression that this was a group effort. To me, it was more of a request filling than anything. I posted the steps and explained how they'd work in case somebody else felt like pursuing it either because A) I couldn't get to it right away or B) in case they wanted to apply the concepts behind it to similar mods. I believe you're dealing with B, no? You're free to check out my source code when I'm done. I "have to" release the source code because if somebody's using a SCM that's used Darkpact to inject script mods, they're going to need to add that code manually. Naturally, comprehensive instructions will be included and it will have a release thread that will field any questions suggestions. If you DO decide to take this on yourself, be careful. It will be utilizing a thread to be created in MAIN. This thread HAS to be dead before a person saves or they will blow compatibility out of the water. Previous mods/tools that use this technique are generally covered because they're over quicker than a person could abuse them. This however can't be, so you have to keep that in mind.

Sorry, misunder stood. I understand about you wanting to work on your own. I like doing that as well. It is had working with other prople iof you don't know what they want to do and that kind of stuff. But i will get a copy of the sorce of you for later projects i will be working on. Just as a guide. Thanks for taking the idea on. I don't relly have time for that mod at the moment anyway. I have a ton of mods for SA needing to being finished soon, 2 websites and some programing stuff to finish. So i have not time to work on it, thanks for taking the idea on. Can't wait for the mod, should be cool!

[Demarest]

I don't relly have time for that mod at the moment anyway. I have a ton of mods for SA needing to being finished soon, 2 websites and some programing stuff to finish.

Who you telling? I have a ton of projects on my to do list, a few "new" concepts I'd like to experiment with, a couple more arts I'm trying to learn... and just as it all started coming about, I had a few real life projects spring up on me, the results of which may still be demanding me time for the next few weeks

 

On a brighter note, I've already have the MAIN thread looking like I want. Now it's just a matter of modding the mission codes. I'm already far enough along. I think I'm going to do this in two stages since SA uses stacked missions and missions to set up missions. So some missions will not be supported in v1. Right now this will include all races and Catalina's missions for sure. Then I'll study those missions better and make a v2. That way people can begin to use it right away. And since they're all meant to be forwards and backwards compatible with the existing game, it won't make a difference.

[Demarest]

Rebirth v1 releases "as promised". Release thread here, complete with source code and step by step description of alterations made