setshootdamage

[Tyhm]

Now that we have projectiles, I soo wish I had an NPCServ on Classic....^_^

setshootdamage halfhearts; - how many halfhearts the projectile does on impact (useful for baddies, which don't run triggeractions, or NPCs that aren't scripted to recognize the projectiles yet)

setshootnpc imagefile,textfile; - what putNPC to place when/if the projectile impacts.

[Neonight]

Originally posted by Tyhm
Now that we have projectiles, I soo wish I had an NPCServ on Classic....^_^

setshootdamage halfhearts; - how many halfhearts the projectile does on impact (useful for baddies, which don't run triggeractions, or NPCs that aren't scripted to recognize the projectiles yet)

setshootnpc imagefile,textfile; - what putNPC to place when/if the projectile impacts.

Jagen:
first one - sounds good
second one - it would probably be too laggy

[Zolrieg]

Originally posted by Neonight


Jagen:
first one - sounds good
second one - it would probably be too laggy

I guess the second would depend on the image used, eh?

[Tyhm]

And the putnpc. If it's something that does its job and destroys, you're fine - if it's something that walks around like a *****, it's a problem. Obviously you'd want something more like a blast radius than a chicken.

[Kaimetsu]

So you're not gunning for an NPC Server?

[unixmad]

I don't see any reason for Classic to not have a NPC server.

We will move soon Graal2002 to a new computer then we will have enough CPU to add a NPC server on Classic! What a revolution

Unix.

Originally posted by Tyhm
Now that we have projectiles, I soo wish I had an NPCServ on Classic....^_^

setshootdamage halfhearts; - how many halfhearts the projectile does on impact (useful for baddies, which don't run triggeractions, or NPCs that aren't scripted to recognize the projectiles yet)

setshootnpc imagefile,textfile; - what putNPC to place when/if the projectile impacts.

[Kaimetsu]

And I can help teach the Classic team to use the NPC Server if they need me

[unixmad]

That will be a great help for Tyhm !

On what i have heard you are a NPC server expert

Unix.

Originally posted by Kaimetsu
And I can help teach the Classic team to use the NPC Server if they need me

[Kaimetsu]

Originally posted by unixmad
That will be a great help for Tyhm !

On what i have heard you are a NPC server expert

Unix.

It'll be fun to help Classic improve itself. It has lots of potential but the scripting has always held it back.

[Tyhm]

Mleh. If Classic gets NPCServ, I have to relearn everything - which I can do with Kai's help - but I also have to rescript 6196 levels, which I can't do even with a full team. =_=

[Kaimetsu]

You wouldn't need to do it all at once, I think. You can specify which levels the NPC Server covers, and presumably the others operate as per normal.

[Falcor]

NPCs server covers all levels automatically. and if they Arent on the serverlist. no NPCs will work on them.

Not ask you expected i guess Kaimetsu, and that means sad times for Classic.

[Kaimetsu]

Originally posted by Falcor
NPCs server covers all levels automatically. and if they Arent on the serverlist. no NPCs will work on them.

Not ask you expected i guess Kaimetsu, and that means sad times for Classic.

Hmm. Weird... I remember a long time ago reading that they only affected certain areas, and that you could even use more than one on a server, each covering different places.

What is the list in NC that's just a big list of levels?

[Neonight]

Originally posted by Kaimetsu


Hmm. Weird... I remember a long time ago reading that they only affected certain areas, and that you could even use more than one on a server, each covering different places.

What is the list in NC that's just a big list of levels?

Jagen:
The list is basically what levels to run scripts for, if the level isn't in there, not even clientsided script will work

[Kaimetsu]

Originally posted by Neonight



Jagen:
The list is basically what levels to run scripts for, if the level isn't in there, not even clientsided script will work

Ah, I feared that to be the case. Well, darn.

[Neonight]

Jeff:

Actually...

...6,196 isn't that bad.

The Math:

6,196 levels divided by 16 LATs = 387.25 round up to 388

388 levels per LAT divided by 100 levels per week = More or less a month of conversion time, once you figure in levels without the need for massive edits. Once it's done, LATs can have a week off or something, Glory Hallelujah, NPC server.

Of course, if you had more people converting it'd go faster. Come on Providence sometime Tyhm, I might be able to set you up with an RC with NPC control and teach you a spot about serverside scripting. Classic would be quite a bit better off heh

[Falcor]

100 levels a WEEK?
O.O *blink bink* Me thninks you have the LAT confused with the Road Runner or something.

[Neonight]

Jeff:

I am not saying tile 100 levels, I am saying fix scripts on 100 levels. I am certain the LATs could handle it with a bit of help.

[Falcor]

Converting non-p2p into p2p requires more than just adding //#CLIENTSIDE to the top of it

p2p scripting is almost enirly different than non-p2p. the structure atleast. if not the whole concept. the only thing that is similar is the code and commands you use, but in each type you use them differently ;-\

[Neonight]

Jeff:

I know that, I do p2p scripting. One problem...there probably aren't 16 people who could convert levels

[Mman]

Originally posted by Neonight


Jeff:

I know that, I do p2p scripting. One problem...there probably aren't 16 people who could convert levels

Maybe this would be a good time to hire more LATs on Classic it seems, no matter what they will do after the conversion, you can't ever have too many.

[Kaimetsu]

I doubt if even 10% of people who are/could be Classic LATs have any NPC Server experience.

[Neonight]

Originally posted by Kaimetsu
I doubt if even 10% of people who are/could be Classic LATs have any NPC Server experience.

Jeff:

In retrospect, that is regretably true. Finding even ten people who could be any good at conversion to serverside would be a serious chore. So it'd be quite slow to convert

[Slaktmaster]

Also, all baddies will have to be removed and be-rescripted as NPCs.

[Neonight]

Jeff:

There are maybe 25 people who would be leet enough for the job.

Of these, probably 20 would refuse on grounds of having quit Graal, of being Stefan, of being Unixmad, or of disliking the notion of Classic having the ever-helpful NPC server.

Five people would have to either train lots of others or pretend to get a contagious dread disease (e.g. meningitis) so they could stay home for more or less a month converting levels twelve hours a day, seven days a week.

Result: No can do unless Stefan changes the server so that levels not served by an NPC server operate as if there were no NPC server, meaning the conversion process could be done more slowly.

[Tyhm]

Okay, if we put NPCServ on Classic, what specifically is gonna break?

Setlevel? No problem, I can convert all those in a day.
Toweapons? Again, a day.
Playerhearts? Might take a couple days, but I can do it.
Timeout? Several months...but basically anything else and I can remove or redo it fairly soon. I'm used to it, I rescript Classic every time a new version comes out. I took out all instances of isleader, replaced all sets using == to use =, changed all .zeldas to .graals, replaced all gifs with pngs (with the Assimilator)...I mean, how apocolyptic are we talking here?

[albus777]

This may be a stupid question but, can you do anything real special with NPC server?

[Kaimetsu]

I've been working with the NPC Server so long, I can't remember how it is to use anything else

I suppose the main problem is in weapons. There are severe restrictions on what the client can do now, so they'd need to talk to the server to do anything like changing player strings etc. You'd also want to change some of the strings around to the new versions, such as clientr for example. Hmm... Also this.vars instead of server strings for NPCs where possible. Putnpc would be a small problem.

Other than that... Probably a great deal more things, actually. But I can't think of anything at this moment.

[albus777]

Would you be able to make quests that you can do with multiple people with NPC server like the stefan quest?

[Neonight]

Originally posted by Tyhm
Okay, if we put NPCServ on Classic, what specifically is gonna break?

Setlevel? No problem, I can convert all those in a day.
Toweapons? Again, a day.
Playerhearts? Might take a couple days, but I can do it.
Timeout? Several months...but basically anything else and I can remove or redo it fairly soon. I'm used to it, I rescript Classic every time a new version comes out. I took out all instances of isleader, replaced all sets using == to use =, changed all .zeldas to .graals, replaced all gifs with pngs (with the Assimilator)...I mean, how apocolyptic are we talking here?

Jeff:

Oh...sorry, I guess I underestimated you.

If the LAT got off their collective bum, you might even be able to get some help on the conversion...how hard is changing toweapons to addweapon, lots of things to triggers, and all .05 timeouts to .1?


You'd have to shut Classic down to the public for a day or two to make sure all the triggeractions, addweapons, etc work.

But in the end, it'd be worth it. Less serverstrings, so less lag.

[Falcor]

If you want to change levels. change them to nw levels. they are BY FAR more superior. They can hold up to 100 NPCs however graal levels max at 30. plus nw levels are easy to edit npcs in a text editor. since everything is so neatly packed

[Tyhm]

So hold up - all I'd need to do is copy my weapons registry to the NPCServer, replace all toweapons ... with addweapon [name], remove weaponfired from the level NPCs, and replace timeout=0.05 with timeout=0.1 - and it'd work?

Sheesh. I'm fairly certain an assimilator can be made to do THAT. And .graal to .nw...well I can't make it, but I'm sure Stefan could if he wanted to.

[Falcor]

not all that simple.

graal 2 nw
open a .graal level with graal
save it as a .nw level

I believe stefan also put out a converter... you'd have to ask him about that.

[Kaimetsu]

Originally posted by Tyhm
So hold up - all I'd need to do is copy my weapons registry to the NPCServer, replace all toweapons ... with addweapon [name], remove weaponfired from the level NPCs, and replace timeout=0.05 with timeout=0.1 - and it'd work?

No, not at all. There are all sorts of other things to consider that can't easily be appreciated without direct NPC Server knowledge. I need to think of an example...

[Neonight]

Jeff:

Kai, you're blowing it out of proportion. Once you know what can be done serverside and what can't it'd be quite easy. But alas, I have experience with an NPC server and may not remember what it was like to be a serverside noob (though as I recall i caught on quickly)


Basically once you figure out the commands and stuff it's as simple as getting to cracking.

[Kaimetsu]

Originally posted by Neonight

Jeff:

Kai, you're blowing it out of proportion. Once you know what can be done serverside and what can't it'd be quite easy. But alas, I have experience with an NPC server and may not remember what it was like to be a serverside noob (though as I recall i caught on quickly)


Basically once you figure out the commands and stuff it's as simple as getting to cracking.

A single NPC can be converted in a few minutes. A few thousand...?

[Tyhm]

typical script:

NPC Code:

---

if(playerenters) toweapons basicattack;

if(weaponfired&&playerdarts>0){

  playerdarts--;

  for(this.i=1;this.i<playerscount;this.i++){

    if(((players[this.i].x-playerx)^2)+((players[this.i].y-playery)^2)<100) hitplayer this.i,playerswordpower,playerx,playery;

  }

}

---

How hard would that be?

[Neonight]

Jeff:

*starts timer*

NPC Code:

---

//Adder

if(playerenters){addweapon thingamajig;}

---

NPC Code:

---

//In the database:



//#CLIENTSIDE

if(weaponfired&&playerdarts>0){

  playerdarts--;

  for(this.i=1;this.i<playerscount;this.i++){

    if(((players[this.i].x-playerx)^2)+((players[this.i].y-playery)^2)<100) hitplayer this.i,playerswordpower,playerx,playery;

  }

}

---

A minute or less.

And moreover, using a system NPC you could make that into a triggeraction that hurts the player when they receive it.

[Neonight]

Jeff sayeth:

Kai, only the complicated NPCs take a few minutes. Many of the Classic NPCs, from my understanding and experience, are actually rather simple. Most of them could be rewritten if they couldn't be converted...in fact, the longest step would be changing lots of graphics to either setshape or a gani.

[Tyhm]

Yeah, I mean that script could have been done with an algorythm even...if toweapons was the only thing that broke...