Monster-Generating Eggs

[Andrea B Previtera]

Another coder's corner question : )
How do exactly the eggs that generates monsters (and, in general, eggs which trigger a certain event once they are on screen)?

For example, if I trigger the event as the egg gets on screen, and thereafter I disable that egg, there's the chance that by walking all around it, I could trigger it lots of times. For example, if it's an egg that generates a bunch of sheeps, by walking around it, it could generate more and more sheeps before the previously generated ones are deallocated because of their distance from the party.

Maybe you keep a list of the triggered eggs, and re-enable them only when you get *very* far from the original egg position?

[Wizardry Dragon]

My quick fix:
Put "auto-reset" and the distance to a respectable factor. Make sure that it's a "Party Near" egg and not an "Avatar footpad" egg

~ Wizardry Dragon

[Andrea B Previtera]

Heh, no no I am not working with exultstudio. It's a from-scratch project. So I am talking of real code here

[Wizardry Dragon]

They're egg props, it's just a lot easier to set them from ExultStudio.

~ Wizardry Dragon

[wjp]

In U8, a monster egg has a 'hatched' flag. If you trigger the egg, it gets set. Then, when you get far enough away, it gets cleared again.

[Wizardry Dragon]

That's auto-reset, it's a default (I believe). You set how far away you have to go before it resets with the "distance" property.

~ Wizardry Dragon

[drcode]

They also work that way (as wjp described) in U7. Also, the distance where the egg gets reset is also the distance where monsters created by the egg also disappear (they're 'cached out' in the term Ryan used when he implemented this).

[Wizardry Dragon]

I believe I heard that the monster persists if you use the once-only flag, but I am unsure as I havent tested it myself.

~ Wizardry Dragon

[Andrea B Previtera]

It's all a matter of distances, then. One must be careful that the egg scatters monsters a bit far away too. At least *a screen* away, to be sure that they will be created offscreen, preventing the "appearing from nothing" effect.

That, obviously, only for monsters and other visual things. Music, weather, they can just be triggered.

[Wizardry Dragon]

Yeah, although I wouldnt want music for a town when I'm still miles away from it

~ Wizardry Dragon