Repopulate map with enemies

[lgb3d]

In this tutorial I am going to describe how to repopulate a map with enemies. I am utilizing GCS version 1.3 for windows.. I would assume this technique would work with later releases of the GCS, but I have not tested.

How this might be employed in gameplay?

Perhaps your player makes his way through the level clearing the enemies, on his way back he is surprised, now there's more enemies..

Perhaps your player sees an empty room.. and when he steps in like magic he is surrounded by hostile enemies.

In advance cases this technique could be utilized to make a new enemy appear every time an existing enemy is wounded.. not an infinite Loop but as many lines of code as you want to run, and as many digits IE Universal registers as you want to keep track of.. as well capped by the memory and World limitations of your version of the GCS..

............
Briefly to describe how this functions.

The enemy is always present he is not invisible through Creator creativity, you disguise the enemt, within the bounds of your maps gameplay... essentially you locate the enemy exactly where he will first appear..

The enemy that is placed will not walk move or react to the player in any way until he is called in two gameplay by [register] [value]..

Essentially what we are doing is putting an enemy on pause out of the players sight.

When placing an enemy for this, the only absolute must is utilize "stand and shoot only" .. any other guard perimeters you wish you can employ when placing your enemy. So if you want him to have much resistance to damage, be super intelligent fast-moving very alert, as well as adjusting the object attributes so he might carry a specific inventory item with a value..

So you place your enemy within the level, you set him to stand and shoot only.

(Important... When selecting him and adjusting the attributes, in the third Red Box is where you will place his behavior number which makes this whole thing function.)

.............

How will we make this work?

We will be utilizing "GEXT00.4TH" .. this is a script for enemies on a level, you can make them all have unique programs and missions or set groups of them apart using this enemy scripting function.

There is a great resource explaining the basics of this script format for the GCS..
web.archive.org/web/20021219083948/http://www.pieskysoft.org/man30_html/enemprog.html

.........

Just a visual

See picture below, enemy is hidden utilizing elevation, he is at the top of the picture circled in green, from nowhere Within game play can the player see the enemy at that height (on my level). Based upon your level layout and architecture you might need to use a different elevation, or you could hide them just on the other side of a textured floor or ceiling panel you place with the extra features editor. As well if you're using lighting effects it's easy to hide them in the shadow, so you might not have to go so high

.....

The following post will be.. a few action words, and a behavior word. The goal is that you will be able to copy and paste this into your script and see it function in your own project. And you can tweak it however you need to suit your project.

I really like the idea of shooting an enemy and another appearing but that would be a little complicated for me to explain. Essentially you would put the trigger ie action word in the guard wound situation located within the behavior. To do this multiple times each time the enemy is wounded he would have to change Behavior so his wound function would trigger another unique Universal register calling the next enemy into play..

so there you are you would have to write many unique action words Behavior words and utilize many Universal registers and keep track of it all.. and then employ, ugh... easier to figure out than it is to explain..

I strongly recommend reading the above referenced overview of fourth scripting for your enemies.. shoot print it out it's a great reference to have

[lgb3d]

(anything in these brackets is caption, outside is the code)

action_word{ 17 : round_one (17 is my number round_one is my name, you can change)
conditions[
60 1 ureg_is_not_equal (long as register 60 value is not equal 1 this is true)
]conditions

actions[
if
make_invulnerable (enemy can not be hurt)
make_friendly (enemy will never harm you)
-8000 set_elevation (-8000 = +8000, hide below floor 8000. you can change)
then
]actions
; }action_word

(so this is the first action word, remember your guard is set to stand and shoot only so he will never move. now you can not hurt him, he is friendly so he will never hurt you and with elevation he is hidden= guard is on pause player dose not know enemy exist!)

action_word{ 18 : round_two (same as before you can change # and name)
conditions[
60 1 ureg_is_equal (when register 60 value =1 this is true )
]conditions

actions[
if
0 set_elevation (guard returns to ground level, and adjust to platform height)
make_vulnerable (enemy can now be hurt by player)
make_enemy (enemy will attack you)
program_randompatrol run_this (enemy no longer stand and shoot @random patrol)
then
]actions
; }action_word

(these are the two action words required to make this work.. round_one enemy is on pause... round_two enemy is active and visible)


( enemy situation functions )
behavior_word{ 20 : bw20 (# and bw# can be different)

guard_init[ (guard_init is guards default program )
if
round_one (our function guard on pause)
then
]guard_init

guard_stand[ (guard stand and shoot only, stand is being called)
if
round_two (our trigger that takes guard off pause)
then
]guard_stand


guard_alert[ (you can customize as you like)
if
then
]guard_alert

guard_walk[ (you can customize as you like)
if

then
]guard_walk

guard_meet[ (you can customize as you like)
if

then
]guard_meet

guard_die[ (you can customize as you like)
if

then
]guard_die



; }behavior_word


(in a behavior word there are more situations than described here, "situation=events ie walk die ect.." you do not need them all any you do not specify revert back to the basic guard program functions this is just an example)

(but you can see when r60=v1 our trigger occurs because stand and shoot only guard who is friendly and will never shoot never walk is invulnerable so wound would never be called, the only place we can apply our trigger is in guard_stand because that is all he dose until we call him in to game play with r60v1... yes other events in his base program can be scripted to do unique things.. but non will occur until we take him off pause and those events start occurring)

[lgb3d]

I initially thought of this a while back and it took me a while to figure out how to implement it..

As my player can travel back and forth through levels, I thought to myself once he gets to point B, I can send him back to point A with animations telling him there's a new objective.. animation at point B sets a value on a register which would activate an animation to do something such as create a key or inventory item back at Point A.

But how boring would it be if there was no challenge as he already cleared enemies along that path.

After implementing it and seeing success, I thought of all sorts of other possibilities with this technique.

As an example.. you make it to the big bad boss, and in his room there are a few teleporters. Every time you wound the boss his "guard_wound" situation triggers a universal register, and then change his behavior to a new one where his new guard_wound line would trigger another Universal register. Each Universal register triggered would result in enemies popping through these teleports. Therefore you're not just battling the big bad boss, now you've got a real challenge Staying Alive.

If big bad boss "guard_die" situation occurs.. no more enemies are going to be coming through the teleporter, and in that situation guard_die.. he could trigger a separate Universal register which either tells you your next objective, or warps you to the next level..

So there's a lot of unique scenarios which can be created with this technique repopulating the map with enemies.

With GCS version 1.3 I still have memory and world limits unlike later releases.. so I have to be smart with my application as to fit everything into a bubble..

Enjoy, would love to see what others might imagine and create with this technique

[lgb3d]

Okay I've made the first application of this technique in my current project.

youtube.com/shorts/k12vB1OwF5Y?feature=share

Has anyone seen something like this in a gcs game before? ;p

Even though I had already basically figured out the technique there was still a learning curve.

In your guards initial "guardscr.4th".. there is a whole list of functions and events. One of which is "move.type"

0 walking.... works
1 eratic flying... nope
2 smooth flying.. nope

No matter what I tried any flying movement type will not function with the change in elevation in "GEXT**.4th" ... so flying enemies always appear right where you place them on the map at the height they're set to fly..

So yes this technique works and so far only with movement type 0.

In the past I experimented a lot with move.type, I've searched a few times and I can't find my notes but based upon that and a few other variables you can get the enemies moving in some bizarre ways.. but something's telling me it might be rare that we would find a number other than zero for move.type that will function with the above outlined tutorial.