Similar Actors question

[matthornb]

Hi all!

I've got a question that's kind of bothering me - Is there a way to "copy" an actor but not "clone" it?

I have an actor with many actions/animations/scripts attached to it, and I need to have a number of "variants" of this actor, identical except for some minor differences.

From what I can tell, the "clone" button creates identical copies of the first object which remain identical indefinitely - i.e. they are continually updated to match the first object.

Except, I need some differences between the actors.

I could create each new actor from scratch, but this would be enormously time-consuming and I'd rather not attempt it. (Especially since Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V acts really unpredictably with Game Editor scripts and I'd have to write each new one from scratch.)

Is there any way to deal with this problem?

P.S. Can you change an actor's name after it has been created or is that uneditable?

[makslane]

Sorry, but there is no actor copy or renames now, but will be done.

[Cleve Blakemore]

It is correct to say you can alter internal values for a clone through scripting, though, correct, Makslane? After the program boots up?

A given clone can look at a data structure in globals to get it's appearance, sequence, animation file correct. At CreateActor event you can make it set itself up and it can then respond and behave differently as well during gameplay. So whereas all cloned actors may have an internal variable called "Type" and the same events and animation data initially, once you examine this type you can produce all kinds of different behaviours? So whereas all the people in a crowd may be of type "pedestrians," some may be named "Paul" or "Shirley" according to private data and behave differently in scripting on a switch-case or similar mechanism to determine their reactions to the same events and collisions. "Shirley" may say "excuse me" when you bump into her, whereas "Paul" may say "get stuffed!"

Correct me if I'm wrong, Makslane, but I seem to have successfully implemented this policy already in scripting, or so I think.

[jazz_e_bob]

Heh heh

Having a similar conversation over here:

http://www.game-editor.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=664

Welcome to the forum Mr Blakemore.

[makslane]

It is correct to say you can alter internal values for a clone through scripting, though, correct, Makslane? After the program boots up?

...

Correct me if I'm wrong, Makslane, but I seem to have successfully implemented this policy already in scripting, or so I think.

Yes, you are right