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Similar Actors question

PostPosted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 2:46 am
by 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?

PostPosted: Thu Jan 20, 2005 12:29 pm
by makslane
Sorry, but there is no actor copy or renames now, but will be done.

But ...

PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 6:03 am
by 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.

PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 8:07 am
by 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.

:)

Re: But ...

PostPosted: Wed Feb 16, 2005 9:37 pm
by makslane
Cleve Blakemore wrote: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 :)