Hopefully a simple question

[ihop4all]

Howdy,

Long time browser; First time poster. I've been diddling with RF for some time, and I can do the basic junk, but a friend asked me if I can do something for his company. They want an 'educational' 3d 'game' where the player needs to install a motherboard, but can't do it without using a static wristband first. I'm not sure how to do this. I know I can use triggers and logicgates to make a user have an attribute before opening a door, but how would I do this, and how could I get the motherboard 'into' the computer once they have the wristband?

I have not had success with any attempts at doing my own scripting, only using pre-made scripts.

Thanks in advance for any help you might give.

ihop4all

[ihop4all]

I think I may have the solution. I will try the enitity which replaces a texture on an actor. I'll make my computer an actor, with the back wall of the interior having a texture with no mobo to start, and a texture with a mobo in place in the bdy, as instructed in the docs. Then I'll trigger the texture replacer entity when both the wristband and mobo have been acquired in the correct order, using logicgates.

Sound good? I'll give it try when I get a chance.

[Juutis]

Howdy ho. Welcome to the forums, or something. Dunno what I should say if you're not exactly new around here (well, you are new to us). Anyway, enjoy posting... and stuff.

So, what's the purpose of this educational game? Do you want to emphasize the actual installation or the fact that you must wear the wristband? In the first case I'd definitely use several pawns so you can place the motherboard in the computer yourself. In the latter case I'd probably go like you've planned: Get the wristband and the mobo magically appears in the computer.

Also, how serious is this project? Like, do you just want to get it over with quickly and whip up something, or do you want it to actually be educating? Just let us know if you need help with anything. I, for one, will be happy to help. With scripting mostly, but other stuff too.

[ihop4all]

Thanks, Juutis. I believe the idea behind the project is to reinforce the need to use a wristband when installing a mobo. I can't ask my friend, as he is off on a business trip and can't be reached. He's going to be a wreck being offline for a week!

Anyway, my goal is just to put something together to show him it can be done. My optimal idea was to actually have the user place the mobo into the case, but I have no idea how. That's when I came up with it 'magically appearing', as you said.

How would you do it with pawns?

[Juutis]

Sorry for being so slow. I didn't forget about you, just been kinda busy lately.

Anyway, my goal is just to put something together to show him it can be done. My optimal idea was to actually have the user place the mobo into the case, but I have no idea how. That's when I came up with it 'magically appearing', as you said.

How would you do it with pawns?

I'm almost positive you could have a room with the computer, and the motherboard and the wristband lying around somewhere. You'd have to pick up the wristband first (it would appear on the player character's wrist) and then pick up the mobo (it would as well appear on the player's hands), walk to the computer and press the use key and the player character would play an animation where he puts the mobo in there. It could be either 1st or 3rd person. With a 1st person viewpoint you could even make the player "aim" for the right spot. Like, using the computer wouldn't be enough but you'd have to look at a certain spot inside the computer while having the mobo in your hands and only then it would play the animation.

There are a couple of ways of doing this:
1.) Script the whole thing. The player character would be a pawn (or the hands in first person view), the computer would be a pawn as well as the mobo and the wristband. I won't go to details but basically you'd use pawns and accessories (thing you can attach to pawns). For example: the player walks to the wristband -> the wristband accessory is attached. The player picks up the mobo -> the motherboard accessory is added. The player uses the computer -> the player character (or the hands in 1st person) play an animation and the mobo accessory is removed.

2.) Use the built-in weapon system. The weapon system can be used to do other stuff too than weapons. You could have three weapons: One with no items, one with the wristband and one with the wristband + motherboard. You'd walk to the wristband and the wristband weapon would be armed. Then walk to the mobo and the wristband + mobo weapon would be activated. Then use the computer and the wristband weapon would be armed again.

Both ways will require some scripting as the whole thing is pretty predefined. You don't need/want to give the player many choices what to do. From those two examples the first one has probably more work (especially if you're not experienced with scripting) but it's also much more flexible. You could do all kinds of nice little things to spice it up. The latter is the faster way, I'd say. But you may run into some problems that are really hard to overcome.

[paradoxnj]

This should really be in the scripting forum or the Level Design and Entity forum.