I was in the middle of this lovely book when suddenly this idea hit me: Hey, what about a magic words command to change the DOOR permeability between rooms? That would be pretty easy, right? Yes, yes it would; I will try it after I finish this chapter.
But I couldn't focus on the chapter because I just could not stop thinking about the room-editing possibilities that could come from a few simple lines of code. Gah. When inspiration hits, it's unmerciful.
So an hour later I had a couple of new commands to play with:
DMap, which toggles the map grid on and off, as well as a bit of text near the hand that displays the type of room it is hovering over.
DoorH [number], which sets the door boundary between the rooms touching the right and left side of the hand. This is a number between 0 and 100, with 0 meaning nothing can pass though (a solid wall) and 100 meaning everything can pass through.
DoorV [number], which does the same thing as DoorH, but changes the boundary between rooms touching the top and bottom of the hand.
Room Type [number], which changes the type of room the hand is hovering over. This is a number from 0 to 10, a list of room types is found here. I ended up kind of throwing this in at the last minute because I figured if you were going to make new floors, you might want to not be "air" type rooms. But you can use it for whatever-- to flood certain areas or turn them into dry land, make barren metal hallways into soil to support plant growth, etc.
As shown in the video, this pairs pretty nicely with the garden box decorations as you can use them to visually denote your new platforms/walls, but I don't think these magic words commands are going to be bundled with the garden box; I'll probably release them before that.
Do you plan on adding a command to link rooms up? If you're going to be messing with the room boundaries, it might be useful to actually get creatures up there on their own accord.
ReplyDeleteBesides that, this is looking pretty awesome. The name of the world made me laugh a bit (I just call my testing worlds "X Test").
Hmm, I've actually had a CA link command in personal use for a while, but it's just incredibly user-unfriendly and I'm still trying to figure out the easiest way to display which rooms are already linked, to make life easier. It does seem logical to include something like that though.
DeleteHah, my worlds often have strange and random names, usually born of frustration :P
My test worlds usually get labelled by mashing the keyboard, so you're both one up on me :P
ReplyDeleteI'd suggest instead of "room type x", maybe you go for something like "room type soil" or "room type water" -- makes it a little easier to understand from the get-go. If it's an easy thing to implement, of course :)
Fair point; I suppose I could add room type names as a secondary option. Personally I would much rather type "1" than "Wooden Walkway" just for the sake of ease but not everyone will know the type numbers off the top of their head or want to look them up, heh.
DeleteThis is really awesome. I'm super excited for this and the garden box! You develop the most interesting things. C:
ReplyDeleteAnother amazing idea, Amai! Coupled with the Garden Box, I think this will allow for unlimited customization. It's almost like building your own room as you go along... Although not quite as in-depth! The ability to add walls makes me happy, because I've had some issues keeping certain populations in one area. I'm not sure if this would be the best solution, but it's worth a try! Good luck!
ReplyDeleteAmai, this idea is awesome, in my opinion. I always have rooms where I wish the Norns couldn't walk off high cliffs (to their death) and I can already see the possibilities brimming with the room options, especially when you pair it with the garden box you're working on. I hope this magic word is released soon!
ReplyDeleteAlso, a unrelated question: Where do you find that program that tracks the life chemical underneath the name tags on your Norns? I've looked for it, but I can't seem to find it online. Thanks so much!
Keep up the great work!!!!