Hi All,
This may sound like a strange question coming from me, but I would like some confirmation on how some party commands are supposed to work. I have been using my own modified version for some time (in my own module), and as my friend and I have ventured to play the OC once again, it has come as a bit of a shock about how we control our party.
Basically, when I use broadcast command “Attack Nearest”, I thought this would cause all my PCs to start attacking the creature, but they appear to just stand there. Now, this may differ from when the AI is on or off, but my question is, should the PCs follow my command to attack when I broadcast it? (It does in my own system regardless of AI setting because the broadcast command is my “puppet control” of the PCs.) I am having the same issues when using the “Follow” option - it fails to work when AI is off. Confirmed. This appears to be a bug to me, as a broadcast command to follow should trump AI being off. AI should strictly be with respect to how the PC handles their combat round. This is also an issue when a broadcast command to attack nearest is ignored when AI is off. Again, the attack should happen, but how they attack is the part that should be governed by AI being on or off. Again, this is fixed in my own campaign.
On the back of this, I have a more advanced question … When using the “Attack Nearest” broadcast command, we shout “-3”, which the PCs respond to and attack (that’s how it is setup as I have it in my own system anyway). However, I also note that if I have queued some actions with my own PC and the broadcast command “Attack Nearest”, my own PC queue is cleared and an attack is setup. i.e. I then have to put in the orders again for them. It’s not a major issue, but I was hoping there may be some way to have the person broadcasting the command to ignore the call themselves, so that if they currently have anything queued it would not interfere with it.
In my own tests, the broadcast command shouter does not appear to be picked up by their own “-3” shout/response, and so you would have thought any code that followed would not have been fired for them anyway. Furthermore, I have other checks in that same code that would stop them from clearing their queue (or so I would have thought), with such things as only if queue empty sort of thing. However, their queue is cleared down at the shout as well.
This is also what led me to looking back in the OC (to see what happened there) and is when I noticed that the broadcast commands do not appear to actually do anything from a queue perspective. i.e. I see no attack or move to icon in their queue and they do not attack or follow.
Any advise welcome. Thanks!
EDIT: Did a little more testing and AI setting does appear to prevent some broadcast commands from working. (I obviously fixed that for my own system.) But, the queue question remains. i.e. Is there any way to prevent a queue being cleared from a broadcast command … under certain conditions?
This does not appear to help …
if(GetLocalObject(OBJECT_SELF, "N2_PLAYER_QUEUED_TARGET") != OBJECT_INVALID){return;}
AH, but I just found this … N2_PLAYER_QUEUED_ACTION … so I will try that and will report back. UPDATE: Unfortunately, this still does not prevent the broadcast call to attack from overriding a queue.
UPDATE: Interestingly, this appeared to work in a SP game, but not a MP one. I will double check this again now.
UPDATE (RESOLVED): Sorted it by using GetNumActions and removing a badly placed ClearAllActions in a function that played sounds. (GetHasPlayerQueuedAction variant)
The turn-based system just took another great step forward … You can now queue actions where you want to and then broadcast command after this and any PCs not attributed an action will attack. I cannot express how much of a difference playing the system is … it definitely feels more like a D&D experience using the TB combat system … even switching between AI for individual PCs where required to cater for any actions you do not wish to assign. And AI off does not compromise all other broadcast commands! It’s a real joy to use!