but not compounding them.

I don't currently have time to test this properly, so I thought I'd ask here to see if anyone knows off hand or has more time than I do currently:

Is it possible to nest {b} expressions in a desc, or will I need multiple missions to accomplish what I'm wanting to do? My goal, of course, is to not use multiple missions, to keep size down and not waste resources, among other concerns. I like keeping things concise. As an example, will the following work as might be expected?

Desc:

You {b1 "Step off of your ship." "{b2 "Trip on your way out but are otherwise fine." "Trip on your way out and break your leg."}"}

Or will the multiple {} and " like this cause Nova to choke? I assume the Gender operator will follow the same rules.

The Bible is not completely clear on this. It makes it sound like you can't do things like {(b4 | b5) "blah" "blah blah"}, but it could be taken to mean that I cannot do the above, either.

GutlessWonder, on Jun 24 2005, 04:31 PM, said:

Desc:

You {b1 "Step off of your ship." "{b2 "Trip on your way out but are otherwise fine." "Trip on your way out and break your leg."}"}View Post

That desc came out as follows:
No bits:
You {b2 "}

Bit 1:
You Step off of your ship."}

Bit 2:
You {b2 "}

I would say that it doesn't work.

Edwards

I am not sure that it would work the way that you are attempting to do it.

Something I might recommend is to look at the plugin "Better_Probe_Mission", available at the Nova Addon's page, I think that it does something like this, but I haven't actually looked at it myself, so I'm not sure. :unsure:

If you can't figure it out you could always use multiple missions in place of each other, each with one of the desc resources, etc... but that obviously breaks the one mission limit goal.

GW I assume you're aware that a null string is allowed in either position within a {bxxx "stg1" "stg2"} statement. So if you can manage it, just use a third NCB:

{b1 "Step off of your ship." ""}
{b2 "Trip on your way out but are otherwise fine." ""}
{b3 "Trip on your way out and break your leg." ""}

All depends on how your mission resource is constructed.

Crusader Alpha, on Jun 24 2005, 06:49 PM, said:

If you can't figure it out you could always use multiple missions in place of each other, each with one of the desc resources, etc... but that obviously breaks the one mission limit goal.
View Post

This is what I initially assumed, I just had a "genious" moment where I hoped I could save myself a little work, but I will press on, nonetheless.

I owe you a big thanks, Edwards, for testing that for me. If I ever meet you, I owe you a handshake.

(luckily, most of my missions will still work as I would like them too, it's only the missions where I used "b" expressions and the "G" operator that I'll have to duplicate, but mercifully those are few, only used in certain missions to make the plug as a whole mesh better with Nova)

Edit: Thanks, Arturo, I actually hadn't considered that, but I'm not certain it would work quite as I would like it. I only use them in a few places for minor things...let me see if I can find one I can post as an example:

_Sophie shakes her head as you approach and you look at her curiously.

"Sorry, you can't fight Eamon just yet, he's in a training session with some of his battle brothers. But, I can set up your battle for you, and once he's finished the two of you can go right ahead."

You nod your head and leave Sophie to do her thing while you seek out Eamon.

Eventually you find him in a nearly empty hangar, sparring with some Heraan warriors and a couple Wild Geese. {b800 "You're reminded of the first time you saw him in training, and you smile." "You've never seen moves like his before, and you're left amazed."}

When the session is over he comes over to you and smiles. "It is time, then?"

You nod your head, and you both head off to your ships. As you turn towards your separate hangars he calls out, "Good luck{b818 ", Knight!" "!"}"_

This desc I was hoping to be able to replace with something along the lines of:

{b4609 "Sophie greets you warmly as you enter and tell her who you wish to face. "Ready for a rematch, then?" You nod, and she enters in the appropriate information." " <everything above>"}

Again, while this would work for all missions I have where other {} are not being used, I'm not certain that I could use extra bits (at least in this example) to get the same effect in one mission. It was interesting to think about, though.

This post has been edited by GutlessWonder : 24 June 2005 - 08:52 PM

Arturo is right there.
Use something of the like:

I was {b1 "walking down the lane" ""}{b2 "leaving my ship" ""}{b3 "falling through the sky" ""}, when

Of course, you can't have all three set, otherwise it's gibberish

This works because if b1 isn't set, nothing gets written => "I was {b2 "

{b1 "walking down the lane" ""} is redunant.

{b1 "walking down the lane"} is better form. Same usage as r(bxxx).

NebuchadnezzaR, on Jun 27 2005, 12:01 PM, said:

{b1 "walking down the lane" ""} is redunant.

{b1 "walking down the lane"} is better form. Same usage as r(bxxx).

Beat me to it.

Anyways, this can be done the way Arturo mentioned quite easily:

{b1000 "Sophie greets you warmly as you enter and tell her who you wish to face. "Ready for a rematch, then?" You nod, and she enters in the appropriate information."}{b1001 "Sophie shakes her head as you approach and you look at her curiously.

"Sorry, you can't fight Eamon just yet, he's in a training session with some of his battle brothers. But, I can set up your battle for you, and once he's finished the two of you can go right ahead."

You nod your head and leave Sophie to do her thing while you seek out Eamon.

Eventually you find him in a nearly empty hangar, sparring with some Heraan warriors and a couple Wild Geese. "}{b1002 "You're reminded of the first time you saw him in training, and you smile." "You've never seen moves like his before, and you're left amazed."}{b1001 "

When the session is over he comes over to you and smiles. "It is time, then?"

You nod your head, and you both head off to your ships. As you turn towards your separate hangars he calls out, "Good luck"}{b1003 ", Knight!" "!"}{b1001 """}

b1000 = fought him before
b1001 = never fought him before
b1002 = never fought him before + Wild Goose
b1003 = never fought him before + KOTRB

I assume you understand that this will make the set strings within the mission more complicated.

orcaloverbri9, on Jul 4 2005, 07:38 AM, said:

<excellent help>View Post

Thank you, for that. In the end it doesn't matter, as I've already worked around it. The reason I mainly didn't want to use extra resources is because most of my missions are started by outfits, and I didn't want to have too many extra pict resources (since each outfit needs a unique one).

However, I found that the shipyard and escort pics of the new ships I created didn't need to be there, so I replaced them with a 1 X 1 pixel image, which greatly reduced the overall size of the plug, making it easier for me to live with the extra outfits. I'm not certain if having the resource with no image in it would have worked as well, but importing the new small pict was easier than deleting and replacing the resources (at least it seemed to be that way at the time...). Mainly just trying to avoid annoying debuglog errors. I know it doesn't really matter, but I try to be a perfectionist.

And, to show you how insignificant my original problem was, it ended up only applying to two of my thirty missions (since I had to replace seven more missions anyways, and ironically enough those seven were almost the only ones that this was a problem in to begin with). Heh. I imagine anal retentive is the right phrase here. Me and my brilliant ideas...

But, to sum up, I do greatly appreciate everything and all the help!

This post has been edited by GutlessWonder : 05 July 2005 - 06:54 PM

Matt Burch told me specifically that nesting dësc tags wouldn't work. That was ages ago, and I don't think it ever made it into the documentation.

Dave @ ATMOS

pipeline, on Jul 5 2005, 06:33 PM, said:

...I don't think it ever made it into the documentation.

Dave @ ATMOS
View Post

Well then, that about sums it up. I don't suppose the Bible is going to be updated with the 1.0.9 release, is it?

It still reffers to startship as always being 128 and something similar to that for start spob (completely neglecting the addition of chars).

So I dont think it will be updated. Its still pretty damned close though, and I think it does say someithng about not nesting {} in descs. Its such and advanced feature, however, that anyone who wants to use it should either be active enough here to read this discussion, or clever enough themselves to figure the limitation out without the bible. Recreational pluggers just getting started wouldnt run into it.

The paragraph in the Bible that deals with this reads:

"Where "XXX" is be replaced by the index of the control bit you wish to test. You can add in a "!" character before the "bXXX" test in order to negate the result of the test, but unlike the control bit test strings, you cannot perform compound tests in a desc resource - i.e., no testing of multiple bits at a time."

And, to quote from my first post:

GutlessWonder, on Jun 24 2005, 04:31 PM, said:

The Bible is not completely clear on this. It makes it sound like you can't do things like {(b4 | b5) "blah" "blah blah"}, but it could be taken to mean that I cannot do the above, either.
View Post

This makes me wonder about trying the thing I quoted, to see if it works...

As for the recreational plug creators...that's all I am. This is my first major plug.

I think thatthe "better_probe_mission" plug only gives three missions, all but one failed when one is completed, making it seem to be a three-way choice... I don't know about the Dëscs.