By now a lot of us have probably figured out some keen tricks with Coldstone. How about, until that newsletter starts rolling at least, we share some of that individual experience. Post some things you haven't figured out how to do yet. There's a chance someone else has figured it out already...

Here are some things I'm having trouble with.

Transition Animations
Animations that introduce new animations or bridge two seperate animations for that special smooth movement feel. I figured out how to add the Skid To A Halt animations after moving. That was easy. I see no way to do Turning or Start Walking transitions though.

Attacking Animations
The engine seems hard wired to dole out damage at the first frame of the attack animation. I can't find a way to set which frame actually delivers the attack.

Flinch Animations
(Yeah, I know, someone has been spoiled by Anvil.) A little animation to play when characters get hit.

All I can think of right now. Even if you can't answer any of these, go ahead and throw down some troubles you've been having.

myshkyn

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"I'll give the fans just what they want, and nothing else at all."

Quote

Originally posted by myshkyn:
**By now a lot of us have probably figured out some keen tricks with Coldstone. How about, until that newsletter starts rolling at least, we share some of that individual experience. Post some things you haven't figured out how to do yet. There's a chance someone else has figured it out already...

Here are some things I'm having trouble with.

Transition Animations
Animations that introduce new animations or bridge two seperate animations for that special smooth movement feel. I figured out how to add the Skid To A Halt animations after moving. That was easy. I see no way to do Turning or Start Walking transitions though.

Attacking Animations
The engine seems hard wired to dole out damage at the first frame of the attack animation. I can't find a way to set which frame actually delivers the attack.

Flinch Animations
(Yeah, I know, someone has been spoiled by Anvil.) A little animation to play when characters get hit.

All I can think of right now. Even if you can't answer any of these, go ahead and throw down some troubles you've been having.

myshkyn

**

I like the idea of centralizing findings somewhere -- that is, in a more concrete and organized fashion than this board, which is perfectly suitable as a place to introduce questions, suggestions, to hash out possibilities, etc. But who would collect, vet, test, and host such a collection?

I notice your concentration on animations above. I was tempted myself to do an extremely simple shooter just to see how far I could take character animation. I have a possible method for jumpting/leaping (I'm going to try it before I post). I am stumped, though, on "breathing"; that is, the small movements made by a character that isn't walking (re, "Street Fighter" and that ilk.)

I'd be interested in seeing your "skid to a stop." Might give me some ideas.

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everywhere else, it's --
"Nomuse"

If the jumping works, please let us know how. I've been trying to figure out how to do that since a few days after I got CS.

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Originally posted by Catfish_Man:
**If the jumping works, please let us know how. I've been trying to figure out how to do that since a few days after I got CS.

**

I've tested and the principal is sound. Spline paths in animation do not change the "location" of the animation. Therefore, you can animate a character passing through a no-access tile. On completion, trigger a Map Location action. And therein lies the rub; if the co-ordinate box worked like the manual claimed it did you could do an arithmatic operation on &&PlayerX;,Y and use the result. Since it does not currently accept anything but numbers, you need to set up a local jumping event on every movement tile that is a potential "launch pad."

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everywhere else, it's --
"Nomuse"

Quote

Originally posted by Commander Arashi:
**I've tested and the principal is sound. Spline paths in animation do not change the "location" of the animation. Therefore, you can animate a character passing through a no-access tile. On completion, trigger a Map Location action. And therein lies the rub; if the co-ordinate box worked like the manual claimed it did you could do an arithmatic operation on &&PlayerX;,Y and use the result. Since it does not currently accept anything but numbers, you need to set up a local jumping event on every movement tile that is a potential "launch pad."

**

This was a topic that got rather 'heated' in the early days of beta testing; Imedia2000 felt that it was possible to actually path animate the PC while the background remained stationary. It was my opinion that any animation of the PC that moved it from its' current position tile would cause the screen to scroll instead of simply moving the PC on some path while the background remained fixed. If the screen simply scrolled as the PC 'jumped' a very unrealistic motion would result!

It it of course possible to have NPC's move about in very complex paths because their movements do not trigger scrolling. If scrolling is only triggered by the player using the mouse or arrow keys then 'jumping' and other frolicking of the PC might be realizeable but the anim path should probably be a closed one or the actual position (relative to the movement tiles) might not be correctly stored by the engine and could create scrolling jumps when triggered by the player (as I think you are stating above.)

I still doubt that anim paths for PC's are a real possibility (but please prove me wrong!)

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...it wasn't me...

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Originally posted by SkipMeier:
**
This was a topic that got rather 'heated' in the early days of beta testing; Imedia2000 felt that it was possible to actually path animate the PC while the background remained stationary. It was my opinion that any animation of the PC that moved it from its' current position tile would cause the screen to scroll instead of simply moving the PC on some path while the background remained fixed. If the screen simply scrolled as the PC 'jumped' a very unrealistic motion would result!

It it of course possible to have NPC's move about in very complex paths because their movements do not trigger scrolling. If scrolling is only triggered by the player using the mouse or arrow keys then 'jumping' and other frolicking of the PC might be realizeable but the anim path should probably be a closed one or the actual position (relative to the movement tiles) might not be correctly stored by the engine and could create scrolling jumps when triggered by the player (as I think you are stating above.)

I still doubt that anim paths for PC's are a real possibility (but please prove me wrong!)

**

'Fraid I don't follow you there, Skip. The anim path is a display offset for the graphic, only. It does not alter the map location. Therefore, the camera does not scroll. At the end of the animation the PC (yes, that is what I tested), "snaps back" to the offset used in the walk animation.

There is a screen-scrolling issue, though; if you followed the animation with a Map Location action, the screen would remain rock-steady while the character leapt, then snap to the landing point. Not pretty!

Regardless, the only issue is getting the right coordinates into the Map Location action. Which, since variables are outlawed, means creating a complete new event with integer coordinates for every possible jumping sequence. Or a very, very long set of conditionals; "If &&PlayerX;,Y = 0,0 then Map Location 0,10 : If &&PlayerX;,Y = 10,0 then Map Location 10,10 : If &&PlayerX;,Y..."

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everywhere else, it's --
"Nomuse"

Quote

Originally posted by Commander Arashi:
**

Regardless, the only issue is getting the right coordinates into the Map Location action. Which, since variables are outlawed,
**

Hopefully only for CS 1.0.0

Quote

Originally posted by Commander Arashi:
**
means creating a complete new event with integer coordinates for every possible jumping sequence. Or a very, very long set of conditionals; "If &&PlayerX;,Y = 0,0 then Map Location 0,10 : If &&PlayerX;,Y = 10,0 then Map Location 10,10 : If &&PlayerX;,Y..."

**

Or, better, "IF &&gb;_Player_X,Y = 10,0 etc", since you cannot test PlayerX and PlayerY with a conditional; hence, you have to set up to variables before :frown: (hopefully, also this for CS 1.0.0)

BTW, if one takes a look at the .cet files of the events, they have a structure which can be easily detected with an hex editor; in other words, instead of opening 10^n conditionals, one can write down a small program to "create" the correct .cet files if needed. After all, it is easier to write down the coordinates once and for all, instead of dragging&dropping; the same number of events and then scripting anyone of them separately.

Sincerely,

Alois

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i can easily put up a faq and look into making it scripted - I even have a mouldy game editing site online i could use

for starters, just post as much stuff here as you can, and i'll put it up sorted by subject

template:

Topic: What you wanted to achieve
By: Your name or nick - repeat for every single subject though!
How to: How you achieved it - try to be as complete as possible and avoid typos that could confs plple cause they can't find the button or field

Comments can be added later with the same layout - the topic being about the comment, not the subject - however do state wich subject it's a comment on

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Quote

Originally posted by Commander Arashi:
**'Fraid I don't follow you there, Skip. The anim path is a display offset for the graphic, only. It does not alter the map location. Therefore, the camera does not scroll. At the end of the animation the PC (yes, that is what I tested), "snaps back" to the offset used in the walk animation.

There is a screen-scrolling issue, though; if you followed the animation with a Map Location action, the screen would remain rock-steady while the character leapt, then snap to the landing point. Not pretty!

**

I'm neither an animator not a graphics designer so my terminology sucks, but I agree with what you are saying even though I blab incoherently...

My point about Coldstore is this: if an animation is triggered by a 'keypress' and the PC is not following the player (arrow or mouse) movement, the player simply has the PC 'jump', then there shouldn't be a problem. If the animation is closed-looped.

However, if the PC is moving WRT a mouse or arrow key event and the 'jump' animation is triggered while the PC is moving, then the animation will not 'look right' because of screen scrolling.

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...it wasn't me...