ATTN: Nanaki and Gremlin Wizard

[Aleksandar]

Originally Posted by Trucidation

Haha, edited while edited. Thanks, looks like I got it.

Hmm, it looks like { exp cost, { pre-req1, pre-req2, ... }, { choose one of these1, choose one of these2 }.

The third {} appears to be used only by the gun specialisations (choose HC / AC / Laser). I wonder if we can put other perks in here as well. E.g. choose between Criticals_1 or Hard_to_Kill.

Put it here for reference. Also, proposing a fix to the CanAddProperty function below

function CanAddProperty-Shark(pilot, property)

	if property == nil then
			return 0;
	else
		local nPrereqs = getn(property[2]);
		local nDenials = getn(property[3]);
		local prop_ = property[2];
		local deny_ = property[3];-
	
		local prereqsMet = FALSE;
		local deniesMet = FALSE;
		local i = 1;
	
		if(nPrereqs > 0) then
			if(pilot:HasProperty(prop_[1])) then 
				prereqsMet = TRUE;
				i = i+1;
			elseif
				return FALSE; --no prereq met
			end;

	-- Retrieved the first prereq flag. Collate with others and return

			while ((i <= nPrereqs) and (prereqsMet ~= FALSE)) do
				prereqsMet = prereqsMet and (pilot:HasProperty(prop_[i]));
			end;
		end;
	
	--Prereqs calculated, check for denies

		if(nDenials > 0) then
		--restart the counter
			i = 1;
			while ((i < nDenials) and (deniesMet ~= TRUE)) do
				deniesMet = deniesMet or (pilot:HasProperty(prop_[i]));
			end;
		end;

	--Denies calculated; return prereqsMet && !deniesMet
	
	return (prereqsMet and (not deniesMet));

	end; --property not nil
end; --eof

Feel free to correct my syntax errors, I'm still new at this language... spent about 10 mins viewing the game's scripts and I'm already making improvements... I need to get a grasp on language constructors and keywords. So far I've noticed I can do for, foreach and while - quite enough to build up anything more serious if there's a need. The lists help too, so if a need arises for a HashMap, I'll hash one out (hehe) for you.

Btw, I'm Aleksandar, a math/IT/AI graduate. Not much of a Touhou fan, but I adore bullethell shmups.

I don't know LUA so I can't comment on that (really ought to look it up but things just keep happening...) - how do you tell the game to use new functions you add? I'm guessing you just add calls from other scripts?

Not much of a technical guy, I'm just a 2-bit musician

[Goblin Wizard]

@Aleksandar - nice to see an educated programmer here. I like poking through the scripts but it's just a hobby.
btw if I understand correctly - your script does the same as original only in other way. AFAIK CanAddProperty function is base function called from the exe so you shouldn't change it's name.

[Aleksandar]

Originally Posted by Goblin Wizard

@Aleksandar - nice to see an educated programmer here. I like poking through the scripts but it's just a hobby.
btw if I understand correctly - your script does the same as original only in other way. AFAIK CanAddProperty function is base function called from the exe so you shouldn't change it's name.

In a somewhat better and cleaner way. I understand that they never planned on having more than 3 prereqs and/or denials, but really - hardcoding to check only for one, two or three arguments is really lame. If you put in four denials the script would just return FALSE without checking anything. Mine evaluates the first one and collates (uses all the solutions so far in calculating the next one) all the others, either until it runs out of arguments or one of the prereqs hits FALSE. Then same (but inverse) applies for Denials (i just call them that way) after which the prereqsMet and !deniesMet vars are anded.

This way I can have as many prereqs and denies as I want and I'm not limited only to the first three. I believe these kind of bad coding practices are the root of all the limitations, such as having only 6 pilots and that crap.

Yea, like how they hardcoded missile launch sfx to a single file instead of allowing us to use the work_sound tag (which are in the damn xml definitions ffs...), how adding sound to missile flight causes the game to CTD when it impacts (probably something unfinished there), not to mention the inconsistencies in the xmls, that kind of thing.