For gametypes I'd love to be able to use weaponpad UI icons as waypoints. They don't accept scripting, but I was wondering if a glitch/trick has been discovered to despawn/respawn weaponpads. I've tried grouping, and you can't weld a group with a weaponpad in it so that hasn't worked yet either. If not, that's cool, I figured I'd ask as there are way better forger/scripters out there than I.
It probably won't work, but you can use the Stronghold POI Icon instead, as those accept scripting. You could even put a named location volume to tell players what the area is with the icon alone.
Ray, I do know a trick to weld weapon pads, but it was discovered by Wally17 and he wants to do a tutorial on it. I will test if it can script it, but I know his video is almost ready.
I was thinking about Strongholds, but I really want to stick this current gametype on Slayer for now. And when I've played with Strongholds in the past, if you despawn and respawn them, they lose their UI icon period. *gasp* Does this mean it can be spawned and despawned as a whole welded object by having delete scripts on the other objects that it is welded too? If so that would be amazing. Thanks for the heads up @Egggnog . And I don't need it right away, but if you could direct me to it when it is out and ready, that would be amazing. Because I've been trying to create a waypoint system for a while now. And this would mean a lot to me.
Thank you good sir. It looks like the weapon of and UI icon do follow the welded object, now i hope I can spawn and despawn it with scripting. I'll report back when I know. Great find man!
@Wally12 and @Egggnog , thanks for all the help. Sadly weaponpads do not despawn with the welded group when it is despawned. So currently there is no way to do what I'm trying to do. I played with it for a while, but no luck. It doesn't look like there is any deletion code tied to the weaponpads at all. :'(
Ray Benefield, I won't be on for a few more days, but maybe I can help you figure something out. Probably through breaking forge though.
Unfortunately, objects that can't be given scripts do not respond to scripting actions. I found that out when I tried giving spawn zones scripts via phantom scripting.
Yes, but if you moved a certain zone or object on top of the weapon pad could you force the weapon itself to despawn? A kill ball or something? Food for thought.
Crap, I ain't played with weapon pads much. Can they be set to Normal-Physics and trapped inside a welded group which could move them out of range and then brought back when needed? Ah wait! I found (assuming I'm remembering correctly) that you can use an instant Position Reset script (Time=0) for only the parent of a welded group with Normal-Physics. Maybe the weapon pad will play along with that? Saves scripts at least... no more having to mail Tom French 2-for-1 script coupons! I still mail them though, cuz they annoy him. An even worse option is to have them set to Phased-Physics and then move the map to them. lol. What happens if they're set to Phased and inside another phased object? Will the weapon and waypoint show up? Or something like the one-sided CTF gametype trick? Did @WyvernZu come up with that one? Maybe she has ideas for this? Maybe I shouldn't link someone's name if I'm not sure? heheheh
You could possibly use a colored light beam coming from the sky. Similar to the mystery boxes in cod zombies. Would that work? If not, you may be able to weld it to an object and literally move it like a drone or something.
You can definitely move the weapon points by scripting what it is welded too. But there is no distance that I've noticed that actually removes the waypoint. The light beam coming out from the sky may be the best option at this point for notifications with a light perhaps with a little lens flare at the base. I haven't had enough time to play with it as I'm working out job stuff right now for the week.
TL;DR = dammit. Got interested and tried a bunch of stuff out with weapon pads. Welding and setting them to normal-physics definitely lets us pull them along, including doing an instant position reset, but that would only provide one quick hop. The only method I found for despawning them was letting them fall off the map. And then there was no way to respawn them that I could find. One sort of interesting thing I noticed was that Forge and Customs both have a limit of displaying 16 weapon waypoints. Forge seemed to choose the 16 nearest the 0,0,0 point (Out maybe the spawn points?). Customs might have been using the 16 oldest objects, but copies made with the d-pad might be treated as younger. If you get rid of one that has a waypoint, then the next one that no longer has a weapon (or waypoint) that will finish it's countdown all get the waypoint. Biggest problem is that we have to pickup or sticky the weapon to get rid of it. Maybe there's a way to get around all the obstacles to make it work, but I'm not seeing it. I like the idea of having a waypoint that travels to the next location better. I'd try using scripts or even make a path with the gravity slides. Welding it gives us the option of disguising it to look like some sort off guide. One of the holograms or a grunt toy with fairy wings and a floating power up for a halo, lol. No wait, a weapon pad hat and double energy swords for wings. Rig up a fugly little guilty spark wannabe to jerk us around a map. I'm totally picturing @cookies4you 's Sentinel right now. It seems like I remember unmanned vehicles not going through teleporters, but if they do that would be great for this using Wally17 's welding tricks. Or make everyone catch a ride on a scripted set of vehicles so you can get that weapon pad through a teleporter. Going heavy-handed like that, maybe just have one waypoint in the middle of the map and keep teleporting everyone to the next area before they reach it. All areas lead back to the middle. Another thought: leave all the waypoints spread out in their places and weld-script them to dance around when they're the current objective. For the beam of light thing, my nephew found a neat trick with that breakable platform thing (he said under Structures: Accents: Destructible?). It emits a beam of light from a point well below it which then continues down. If you turn it upside down, the origin of the beam gets rotated above it, but the effect still shines the column of light downward. So the light just shines inexplicably down from midair. Prolly not enough room left to hate on the weapon pads, though I'll definitely take 'em rather than leave 'em.
Yeah my biggest problem is that the waypoints are strictly for one location... I want to highlight a location ONLY when it is active. Because there is no way to make them disappear, then that is a problem, but throwing them off the map may lead to something if we can find a way to bring it back somehow. I'd love to use a moving waypoint, but I have no use for that quite yet. And even then I would want a waypoint that can be spawned and despawned. Thanks for looking into this @Yumudas Beegbut
This is really off topic, but It's amazing how you can look at something repeatedly and still miss something obvious... After looking at it probably a hundred times, I finally just 'got' your username.
Ooo is the explosion the same as a plasma grenade? Or can you trigger a plasma grenade to explode with non-player damage?