Single-use interaction clears selected interaction?

zebbi

For exiting scenes, I have a hotspot set-up as single-use, so clicking on it without interaction will run the walk-to marker and subsequently run the interaction to leave the scene. I also add a custom cursor called "walk to" so when the player clicks the single-use hotspot, it will print "Walk To [name of next scene]" in the verb bar, instead of Use:


Currently though, if the player has an interaction selected, moves it across the screen to another hotspot and the cursor crosses the single-use hotspot, it will wipe the interaction back to the single-use interaction's default: https://gfycat.com/WebbedIcyDuckling

I assume this would be the correct way to set a scene change hotspot up so it functions the same as a Scumm game, I can't think of a way of having the player walk to a marker and then run an interaction to change scene any other way (and still have the verb bar always read Walk to [scene]).

ChrisIceBox

That's as intended - you can't "PIck Up" the Hotspot - only walk to it.

zebbi

Yeah, I was going to just have the verb run the walk to interaction for anything chosen. I'm not sure why it wipes the selected interaction on hover though? I would have thought it would just reset upon click to perform the single use (custom cursor walk to) I've added. Can the hovering reset be turned off?

zebbi

@ChrisIceBox ;To clarify, this is using nine-verb, so clearing the interaction on hover is not really ever expected. Basically, I need to run the "Walk To Marker then run interaction once marker is reached" part of the hotspot whatever is used on the hotspot, whether it's pickup or use or look at, it would always just run the Walk to Marker routine, which currently works really, it's just clearing the selected interaction on hover is unexpected, I would have thought it would have only happened on click. Can this be hooked in or changed?

ChrisIceBox

PlayerCursor.cs - remove the code block from line 460-476 (and the "else" from 477).  Does that do it?

zebbi

@chrisicebox I'll try that when I leave work, just wanted to clarify in the video I sent, I never click when hovering over the single-use hotspot, I just hover. If this works, could it be hooked in so it doesn't need hacking the AC files, or could it be added to the nine-verb template? (Since this would never happen in a nine-verb interface game and makes you have to move your mouse carefully around the hotspot in order to not lose your selected interaction)

ChrisIceBox

Just try it - if it's what you want, I'll consider it's inclusion.

zebbi

Yeah, that's great! On Fate of Atlantis, for instance, he says I can't pick that up if you try to pick-up a leave scene area, so in fact this works a lot more fluidly since you'd never try to pick-up an area that's clearly marked as a leave scene area. Would you say using a single-use interaction was the best way of tackling these sorts of hotspots with AC? I can't imagine any other way of doing them, I just wondered if you'd envisioned their use in this particular way when using Interaction-then-hotspot method?

ChrisIceBox

You could just treat it as a normal Hotspot and override its behaviour with custom events, but the single-use option is intended to be used separately from the regular verb-line / interaction icon interface.

zebbi

So, it would require a script to have a hotspot:

• if you click on a scene exit area, it builds a "walk to [scene exit]". I'm using an extra cursor called "Walk to" so that no verbs need to be lit up, the sentence builds correctly and the Walk to marker gets run before the scene change interaction.
• If I wanted to be able to right-click on a scene exit, it would still default run the walk to marker then interaction, instead of lighting up a Use or Look-at verb.
• If I wanted to be able to look at scene exit hotspots and have dialogue like "that's the way back to the trail" or some such.

I'm not sure where to start with something like this. I'm also not sure if using a custom Walk-to cursor would be necessary with the right custom script that would build the sentence properly (although it would probably be needed for default Walk-to interactions?) Is there an example that could get me started with this?

ChrisIceBox

So, the above change isn't what you want, then?

Typically you rely on the OnHotspotSelect / OnHotspotInteract custom events to override default behaviour.  Having "Walk to" as a defined cursor is certainly the right approach, as you can just change the active cursor ID to have the label update correctly, as opposed to "hacking" the label itself:

AC.KickStarter.playerCursor.SetCursorFromID (walkCursorID);

zebbi

@chrisicebox ;Oh no, I definitely need the change! I was asking in case it was possible to add look interactions with the script, but I'm absolutely fine with using single-use interactions for this as long as it doesn't wipe the sentence on hover. Sorry for the confusion!

zebbi

So, while I definitely need single-use to never clear the verb sentence on hover (cannot think of a situation even outside of nine-verb where that would be preferable) here's a couple of interesting situations of using a click-to-walk-to-marker-and-upon-reaching-the-marker-running-change-scene-interaction hotspots but with the ability to also interact with them in other ways:
https://gfycat.com/OffensiveDirtyIndianpangolin
https://gfycat.com/PalePracticalIndianabat

So, the same type of hotspot is in both, and obviously there's a puzzle with the chimney where you can use a blanket on it. Could there be a, maybe, a player action in AC whereby you can select "Walk To Marker and Run Interaction" and have:

• the player directly walk to the marker
• run the "walk to" interaction when the player reaches the marker
• if I reclick within the hotspot, the walking path is not interrupted and the player continues walking to the marker and ignores the click
• if i click outside of the hotspot when walking to the marker, the player walks to the new point instead of continuing walking to the marker, and it purposely interrupts the "walk to marker" function

The points above are exactly as single-use does when set-up as I have with a "walk to" cursor. If using single-use interaction, this is exactly how it works: https://gfycat.com/GlaringImpossibleHumpbackwhale

However, none of these work without single-use interaction enabled, and the "walk to" cursor interaction isn't triggered (as I only use the custom cursor to keep the verb line reading "walk to", but it still doesn't think a "walk to" verb has been chosen for interaction understandably.)

If it would be possible to add the ability to have other verb interactions with these single-use hotspots, it would be awesome! Currently single-use is almost perfect with a custom "walk to" cursor, but any other interactions cannot be used with these hotspots. If it's possible with custom scripts or actions, I'm not really sure how to do it?

ChrisIceBox

The whole point of "Single-use Hotspots" is that it doesn't have other verb interactions!

If you want other reactions to an exit Hotspot, you shouldn't be looking to use the "Single-use Hotspot" option - which means you don't really need the feature you're requesting I implement.

This'll likely be down to a custom script - I'll look into it for you.

zebbi

@ChrisIceBox
Thanks, I'd appreciate that! This would involve requiring a custom script on every hotspot used as a scene exit hotspot? That's obviously no problem, I'm curious if there's any plans for an integrated method for this in the future? I'm sure most interaction-then-hotspot games would benefit from this functionality!

ChrisIceBox

If it's useful, it'll go on the wiki - but it's best to keep things in custom scripts that allow for flexibility.

This particular implementation requires it to go on all "exit" Hotspots, but you could just as easily adapt it to read from an array of Hotspots so you can use one script per scene:

http://pasteall.org/1277348/csharp

zebbi

Thank you I'll try this! The only reason I suggested is because it would otherwise be impossible to make a nine-verb retro adventure game without this script or modding the single-use to remove the sentence clearing on hover, since you'd never have a way of implementing an exit that functioned in the way the retro games do (this isn't just scumm, but all of the 90s adventures of the era had a hotspot exit with a direct walk to that triggered a scene change upon arrival). I'm perfectly happy with a script but I was just suggesting it as a nescesary function of developing these types of games with the expected exit method. Really appreciate the script!

zebbi

Thanks, it works really nicely now! Is it possible to have right-click default interactions work with this too? If I hover the chimney on DOTT, the "look at" verb highlights, and if I right-click it, he runs the "Look at" interaction. On Thimbleweek Park, even though you can "look at" the path and it runs the "look at" interaction for the path, the verb isn't highlighted on hover, and if you right-click, she walks to the path and changes scene, exactly as if it was left-clicked. This is how it would work your script if right-click default interactions were possible , as there's no verb for "walk to" so nothing would highlight if "walk to" is the top-level/default interaction. If right-click defaults are possible, it should be perfect!

I'll mention it  again, this is no trouble at all for me to add to every hotspot, but for anyone else developing these sorts of games, I'd imagine it would be invaluable if it could be incorporated in AC. I'm not sure how else you could do these sorts of exits in this fashion without this script, so thanks again, Chris!

ChrisIceBox

Defaults are possible - as with any other Hotspot, just set the "Look at" to be your first Use interaction.  All the script does is change the active "cursor mode" to the one you specify when hovering over it, if none is currently active.

zebbi

Really? I tried right-clicking and it wouldn't trigger anything?

zebbi

@chrisicebox right-click default doesn't work with the script attached to a hotspot.