A Couple of OSMT Questions

[AGreen]

Hello, I just had a few questions regarding customizing my OSM game.

First off is there anyway to dictate how much damage the Skaarj do with their energy blasts? I can alter their claw, lunge and spin damage in their properties but not their energy blasts, is there anyway to do this?

Also when the player dies I'd like to reset all the weapon and ammo pickups in the map so they can be collected again, I have a shockrifle that respawns with the player but I can't get the rest of my thingfactories to spawn new weapons and ammo with the player.

And lastly, I cannot get my game to end, I have an OSMEndGameTrigger, but it doesn't seem to do anything yet, it's a playerproximity trigger that starts un-activated, but is activated by a UseTrigger that is directly on top of it. I don't have an outro video or anything I just want to diplay a "Congratulations!" pic for a few seconds, then end the game, how do I go about doing this?

[SuperApe]

Hi AGreen,

(I got an email from AGreen and suggested to post here...) I know you're doing a school project and I'm glad OSMT can help. Please keep us posted on your progress and definately post a release thread when its done. :)

First off is there anyway to dictate how much damage the Skaarj do with their energy blasts? I can alter their claw, lunge and spin damage in their properties but not their energy blasts, is there anyway to do this?Yes. Each creature holds a property for what ammo they use (if any). Here, you'd want to make your own subclass of SkaarjProjectile with a new custom projectile class and the edits you want to make to its damage, etc. BigJim did this in his brilliant OSM-UseOfWeapon, where a Skaarj class seen near the end was made to look like born from electronic bits, a la Tron. His example is definately worth checking out. To manage their melee damage, you can simply edit the SmartSkaarj->ClawDamage, LungeDamage and SpinDamage on creatures you've placed in a map. (Just select all and edit those numbers in the attribute editor, then save your map.) In a custom class, you would only have to edit the class' default properties once, and all instances of that custom Skaarj would start with that default value.

Also when the player dies I'd like to reset all the weapon and ammo pickups in the map so they can be collected again, I have a shockrifle that respawns with the player but I can't get the rest of my thingfactories to spawn new weapons and ammo with the player.Take a look at how I did this in OSM-Gauntlet with the Minigun along the route to the right. I respawn it by letting the PlayerStart trigger the ThingFactory. (PlayerStarts fire their Event whenever a player is spawned at it) outpt.co.uk also has a few of his weapons set up like this in OSM-Nocturne. There's more than one way to do this, but the most straightforward is to use the actors own stock methods.

And lastly, I cannot get my game to end, I have an OSMEndGameTrigger, but it doesn't seem to do anything yet, it's a playerproximity trigger that starts un-activated, but is activated by a UseTrigger that is directly on top of it. I don't have an outro video or anything I just want to diplay a "Congratulations!" pic for a few seconds, then end the game, how do I go about doing this?The OSMEndGameTrigger is fairly straightforward, as long as you're using the OSM Adventure gametype. It can either be touched, or if not set that way, be triggered, just like any other trigger. IOW, you could simply match the Event of your UseTrigger to the Tag of your OSMEndGameTrigger. (If you don't want your OSMEndGameTrigger to be used as a player proximity detector, just set Collision -> bCollideActor to false.)

Hope that helps. Others can (will) chime in.

[AGreen]

Cool, thanks for the info dude, and here's another question,

In any given SmartMonsters attributes under AI -> Skill the definition on the wiki is as such:
"A ranking of how well this creature performs in combat. This property affects aim, movement speed, dodging ability, etc. If zero, the creature will be given the configured game Skill level. If more than zero, this value is added to the configured game Skill level, up to a maximum of 7 (equalling "Godlike")."

So how do I set the configured game Skill level for my level in UnrealEd? Even with their skill set to 0, my monsters act quite skilled, the dodge with great success, are able to "lead" with their shots to successfully hit a moving target, and they fire rapidly while moving, dodging, and strafing, and I know novice level bots are not supposed to be able to do those things, thanks.

[SuperApe]

Sure. The game's skill level is available to players in the config menu for OSM Adventure. For OSM Adventure, it's called "Monster Skill", and in other gametypes, it's called "Bot Skill", but it's the same attribute. To make sure the game will always be played at a particular skill level, you'd have to use custom code that sets that attribute (and let the player know this has been done to avoid confusion and frustration).

So, if you've got your game set to Masterful, all monsters will act quite skilled, and some may act even more skilled. The per creature Skill setting *adds* to the game's skill level, and only some have a default Skill above zero. (theorhetically, you could apply a negative skill if need be)

[AGreen]

Oh so the skill can only be set by the player in UT, cool thats clears up my confusion, thanks.