[IronBeer]

Preamble: I know perfectly well that I can do what I'm about to describe in FRED. As kind of a personal challenge, to develop a better grasp on FSO's more arcane features, I want to do this via lua.

Ok, I've been bugging people on IRC about this for a while, and I finally got pointed towards the -script_output command line option (holla Zacam). The output, while very in-depth and intriguing, hasn't helped me towards my current goal: assembling a script that can register multikills (aka a number of kills in rapid succession). I think this would be fun for some single-player missions, and could potentially be entertaining in multi, but the biggest stumbling block I've ran across: I can't seem to find how FSO actually tracks "who killed what".

I mean, internally, there's some tracking system. That's obvious. What I'm wondering is if I can co-opt some of those functions. Digression: I'm a lua novice, but I've seen enough of the syntax and had enough general programming experience to figure things out as I go. I've got most of a script ready to go (I think), but I'm still missing a few key hooks.

Here's what I've got now, please let me know if I'm totally off-base or not:

Code: [Select]

[
multikill=0
timemark=(initialzed)
missiontime=mn.getMissionTime()
for i=1, mn.getNumShips() do
     shipteam=ship.Team
     if shipteam~=playerteam and (ship was killed by player)
        multikill++
        timemark=missiontime
if multikill==2
  ("double kill" praise/bonus of some sort)
(continue as far as desired)
if missiontime>(timemark+3)
   multikill=0
]
I'm currently co-opting some ideas from the death flash script, which is why I'm using that weird for loop. I'd much rather have this script checked on a kill-by-kill basis, rather than continuously (yeah yeah, I know the timing bits will need to run continuously).

Feedback?

[Admiral MS]

I would try something like this:

Code: [Select]

$On Gameplay Start:
[
multikills = {}
multikills.counter = 0
multikills.time = 0
]

$On Death:
[
if hv.Self == <some conditions that it won't trigger for everything like friendlies (friendly fire and such) and cargo containers> and hv.Killer == hv. Player <or something similar> then
local missiontime = mn.getMissionTime()
if missiontime - multikills.time < <some value> then
multikills.counter = multikills.counter  + 1
else
multikills.counter = 1
end
multikills.time = missiontime
if multikills.counter == 2 then
<doublekill message>
elseif multikills.counter == 3 then
.
.
.
end
end
]Not sure if the hook variables are correct. The only stuff I'm ever using is hv.Player and hv.Key 
Also it might need some validity checks and you might have to use shipnames in the compare operations.

E: You can also ask me things on IRC if you see me (Nick: Ams)

[zookeeper]

For reference, here's a basic version of how I'd do it in a way which tracks kills of every ship, not only the player's:

Code: [Select]

#Conditional Hooks

$Application: FS2_Open

$On Gameplay Start: [

    kills_per_ship = {}

]

$Object type: Ship

$On Death: [

    ship = hv.Self
    killer = hv.Killer

    if ship ~= nil and ship:isValid() and killer ~= nil and killer:isValid() then
        killer_sig = ship:getSignature()
        current_time = mn.getMissionTime()

        if kills_per_ship[killer_sig] == nil then
            kills_per_ship[killer_sig] = {}
            kills_per_ship[killer_sig].counter = 1
            kills_per_ship[killer_sig].kill_streak_started = current_time
            kills_per_ship[killer_sig].last_kill_time = current_time
        else
            kills_per_ship[killer_sig].counter = kills_per_ship[killer_sig].counter + 1
            last_kill_time = kills_per_ship[killer_sig].last_kill_time

            if current_time - last_kill_time > 3.0 then
                -- killstreak ended, check the counter and give praise

                kills_per_ship[killer_sig].counter = 0
                kills_per_ship[killer_sig].last_kill_time = current_time + 3.0
            end

            kills_per_ship[killer_sig].last_kill_time = current_time
        end
    end

]

#End
It should also work as a sort of a template for an easy way to record and retrieve other sorts of similar ship-specific metadata.

[guitarfan01]

If done like this, could certain numbers of kills be used to trigger messages from other ships, like wingmen, in order to simulate a kind of competition for kills like Legolas and Gimli in LOTR?

Or am I misunderstanding the possibilities?

[mjn.mixael]

Yup, but that's pretty trivial to do without scripting as well.

[guitarfan01]

Ah, ok.

[General Battuta]

Yup, but that's pretty trivial to do without scripting as well.

Is it? I thought the kill counter was broken for all non-player ships.

[mjn.mixael]

Even without the counter, I can think of at least one way to do it with a variable. (Untested(tm))