Hard Light Productions Forums

Modding, Mission Design, and Coding => The FRED Workshop => Topic started by: CommanderDJ on December 05, 2010, 11:56:41 pm

Title: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: CommanderDJ on December 05, 2010, 11:56:41 pm
So, yeah. Say I've got two missions, one leading into the other via red alert. If I've got the second mission flagged as a Red Alert Mission in Mission Specs, does the first mission need to end via the red-alert SEXP for it to work properly, or can I just have the player warp out normally with a debriefing etc and lead into the second mission that way?
Thanks,
CommanderDJ
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: Droid803 on December 06, 2010, 12:35:49 am
You need to use the red-alert SEXP, but you can trigger it off a few seconds after the player pressing say, Alt-J
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: FUBAR-BDHR on December 06, 2010, 12:40:25 am
You can also carry stuff via variables. 
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: Rodo on December 06, 2010, 09:44:17 am
From previous experiences I can say that Red Alert is kinda buggy, I would recommend you to use variables to carry stuff to the next mission.
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: TopAce on December 06, 2010, 11:40:30 am
Depends how much you want to carry over. If it's a few larger ships, then it's quite manageable, if it's a whole fleet - that's gonna take a while to script. It's not very complicated, but a VERY boring endeavor.
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: Rodo on December 06, 2010, 11:53:00 am
True, but for the record FREDing is not that fun anyway  :lol:
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: General Battuta on December 06, 2010, 11:55:05 am
True, but for the record FREDing is not that fun anyway  :lol:

you LIE

/me painstakingly handwrites 100 arguments

so much joy and laughter
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: Rodo on December 06, 2010, 12:10:05 pm
My statement does not apply to robot-like life forms, nor supar AI's :nervous:
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: General Battuta on December 06, 2010, 12:13:52 pm
these tears are tears of happiness

*snerk*

infinite happiness
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: CommanderDJ on December 06, 2010, 04:21:47 pm
Lol. I'm just carrying over the player's status (hull, ammo). Nothing major.
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: General Battuta on December 06, 2010, 04:22:41 pm
Use vars. Red alert is stupid and buggy.
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: Droid803 on December 06, 2010, 04:24:37 pm
Use vars. Red alert is stupid and buggy.

But it shouldn't be. If its buggy it should be fixed, seeing as it is a retail feature...
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: CommanderDJ on December 06, 2010, 04:35:52 pm
Has it been buggy since retail? Or is it something to do with the SCP upgrades?
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: Droid803 on December 06, 2010, 04:38:41 pm
Something to do with the SCP upgrades I'd reckon. Something broke somewhere along the way, resulting in a whole bunch of red-alert missions not working anymore.
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: The E on December 06, 2010, 04:41:35 pm
Please stop speculating about bugs, and start an effort to find them. We need test cases, people.
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: TopAce on December 06, 2010, 04:46:57 pm
The bug has long been found. It's already the SCP's turn. So far they have failed to eliminate this bug.
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: Solatar on December 06, 2010, 05:13:53 pm
What is specifically wrong with it? "Buggy" is pretty nonspecific.

For those of us who don't get to play much anymore and don't seem to have the same "sense" of the problem.  :)
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: General Battuta on December 06, 2010, 05:14:40 pm
The bug has long been found. It's already the SCP's turn. So far they have failed to eliminate this bug.

What's the Mantis ticket number?
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: karajorma on December 06, 2010, 06:24:25 pm
The bug has long been found. It's already the SCP's turn. So far they have failed to eliminate this bug.

Cause so far they haven't been entered into Mantis.

A search for the word "Alert" found only two bugs that hadn't been fixed. One was a duplicate of one which has been (and no one said it was still a problem) and the other one required a very specific set of circumstances which don't occur in retail missions and really should be considered more of a feature than a bug.

So it's not the SCP's turn yet. :p
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: Goober5000 on December 06, 2010, 09:23:51 pm
It's more that the red-alert code needs a general rewrite, as it was poorly designed and took numerous shortcuts that it shouldn't have.  Its problems were evident way back when the original Silent Threat was released in 1998.

It's just like the asteroid code rewrite or (moving to a larger scale) the collision code rewrite -- someone just needs to bite it off and start chewing.  Hopefully the job will become easier now that Taylor's pilot file upgrade has been completed.
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: karajorma on December 06, 2010, 10:06:36 pm
I never realised the code was in a bad enough state to need a rewrite. If no one has taken care of it by the Diaspora release I'll do it myself.

I've got some ideas for features I'd like to add but I was reluctant to spend so much time adding features when there are bugs that need fixing. This way I can do both at the same time.
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: CommanderDJ on December 06, 2010, 10:22:39 pm
Oooh, what sort of features?
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: Goober5000 on December 06, 2010, 10:25:20 pm
Probably for one, the ability to red-alert for multiple missions in a row.  This was an unpleasant surprise to many people who played Derelict and tried to backtrack through their red-alert mission chain.
Title: Re: Is the red-alert SEXP necessary?
Post by: CommanderDJ on December 06, 2010, 11:04:51 pm
I see.

Branching red-alerts would be good as well.