[KARMA]

In the SW conversion we are looking for creating a minicamp with an heavy use of persistent variables.

The point is that this teaser we are looking for will be intended mostly for people not already into the FS community, so with no or minimal knowledge of what FSO can do, and not only on the graphic side.
Using persistent variables, in our intentions, should give an idea of what a mission designer can really do with Fred and FSO, and hopefully attract new people/players/modders into the community and (hopefully) the SW team.

From the things we'd like to implement in the teaser, there's the use of a variable for "money".
We encountered a major problem studying this thing: it seem that it is impossible to show to the player the value of a variable (except using the escort list connecting the value to a ship, as others suggested, but this will limit the range between 1 and 100....)

Is there any chance that you guys may look on this thing please?

the optimum would be to have the value of a desired variable(s) showed somewhere on the screen while playing.
If this require any graphic work, I'll do it, just tell me exactly what you need.

Another solution would be to have the escort list show (optionally) hitpoints and not % but I dare it'd be harder than showing this in a whole new cell.

Another solution would be to have this value shown in one of the ingame windows, like the objectives one

Another solution would be to have the possiblity to tell the value of a variable inside a message during the game.

It could also be useful (but not necessary) to have the possibility to show this value during briefing/debriefing

thanks for help

[karajorma]

Originally posted by KARMA
Another solution would be to have the possiblity to tell the value of a variable inside a message during the game.

It could also be useful (but not necessary) to have the possibility to show this value during briefing/debriefing

These are the two I want

[J3Vr6]

Or how about in the player screen when you go into the barracks?  U know, same place where you see your medals?

If it's for money, I would think you'd want it showing on the top of the screen somewhere when you're in the mainhall, briefing/debriefing, and ship/loadout screen.  I guess it depends on what you're using the money for... Hmmm...

[TopAce]

But it would be andvantegous if you saw how much money you achieve(d) in a mission. I mean you can have a look at it in the middle of the dogfight if you have mood to. But you should also know how much money you have at the end of the mission(debriefing).
The value of the variable in question might be displayed in the directives window.

[KARMA]

that's for sure
but since you'll be able to "use" variables only in the mission we need AT LEAST a way to show it during the game, even if it is only a stupid message at the end of the action

[Goober5000]

Definitely doable.  Remind us after 3.6.

[TopAce]

*Reminds the SCP team*

[WMCoolmon]

What, are custom HUD gauges not good enough for you?

[TopAce]

Read at least the two paragraphs from what Kara quoted from the first post, please.

[karajorma]

I will not remind them about persistant variables in the loadout. I will not remind them about persistant variables in the loadout.

Oh Damn. I think I did

[WMCoolmon]

Originally posted by KARMA
In the SW conversion we are looking for creating a minicamp with an heavy use of persistent variables.

The point is that this teaser we are looking for will be intended mostly for people not already into the FS community, so with no or minimal knowledge of what FSO can do, and not only on the graphic side.
Using persistent variables, in our intentions, should give an idea of what a mission designer can really do with Fred and FSO, and hopefully attract new people/players/modders into the community and (hopefully) the SW team.

From the things we'd like to implement in the teaser, there's the use of a variable for "money".

Possible w/ persistent vars

We encountered a major problem studying this thing: it seem that it is impossible to show to the player the value of a variable (except using the escort list connecting the value to a ship, as others suggested, but this will limit the range between 1 and 100....)

Besides the escort thing, possible to do with custom HUD gauges and their SEXPs

Is there any chance that you guys may look on this thing please?

the optimum would be to have the value of a desired variable(s) showed somewhere on the screen while playing.
If this require any graphic work, I'll do it, just tell me exactly what you need.

Easily possible with HUD gauges/SEXPs.

Another solution would be to have the escort list show (optionally) hitpoints and not % but I dare it'd be harder than showing this in a whole new cell.

Possible.

Another solution would be to have this value shown in one of the ingame windows, like the objectives one

Not exactly possible, you could create a new 'window' and put the variable in there, but it'd be hard to put it in the objectives list.

Another solution would be to have the possiblity to tell the value of a variable inside a message during the game.

I don't think this is possible for in-game messages, but I think someone might've implemented persistent-variables displaying in the briefing screens.

It could also be useful (but not necessary) to have the possibility to show this value during briefing/debriefing

Not possible at the moment, as far as I know.

thanks for help

So from what I can tell, your 'optimal' solution is currently possible, but your optional request isn't. Do you want to use one of the other solutions now?

[KARMA]

that post is...hu...4 months old:)
btw I don't have a clue about what those custom hud gauges are, what they can do and how they work, I suppose I missed something, can someone point me in the right direction?

[WMCoolmon]

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,23874.0.html

The most recent build, in the engine warpout fix, also adds a +Color: attribute for setting coordinates and removes the $Addparent value, so I suggest you use it instead of the fs2 builds in that thread.

[KARMA]

yeah I already found it, but my connection died for a while.
it sounds perfect for our needs and overall wonderful, really good work:).
my only complain is that I haven't seen a post about that in this forum, actually I can't check all the forum/posts since I'm a bit busy thesedays and I completely missed it (it's the second feature I missed in a short time). It's my fault, okay, but I think that the important new features should be at least named here to help people keep track of what's going on. Just a sticky post to make a list the new features (done or in progress) with a link to the thread where they are being discussed.

Anyway, those gauges should work like a dream for our purposes, I still think that the possibility to show a variable in the ingame messages and in the briefing/debriefing could be useful and not only for us, but I guess we can live with it;)