SPECIAL EVENTS
"Machismo"
cool_machismo@yahoo.com
WHAT'S UP WITH THIS?
There are a 101 things that you
can use special events. They allow you to do some fantastic stuff. If you
were to place a special event (located under Triggers for those who didn't
know) in your level and go to its advanced properties and check out
Object|Initial State it would give you a list of what you can do with the
special events. This tutorial aims to explain all but two of these. The
special event almost always gets triggered by a trigger - I have never come
across another way - this doesn't count FortStandards used in assault. The
way to do this would be to set the event of the trigger and the tag of the
special event to the same. Ok, Lets get on with it.
SPECIAL EVENT
INITIAL STATE LIST:
Not much to say about this
other than read my interpolation tutorial. It is used only in conjunction
with interpolation points. It is used to create opening / ending sequences
but that's another tutorial altogether. Anyway probably less than .5% of
people will want to create those sequences - if at all such a large number
exists.
The next two under initial state may look
the same ....... or they could be different. Yes, they are different but
in a very subtle way which is why I'm explaining them under one place. The
difference is that Players Play Sound Effect "affects" all the
players in the map. This means that no matter where the player is on the
map he will here the sound. It will continue to play even if the
instigator dies or there is no one in the vicinity of the special event.
It will continue to play for the remainder of the time until the time or
frag limit is used/reached. I prefer to use these only in assault maps at the very
end and use stuff like sirens as the sound. On the other hand Play Sound Effect will
play and be heard only in the vicinity of the special event (naturally
this will be affected by the sound radius).
HOW TO SET THESE UP: Ok now that you
know the difference setting it up should be a snap. The event of the
trigger and the tag of the special event should be the same. Under
Object|Initial State choose what suits your need. Expand special event and
set bBroadcast to true so that players hear the sound. Still under special
event set the sound to what you want. If you chose play sound effect you
may want to change the values under sound - radius, pitch, etc. You may
also want to change sound volume if you used Players Play Sound Effect -
obviously here the radius does not matter since players will hear it
anyway.
It does just what the name says it kills
the person who triggered this event immediately without a time delay. You
use this in special situations (haha that's what this tutorial is about)
not covered by zone markers like - lava, slime, nitrogen, etc. For example
if you set up a lava bed and make it into a lava zone if the player were
to jump into it because of the lava zone he would be killed instantly. Use
this instigator in situations not covered by the available zones - like
space.
Unlike the kill instigator initstate the damage
instigator kills the player slowly - like water - the difference being
that the player can escape damage by stepping out of the radius of the
trigger or getting killed altogether. Set it up as you would normally.
Under special event|damage give the amount of damage per
second that you want to be caused to the player. If you want the
player to be killed slowly you can use 10 which is a nice value and some
very high number to kill him off instantly. Under damage type you can use
the standard types of damage by entering fell, corroded, burned,
etc. bPlayerViewROT if set to true means that the player can rotate
and look around while being dealt damage - say while falling from a cliff.
On being triggered it causes only a message
to be displayed on the screen. If you want all the players including you
to see it don't forget to set bBroadcast to true under special event and
give the message that you want to be displayed on the screen in the
message box.
GENERAL SPECIAL
EVENTS NOTES:
Don't confine yourself to one initstate.
For example you can have a trigger set off the special event with its
initstate at player play sound effect, give a message under special event
and and a damage amount, set bBroadcast to true that way you shove three
steps into one.
The more mundane uses of the special events
are usually done in Assault. You can have a message displayed on the
screen after a certain point. What I mean to say is that if you have a
huge level and if you want everyone to be aware that the attackers have
crossed a certain point yet not make it into an objective then special
events is what you need.
One thing people forget on making
"kill instigator events" for things like falling off a cliff and
what not, is to set the proper collision radius of the trigger. I cant
give you an exact number as it depends on your level but usually its a
value above 1000 or something nice and big. I usually use something like
20000 for cliffs - but the number for your level can only be arrived at by
experimentation. Another nice use of special events is to
use it for quake 3 arena style jump pads - you can use the play sound
effect whenever someone takes a jump. I think you've had enough of my
rambling................... for now.
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