Editing and making your own campaigns Getting Started, |
Timing with [@ ] |
What Time is It?
You know about the $Timeout command where something will happen after a certain period of time. Well, there's another timing command: [@ ]. This is really easy to use, and gives your campaigns more depth by adding messages that pop up during battles.
Syntax is very easy, just use [@time], where time is the number of seconds after the Mission starts. Say you want a Map where an ally gets in trouble by being overwhelmed by the enemy. During the battle, you want the ally to send the player messages indicating his weakening position, and his need for help.
So, lets have messages pop up after 2 seconds, 2 minutes (120 seconds), 5 minutes (300 seconds), and 10 minutes (600 seconds), with each message being more urgent than the previous message. Here's how we'd do it:
[Header]........ all normal header stuff......
[Options]
[A.]
You're ally is in trouble! Go and rescue him before it's too late!<br>
$Button=Ok,DoNothing,0
[@2]
You get a message from your Alliance:<br>
~I~l"We're glad you're here. But we need stormpower to ward off these attackers, and we're running dangerously low. Please send us some as soon as you can spare it..."~.<br>
$Timeout=15,DoNothing,0
[@120]
Another message: ~I~l"We'll try to help you out as we can. But we're not used to battle, and we fear we may be overpowered very quickly. Please hurry.~.<br>
$Timeout=15,DoNothing,0
[@300]
Your allies are getting desperate: ~I~l"They're starting to whittle away at our outer defense. We don't know how much longer we can last."~. <br>
$Timeout=15,DoNothing,0
[@600]
Another message. This sounds urgent! ~I~l"We're losing the battle! They are too strong. Help us! You're our only hope!"~.<br>
$Timeout=15,DoNothing,0
You get the idea. Of course, in this example, it's up to you, the Mapmaker, to make your .fort file so that the ally will last long enough to still be fighting after 10 minutes, and to have the enemy AI actually be slowly wearing down the ally's defenses. Have fun with this command!