Proximity triggers and quick time events

RP

I have a question about triggering certain events to take place within a game. I had side scroller project that I had been building in Torque, that I eventually put on the back burner because it was turning into a coding mess (it broke, I fixed it, it broke, fixed, updated, broke...no more worky, you know the drill).

About the same time I moved back over to GS, I resurrected this project, but have a design question that some of you might be able to shed some light on if possible, or refer me to some vid examples of how this was implemented in GS.

So as you can see in the image below, my interface has a display screen. At various points in the game I want to trigger events that pop up on the screen, such as warning, boss alerts and weak point data, story animations as well as a additional spot for a "special" weapon/action that you can press when it pops up on the screen.

So, let's say your cruising towards the end of the level (quite possibly for a bruising), then a alert message pops up following the data about the boss. I know timers will be useful, but triggering those actions in the first place is what has got me, as well as how to have those additional "buttons" sit dormant and un-seen until specific game events need to use them.



Alright, whatcha guys got?

Thanks

-Dane

Clouds

Your question (although beautifully verbose) is not entirely clear ?

How to have actors sit dormant throughout a game until you need it . . . there are a few different ways, keep the alpha channel on 0 (invisible) and then when something does something to something make that alpha channel 1 . . . hey presto! object appears !

Or, keep the object offscreen (let's say X = (-500)) then when something does something to something change an attribute or value so the object's position jumps from offscreen to on screen (wherever you want it).

Hope that makes sense.

"Cruising for a Bruising™" excellent name for a scroller.

JohnPapiomitis

this should help

RP

@ Tynan lol yeah sorry, I'm sick as a dog at the moment so my head is not exactly "clear" either. Yes that helps.

@ JohnPapiomitis Thanks! That is very helpful!

Clouds

Another trick to generate an actor on screen at a certain point would be to spawn an actor when you want it to appear.

You know, something like: when laser hits zombie's head spawn an actor in top left hand corner of screen that says "zombie death bonus, 5,000,000 points".

Clouds

Ok maybe 5 million points is too much, we don't want to encourage violence, let's just say when laser hits zombie's head you spawn an actor that says "well done, that really was an excellent shot, but remember zombies are people too".

RP

I just looked at my post now that my head is not swimming from this stupid cold.
It would have been a lot clearer if I had said that I have a display screen (hud) between the directional controls/joystick and weapon buttons.
But, I think you got what I meant.

I hear what your say'n Tynan, but should'nt it be; "Zombies were people too"? Maybe those zombified lawyers have gone overboard with equal rights and opportunities.
I know I get plenty of oppounities to blast 'em. Ka-pow!