Re: [Adonthell-devel] Schedules

[Alexandre Courbot]

> > In this case, characters should be able to launch "messages" to each
> > others, so we can interrupt the schedule if necessary, instead of
> > testing the conditions on each cycle. Say a fight occurs. The
> > character that is attacked could launch a "HELP" message to all
> > characters that are 4-5 squares around. Depending on their behavior
> > (and the schedules they inherit from), they may not react to this
> > message, run away, or enter the fight. Something like this. This is,
> > once again, a work for the schedule manager.
> 
> I haven't thought at all how this would be implemented. But it would
> possibly involve setting flags (== sending messages) of NPC's that are
> nearby.  

But in this case, the flags would need to be checked every turn to see
if we should change behavior. Not that messages would work very
differently however.

> > Certainly, but you can't make the whole world and all the maps live in
> > the same time. When no player is on a map, it can't continue to run
> > for evident efficiency reasons. So maybe we can "simulate" dwarves
> > mining and such, but the real "economy" (if any, because that
> > shouldn't yet be our short-term objectives :)) shouldn't be directly
> > dependant of these schedules. Another problem will be to find where
> > will a character be and what will he do when the player enters a map.
> 
> That's right. What happens to NPC's on other maps once the player enters
> is a very good question. Guess there should be a way to 'teleport' them
> straight to the place where they should be, depending on their manager
> schedule. From then on they can start their normal schedules. When I go
> about coding stuff, maybe I'll find a nice way to accomplish this
> without too much side-effects with the regular code.

Yes, maybe it's too far for being decided right now. At worst, we'd need
a very fast additional heuristic function to decide the initial position
of the character.

Alex.
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