[Enigma-devel] Re: Yin-Yang Switch Stone

[Ivan Wick]

Hi All,
I sent the email below about a month ago and haven't received any
replies about it.
Any thoughts?  Ronald, I got all of your info about MinGW development
(my email to the list on the same day as the one below) so thanks for
that, but I hope you'll understand that the main reason I wanted to
compile any of this myself in the first place was to mess around with
the fun stuff like adding features and items! (:

Ivan


On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 2:16 PM, Ivan Wick <address@hidden> wrote:
> Developers,
> I am working with level designer Ray Wick who had an idea for a "Yin-Yang
> Switch Stone," i.e. a stone which when hit switches player control between
> the black ball and the white ball in the same way as it-yinyang.  However,
> in the case of a yin-yang switch stone, the switch must be activated where
> it is on the map rather than allowing the player to carry it-yinyang in the
> inventory.
> This idea could make for some new and interesting Enigma levels so I
> implemented it.  I couldn't find a way to do it purely by Lua-scripting
> level objects so I made some source code changes.
> My first attempt was simply to add support in the YinYang Item's class
> (items.cc) for a "swap" message, so that it-yinyang could be activated in
> the level's Lua script by other level objects like a floor switch or switch
> stone.
> My second attempt was to create a new subclass of the switch stone which
> called "player::SwapPlayers()" on actor_hit, in addition to otherwise being
> a fully functional switch stone.  I also put together artwork for this stone
> and added it to the Lua model scripts where needed.
> Originally I was working against the released source code for version 1.01.
>  I was able to replicate the behavior from my first attempt above easily in
> the subversion trunk, however the code for switch stones has
> been re-factored since 1.01 and I wasn't sure how to proceed.
> So a few of questions:
> - What do you think of the new idea and how do the developers decide whether
> to integrate new game features like this?
> - Is subclassing a switch stone the best way to implement this?  I would be
> glad to hear any other approaches and suggestions.  What about making
> it-yinyang respond to a "swap" message, should this be left in?
> - If this feature is to be integrated, what is the best way to submit diffs
> (and artwork)?
> Thanks,
> Ivan