Monday, May 2, 2011

Why Me?

I mentioned in the last post getting the rest of the cosplay code written; based on the one completed section for the NCR that I had tested and found to work correctly.

Well, before I got a chance to test it, things happened that resulted in my not getting to sleep (at all), leaving town, and then later being set upon by a feral succubus...

Anyway; the end result was that I crashed out at 2200, and never got to fire the game up again, until this morning.

Which I just did, only to find that the fucking script - that parses fine, remember - doesn't run anymore. No sneaking, no draw/holster behavior, no cosplay messages.

Son of a bitch.

I've run the script through the validator three times now to no errors.

So, either there's something in there that the new iteration of the engine doesn't like, but isn't causing an actual error; or something got its wired crossed in my savegame again.

First order of business will of course be cleaning said save; but if that doesn't fix it, I'm not sure how to save this feature. I might be able to rig it up in run in a quest script instead of the companion script... but I don't know.

See, this is why I don't announce new features three-quarters of the time anymore - the stuff just stops working at random...

Edit:

Just cleaned save, and no dice. Looks like it is the script itself. Now I get to go block by block commenting out code until I find the one that lets it run again.


Edit the second:

On the up side, the XP-sharing code does work; and quite beautifully. So while I still have to rewrite the disguise stuff, there is at least that much going according to plan.

26 comments:

  1. Gak! More suckage, bugger! Guess I spoke to soon on your last post...

    "Feral Succubus" huh? I'll stick with the non-feral variety myself. I like keeping my body parts attached.

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  2. We're all gonna die, eventually; and there are certainly worse ways to go...

    Finally got the script pared down to where it works again.

    Had to remove the whole cosplay mess. I think I might have exceeded the scripting engine's limit. There's a... for lack of a better term: "information limit" - a maximum amount that'll process. Scripts that exceed this won't return an error in the GECK, they just won't run in game.

    I've run into the limit before. You can hit it in several ways: total number of characters in the script, more than three or so conditions in one check, or too many "If" statements.

    I think the thirteen ElseIf checks in the NCR cosplay code is what was doing it.

    I'm going to try re-adding the other (non disguising) adjustments and optimizations I made, and see if it still runs. If it does, I'll move on to faction disguises until it quits again.

    I think I can still do this, I'll just have to use a check for each armor, rather than one long string of If/ElseIf/Then.

    Always something...

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  3. Possibly the game engine has a limit in how much CPU time or memory it'll allow a script per invocation or time unit etc., and if the script goes over that, it's killed.

    I know that some engines do that to prevent runaway scripts bogging down or locking up the whole game.

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  4. Entirely possible. I just wish they'd give us a damned Word document or something noting a few of these features so we'd know to script out around them, rather than playing Marco Polo with the scripting engine.

    I swear, there are days I feel like digging up a divining rod to figure out what in the holy hell's gone wrong this time.

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  5. I wouldn't surprise me if the documents were only available from Gamebryo themselves.

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  6. Hadn't considered that possibility.

    Might the Obsidian devs be working under the same try-it-and-see conditions that we modders do?

    ...That would explain a lot, now that you mention it.

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  7. Best of luck with the "cosplay" script :)

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  8. every time you use the term "cosplay" I get mental images of your red-haired security operatives in magical girl outfits raining death and destruction down upon the heads of their enemies.

    "In the name of the moon, I - oh fuck it" *HEADSHOT*

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  9. I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking that :)

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  10. Oh come on, guys. That's what it is. You put on the 'lil outfit and pretend to be a California-Superman or maybe put on the skirt and pass yourself off as someone too stupid to pronounce the word "Caesar" correctly.

    It's cosplay.

    It's not as cute as a Mahou Shoujo outfit, and not (quite) as lame as a Ren-faire LARP, but it's the same basic idea.

    Also: the operatives are telling me they prefer Steampunk to Sailor Moon. Strange people.

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  11. I expect that's because a Steampunk outfit could conceal more weapons than a Sailor Moon outfit, while going well with snazzier looking weapons.
    Or maybe they've just seen pics of Sailor Bubbah :)

    Argh, now that you've mentioned steampunk, I'm thinking of BoS troops in armour straight out of the Girl Genius comic. Not to mention cane wielding supermutants in top hats...

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  12. Hey, given what weapons you could carry (and not see) playing Jill Valentine in RE: Nemesis, I think you could hide quite a lot in a Sailor Moon outfit. At least I'm willing to search for concealed weapons on someone wearing one.

    Depending upon what she looks like, mind you ;)

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  13. never mind the fact that all anime girls have access to Hammerspace(tm) with the ability to do things like pull a mallet with a head that is 5 feet around out of thin air, or somehow manage to conceal a .50 cal sniper rifle under a microminiskirt. :P

    Bugger that, or just be Nanoha. (cuts off full otaku mode before it goes out of control)

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  14. My all-time favorite example of this is Akane Tendo with her giant spatula in the Super Nintendo incarnation of Ranma 1/2. Great fun, that was...

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  15. I think I've started something terrible :O

    Worst thing is I recognise all of those :)

    My favourite is Maya Schroedinger of Wild ARMs 3, who shakes her hips and drops a minigun from under her skirt. Cue astonished look when I first saw that...

    @Druuler: Ever seen Sailor Bubba? A burly, bearded guy who cosplays as Sailor Moon >_<

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  16. I much prefer the non-weaponed ones. The tsundere ballistic punch for example. Gets a boob grabbed by accident, launches the protagonist into low Earth orbit. He, of course, falls back to the ground like a rogue asteroid; dusts himself off, and is none the worse for wear. That's the less lethal technology they need to develop, I tells ya; not this pansy ass beanbag stuff.

    Also: there are worse things than Sailor Bubba. There is, for example, Man-Faye.

    As in Faye Valentine of Cowboy Bebop. That's right - thigh-highs, mini-skirt, tube-top, purple wig... on a fat, unshaven man.

    Pretty sure I saw man-Nanoha once, too.

    The horrors.

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  17. Sailor Bubba is a funny guy. Talked with him at cons couple of times. Man-Faye is a jerk. Got himself banned from Anime Expo years back for being an overly obnoxious jerk. Somehow he got a gig as a host for an anime/cartoon show on some podunk cable network, got back in on a media badge, got himself banned within a day. I stopped caring after that.

    I know a couple of other shock value crossplayers including an older black guy that dresses up as Rabi-en-Rose from Digi Charat who's a complete riot.

    But yeah, cosplay code for NCCS - bring it on. I wanna dress up the girls as Fiends. :D

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  18. @Kirtai: Yes...yes I have...and I've never been the same...

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  19. Reminds me why I steer way the hell clear of cons in general.

    Anyway, I don't think the Fiends' outfits have any of that code. Unless there's been a major revision in 1.3, they were all wearing normal raider armors; just with different hats. None of it counted as disguises, as I recall.

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  20. oh poop, that's right. There is no disguise as Fiends. Oh well, we continue shooting our way in then :P

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  21. Well, there was a speech check in Vault 3. Presumably passing would get you taken to the boss without a fight... but I don't think I've ever passed it to find out for sure.

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  22. It does, I've done it that way once, and then proceeded to waste him. :P

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  23. Always seemed counter-intuitive to me.

    If you go in the front, you can assault normally until and unless things go south; at which point, you need only step over the corpses of the people who failed to stop you to retreat and find somewhere to regroup/stim/whatever.

    But if you "talk" your way in, they're still going to go hostile when you cap the head asshole... but now you're backed into a corner, and have no exfil route except through the hornet's nest you just stirred up.

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  24. yes, but with a pair of NosCo-trained and well-armed Shoujo companions, the exit goes quite smoothly! ^_^v

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  25. Even more-so with my three redheaded monsters sweeping the place.

    Still, overpowering skill and brutality doesn't make up for piss-poor tactical planning.

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