-- see more --

Changing and manipulating the bronze compass star thanks to Sam Jauncey.

Ever noticed how in the game, the little bronze compass star is sometimes no where near what the objective is? Well, this tutorial will let you do just that. Later on, I will also tell you how to create a "find" objective, with no compass star showing.

Step 1: Set up your objective

There have been a few objective tutorials so far, about all sorts of things. For this tutorial, you only need to have read "Creating objectives" or "Adding some simple objectives ". If you haven't, go back and read them.

Anyway, set up your objective using one of the two methods. It makes no difference which one you use for this tutorial.

Step 2: Find out where this places the star

Compile the map with the objective you made. As far as I know, if your objective is a single AI, then the star will point to them. And if the objective is a trigger, you not get a star at all.

Step 3: Decide where you want the star

• If you want to place the star where the AI is, why are you reading this tutorial, the star points to the AI automatically.
• If you want the star to point somewhere else, for a trigger or an AI, decide where you want it on your map, and continue with step 4.
• If you want to get a "find" objective, with no star, go to step 6.
  

Step 4: Place a script_origin

Fire up radiant, and find the place you want to put your star. Then right click, choose script and origin. A red box should appear. Move it around until you are happy with where it is.
Please remember, it is best to place the origin at about waist height.
There are some issues with origins overlapping triggers, so please try and keep your origin from touching any triggers.

Now, hit 'n' to bring up the editor, and enter Key "targetname" and Value "obj1marker"
The value can be anything you want, so long as it is not the name of another entity. I prefer to keep it logical.

Step 5: Scripting

Ok, this bit looks very long and scary! But trust me, it is really easy to understand.

Open up you map's GSC file. Get to the part where you put your objective scripts. If you used the string file method (it is better for more advanced work), your script will look something like this:

obj1()
{

obj1 = getent("obj1", "targetname");

objective_add(1, "active", &"MAPNAME_OBJ1",getent("obj1","targetname").origin);

objective_current(1);

obj1 waittill("trigger");

objective_state(1, "done");

obj1 delete();

wait(2);

thread obj2();

}

If you used the GSC method, the script is very much the same.

Moving on, the only line in the script you have to worry about is the

objective_add(1, "active", &"MAPNAME_OBJ1",getent("obj1","targetname").origin);

and the only part of that you need to worry about is the

getent("obj1","targetname").origin);

(see, I told you it wasn't that hard!)

This part of the script defines where the compass star is. So, if obj1 is a trigger, which it is, the game will try and point the compass at the trigger, which it can't, for some reason.

So, we just change the line to read:

getent ("obj1marker","targetname ").origin);

Now, the game will look for whatever "obj1marker" is. As it is a script_origin, the game can read it, and will place the compass star.

Whats more, this will work for ANY objective (at least, I have not found any circumstances where it doesn't).

So, there we go. Triggers and AI players can now have compass stars.

Step 6: Getting rid of the star

So, you want to create a "find" objective, with no helpful compass star? Well, it could not be simpler.

Go to your map's GSC file, and find script for the objective you want to change. In that script, there will a line that looks something like:

objective_add(1, "active",&"MAPNAME_OBJ1",getent("obj1", "targetname").origin);

To get rid of the compass star, delete the second half to give you the line:

objective_add(1, "active",&"V1SITE_OBJ1");

And there you go, a "find it" objective.

I sure hope that helps some people!!