Unna Oertdottir on 9/4/2016 at 14:28
I've some keys as creature attachment. The creatures with the keys got teleported with teleport traps. As long as I don't need the creatures, they stay in the solid, far away. The creatures (and the keys) are also at different places in the solid, about 300 DU away.
As I did this setup, I realized that the keys suddenly appeared at a certain spot close together - in DromEd game mode, no matter which difficulty. The teleport traps haven't been triggered yet. The keys don't show up at the teleport traps but at another place.
After the teleport trigger, they appear with their host where I want it, at the teleport traps.
The keys appear out of nowhere.
I didn't mind this strange behaviour, since the keys never appeared out of nowhere if I tested it in FMSel - until now. I went to this place and the keys were lying there. After a quick reload they vanished again.
Looks like the keys got teleported on sim start for some reasons. I wonder why.
I moved the creatures and the keys in the solid a little bit (about 1 DU only). Now the keys don't appear again at this place. Everything looks o. k.
What's going on here :confused:
Wait: could this be related to a deadfall trap? A deadfall is at this spot where the keys show up. But if I delete it, the keys still appear there.
Yandros on 9/4/2016 at 15:44
CreatureAttached objects will appear the last place where their creature was rendered by the engine. I've seen this numerous times in the past (before NewDark brought us DetailAttachement) when trying to attach wings to a creature, for example. It would look fine but when the creature patrolled out of view, the wings would appear floating the last spot I had seen the creature. Normally keys are attached with a Contains link and setting the link data to Belt or Alternate, but if this is some atypical scenario, I would highly recommend using a DetailAttachement link instead, which won't have this problem.
Unna Oertdottir on 9/4/2016 at 16:28
Thanks for this explanation. So maybe it's better to keep creature attached objects in a blue room so it can be rendered?
Moving the creatures in the solid also helped. I don't understand this.
gigagooga on 9/4/2016 at 19:13
Quote Posted by Unna Oertdottir
The creatures with the keys got teleported with teleport traps. As long as I don't need the creatures, they stay in the solid, far away. The creatures (and the keys) are also at different places in the solid, about 300 DU away.
Having creatures inside solid and not in air brush (blueroom) before being teleported into the missions playable space, used to be kinda problematic in OldDark. It used to cause crashes and stuff like that back in the day. I don't know if the problems are still there in NewDark, but i would recommend to try the blueroom rather than placing AIs in solid, just in case.
Unna Oertdottir on 9/4/2016 at 19:38
As far as I can read, it's recommended to put AIs in the solid if they should go on a patrol after the teleportation. This has been done in Olddark as well (e. g. Murkbell)
R Soul on 9/4/2016 at 20:16
The only reason for that is to keep the AI inactive, because one of the first things a patrolling AI does is look for the nearest TrolPt. If the AI starts in a blueroom, i.e. active but isolated, it'll conclude that it can't patrol. The other solution is not to make it a patrolling AI, but to add M-DoesPatrol after teleporting it.
LarryG on 9/4/2016 at 20:35
Putting AIs in solid is now generally considered to be a Bad Thing.
Think about it. When you put an AI in solid that means it will be constantly falling, just like you do if you enter game mode in solid. That takes up engine resources which could be better spent on, say, increasing your frame rate. If AIs are put in a blue room, they will fall to the ground and go inactive, using minimal engine resources.
Unna Oertdottir on 9/4/2016 at 20:51
Quote Posted by LarryG
Putting AIs in solid is now generally considered to be a
Bad Thing.
Think about it. When you put an AI in solid that means it will be constantly falling, just like you do if you enter game mode in solid.
You're sure about this? I set game_mode_backup 0
The AI in solid doesn't seem to fall.
LarryG on 10/4/2016 at 02:51
I'm reasonably certain. I don't think you'll find any reference to starting AIs in solid in any of the LGS docs, and I think there are reasons for this. Maybe it isn't the falling issue, though I'm pretty certain that is a problem in some situations. I remember some posts about AIs which start in solid having all sorts of problems. So I think it is generally not a good idea.
Unna Oertdottir on 10/4/2016 at 07:27
Anyone can confirm that AIs in solid are falling?
