When does the mission load?

[SoLan]

In a mission I am working on I wanted to give the player different starting credits depending on the difficulty setting. I do this by adding an amount to the starting credits in a trigger that tests for difficulty when the mission loads. The trigger for difficulty set to "Easy" looks like this:

CONDITIONS:
- Mission loaded
- Persistent variable '$difficulty' is Exatly 1
ACTIONS:
- Side1's Credits: Add 20000

I have similar triggers with other amounts for difficulty 2 and 3 ("Normal" and "Hard").

This works, so that when you load the mission, you get credits according to difficulty. Now, however, one of my testers has informed me of a bug. If you start the mission on one difficulty setting and then change the difficulty, you get the credits for the new difficulty added to the starting credits. This can be done for all the difficulty settings.

I can fix this for my mission by adding a condition testing for the amount of credits already in the players account, but I wonder if I have misunderstood the "Mission loaded" condition. It seems the "Mission loaded" condition is met at any time during the game after the mission is loaded. Wouldn't it be more logical if triggers with the "Mission loaded" condition were executed only once - at mission load, and not every time the player changes the difficulty?

[crakerz]

Mission Loaded is a condition, not an action. "At Mission Load" seems more like what we thought of as mission load.

I noticed this on one of my levels also. There is a way of overcoming this, that someone might want to try:

CONDITONS:
-Mission Loaded
ACTIONS:
-Set Switch "Start" to On
-Comment: Will only trigger one time, as no Preserve Trigger is used.

CONDITONS:
-Switch "Start" is On
-Persistent variable '$difficulty' is Exactly 1
ACTIONS:
-Set Switch "Start" to Off
-Side1's Credits: Add 20000
-Comment: Will only trigger one time, as no Preserve Trigger is used, even if difficulty is changed.

[ajcross]

Would this work for multiple conditions? It may need more seconds to work.
Andy Cross

CONDITONS:
-Mission Loaded
ACTIONS:
-Set Switch "Start" to On
-Wait for 1 second
-Comment: Will only trigger one time, as no Preserve Trigger is used.

CONDITONS:
-Switch "Start" is On
-Persistent variable '$difficulty' is Exactly 1
ACTIONS:
-Side1's Credits: Add 20000
-Comment: Will only trigger one time, as no Preserve Trigger is used, even if difficulty is changed.[/quote]

CONDITONS:
-Switch "Start" is On
-Persistent variable '$difficulty' is Exactly 0
ACTIONS:
-Side1's Credits: Add 20000
-Comment: Will only trigger one time, as no Preserve Trigger is used, even if difficulty is changed.[/quote]

CONDITONS:
-Switch "Start" is On
-Persistent variable 'rank' is AtMost 5
ACTIONS:
-Side1's Credits: Subtract 5000
-Comment: Will only trigger one time, as no Preserve Trigger is used, even if difficulty is changed.[/quote]

[crakerz]

With the way you have it written, if the difficulty is changed during game play, then the trigger will actuate. I use the Wait 1 to ensure at least one cycle has passed (two actually happen), as you have written. But you need to change the Conditions for "Start" to "Off" to get the effect you desire.

[ajcross]

Duh, that is needed.

CONDITONS:
-Mission Loaded
ACTIONS:
-Set Switch "Start" to On
-Wait for 1 second
-Set Switch "Start" to Off
-Comment: Will only trigger one time, as no Preserve Trigger is used.

[crakerz]

Actually, what I meant Andy, was more like:

CONDITIONS:
-Mission Loaded
ACTIONS:
-Wait 1 Second
-Set Switch "START" to ON

CONDITIONS:
-Comment: Check Difficulty Level
-Switch "START" is Off
-Persitent variable "$difficulty" is whatever
ACTIONS:
whatever

The above only can trigger once, and only during the first second of play. If the player changes the setting later, it won't fire.

[knelson]

I don't know if this may be considered a bug or not. It looks like WI is only expecting one mission loaded trigger per level.

I know because I use the mission loaded trigger to store all of my beginning ecoms. As long as I only have 1 mission loaded trigger the ecoms are never displayed more than once.

I ran a test and added several mission loaded triggers and found with multiple mission loaded triggers the ecoms are displayed everytime I change the difficulty setting.

There must be some additional logic being performed on the Mission Loaded trigger. Can someone please clarify exactly what goes on with the Misson Loaded trigger?

[PhillipEarl]

[crakerz]

knelson, I can not duplicate what you say happens if I take it literally. I created a test level with three triggers with the mission loaded condition only, and each with an ecom action. I ran the level, and the ecoms showed in order. I then changed the difficulty in game using eh options menu, but the ecoms did not appear again. I can't see that anything other than what I have stated in posts above this one happening.

Could you post exactly what triggers you are using?

[knelson]

Crackerz, I was originally testing with version 1.1 after installing version 1.2 and running the same test. I received the same results as you. It looks like this may have been a bug that was fixed in the new version.