Ultimate Simple Script Guide, Part 1

Created by Chocolatepie33 (aka CP) with assistance from Kentl, this is for FPS mode only. Unless Hirato decides to mess with this, this should work for pretty much any version, as long as you're in FPS mode.

• Adding a level trigger
  • Open up Sandbox
  • Select a spot to add a talking character (via F1)
  • Next to the character, select a spot, then use ` (above TAB) to start the console. Type "newent mapmodel -1."
  • Select the surrounding box and hit F3. Go to level_trigger and use the slider to pick a number. Remember it. Also, while the menu is still up, go to trigger type and select either 8 (for repeated pop-up text) or 12 (one-time).
  • Move the box "into" the character. Using this other mapmodel as a trigger allows us to save the character's animation.
  • Save your map.
• Beginning scripting
  • Re-open the map you saved. Go into edit mode (E) and then hit F6. Go to the bottom of the menu and hit "Load", then "Execute".
  • You can also do this externally, outside of Sandbox: go to the Sandbox folder, then mystuff/packages/base. Either create a new .txt doc (make sure to save it as a .cfg) and edit it, or edit an existing one.
• Scripting
  • A pop-up menu is known as a gui. Anything modifying the gui would use the -gui or gui- keywords (with the proper beginning or ending respectively).
  • Let's make a character named Jon say Hello and ask you how you're doing with options:

    level_trigger_1 = [showgui Jon] 
    newgui Jon [
      guitext "Hello, I'm Jon. How are you?" 
      guibar 
      guibutton "Fine, thank you." [echo "OK then."] 
      guibutton "Not well. Goodbye." [cleargui] 
    ]

• Let's go over this code:
  • showgui Jon opens up the menu named Jon
  • newgui Jon creates a newgui, titled Jon, and the [] after the command "hold" the items within it.
  • guitext puts out the text specified within the "".
  • guibar creates a horizontal bar.
  • guibutton creates a selectable button, with a title within the "" marks. [] hold the commands that are executed when the button is selected. The echo command puts out text at the upper-left corner of the screen in Sandbox.
  • cleargui closes a gui, either permanently or until the NPC is approached again (trigger 12 or 8 respectively).
• Adding inventory
  • Inventory and shop scripts are important to every game. Here's how to make'em:

    on_start = [
      item1 = 0
      item2 = 0
      money = 5000
      cake = 0
      pie = 0
      treasure = 0
    ]
    
    level_trigger_1 = [ item1 = ( + $item1 1 ) ]
    level_trigger_2 = [showgui npc1-1]
    newgui npc1-1 [
      guitext "Hello, what would you like to buy?"
      guibar
      guistayopen [
      guibutton "Cake: 5 dollars"  [ 
         if ( => $money 5 ) [ 
           cake = ( + $cake 1 )  
           money = ( - $money 5 ) 
           echo "You got a cake." ]
         if ( < $money 5 ) [ echo "Not enough money. Too bad." ]
         ]
      guibutton "Pie: 10 dollars" [ 
         if ( => $money 10 ) [ 
           pie = ( + $pie 1 ) 
           money = ( - $money 10 ) 
           echo "You got a pie." ]
         if ( < $money 10 ) [ echo "Not enough money. Too bad." ]
         ]
      guibutton "Treasure: 900 dollars"  [ 
         if ( => $money 900 ) [ 
           treasure = ( + $treasure 1 ) 
           money = ( - $money 900 ) 
           echo "You got a treasure."]
         if ( < $money 900 ) [ echo "Not enough money. Too bad." ]
         ]
         ] // end of guistayopen
      guibutton "No thanks. Goodbye." [cleargui]
         ] "Shopkeeper"

• This is a long script, so let's go over it carefully:
  • on_start and its [] contain values to be created when the map starts. These are inventory items.
  • level_trigger_1 = [ item1 = ( + $item1 1 ) ] is the code used to add a quantity of an item.
  • npc1-1 is a trick used to create guis with the same title. We'll talk about it later.
  • guistayopen is a command used to keep a gui open when guibuttons are selected. Normally a guibutton would close a gui when selected, but the command prevents this. It only applies to guibuttons within it's [].
  • if ( => $money 5 ) is an if statement. An if statement checks to see if something is true. This if statement checks to see if you have at least (so the amount or more) 5 moneys. You start the map with 5000 moneys, so this statement is true. The [] afterwards hold commands to execute if the statement is true. For example, the cake you buy is added to your inventory because you have enough money to buy it.
  • ] "Shopkeeper" is part of the npc1-1 trick. It renames npc1-1 as Shopkeeper. If you create a gui with multiple pop-up windows, such as choosing a guibutton and having a new window pop up, the second window would be npc1-2, and it'd be renamed Shopkeeper by this trick.
• Now, you might wanna know how to have a gui shown in the game. This code adds an inventory option to the main menu, which is accessed with the ESC button.

    newgui Inventory [
    guibutton "Back" [cleargui]
    guibar
    guitext ( format "You have %1 item1s." $item1 )
    // add more items here in above format
    ]
    newgui main [
      guilist [ 
         guilist [
            guibutton "Inventory" [showgui Inventory]
                 ]
              ]
            guibar
            @main
            ]

• This code introduces some new and useful things:
  • guitext with ( format ... ): use this code to show how many items you have. The %1 character is replaced by the number of an item you have.
  • guilist is used to create a list within a gui.

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Please go to part 2 here:

• Ultimate Simple Script Guide, Part 2