Hey, my 1st hotel level is almost complete (been working on it for 2 months or so) but I have some things that I simply can't figure out...

1. How can I add more text strings? And how many can I add?
2. How can I prevent players from shooting the **** out of each other (only in certain areas)? Does it have something to do with the ''No Fire Zone'' event? And if yes, how do I use it?
3. What's the maximum length / height I can extend my layers to?
4. When a collapsing scenery re-spawns it loses all it's properties. Why and how can I prevent that?
5. What is the ''Trigger Zone'' event for? Can I use it to replace the Crate Trigger? And if yes, how do I use it?

Thanks, TUN3R.

1. Currently, you can only use 16 text strings in a level.
2. It has a lot to do with that event. In a multiplayer game, any player on a No Fire Zone event will be unable to shoot. Of course, you will be unable to place other events directly on those tiles, but belts can help you get objects into there if need be.
3. 1023 each. You could have figured this out by typing numbers into JCS and seeing what happened (although I will admit that particular error message is radically unclear).
4. Events like those aren't really meant to be able to respawn and JJ2 can't do what you want it to do here.
5. Article. The warning in there about the Switch parameter should nowadays be modified because it works fine in JJ2+, and it works well enough in regular JJ2 that you should be able to get away with using it in most situations.

Originally Posted by Unknown Rabbit

1. Currently, you can only use 16 text strings in a level.
2. It has a lot to do with that event. In a multiplayer game, any player on a No Fire Zone event will be unable to shoot. Of course, you will be unable to place other events directly on those tiles, but belts can help you get objects into there if need be.
3. 1023 each. You could have figured this out by typing numbers into JCS and seeing what happened (although I will admit that particular error message is radically unclear).
4. Events like those aren't really meant to be able to respawn and JJ2 can't do what you want it to do here.
5. Article. The warning in there about the Switch parameter should nowadays be modified because it works fine in JJ2+, and it works well enough in regular JJ2 that you should be able to get away with using it in most situations.

Cool, thanks a lot. Only one thing though, on one of the JJ2 default levels (Castle1 I think) there are over 16 strings, how's that?

Are you thinking of Rabbit in Training? That has exactly sixteen, no more.

I think Neobeo's Firetruck has more than 16 texts.

Originally Posted by Penalty

I think Neobeo's Firetruck has more than 16 texts.

IIRC, Neobeo used an unreleased custom level editor to manage that.

Originally Posted by Unknown Rabbit

1. Currently, you can only use 16 text strings in a level.

Emphasis mine. Give it time.

Originally Posted by Unknown Rabbit

4. Events like those aren't really meant to be able to respawn and JJ2 can't do what you want it to do here.

JJ2 actually DOES have the capability to respawn these sorts of tiles... in offline race mode. And not as generators: the regular events just respawn automatically. They just pop back into existence, no "sparkle" like with other events.

Originally Posted by Torkell

IIRC, Neobeo used an unreleased custom level editor to manage that.

It's actually a bit stranger than that. He took a picture of a fire truck, converted it into a j2l file, and then filled it in using regular JCS, so it was playable. Getting around the text string limit (among the other tricks that level uses) involved hacking the j2l file itself. I think it was mostly done "by hand", meaning no GUI available, though I think there was a custom made DLL file involved.

As far as I know there hasn't ever been any real working "JCS+" program which can do everything JCS can do. The best tool available right now is Reworder, which allows you do do tricks that JCS can't do, but it isn't an editor by itself. Realistically, that kind of program is probably all you're going to ever see: utilities that augment JCS, rather than replace it. JJ2+ is another example of this approach, since allows you to declare a level as having death-pits, or create special triggers.


And in response to the 16 text string limit, Violet said it right: give it time. Who knows, someone might release a utility that gets around this limit.... Barring that, the "next big thing" will probably be the scripting language that's in development right now. One of the things it does is let you change game variables. Text strings are stored in an array somewhere, so all you'd need to do is write a line of code like this (just an example, since I'm pretty sure this feature isn't implemented yet):

textstring[5] = "@@@here is your text string";

To put it simply, you'd still be limited to 16 per level, but being able to change any of them at any time you want effectively removes this limit and allows an infinite number of text strings. A more complex (actually a lot more complex from what I've heard) solution involves getting rid of text strings alltogether, and just using a DisplayText() function to print whatever you want on-screen.

Originally Posted by EvilMike

A more complex (actually a lot more complex from what I've heard) solution involves getting rid of text strings alltogether, and just using a DisplayText() function to print whatever you want on-screen.

It doesn't sound that complicated, unless you want to keep using the Text event for this.

Originally Posted by EvilMike

JJ2 actually DOES have the capability to respawn these sorts of tiles... in offline race mode. And not as generators: the regular events just respawn automatically. They just pop back into existence, no "sparkle" like with other events.

Well, yeah, offline splitscreen does that, but that's not practical for hotel levels so it didn't seem worth mentioning. Anyway, as I think I mentioned in #JJ2 at one point, the current build of Reworder among other improvements supports over two hundred text springs per level, but it's not getting released until I've replaced those stupid .rwmacro files with a better system.

Originally Posted by BlurredD

It doesn't sound that complicated, unless you want to keep using the Text event for this.

Cpp mentioned that it kept crashing whenever he tried it, and that it might have been something to do with the hook he's using being at the start of the gameloop, rather than the graphics part. And that adding a second hook would complicate things for people writing scripts. Though I don't understand this stuff even a fraction as well as you guys, and maybe there have been some developments since I last heard.

Originally Posted by Unknown Rabbit

Well, yeah, offline splitscreen does that, but that's not practical for hotel levels so it didn't seem worth mentioning. Anyway, as I think I mentioned in #JJ2 at one point, the current build of Reworder among other improvements supports over two hundred text springs per level, but it's not getting released until I've replaced those stupid .rwmacro files with a better system.

I think the macro system is more or less fine. I don't think it makes much sense to distribute the macros with levels (just embed the thing in the j2l and "lock" it if needed), but the format has obvious uses for when you're actively making a level, and I can't think of a better way of doing it. The only problem I can see is if the format is somehow cumbersome, inefficient, buggy, or something along those lines.

The format is fine, probably. (Pasting always has a null couple of bytes but that's no big deal.) I feel I haven't tested it all that thoroughly but I haven't heard any bug reports. I just think it's really inefficient to record yourself doing a dozen false starts before you figure out exactly what you want to do or whatever, and it would be much better if Reworder just looked at the level and figured out on its own what it needs to remember. Packing it into the .j2l would be nice, but those files are specifically intended for cases when you are saving in JCS, so the data wouldn't last a second.

Well thanks a lot guys ^^

But I have one last question, some time ago some guy (Snake [MG] I think) made a hotel level where the doors would open when you pass through them... any idea how he did that? I know how to make animations but only continuous ones...

Originally Posted by Unknown Rabbit

5. Article. The warning in there about the Switch parameter should nowadays be modified because it works fine in JJ2+, and it works well enough in regular JJ2 that you should be able to get away with using it in most situations.