Hello everyone,

I was experimenting with Violet CLM's "Reworder" utility a few minutes ago on a hunch, and I found something interesting which I think might be potentially useful in level design.

I'm sure you all know how Trigger Zone events transition between the first block and the one before the last block, rather than both extremes. Due to how Destruct Scenery events work, it turns out that events not yet "fired" due to being struck by the right kind of ammo can actually still work with Trigger Scenery when currently displaying the first block.

However, this only works once due to how the Destruct Scenery events work, and the Trigger Scenery will not be destructible again if set to a solid state. Also, I have not yet found a way to properly have the tile fragments "jump" off the screen rather than vanishing on the spot (the destruction sound effect still works properly though).

Because of all this, I'm thinking that using Destruct Scenery BOMB events and the classic TNT crate trick will naturally work best, and also having the solid state obviously be the first block in the animation used. Some careful positioning and structure should make it possible to only properly trigger the change once (while having the Trigger Scenery change to its "empty" state beforehand), allowing a route to be used twice but also requiring some other task to be accomplished to bring the TNT crates down before doubling back.

What do you all think of this? I'm not sure how it would function in a Multiplayer setting, but a Single Player level could potentially use something like this to represent a triggered alarm system (and therefore some "heavier firepower" to break through the now-sealed security doors), such as from opening a restricted route discovered earlier on the other side of the corridor.

This topic makes me kinda nostalgic because it'll all be turned upside down sometime in the next few days. Hmm. One thing you should try, if you haven't, is making the first frame in an animated tile another animated tile, because that way you can have the trigger scenery and the destruct scenery events transition into different tiles.

How exactly is that done? I haven't heard of changing the first frame in an animation to be another animation, but I've also been out of touch with this community for a few years, so I probably missed that.

Here's a screenshot from my JCS, for reference:

It's not possible in straight JCS, but both WebJCS and MLLE (if you can find someone to give you a copy -- I don't think I have a stable one at the moment) allow you to put anything you want as an animated tile frame. This thread has a few example levels and such things.

I have WebJCS up and running, but I'm having trouble saving the level after making those changes (the progress bar stays empty while trying to save it, and only Save As... and Run can actually be used, the latter also causing the saving loop), so I can't actually test it. Any idea what may be causing the problem?

EDIT: I've attempted several different methods of getting WebJCS to work, mainly by moving it to different locations and changing settings in the settings.ini file, and all the results are still the same. It can find all the levels and tilesets present in my JJ2 folder, but it keeps getting stuck when attempting to save a level (the progress bar stays empty, but the animation just above it works properly). I'm also using Windows 7.

On the other hand, I do see what you mean by using an animation as the first frame of another animation. Once this issue gets resolved somehow, it will be interesting to see if the Destruct Scenery event animation functions properly using this specific method.

Originally Posted by ColdMetal

EDIT: I've attempted several different methods of getting WebJCS to work, mainly by moving it to different locations and changing settings in the settings.ini file, and all the results are still the same. It can find all the levels and tilesets present in my JJ2 folder, but it keeps getting stuck when attempting to save a level (the progress bar stays empty, but the animation just above it works properly). I'm also using Windows 7.

This sounds like you need to run it as an administrator. It may not have write permissions to your JJ2 directory otherwise.

warning haven't used windows in approx. 5 years advice may be bad

Originally Posted by minmay

This sounds like you need to run it as an administrator. It may not have write permissions to your JJ2 directory otherwise.

warning haven't used windows in approx. 5 years advice may be bad

I suspected a write permissions issue myself, but attempting to run the WebJCS.bat file as an administrator isn't working. I'll give it some more research and see if I can figure out what's going on.

EDIT: No luck so far. I've tried moving the Jazz2 directory on a hunch and changing permissions for Google Chrome, but still no success.

Ah, you're trying to use the downloadable version of WebJCS. I didn't even know that still works. Or perhaps it doesn't entirely work. When I need meta-animations I go here.

Originally Posted by Sir Ementaler

Ah, you're trying to use the downloadable version of WebJCS. I didn't even know that still works. Or perhaps it doesn't entirely work. When I need meta-animations I go here.

I also thought that might be the case, judging from how those options were still grayed out despite changing things up so many times. I'll give that link a try and see what happens.

EDIT: It works! Anyway, I tested Violet CLM's theory, and apparently having an animation as the first block in a different animation used for the Trigger Scenery fixes the issue with no destruction effects on the blocks themselves, at least to a certain extent. It still only works once, but it does add something new we can use in level design.

On another note, the WebJCS Sir Ementaler linked to seems good for illustrating a level in progress as well, besides collaborations. Though it doesn't properly display the Reworder changes I made to the level, you can check that link now to see what I was doing (or if the level was changed, look for SceneryTest.j2l).

I was just looking through the example levels for the new version of JJ2+ (amazing work on the Angel Script feature, by the way), and I noticed Destruct Scenery which actually reappeared and still functioned properly.

If this is due to a generator on those events, then I think that may very well fix the one-time-only issue with the Reworder trick documented here.

EDIT: Just finished testing this, and apparently the changes in the new version of JJ2+ removes the one-time-only issue. However, it also forces the two-block animation to switch to the Destruct Scenery animation regardless of its current state once the Destruct Scenery events regenerate -- but the events can now be fired continuously with relatively consistent results. If the generator delay is carefully timed, then this could allow a slight variation on regenerating Destruct Scenery and related events when it comes to level design for multiplayer Races.