items and options and other Qs

is there a techinal faq for abc? like "how do i do this..." etc?
the registration faq doesnt help me much on that side of things .

now my main question.
being the beginner i am with abc i'd like to know how i can link
options and items. heres what i mean. troopA can choose any item they
want, however if its not a weapon then i need optionA, optionB, and
optionC to appear. also, they can choose upto five things from A+B+C
if the options are there for them. i know how to set range and ocat
(for troops that have the same a+b+c validation). but how do i make
this all work together for troopA?

acutally while i'm here lemme bug you guys with this too ...
troopB has only 1 model in it but needs to have 3 option choices. how
do i get ocat to force exatcly 3 choices? do i use something else?
right now i have 2 lines of ocat with the ratio of 0:3 and 3:0.

thanks guys and i hope this was clear :P

[rob]

There is not a FAQ on ABC yet. I've been recently accumulating a bunch of
support questions and their answers for use as a starting point for a FAQ,
but I haven't done it yet.

There are two methods that leap to mind for having options and items work
together. The first technique is to use conflict groups, and this method
can be seen in use in the tutorial game system data files. With this
method, you have the weapon options visible to the user all the time. You
assign the weapon options to belong to the conflict group and you also
assign the weapon items to the same conflict group. If the user picks a
weapon item, the weapon options are disabled. If the user picks a weapon
option, the weapon items are disabled.

The second technique is to use types. Each weapon item needs to assign a
type "weapitem" to the unit via the "type" attribute and each option
assigns the type "weapoption" to the unit via the "type" attribute. Each
item then uses the "itst" attribute to verify that the type "weapoption" is
not assigned to the unit. And each option uses the "utyp" attribute to
verify that the type "weapitem" is not assigned to the unit.

To impose the limit of five on the options, you can also use a separate
conflict group. Just set the maximum count on the group to five and assign
all of the options to that conflict group. It's perfectly legal to assign
an option/item to belong to multiple conflict groups. Simply hold down the
<control> key when clicking on the conflict groups within ABC. The rules
for all of the assigned groups will be applied.

To answer your last question, the simplest solution is to use the "must"
attribute. Assign all of the options to a conflict group with a maximum
limit of 3. Then use the "must" attribute to require the unit to have at
least 3 selections. Alternately, you could skip the conflict group and just
use a pair of "must" attributes - one to impose the minimum and another to
impose the maximum.

Hope this helps,
Rob


At 10:15 PM 11/4/2001 +0000, you wrote:
>is there a techinal faq for abc? like "how do i do this..." etc?
>the registration faq doesnt help me much on that side of things .
>
>now my main question.
>being the beginner i am with abc i'd like to know how i can link
>options and items. heres what i mean. troopA can choose any item they
>want, however if its not a weapon then i need optionA, optionB, and
>optionC to appear. also, they can choose upto five things from A+B+C
>if the options are there for them. i know how to set range and ocat
>(for troops that have the same a+b+c validation). but how do i make
>this all work together for troopA?
>
>acutally while i'm here lemme bug you guys with this too ...
>troopB has only 1 model in it but needs to have 3 option choices. how
>do i get ocat to force exatcly 3 choices? do i use something else?
>right now i have 2 lines of ocat with the ratio of 0:3 and 3:0.
>
>thanks guys and i hope this was clear :P


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Bowes (rob@wolflair.com) (650) 726-9689
Lone Wolf Development www.wolflair.com