Validation script question.

[Warmonger]

For a unit option, I'm doing a live evaluation based on this one, to only enable the option if the count is 6 or less:

val:runtime.effect? <= 6

Problem is, I am now including a child unit that this needs to take into account. How would I write that?




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Sent via the WebMail system at lokilaw.com

[rob]

You are already checking the "effective" count within your live expression
below. So all you need to do is designate the child unit as "effective".
This way, its count will be included in the value used by your tag expression.

If I'm understanding correctly, that should be all you need to do. If I'm
NOT understanding correctly, please provide me with more details on the
situation and I'll do my best to point you in the right direction.

-Rob

At 03:55 PM 1/27/2005 -0700, you wrote:

>For a unit option, I'm doing a live evaluation based on this one, to only
>enable the option if the count is 6 or less:
>
>val:runtime.effect? <= 6
>
>Problem is, I am now including a child unit that this needs to take into
>account. How would I write that?


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Bowes (rob@wolflair.com) (650) 588-8252
Lone Wolf Development www.wolflair.com

[Warmonger]

That's exactly right, but the scripting files are pretty difficult to understand, how would I do that? Is it an entry on the child unit, or to tell the parent to include the child somehow?


---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: Rob Bowes <rob@wolflair.com>
Reply-To: armybuilder@yahoogroups.com
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 15:03:25 -0800

>
>You are already checking the "effective" count within your live expression
>below. So all you need to do is designate the child unit as "effective".
>This way, its count will be included in the value used by your tag expression.
>
>If I'm understanding correctly, that should be all you need to do. If I'm
>NOT understanding correctly, please provide me with more details on the
>situation and I'll do my best to point you in the right direction.
>
>-Rob
>
>At 03:55 PM 1/27/2005 -0700, you wrote:
>
>>For a unit option, I'm doing a live evaluation based on this one, to only
>>enable the option if the count is 6 or less:
>>
>>val:runtime.effect? <= 6
>>
>>Problem is, I am now including a child unit that this needs to take into
>>account. How would I write that?
>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Rob Bowes (rob@wolflair.com) (650) 588-8252
>Lone Wolf Development www.wolflair.com
>
>
>
>To unsubscribe from this group, email
>
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__________________________________________________ ______________
Sent via the WebMail system at lokilaw.com

[rob]

Sorry, I didn't realize that's what you were asking for. Within ABCreator,
select the child unit. You'll see an area labeled "Other Details" to the
right of the Description and Design text. Click on the "Edit" button
beneath it. Select the "Is Effective" option from the droplist that
appears, then set the "effective" state by checking the checkbox that
appears. Save your changes and the unit will now be treated as "effective".

-Rob

At 04:04 PM 1/28/2005 -0700, you wrote:

>That's exactly right, but the scripting files are pretty difficult to
>understand, how would I do that? Is it an entry on the child unit, or to
>tell the parent to include the child somehow?
>
>
>---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
>From: Rob Bowes <rob@wolflair.com>
>Reply-To: armybuilder@yahoogroups.com
>Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 15:03:25 -0800
>
> >
> >You are already checking the "effective" count within your live expression
> >below. So all you need to do is designate the child unit as "effective".
> >This way, its count will be included in the value used by your tag
> expression.
> >
> >If I'm understanding correctly, that should be all you need to do. If I'm
> >NOT understanding correctly, please provide me with more details on the
> >situation and I'll do my best to point you in the right direction.
> >
> >-Rob
> >
> >At 03:55 PM 1/27/2005 -0700, you wrote:
> >
> >>For a unit option, I'm doing a live evaluation based on this one, to only
> >>enable the option if the count is 6 or less:
> >>
> >>val:runtime.effect? <= 6
> >>
> >>Problem is, I am now including a child unit that this needs to take into
> >>account. How would I write that?


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Bowes (rob@wolflair.com) (650) 588-8252
Lone Wolf Development www.wolflair.com

[Warmonger]

Okay. that worked almost perfectly. Is there a good writeup on how the
scripts work? In 2.x I understand quite well, how to modify a parent
attribute when you add an option, but I just can't seem to figure this
one out also. I was warned by a few people that the scripting of ab3
was the hard part to learn....

But in reference: I have a unit size of 1-10, and now, when I add the
effective child, the size is completely limited to 10, when the child
(1-5) should make the new max size 15. Help please.


Rob Bowes wrote:

>Sorry, I didn't realize that's what you were asking for. Within ABCreator,
>select the child unit. You'll see an area labeled "Other Details" to the
>right of the Description and Design text. Click on the "Edit" button
>beneath it. Select the "Is Effective" option from the droplist that
>appears, then set the "effective" state by checking the checkbox that
>appears. Save your changes and the unit will now be treated as "effective".
>
>-Rob
>
>
>

[rob]

At 11:18 AM 1/29/2005 -0700, you wrote:
>Okay. that worked almost perfectly. Is there a good writeup on how the
>scripts work?

Not yet. The current docs are more of a reference manual. The "how to"
component is what needs to be written before the docs are no longer Beta
and ready for true release.

>In 2.x I understand quite well, how to modify a parent
>attribute when you add an option, but I just can't seem to figure this
>one out also. I was warned by a few people that the scripting of ab3
>was the hard part to learn....

Scripting is definitely a whole new kettle of fish for AB3. It's vastly
more powerful and flexible, plus it's actually a lot easier once you get
the hang of it. The trick is getting the hang of it. :-)

>But in reference: I have a unit size of 1-10, and now, when I add the
>effective child, the size is completely limited to 10, when the child
>(1-5) should make the new max size 15. Help please.

Ah! From your original description, I thought you were referring to the old
V2.x "coun" attribute, which has basically been renamed the "effective"
count in AB3.

Just to make sure I understand, you have a parent unit of size 1-10. You
have a child unit of size 1-5. The size of the child unit has no impact on
the size limits for the parent unit. When the child unit is added, the
total combined unit size of parent AND child must be 6 or less for an
option to be valid. Is that right?

Assuming the above is right, here's how I do it. First, remove the
"effective" flag from the child unit, since that doesn't apply in this
situation. It could be used to easily get the combined total models of the
parent and child, but it has the additional effect of imposing the
restriction on the parent that you identified above. So we need a different
way for the child unit to be factored into the total net size of the
parent. To do that, you'll need to setup a new private unit stat for
tracking that total. Let's call the stat "netcount". The parent unit can
initialize the count to its model count within its "PreLinks" script with
the line below:
this.stat[netcount] = this.count[model]

The child unit can then add its model count to this new stat in the parent
unit via a script. For example, the "PreLinks" script for the child unit
could include the line below:
parent.stat[netcount] = parent.stat[netcount] + this.count[model]

The parent unit will now have the combined model count of itself and the
child unit in the "runtime.netcount?" tag. You can then change the "live"
tag expression on the option to something like below:
val:runtime.netcount? <= 6

The next result should be that the option is only valid when the total
combined number of models in the parent AND child unit is six or less.

Hope this helps,
Rob

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Bowes (rob@wolflair.com) (650) 588-8252
Lone Wolf Development www.wolflair.com

[Warmonger]

Actually, that worked perfect. Sort of. I had two issues implementing
this. I kept getting syntax errors in my live script. It wasn't until
I changed from btsqdcount to btSquad that it went away, perhaps there is
a size restriction on the variable name length?

Also, it wouldn't add correctly when I used 'this.xxx' but when I got a
pointer from another author I changed it to 'entity.xxx' and it works
perfect now.

Rob Bowes wrote:

>Ah! From your original description, I thought you were referring to the old
>V2.x "coun" attribute, which has basically been renamed the "effective"
>count in AB3.
>
>Just to make sure I understand, you have a parent unit of size 1-10. You
>have a child unit of size 1-5. The size of the child unit has no impact on
>the size limits for the parent unit. When the child unit is added, the
>total combined unit size of parent AND child must be 6 or less for an
>option to be valid. Is that right?
>
>Assuming the above is right, here's how I do it. First, remove the
>"effective" flag from the child unit, since that doesn't apply in this
>situation. It could be used to easily get the combined total models of the
>parent and child, but it has the additional effect of imposing the
>restriction on the parent that you identified above. So we need a different
>way for the child unit to be factored into the total net size of the
>parent. To do that, you'll need to setup a new private unit stat for
>tracking that total. Let's call the stat "netcount". The parent unit can
>initialize the count to its model count within its "PreLinks" script with
>the line below:
> this.stat[netcount] = this.count[model]
>
>The child unit can then add its model count to this new stat in the parent
>unit via a script. For example, the "PreLinks" script for the child unit
>could include the line below:
> parent.stat[netcount] = parent.stat[netcount] + this.count[model]
>
>The parent unit will now have the combined model count of itself and the
>child unit in the "runtime.netcount?" tag. You can then change the "live"
>tag expression on the option to something like below:
> val:runtime.netcount? <= 6
>
>The next result should be that the option is only valid when the total
>combined number of models in the parent AND child unit is six or less.
>
>Hope this helps,
>Rob
>
>

[rob]

The maximum length for any tag id is 10 characters. If you have a unit
stat, the id will also include the actual value of the stat. So if you have
a tag id of "btsqdcount", there is no room to append the stat value to the
runtime tag id, resulting in the value being dropped off the end. And to
request the value for this tag, the syntax would be "runtime.btsqdcount?",
which uses a tag id of 11 characters and is invalid. That would be the
cause of the compile error. You'll find additional information about how
stats are managed as runtime ids in the Pre-Defined Tag Groups section of
the Concepts chapter in the docs.

The reference "this" indicates use of the current context of the script or
tag expression. If the current context is an option, then "this" tells AB
to use the option, which would not give you what you want. From an option
context, you need to specify that you want the context of the containing
entity, so that's why you had to use "entity.xxx" instead of "this.xxx".

Hope this helps,
Rob

At 11:24 AM 1/30/2005 -0700, you wrote:
>Actually, that worked perfect. Sort of. I had two issues implementing
>this. I kept getting syntax errors in my live script. It wasn't until
>I changed from btsqdcount to btSquad that it went away, perhaps there is
>a size restriction on the variable name length?
>
>Also, it wouldn't add correctly when I used 'this.xxx' but when I got a
>pointer from another author I changed it to 'entity.xxx' and it works
>perfect now.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rob Bowes (rob@wolflair.com) (650) 588-8252
Lone Wolf Development www.wolflair.com