z2

this might be of interest to the one and a half people who still zzt, i searched player clone and didn't see it mentioned, so here:

if the player touches an object, and the object tells another object to #put a player clone (or clones), and there is a passage near the clone, and if the objects are placed in the right order (touched object before cloning object), then you can instantly warp the player to another board by touching an object before the playerclones are even seen.

it sounds pointless, since you can put hidden passages around the object, but THERE ARE SOME PERKS:

you can play a sound effect in place of the normal warp sound if you do it the other way, put it before #put [dir] player. you might be able to do other last-minute commands as well, like setting flags, changing passage colours.

Furthermore, do this immediately after #put [dir] player:

/i#shoot [direction of the playerclone]

and the board can be revisited without getting screwy. just be sure that everything is set to cycle 1. (might be possible to break it with the pause cheat)

the only use i can think of for it is pulling cheap tom swifties, but maybe there's a good use for it. i can think of a few instances where it would be better than the duplicator warp

.zzt file or it didn't happen

clon3.zzt - 0.00MB



edit: well here's one use: you could warp to rpg fights by bumping into monsters and then return to your exact spot after victory, effectively separating the rpg battle from the wandering monster objects and reducing redundant code among multiple boards, with limitations of course but still

That's pretty cool! I can imagine, say, meeting the princess for the first time, and the screen immediately jumps to a gorgeous portrait with stars twinkling, angels singing, etc.

Then you return from the cutscene, and she's asking, "Why doest thou starest like an imbecile?"

I suppose you could also make custom passages, although you'd have to exploit their properties as objects to make them worthwhile. For example, you could have portals that opened and closed, or a moving vehicle you have to jump into, or something.

yes! the only limit is making space for clone portals, which wouldn't be a problem on interior boards with lots of void space.

a magnifying glass item that when equipped will touchwarp you to a picture of the thing you're looking at

a self-shrinking tool that will let you explore everyday objects and mouse holes as giant labyrinthine fortresses and then return you to your living room

Even better, used in a world map.

Seriously we 'ought to make another encyclopedia.

I like this. I may implement it in Zultima for encounters should I ever actually work on that again.

Jur wrote:Even better, used in a world map.

Seriously we 'ought to make another encyclopedia.

I'd fully support this.

As would I.

i invented this two months ago! but i couldn't get it right because the object placement order didn't occur to me. i was using it for a world map where you don't need to use a player controlled object to walk around with, because i hate those things.


oh ... the proof isn't on me right now. you'll just have to trust me! i swear i'm telling the truth!

HEY GUYS it works with #if alligned too

It should work with any triggering event, provided the event involves movement of the player. The whole trick relies on using the same keystroke to both create the player clones and cause the player to step through the passage.

Wow. This actually explains a bug I'm having in PortalZZT. The desctiption of the objects as "player clone portals" got me reading, and it actually answered a question indirectly! The bug is that if you walk into a portal and come out facing the opposite way, the player sometimes hits the second portal before the player clone is cleaned up. I was wondering why sometimes one keystroke does two things. The passages are impractical for my game, because I want to transport the player to a place on the same board with a minimum of delay.

Still, is there any way to prevent the bug? I notice it when the player enters, say, a blue portal from the north and comes out the north end of the yellow one. The yellow portal is sent the :touch message before it can finish cleaning up the clone, and the player gets trapped. The hackish solution is to create an inventory object that can free the player by telling all portals to shoot, but this could be abused in shoot-through-the-portal puzzles. Of course, as Dr. Two pointed out, you can just pause and "move a tile away from the clone to plug him in the head."

Or, just thinking out loud again, the inventory object could send the portals a special message such that they only shoot if blocked in all directions. This would only clean up player clones that exist, and would in fact hurt the player if they tried to abuse it!

Consider yourself placed in my game's credits.

gingermuffins wrote:clon3.zzt - 0.00MB



edit: well here's one use: you could warp to rpg fights by bumping into monsters and then return to your exact spot after victory, effectively separating the rpg battle from the wandering monster objects and reducing redundant code among multiple boards, with limitations of course but still

Does anyone still have this file?