SPECIAL EVENTS

The Indian Fakir a.k.a "Machismo"

www.unrealism.com/unrealedmax

WHAT'S UP WITH THIS?

There are a 101 things that you can use special events. They allow you to do some fantastic stuff. If you were to place a special event (located under Triggers for those who didn't know) in your level and go to its advanced properties and check out Object|Initial State it would give you a list of what you can do with the special events. This tutorial aims to explain all but two of these. The special event almost always gets triggered by a trigger - I have never come across another way - this doesn't count FortStandards used in assault. The way to do this would be to set the event of the trigger and the tag of the special event to the same. Ok, Lets get on with it.

SPECIAL EVENT INITIAL STATE LIST:

• PLAYER PATH:

Not much to say about this other than read my interpolation tutorial. It is used only in conjunction with interpolation points. It is used to create opening / ending sequences but that's another tutorial altogether. Anyway probably less than .5% of people will want to create those sequences - if at all such a large number exists.

• PLAYERS PLAY SOUND EFFECT\ PLAY SOUND EFFECT:

The next two under initial state may look the same ....... or they could be different. Yes, they are different but in a very subtle way which is why I'm explaining them under one place. The difference is that Players Play Sound Effect "affects" all the players in the map. This means that no matter where the player is on the map he will here the sound. It will continue to play even if the instigator dies or there is no one in the vicinity of the special event. It will continue to play for the remainder of the time until the time or frag limit is used/reached. I prefer to use these only in assault maps at the very end and use stuff like sirens as the sound. On the other hand Play Sound Effect will play and be heard only in the vicinity of the special event (naturally this will be affected by the sound radius).

HOW TO SET THESE UP: Ok now that you know the difference setting it up should be a snap. The event of the trigger and the tag of the special event should be the same. Under Object|Initial State choose what suits your need. Expand special event and set bBroadcast to true so that players hear the sound. Still under special event set the sound to what you want. If you chose play sound effect you may want to change the values under sound - radius, pitch, etc. You may also want to change sound volume if you used Players Play Sound Effect - obviously here the radius does not matter since players will hear it anyway.

• KILL INSTIGATOR:

It does just what the name says it kills the person who triggered this event immediately without a time delay. You use this in special situations (haha that's what this tutorial is about) not covered by zone markers like - lava, slime, nitrogen, etc. For example if you set up a lava bed and make it into a lava zone if the player were to jump into it because of the lava zone he would be killed instantly. Use this instigator in situations not covered by the available zones - like space.

• DAMAGE INSTIGATOR:

Unlike the kill instigator initstate the damage instigator kills the player slowly - like water - the difference being that the player can escape damage by stepping out of the radius of the trigger or getting killed altogether. Set it up as you would normally. Under special event|damage  give the amount of damage per second  that you want to be caused to the player. If you want the player to be killed slowly you can use 10 which is a nice value and some very high number to kill him off instantly. Under damage type you can use the standard types of damage by entering fell, corroded, burned, etc.  bPlayerViewROT if set to true means that the player can rotate and look around while being dealt damage - say while falling from a cliff.

• DISPLAY MESSAGE:

On being triggered it causes only a message to be displayed on the screen. If you want all the players including you to see it don't forget to set bBroadcast to true under special event and give the message that you want to be displayed on the screen in the message box. 

GENERAL SPECIAL EVENTS NOTES:

Don't confine yourself to one initstate. For example you can have a trigger set off the special event with its initstate at player play sound effect, give a message under special event and and a damage amount, set bBroadcast to true that way you shove three steps into one.

The more mundane uses of the special events are usually done in Assault. You can have a message displayed on the screen after a certain point. What I mean to say is that if you have a huge level and if you want everyone to be aware that the attackers have crossed a certain point yet not make it into an objective then special events is what you need.

One thing people forget on making "kill instigator events" for things like falling off a cliff and what not, is to set the proper collision radius of the trigger. I cant give you an exact number as it depends on your level but usually its a value above 1000 or something nice and big. I usually use something like 20000 for cliffs - but the number for your level can only be arrived at by experimentation. Another nice use of special events is to use it for quake 3 arena style jump pads - you can use the play sound effect whenever someone takes a jump. I think you've had enough of my rambling................... for now.