#script engines

[kawaoneechan]

Okay so in a game like Animal Crossing, there's a bunch of things all happening at once. You can have a screen full of villagers walking around doing their thing, balloons flying, bugs bugging, a system in the background to handle hourly background music with chimes in between, all that good stuff, while you're doing your own things.

When you talk to a villager, you and the villager both stop on the spot, and a script takes over. That script then makes the villager turn to the player and a dialogue window appears. There may be a multiple choice thing now — "talk", "gift", or "leave" — and the script won't stop, releasing control to both, until what you've selected plays out.

So you have a villager with an attached script. The villager waits for the script to finish before continuing on their merry way, while the script waits for the villager to finish turning to the player. Once that's done, it picks something to say and eventually ends up opening the dialogue window. The script now has to wait for the message to finish writing, and the very next command is an "if" involving the result of a multiple choice question, so now the script has to wait for that to return.

I was thinking for Project Special K I might implement all that as several Tickable objects. Not unlike in SCI, you'd have a big list of things in the game that all implement a Tick method. In SCI, that'd be the cast, and its members have doit methods. It's the same deal, but Tick also gets a delta-time argument. So the dialogue box gets to be its own thing that implements Tickable, the multiple choice box is as well. Inventory window? Yes.

Also the script interpreter.

But all that wouldn't let the villager wait for the script interpreter, which waits for the dialogue box, right? Script execution should be halted until the dialogue box is dismissed. That one villager's AI should be halted until the interpreter finishes, only moving (or rather, emoting) because of embedded commands in the dialogue box's text stream.

So I figured, what if I gave them something like a mutex variable? The villager would have a bool waiting or whatever, and passes a pointer to that bool to the script interpreter they spawn when the player interacts with them. The interpreter is added to the cast list and starts running the code it was given. When it's done, it not only removes itself from the cast but sets the bool pointer so the villager can tell it's over and done with.

Now every time through the loop, the villager's Tick is called and they can tell "oh, I'm waiting for a script to finish" because their bool isn't set yet. The script interpreter likewise can spawn a dialogue box into the cast and have its own "waiting for that darn dialogue box" bool, in exactly the same way the villager can wait for the script interpreter.

Next trick, the dialogue box should remain on screen even when things are done, so multiple choice answers can have the question remain visible. It should only close when a different style of box is called for, or when the script ends. My idea is to always have a dialogue box object in the cast, idling until called for. When the villager realizes the script has ended, they can simply poke the dialogue box and have it close, if nothing else already did.

[senblades]

there's a friendly face at the end of the road

[jaewritesfic]

Everlasting Trio Nobody Knows AU DP x DC Part 4

Part 3

(Tim POV! This is a long one 😅)

 Tim almost has it. He's so close to cracking this file he can fucking taste it. He's been fighting this thing for two weeks. It's the most incomprehensible and infuriating code he's ever faced off against, which is fitting considering who gave it to them.

The engineer. THEIR engineer. The engineer they didn't ask for and Tim still isn't sure how they got, and the single biggest mystery in Tim's fucking life right now.

See, a significant amount of Bat gadgets at this point are Tim's brainchildren. He imagines them, he designs them, he workshops and tests them.

A few months ago, he'd had a pouch on his utility belt full of experimental pellets meant for slowing down fleeing vehicles. They were designed to break when run over and the compound inside would expand into durable, sticky foam that would ensnare tires.

He'd tested them in the cave.

He had not been prepared to take one hit to that side and have to frantically divest himself of that pouch before he became Gotham's latest foam based cryptid. 

His family had laughed themselves silly at him even as he broke off in pursuit of the drug runners he'd been fighting.

When Tim had doubled back expecting a mess to clean up and pellets to rework? It had been gone. All of it. The foam, the pellets, the pouch of his utility belt.

A serious problem, because who knows who got their hands on that?

Then it had shown back up.

That is to say, Gordon had called them because he found a pouch with a note labeled ‘for Red Robin’ sitting on the stand of the Bat Signal and didn't dare touch it.

After making sure it wasn't a bomb or some kind of biological weapon, Tim had opened the pouch - his own belt pouch - and found pellets. New pellets. Different pellets.

The note just read, “As funny as that was to watch, I fixed them for you. No more premature sploogage on the job. :3 P.S. here's a recipe for solution to dissolve future intentional discharges.”

They'd been right, too. The new pellets were tested (in case THEY were a bomb or biological weapon) and they'd been just strong enough to safely transport but still break when under the pressure of tires. Even the foam was more effective, and the spray Tim synthesized from that stupid recipe had worked like a dream.

What. The fuck.

This person not only improved his design and came up with a dissolution agent from scratch in days, they'd been watching without him knowing and made off with the original pellets without anyone noticing.

This was either a rogue in the making or someone they wanted on their side, and either way they needed to be found.

So Tim had done the obvious.

He'd put together a lockbox of money for the product they'd been given, loaded it with no less than ten (10) bat trackers and a note thanking their mysterious benefactor and requesting to meet up. He'd exploded a foam pellet on a rooftop and left the box on it in the hopes they'd notice and find it, then hung around far enough to not be seen and close enough to beat feet as soon as the trackers started moving. 

They did not start moving. They all went offline simultaneously. 

Tim has never moved so fast in his life, and yet by the time he got to the rooftop there was a pile of foam and nothing else. Not even a trace of whoever took the lockbox.

The next day, there was a ping of one (1) tracker that led them to a note thanking him for the money, refusing to meet, and asking if they'd considered certain improvements to their grapples with schematics for said designs.

Thus started the most bizarre and infuriating chase through notes, money, helpful designs and disappearing trackers Tim has ever been a part of.

Last time, the engineer had left them a USB stick and a note claiming that since they really wanted to know about him so bad, they could have the information on the USB if they could crack the encryption on the zip file inside.

Obviously they screened heavily for viruses or backdoors, but long story short Tim has been trying to crack the fucking thing for two weeks and refuses to let Oracle help. It's personal. It's a matter of pride. 

He could swear the code itself has actively been sabotaging his attempts to hack it, which is, you know. Impossible. 

Ping!

Tim blinks, looking over at the map on another monitor of the Bat computer. 

“Motherfucker-”

He taps into Duke’s comms. This is the first time this has ever happened during the day shift, he wasn't expecting it.

“Signal! I need you on the roof of the warehouse on the corner of Fifth and Everest - a tracker just came online.”

Another thing that infuriates Tim. You can't just turn Bat trackers on and off. They're activated, and then they either stay active or they're destroyed. They can't be turned off and then reactivated.

And fucking yet.

Duke groans, but his own tracker starts making its way in that direction.

“Dude. He's gonna be long gone by the time I get there. He always is.”

“He can't run from me forever,” Tim insists. “I'm almost in this damn file, and I am going to find him and dangle him off a roof from his ankles for giving us this runaround, so help me God.”

“Uh huh,” Duke deadpans. “Sure you are. I'm almost there, and- oh look! A note. What a surprise!”

Tim hears Duke touch down on the rooftop, eyes on the code on his screen while his brother clears his throat and reads aloud.

“Ahem- ‘Good morning, sunshine!’ - guess that's me - ‘I hear some bats and birds have been murdering tires at an alarming rate with the way they drive their bikes-’”

Tim freezes. He's not listening anymore.

“Signal.”

“‘- and that just can't be good for business. Nobody wants a bald tire ruining a chase. So boy do I have the thing for you-”

“Signal!”

“What?”

“I got it.”

“Huh? Got what?”

“I cracked his file. I got it.”

Tim is staring, wide eyed and full of a mixture of elation and trepidation at the contents of the zip file. It's a single text file titled, ‘Wow! You did it!’

“Oh, shit? Well? What's in it?”

Tim swallows, mouse hovering over the file. He takes a deep breath, then double clicks.

The file opens.

Tim blinks.

“Red Robin? What's in it?”

Tim scrolls slowly down, disbelief and horror dawning across his face. “Oh my God.”

“What? Come on, man, talk to me.”

Tim scrolls further.

“Oh. My God.”

“Red? Red Robin, you're scaring me, man.”

Tim puts his face in his hands. Voice muffled, he responds.

“Duke.”

“...Red? You okay?”

“No.”

“No?”

“It's the entire Bee Movie script.”

Silence reigns for a solid five seconds before Duke breaks and descends into raucous, hysterical laughter.

Even muffled by his own hands, Tim's scream of rage scares the bats in the cave into a tizzy.

Part 5

Masterpost

[magic-worms]

"equal ground" a blu engiespy comic

CWs: graphic descriptions (not illustrations!) of violence/torture, illustrations of blood, bruises, fresh stitches. for the first one, please refer to this clip from poker night at the inventory if you need a preview.

thank you for reading

[muffin-snakes-art]

So I made another Wallpaper Engine thing, this time with Mistilteinn and Magolor! Not only can you adjust how the wallpaper can be displayed, you can also squish Magolor to make him talk! By default, the particle effects will be unchecked in case your device can't handle it.

Here's the link to the Steam workshop item!

[solradguy]

The writing in Metal Gear (1987) continues to crack me up. Diane finally stopped doing Generic Woman Activities™ (shopping, showering) and gives me advice when I call now (when she picks up, anyway) but she delivers it in the most condescending way possible. It's like:

Snake: Hello Diane this is Snake. I'm fighting a giant tank that wants to crush my guts out like a toothpaste tube. Please help

Diane: Uh. Yeah. Hello... Use some mines, I guess. Ok. Bye...

Everyone "helping" Snake on this mission HATES him, I'm totally convinced. This is a mission they wanted him to die on. There's no way they were expecting him to actually make it back alive

[ahno-nimus]

ouggh. what if i made a. lucasarts style adventure game. but all the text is in a constructed language with an invented script...

[ecto-hazard]

playing engineer is so fucking fun but you really have to know how to script his buildings or else you cant play him really smoothly and i think thats an inherent flaw in game design tbh. takes being an actual fucking computer engineer to play engineer

[a-lost-crow]

Writing every "Meet the Team" script based on my memory. Enjoy

Meet the Heavy

*Intro plays*

*Heavy drops weapon/Sasha*

"I am heavy weapons guy. And this. This is my weapon... Twelve seconds. Many people think they can outsmart me. Many :(. But no one can outsmart bullet."

*Proceeds to kill mercs in the battlefield. *Outro plays*

Meet the Sniper

*Scene shows camper driving off to the distance* *Sniper hits bobble head*

"Boom, headshot."

*Intro plays*

"Sniping's a good job mate. Becuase at the end of the day, as long as there's two people on the planet, someone's gonna want someone dead. What? I'm not a crazed gunman, I'm an assassin! What the difference be is that one is a job and the other is mental sickness! I'm gonna be honest, my parents do not care."

*Sniper climbs up the ladder*

"I think his mates saw me."

*Gun shots*

"Yep! Feelings? You know who else who has feelings? Bludgeons who (hit) their wives with a gold trophy! Professionals have standards. Be polite! Be efficient! And kill every person you meet!" *gunshots*

*Outro plays*

"P-Put mom on the phone."

Meet the Engineer

*Intro plays*

"What's life?" *Gunshots ensues* "And best hope, not pointed at you."

*Camera widens to show sentry guns killing opponent*

*Outro plays*

Meet the Scout

*It starts with Scout running and not getting killed by a train* *Intro plays* *Scout walks to the front of it*

"I uh, I don't know how to say this. Do you know who I am?"

*Scout pokes BLU Heavy*

"What's up?"

"Do you have any idea who I am?"

*I just know Scout hits the BLU Heavy*

"I'm a force of nature" *more hitting* *Looks at his small ass biceps* "Aw yeah."

"Grass grows, birds fly, and brother, I hurt people!"

*More fighting*

"WOO"

*Outro plays*

*Video ends with Scout eating a sandwich on top of a BLU Heavy*

Meet the Demoman

*Intro plays*

"What is a good demoman?"

*I just know he throws bombs here*

"[Demoman proceeds to dox the Lochness Monster's address, hence why there's a censor]"

*Sticky bomb bit*

*I just know scottish music is playing here*

"They'll have to glue you back together, IN HELL!"

*Outro plays*

Meet The Soldier

*Pyro*

"Sun Tzu"

*Outro plays*

"Zoo farm"

(I love you Soldier I'm sorry)

Meet The Spy

"Intruder alert! The red spy's in the base!"

"The red spy's in the base?"

*Blu soldier picks up a shot gun and goes down the stairs*

"Need a little help here!"

"INCOMIIIIING" "AAAAAAAH" *Door crashes. Intelligence is still safe*

"Aw hey it's still here!"

"Gentlemen?/What's up sluts?"

*Intro plays*

"I see the brief case is safe?"

"Yeah it is!"

"Then tell me, did you happen to kill the red spy along the way?" *Unsure faces*

"Then we still have a problem." "And a body!"

"I killed plenty of spies. The dime a dozen d*ldo sucking c*ck suckers, like you- ow!" *BLU Scout drops knife and BLU Spy hands it back to him*

"If you happen to kill a red spy, there's nothing, nothing like him in this building."

"What are you? President of his fan club?"

"No. That would be your MOTHER." *Spy shows the Red Spy effing Blu Scout's mom* *Blu Scout is shocked*

"Or p**nography of you mom won't be the worst thing that has happened today. The spy has breached out defenses." *Some shit happens here*

"He could be one of us!" "He could be you! He could be me! He could even be-"

*GUNSHOTS*

"What? It's obvious he's the red spy!" "Any second now! See? Red! No that's blood."

"We still have problem."

"Right behind you."

*Screams and stabs that synchronize to the outro.*

*Spy picks up blu mom's photos*

"Ma petit chou fleur."

Meet the Medic

"Medic."

*Intro plays*

"That's how I lost my medical license. Archimedes! It's filthy there! Birds."

"Kill me."

"Later."

"Ribs grow back." "No they don't"

"Let's practice medicine."

*Medic exits infirmary like a god*

"HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS WILL WORK!"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"I AM BULLET PROOF."

*Outro plays*

*Scene shows everyone waiting in the waiting hall*

*Scout comes out of the infirmary*

"You won't BELIEVE, how much this hurts!"

*Bird noises*

"ARCHIMEDES?!

Meet the Pyro

"I fear nothing. But that thing. It scares me."

"Is she here right now?"

[COPYRIGHT OF "DO YOU BELIEVE IN MAGIC" PLAYS AS PYRO KILLS EVERY BLU WHILE THINKING THEY'RE IN PYRO LAND]

*Outro plays*

[myrkulitescourge]

[gnomewithalaptop]

🌵🦷please!

otto! hi!

🌵 ⇢ share the link to a playlist you love

I made this a hot minute ago but tbh I still stand by it as great house-cleaning music

🦷 ⇢ share some personal wisdom or a life hack you swear on

I have a three-step script for making friends in unfamiliar scenarios!

Step 1 is ask for help on something meaningless (borrowing a pencil, asking if you can plug your charger in at the outlet next to them, whatever). In general, people like helping others because it makes you feel good, especially when it's not a big inconvenience

Step 2 is to compliment them genuinely on something, like a bag or an article of clothing or their hair or whatever -- it doesn't actually matter. What matters is you gotta be able to ask follow up questions about whatever it is you're complimenting -- people like to talk about themselves

Step 3 is to use those follow-up questions to lead into an actual conversation. Contribute a little, share some personal details, get a little back-and-forth going on, and before you know it, baddabing baddaboom -- suddenly you got somebody to talk to in your unfamiliar scenario!

[ask game]

[forever-stuck-on-java-8]

I was forced to use python at work today.

It actually wasn't terrible but damn do I miss types

figuring out what what I thought was a string is actually a dictionary AT RUNTIME is SO FUCKING ANNOYING because I forgot a .values() somewhere

[nyxtickled]

nothing says masochist like engineering school at a top 10 internationally ranked university (i cry 4-5x a week)

[hubr1s69]

baked groom is going well! i can start placing cards tomorrow, already baked them today but i might need to readjust or add more depending on how it goes

[beforerailwayengines]

Comin' Out (Annie's Song)

Hello friends!

For a while now, my partner and I have joked about we see Annie and Clarabel as Thomas' lesbian aunts - gay mothers keeping their failson out of trouble. That was something that we joked about before we started going out, and as a demiromantic bi person, that was a lot of self discovery about myself. So I wanted to do a story that channeled some of my aromantic/demi experience, and I had the idea of a story about Annie and Clarabel meeting each other for the first time that was knocking about for a while. I decided to do both. I hope you enjoy :)

I went into a bit of a frenzy writing this this week tbh, it just kept getting longer with more moving parts 😅 I don't view Annie and Clarabel as sisters, it's not something that's ever said in the show, and the only places I found that said it was a post on the Thomas Facebook and a Take Along Card. So it's about as canon as there being no number 11 engine on Sodor or the Spiteful Brakevan being a Brown Guard's Engine who helps Donald and Douglas. Their bio in the writer's bible for S17 describes them as "slightly wacky maiden aunts", which... i mean.... y'know... to me that gives "they were best friends and lived together" energy. And if the coaches in the books were meant to be "dutiful wives" to their engines, I don't think they're sisters. That whole thing on its own is freaky and weird like Thomas is widderwally twee years old he doesn't have a polycule

I thought it would be worth addressing since other people interpret them that way. That's fine! But this is how I see them and I hope you can appreciate that 🫡

Again, hope you enjoy! :)

[dramas-vs-novels]

Today's show was so overhwelmingly chaotic that I had to use my inhaler TWICE (I've been trying to only use it once a day to see how my lungs are doing). But as chaotic and exhausting as it was... Goddamn I'm good at what I do.

While they were diagnosing a problem and working through Plan A, I set up Plan F by myself while 6 people stood around watching Plan A-C fail.

And when they yelled that the show would have to be canceled this week, I had Plan F up, set, running, and it was what I told them to do from the start.

Why is there only Plan A-C, then suddenly Plan F?

My Plan was always Plan F, for "Fuck it, we bail".