I'm starting to reach the point where the visual programming interface of GB Studio is becoming a hindrance. Scripting interactions with monsters involves some complex conditionals, which I find hard to read when they aren't in text.
So I decided to step back and write out the first of these in pseudocode, which helped a lot with planning the control flow:
ON Trigger.ENTER {If GOBLIN_COMPLETE is False { If GoblinActive is False { Display "The goblin is asleep… Try to sneak past? {Stealth}" Display.Choice Set Temp0 { True : "Yes" False : "No" } If Temp0 is True { Call RollUnder(Temp0, PC_Stealth, Temp1) If Temp1 is True { Display "{Stealth: $Temp0} Success!" Scene.change(D1_R2, 16, 9) Stop } Else { Display "{Stealth: $Temp0} Failure!" Goblin.StopOnUpdate Goblin.Emote(Shock) Display(avatar=Goblin) "Zzz--wha? Whozzat?" Goblin.Move(5,9) Display "The goblin approaches!" GoblinActive = True } } Loop { If Goblin_HP <= 0 { Stop } Else If GoblinComplete is True { Stop } Else If PC_HP <= 0 { Display "You collapse from exhaustion and injury!" Call PCdead Stop } Else { Display "What do you do?" Display.Menu Set GoblinWhatDo { Attack:1, Scare:2, Friend:3,
Trick:4, Escape:0 } } If GoblinWhatDo == 1 { \\Attack Call RollUnder(Temp0, PC_Attack, Temp1) If Temp1 is True { Display "{Attack: $Temp0} Success!" Goblin_HP = Goblin_HP - PC_Damage - Equip_Damage Display "You strike at the goblin with your weapon!" Display(avatar=Goblin) "Arrgh!" } Else { Display "Attack $Temp1 Failure!" Call RollUnder(Temp0, PC_Armour, Temp1) Display "The goblin counterattacks!" If Temp1 is True { Display "You evade damage!" } Else { PC_hp -= 1 Display "The goblin hits! (1 Damage)" } } } Else If GoblinWhatdo == 2 { \\Scare If GoblinScared == 2 { Display "The goblin isn't afraid of you." } Else { Call RollUnder(Temp0, PC_Scare, Temp1) If Temp1 is True { Display "{Scare: $Temp0} Success!" Display "You frighten the goblin, suggesting that
they might be cut to shreds or blasted into goo if they attack." Display(avatar=Goblin) "Okay, okay! I don't want no trouble!" Goblin.move(15, 6) GoblinComplete = True GoblinScared = 1 Stop } Else { Display "{Scare: $Temp1} Failure" Display "You try to scare the goblin with threats and promises, but they aren't impressed." Display(avatar=Goblin) "Heh, you think that's scary? Say hello to my little, uh, my
knife!" Display "The goblin brings the knife a little too close to you and grins menacingly. But they don't attack yet." GoblinScared = 2 } }
Else If GoblinWhatDo == 3 { \\Friend[...]
Now that I have that mapped out, I can actually implement it in the engine.Here's the goblin in question, for fun. It's an edit of a sprite from the roguelike repository linked earlier.
