Purpose of [object]

[Jovycos]

Hi!

I just wondered why there is the [object] tag in Wesnoth. It sounds like a tag for handling all changes made to the unit, but they cannot be removed, so, why aren't there simply direct changes instead of [object]s in the [modifications]-section?

Regards

[Sapient]

quick answer: objects have effects that are automatically applied when the unit advances (or transforms), but any direct modifications will be lost.

[Jovycos]

Okay, I have written a Lua script “reassembling” a unit, it removes everything except of temporary data (x, y, moves, hitpoints, attacks_left, experience, status, variables), basic data which should not be changed by effects (type, gender, variation, id, underlying_id, name, side) and modifications. Now I can remove an object, then reassemble the unit, do you see any down side of that approach to remove objects?

[Sapient]

I'm not sure what exactly you are trying to do, or why you feel it needs to be done, or why you feel it needs to be done in Lua. So I'll just share a few random thoughts that may or may not help you. These are not indisputable facts, they are just my own thoughts:

Objects and direct modification are two separate systems for unit modification and mixing the two approaches is bad. The WML author should choose objects for their simplicity or direct unit modification for complete control, not both. If you, as the WML author, find yourself wanting to remove objects, then you probably should have gone with direct unit modification to have the finer degree of control.

A simplistic approach for removing objects is probably going to involve rebuilding the unit from the unit_type, which will of course destroy any direct unit modifications in the process. (FYI, a rebuild can be triggered by "leveling up" the unit into its own type.)

A more complex approach for removing objects would involve storing some sort of undo instructions. But even then, ambiguous situations would arise.

Consider the case of a strong, resilient spearman that has been wounded to half of its maximum hitpoints. Next it finds an object that fully heals it. Next it finds an object that transforms it into a vampire bat. After some fighting it levels up into Blood Bat. Again it is wounded to half of its maximum hitpoints. Finally, an event triggers that randomly selects one of the two objects and removes it.

[Jovycos]

How to tell a unit to level up to itself? Encapsulating all modifications in objects is reasonable in my opinion. I want to avoid undo-information, that is complicated and error-prone.

PS:
wesnoth.transform_unit?

[Elvish_Hunter]

How to tell a unit to level up to itself?

From http://wiki.wesnoth.org/UnitTypeWML:[qu ... dvances_to:[/b] ... the special value 'null' says that the unit does not advance but gets an AMLA instead.[/quote]

PS:wesnoth.transform_unit?

No, this isn't the purpose of wesnoth.transform_unit. Transforming a unit should keep all its [object] tags.

[zookeeper]

He meant how to make a single unit, not the unit type, to level up to itself. I don't know how to do it in lua, but in WML you'd usually want to do it with the ADVANCE_UNIT or TRANSFORM_UNIT macro in data/core/macros/unit-utils.cfg.

[Elvish_Hunter]

zookeeper: on 1.9, advances_to is one of the proxy fields that can directly be modified without accessing the .__cfg table or using wesnoth.put_unit. Untested:

Code: Select all

local unit = wesnoth.get_units( { } )[1] -- filter between the brackets
unit.advances_to = "null"

Also, a code like this should work, on 1.9:

Code: Select all

[modify_unit]
    [filter]
        #SUF
    [/filter]
    advances_to=null
[/modify_unit]

[Jovycos]

@Elvish_Hunter
That does not help.

unit-utils.cfg:

Code: Select all

#define ADVANCE_UNIT FILTER ID_STRING
    [modify_unit]
        [filter]
            {FILTER}
        [/filter]
        type={ID_STRING}
    [/modify_unit]
#enddef

And I do not want to remove all objects

It seems to work with modifying unit.__cfg (remove objects there) and then calling wesnoth.create_unit, unit gets recreated, all unit-proxy-objects get invalid, but it works.

[Drakefriend]

You could also let it advance to the unit type in question, just this time to the same unit type the unit is a member of? That would have the advantage of allowing later levels the unit could gain, and the unit would not have been strengthened by the AMLA. I do not have any experience in scenario writing, though...