Setting Schedule by Area

[Dave]

Thanks to Christophe33 for the idea for this feature.

I have added a feature which allows the time-of-day to be set differently for a certain area of the map.

You can specify this in a [time_area] tag inside the [scenario] tag. The [time_area] tag should contain 'x' and 'y' attributes which together define the range of hexes for which the time applies. It should also contain a schedule in the same way a schedule is normally defined. The area of the map defined by the 'x' and 'y' attributes will run under the defined schedule, while the rest of the map will run under the normal schedule.

For instance, if you wanted to have the tiles (10-20,20-30) and (8-10,25-32) as 'underground', while the rest of the map follows normal day/night, you would define it as follows:

Code: Select all

{DAWN}
{MORNING}
{AFTERNOON}
{DUSK}
{FIRST_WATCH}
{SECOND_WATCH}

[time_area]
    x=10-20,8-10
    y=20-30,25-32
    {UNDERGROUND}
[/time_area]

Defining the area is a little tedious, but it's the best we can really do. Hopefully some day we will have a graphical tool to do it.

I've also implemented support for schedule parts to display an image overlaying all hexes for which it's that time of day. This should theoretically let us implement weather effects in certain regions of the map as well.

Unfortunately I'm having to hold off on this last part of the feature due to what appears to be a bug in SDL. I have sent an email to the SDL mailing list about it and am waiting for a response.

David

[Sangel]

Weather would be great. Who knows, if we could implement additional effects into the "Time of Day" system (which would need a change), we could have storms slowing movement, clouds blocking out the sun, etc. Particularly ambitious scenario designers could even have changing weather effects in their scenarios, ie Stormclouds rolling in to turn dirt into swamp...