Quote:

Err.. as of right now, I believe not.
HOWEVER, it shouldn't be too hard to code in VC. If you post a little tidbit of your current entity data management code, then maybe there's a chance we might be able to help you upgrade it.
If you use an array of health values for every entity, shouldn't it be easy to keep dead entities from coming back alive? Or are you thinking about putting it in the Map VC?

You see, I thought about saving the entity health and stuff to a file, but then I realised I know absolutely nothing about file I/O in VergeC. I can handle it in Visual Basic, but that's a whole other kettle o' fish. Can somebody around here teach me, or point me to a tutorial?

Or shall I just post all my code and let you marvel?

Hmm. Guess I'll just keep it at one-shot-one-kill for now, I really don't feel confident enough to tackle file I/O during the festive season.

I'll tidy up my stuff and post a demo. Thanks, anyway, and Merry Christmas!

The solution to your problem can be solved in this manner --- it does require file IO but really its not really that difficult.

Some may dissagree - but this would be my way of handling it :

#1 use a dummy layer to hold the entities (not the actual entities layer) ----- when u load the map u look on lets say layer 6 and spawn entities depending on which 'special' tiles u've put there --- for example u may decide that tiles 100 to 120 are your entities --- so (GetTile(X,Y,6)-100) would be your first entity and so on.

#2 you need to write some sort of data file for every map ---- if that data file doesnt exist it means that the player is visiting that map for the first time - and u load the entities by reading that special layer..... otherwise u load the entities based on the list u've saved to file.

You re-write this file every time the player leaves a map --- this could also be used to keep track of doors that have been unlocked or opened - items that were taken by the player and many other things im sure u can see what im getting at.

Now - how do you write a structure to file? The simplest way is as a string .... and here's a little example.

struct NPC
{
int hp;
int xpos;
int ypos;
string name;
}

int fptr; /// a global file pointer

void WriteNPCsToFile()
{
int i;
fptr=OpenFile("mydatafile.txt",FILE_WRITE);
for(i=0;i<NumNPCS;i++)
WriteNPCToFile(i);
FileClose(fptr);
}
void WriteNPCToFile(int NPCID)
{
string savedata;
savedata=str(MyNPCS[NPCID].hp);
savedata=savedata+",";
savedata=savedata+str(MyNPCS[NPCID].xpos);
savedata=savedata+",";
savedata=savedata+str(MyNPCS[NPCID].ypos);
savedata=savedata+",";
savedata=savedata+MyNPCS[NPCID].name;
FileWriteLn(fptr,savedata);
}



hope that helps you out

Uhm, here's an easier and faster way to read/write files. Enjoy! It writes in binary though, so if you open up the files it'll look mostly like garbage. Not ideal for when it expects plain-text, but good for when you're only reading and writing only from the program.

#define NPC_MAX_COUNT 20

struct npc_type

{

	string name;

	int hp;

	int x, y;

};



int npc_count;

npc_type npc[NPC_MAX_COUNT];



void SaveNPCs(string filename)

{

	int i;

	int f = FileOpen(filename, FILE_WRITE);

	

	// FileWriteQuad() works for saving ints.

	FileWriteQuad(f, npc_count);

	for (i = 0; i < npc_count; i++)

	{

		// FileWriteString() works for saving strings.

		FileWriteString(f, npc[i].name);

		FileWriteQuad(f, npc[i].hp);

		FileWriteQuad(f, npc[i].x);		

		FileWriteQuad(f, npc[i].y);		

	}

	FileClose(f);

}



void LoadNPCs(string filename)

{

	int i;

	int f = FileOpen(filename, FILE_READ);

	if (!f)

	{

		Exit ("LoadNPCs() - " + filename + " not found!");

	}

	// FileReadQuad() works for loading ints.

	npc_count = FileReadQuad(f);

	for (i = 0; i < npc_count; i++)

	{

		// FileReadString() works for loading strings.

		npc[i].name = FileReadString(f);

		npc[i].hp = FileReadQuad(f);

		npc[i].x = FileReadQuad(f);		

		npc[i].y = FileReadQuad(f);		

	}

	FileClose(f);

}

Very nice, thank you! Although I think I'll stick with the plain text for now, I'm still quite n00by at all this.