Scripting

Scripting is a way for characters to behave in-game. You can even script yourself!

Introduction

An example of a script with three options.

Scripting. What is it, anyways? Well, think of a movie script - you read it from top to bottom to check what you have to do or say next. In this case, the character script (which I call Action Script) directs what characters do and behave, including you. So if you script yourself, your character can start doing stuff by themselves without your control. A script is actually quite simple, it's just a text file that you write in the in-game script editor.

Every character has two scripts - a "life script" and an "interaction script".

• A life script runs automatically at random, so basically, it makes your character have a life on its own. It's used to make them automatically do stuff, like walking around, sitting down, think for themselves and generally act like an NPC.
• An interaction script is the script that does stuff in response to interaction, so when you (or someone else) walk up to an NPC (or you) and click, the interaction script will be shown.

Script files are divided in to options, basically sub-sections of both life and interaction scripts. Options are important - neither life script or interaction script will execute if you don't have options. You specify options by beginning a line with "=" and typing the title after. In interaction scripts, writing "= Hello" makes others see a button "Hello" when interacting with you, and executes the script under that option when they click it. In life scripts, writing "= random 10" tells the automated life script to execute that part of the script 10% of the time, so essentially a random choice.

SPC Mode

By default, the interaction/life scripts won't bother you as you play (you have to explicitly run the options through the "Run" button in the script editor). If someone wants to interact with you, you can approve that one interaction request by clicking on them and clicking "Answer".

However, there is a way to auto-accept any request and run your loaded scripts automatically - I name this SPC mode (SPC being Scripted Playable Character). You can enable it by pressing Alt+V. By enabling SPC mode, your interaction script auto-accepts any interaction, and your life script starts living out by itself, letting the game pick options based on the "= random" title.

Examples

Interaction Scripts

= Say Hello
tn t
+ Hello there.
lk left
lk right
lk l
- I'll tell you a secret.
+ What?
- I have a snail in my pocket.

Here's a short interaction script example. It presents and option to interact ("say hello"). Let's say that you wrote this script and put it on your character. If a player clicks on this option when interacting with you, it starts this script. Both players turn to each others, exchange dialog, and the script player (you) look to the left, right, then continues the dialog. As you can see, it's very easy to make a simple conversation. But there's way more than that! You can make your character walk around, animate, do facial expression... and such.

See the first word/symbol that starts on each line? It's the command - this determines what you want the character to do. After that command, you type in parameters to specify what exactly you want it to do.

Life Scripts

Let's talk quickly about life scripts. Life scripts are scripts that you can trigger to just happen randomly. They make good idle scripts for your SPC as well as allow you to automatically do somewhat complex tasks without any interaction.

= random 50
mv forward
mv back
= random 40
tn left
tn right
tn right
tn left

With this script the SPC has a 50 percent chance to move forwards and backwards and if that fails... your SPC have a 40% chance to look around. Random allows you to trigger those sections of the life script with a certain percentage chance. You can also do = random 100 to ensure the code always runs. In the next example, lets look at a script that always runs.

= random 100
eq 
eq fishingpole
eq fishingpole use
. 60
eq fishingpole use

This fishing script will always run and repeat itself. There is a 100% chance you'll cast your fishingpole, wait 60 seconds, and unreel hoping to catch a fish. This is a great simple script for automatically catching fish. Be sure to hit alt + v and run your character in Scripted Player Character mode, as this will automatically repeat your life scripts.

Script commands

Communication

There is some ways to have your SPC talk, those interacting with you talk, display grey chat, and display big title messages.

SPC Talking

- followed by something you want your scripted character to say will make it talk. - Hello there! will make your SPC say "Hello There!" in chat.

Interactor Talking

+ followed by something you want someone interacting with you to say. + Hi there! will make someone interacting with your SPC say "Hi there!"

Grey Text

_ followed by something you want in chat to appear in grey color.(People see this if they are interacting with you) _ Something spooky happens. will make "Something spooky happens." appear and be grey in chat.

Big Title Text

^ followed by something you want to see in big title letters.(People see this if they are interacting with you) ^ Super Epic Title will make "Super Epic Title" appear in giant title text in the center of the screen.

Movement

mv or move is one of the most important movement commands. There is various ways to get a character to move.

Move a direction

mv forward
mv left
mv back
mv right

You can also specify how many steps you want a character to take. mv forward 5 will move 5 steps forward.

Move to an object

mv to sera_hammock

Tip: To get the name of an object you wish to move to middle click it twice while having the script text cursor at the place you want the name to be pasted into your code.

Move to an object with a specific distance

mv to sera_hammock 3

Move up to 3 meters next to sera's hammock.

It also accepts decimals such a 0.5 meters.

Tip: To get the name of an object you wish to move to middle click it twice while having the script text cursor at the place you want the name to be pasted into your code.

Move to an exact spot

You can move to an exact spot in the world using coordinates.

mv to -38.35 1.77 41.12

Tip: To get the coordinates you can right click the life script as you are working on it and hit paste coordinates. It'll paste the current coordinates you are standing on. This is very helpful.

Stop moving

mv to stop moving.

Turning

turn or tn is a command used to turn your character.

Turn to a compass direction

tn north
tn west
tn east
tn south

Turn to face an object

tn to sera_hammock

Tip: To get the name of an object you wish to turn to middle click it twice while having the script text cursor at the place you want the name to be pasted into your code.

Turn to an exact spot

You can turn to an exact spot in the world using coordinates.

tn to -38.35 1.77 41.12

Tip: To get the coordinates you can right click the life script as you are working on it and hit paste coordinates. It'll paste the current coordinates you are standing on. This is very helpful.

Stop turning

tn to stop turning.

Looking

lk or look is a command used to turn your head to look at something.

Look to a compass direction

lk north
lk west
lk east
lk south

Look at an object

lk to sera_hammock

Tip: To get the name of an object you wish to look at middle click it twice while having the script text cursor at the place you want the name to be pasted into your code.

Look at an exact spot

You can look at an exact spot in the world using coordinates.

lk to -38.35 1.77 41.12

Tip: To get the coordinates you can right click the life script as you are working on it and hit paste coordinates. It'll paste the current coordinates you are standing on. This is very helpful.

Stop looking

lk to stop looking.

Interaction

in or interact is a command used to interact with objects.

Interact with an object

Interacting with objects is fairly reasonable.

in sera_hammock

You can also interact with an object that has multiple interaction options.

in kitchen_chair 2

Tip: To get the correct interaction of an object you wish to interact with middle click the interaction you wish to choose twice while having the script text cursor at the place you want the interaction to be pasted into your code.

Equipment

eq or equip lets you equip, unequip, and use equipment.

Equip item

You can equip your fishing rod by simply eq fishingpole if you have the fishing rod.

Check the #Equipment List below for things you can equip.

Use item

You can use your fishing rod by simply eq fishingpole use.

Check the #Equipment List below for things to use.

Unequip item

You can unequip your item by simply using eq.

Equipment list

A list of a few valid items to equip or use:

watergun, fishingpole, waterbucket, glowstick, stickynote, spraycan, slingshot, shovelknife, catchnet, foodbowl, phone, planner

Most items are required to be in your pack before you can use them. Exceptions are phone and planner as they kind of just always exist.

Facial Expression

fc or face lets you make a facial expression.

Expressions

fc happy for a happy expression.

fc sad for a sad expression.

fc close to close your eyes.

fc tongue to put your tongue out.

fc angry for an angry expression.

fc fear for a fearful expression.

Make expressions for a length of time

fc happy 3 will be happy for 3 seconds.

Stop expressions

fc to stop facial expressions.

Play Animation

an or animate to play an animation.

Play animation

an yes will play an animation where you nod your head yes.

an dance 3 will play the dance animation 3 times.

an dance -1 will play the dance animation forever.

an bow 3 0.5 plays the bow animation for 3 seconds, however, it starts the animation from the middle instead of the beginning.

List of animations

Social Animations:

yes, no, shrug, clap, bow, yawn, wave

Emotive Animations:

admire, giggle, angry, sada, scared, rave

Other Animations:

poke, pose, think, type

Duo Animations:

hug

Standing & Sitting & Laying Animations:

groundstand, groundstand2, groundstand3, groundsit, groundsit2, groundlay, groundsleep

Stop animation

an

Wait/Delay

Wait for a certain amount of time

. 5 waits for 5 seconds before running more of the code.

Wait until action is finished

. simply waits until an action like walking, fading, or other things are completed. This is a great way to ensure you finish moving to a location.

Repeat/For Loop

For loops allow you to repeat sections multiple times. [ <number> begins a for loop and ] ends it with all code between being repeated multiple times.

As an example [ 5 followed by some code and ] afterwards would run code 5 times. See the below example.

[ 5
mv forward
. 2
]

This allows the script runner to move forward and pause for 2 seconds for a total of 5 times.