disabling menu control

[Willy Elektrix]

I want to use a custom menu to display the heroes stats. However, I want to disable the player's control of that menu so that they can't move the cursor around and highlight different menu items. In other words, it will be formatted like a menu, but function like a text box.

The menu bitset "disable player control of menu" doesn't seem useful since the player is unable to cancel the menu while that is open.

Is there a command script which I can use to disable the arrow keys so the player cannot highlight different menu items. Or is there an even better approach to do this?

[Spoonweaver]

I feel like there should just be a willy's scripting/functionality problems thread.

Anyways, if the menu is just going to act like a text box, use a textbox. Otherwise, you'll need to provide more information about what you're actually talking about. Screenshots included.

[Willy Elektrix]

Anyways, if the menu is just going to act like a text box, use a textbox. Otherwise, you'll need to provide more information about what you're actually talking about. Screenshots included.

A text box has a limit to the number of lines it contains. A menu is much more useful in this regard.

I'm not sure what to show an image of that would help explain the problem. I've attached a picture of my custom menu from custom.exe.

I want the menu to look like that, but forbid the player to control it other than to cancel it. Originally I had tried to enable the "disable player control of menu" bitset. Then I had written a script like this:

Code: Select all

plotscript, statwindow, begin
open menu (1)
while(top menu == 1) do (
if (key is pressed (key: esc), or, key is pressed (key: space)) then (close menu (1))
wait (1)
)
end

However, that doesn't seem to work. Probably because "disable player control" turns off the esc and spacebar, but I'm not sure.

[Spoonweaver]

try this

Code: Select all

plotscript, statwindow, begin
variable (Spoonhelpedme)
Spoonhelpedme:=0
open menu (1)
while(Spoonhelpedme == 0) do (
if (key is pressed (key: esc), or, key is pressed (key: space)) then (close menu (1),Spoonhelpedme:=1)
wait (1)
)
end

[Gizmog]

I'm not sure if this is exactly what you'd want, but couldn't you just make it so each menu option had a tag that ensured it was never "Enabled"? They'd still be able to move the menu selector up and down, but they wouldn't be able to do anything, just hit escape to go back. Would save you a lot of needless scripting or shenanigans.

I guess what I mean is, why is it so important they can't move the cursor if it can't do anything?

[FnrrfYgmSchnish]

Isn't it possible to set menu items as "not selectable?" I haven't fiddled with menus a whole lot, but I do know that option exists somewhere--maybe it's only for a specific type of menu item so it might not work in this case.

[Willy Elektrix]

I ended up working around this problem in a complete different way.

Now, when the player presses ESC to open the main menu, it simultaneously opens the stats menu right beside the main menu. Since the stats menu is not the top menu, it cannot be manipulated. However, the stats are visible whenever the main menu opens. It also saves the player a step to view his stats.

I'm very pleased.

[FnrrfYgmSchnish]

Hey, nice workaround. Kinda reminds me of how the Final Fantasy games (well, the ones I've played anyway) have a screen-covering menu that has both its "Main Menu" stuff and your party's HP/MP/name/etc. at the same time.

[Mystic]

Although you have solved this, is there a reason you're not using slices for this? That would have been a pretty easy thing to do, I think. Slices can basically be big text boxes, if you want. You can also put pictures in there, too, so your stats can have icons.

[Willy Elektrix]

Although you have solved this, is there a reason you're not using slices for this? That would have been a pretty easy thing to do, I think. Slices can basically be big text boxes, if you want. You can also put pictures in there, too, so your stats can have icons.

If I couldn't figure this out, my intent was to learn how to use slices. I'm slow to adopt new things, so I haven't really dug into slices much yet.

[kylekrack]

A good start to slices seems to just be to play around in the "Edit Slice Collections" section of the editor. I spent a lot of time just making pretty layouts of boxes and stuff to help me conceptualize what slices are and how they interact. Once you make it look good, you basically just set a variable equal to "load slice collection(0)" and it pops up. I don't know if that's the best way to learn, but that's the way I did it. Just spent time with it.

[TMC]

It's pretty much intended that you learn about slices by playing around with them in the editor. However the editor could be a lot more user friendly.

Regarding Willy's original question, the script that you posted was wrong. "top menu" returns a menu handle, not a menu ID number. Those are different things: a handle is just an opaque number like an npc reference. Writing "while (top menu)" or "while (menu is open(1))" instead should have worked, as would Spoonweaver's script. And of course don't forget the menu bit to allow scripts.

[Willy Elektrix]

Regarding Willy's original question, the script that you posted was wrong. "top menu" returns a menu handle, not a menu ID number. Those are different things: a handle is just an opaque number like an npc reference. Writing "while (top menu)" or "while (menu is open(1))" instead should have worked, as would Spoonweaver's script. And of course don't forget the menu bit to allow scripts.

I eventually figured this out, but another problem emerged. Using the ENTER key to open and close the menu required a lot of finicky WAIT statements. Otherwise, the menu would open and then immediately close. However, using the statements could cause the menu to stall briefly if it was opened and closed quickly. In other words, it wasn't very smooth.

[Spoonweaver]

I eventually figured this out, but another problem emerged. Using the ENTER key to open and close the menu required a lot of finicky WAIT statements. Otherwise, the menu would open and then immediately close. However, using the statements could cause the menu to stall briefly if it was opened and closed quickly. In other words, it wasn't very smooth.

Easily fixed with a short wait command. I like to go with 8, which is a half second.

Code: Select all

plotscript, statwindow, begin
variable (Spoonhelpedme)
Spoonhelpedme:=0
open menu (1)

wait (8)

while(Spoonhelpedme == 0) do (
if (key is pressed (key: esc), or, key is pressed (key: space)) then (close menu (1),Spoonhelpedme:=1)
wait (1)
)
end

[/quote]

[TMC]

I don't understand why pressing enter here would be a problem, but maybe it was because there was more to the script.

If you have problems with things double triggering it is almost certainly because you are using "keyispressed(key:enter)" when you should be using "keyval(key:enter) > 1" instead.