Body parts and wearing/wielding objects

02 Body parts and wearing/wielding objects

All RPGs allow characters to wield swords, don shields, and wear

armor of various sorts. This requires the RPG library to know

about body parts (such as legs, arms, torso, and head), and

where items are worn on the body.

In the RPG library, all characters have a list of body parts; the

default human body parts are oBodyPartHead, oBodyPartTorso,

oBodyPartArmLeft, oBodyPartArmRight, oBodyPartLegLeft,

and oBodyPartLegRitht. Monsters or other races might have

different body parts, including tails.

Each body part has one or more body part locations.

For example: The head has a location for a hat (or helmet),

glasses, earrings, and necklace. Objects that are worn attach

themselves to these body parts.

Objects that can be worn maintain a list of body part locations

that they can attach to. Usually this is only one location (such

as the necklace), but some objects will connect to several

locations (such as a jumpsuit, which covers the character's torso,

arms, and legs).

The list of body part locations that are building into the RPG

library are quite extensive. However, you may need to add your

own body part locations. Here's how:

1. 
   
   Create a new object, called "oBodyPartLocXXX", where XXX

   is replaced with your location's name, such as "horn".

   
   
   




2. Base the body part location off the super-class, cBodyPartLoc. The

   cBodyPartLoc class is a sub-class of cObject.
   
   





3. Check the Automatically create as an

   object button. All body part locations are instantiated objects.
   
   





4. Fill in the pNLPNounName and pNLPParseName for

   the skill with an appropriate name.
   
   





5. Fill in pBodyPartLocDisplay with a string displayed

   when the object is equipped. This will normally be "Worn" or "Held",

   although you could always be more creative.

   
   
   




6. Fill in pBodyPartLocEquipName with a list of command

   strings that can be used to equip the an item to the body part.

   Normally this is ["`wear"], allowing a user to type in "wear OBJECT", or

   "put on OBJECT". If you use ["`hold"] the user can type in

   "wield OBJECT" or "hold OBJECT". Right now, `wear and `hold are

   the only two strings accepted, but you can add more.
   
   





7. Add the body part location object, oBodyPartLocXXX, to

   the appropriate body parts. See below.
   
   

The chances are that you'll have to add new body parts, especially

for monsters. The standard RPG library comes with humanoid body

parts (heads, arms, legs, torsos), but doesn't include tails, wings,

etc.

To create a new body part:

1. 
   
   Create a new object, called "oBodyPartXXX", where XXX

   is replaced with your body part's name, such as "WingLeft".

   
   
   




2. Base the body part off the super-class, cBodyPart. The

   cBodyPart class is a sub-class of cObject.
   
   





3. Check the Automatically create as an

   object button. All body parts are instantiated objects.
   
   





4. Fill in the pNLPNounName and pNLPParseName for

   the skill with an appropriate name.
   
   





5. If the body part is on the left side of the creature,

   set pBodyPartRCL to -1. Use 0 if it's centered,

   or 1 if it's on the right side.

   
   
   




6. Likewise, set pBodyPartTCB to 1 if the body

   part is on the top of the create, 0 for mid-level, and

   -1 for bottom.

   
   
   




7. Set pBodyPartFCB to 1 if the body part is on

   the front of the create, 0 for mid, and -1 for back. Humanoids

   will use 0, but a centaur might have its human torso marked

   as being on the front, while the horse's torso mid, and the

   rear legs and tail as back.

   
   
   



8. 
   
   pBodyPartLocations is a list containing the

   locations in the body part. Each location is a sub-list

   beginning with the body-part location object, followed by

   the shape string, and the weight scaling.

   
   
   

The "body-part location object" is the oBodyPartLocXXX object.

The shape string is a string that identifies the overall

shape of the body part, such as "human". If you wanted an orc's

head to be a different shape than a human's, so that orcs could

not wear human helmets, then the shape would be "orc". Set

the scale to 1.0, unless you have a combination creature like

a centaur.

For example: The pBodyPartLocations for the head might

be: [[oBodyPartLocHat, "human", 1],

[oBodyPartLocGlasses, "human", 1],

[oBodyPartNecklace, "human", 1]].


9. You will need to write a BodyPartStatus function if

   the body part affects any the ability for the character to

   perform an action, such as legs affecting walking ability.

   For more information, see the next tutorial about damage.
   
   





10. There are still more properties for body parts, but they

    deal with the damage model (which is the next tutorial).
    
    

You will need to modify the class that defines the race (or

creature) to include the body parts:

1. In the race's class definition,

   set pBodyParts to a list of the body parts

   associated with the race. Each body part is a oBodyPartXXX

   object.
   
   


Example: pBodyParts could be set to [oBodyPartHead,

oBodyPartTorso, oBodyPartArmLeft,

oBodyPartArmRight, oBodyPartLegLeft,

oBodyPartLegRight].

Adding an extra oBodyPartArmLeft will make a 3-armed character,

etc.

Making an object than can be equipped (worn, held, wielded, etc.)

is easy:

1. Set pEquipLoc to an oBodyPartLocXXX object if

   the object is equipped in only one body part (such as a helmet

   using oBodyPartLocHat), or provide a list of oBodyPartLocXXX

   for objects using several body parts. For example: A two

   handed sword would have [oBodyPartLocHeld, oBodyPartLocHeld],

   ensuring that it's held in two hands.
   
   





2. If your object is normally equipped in the character's off hand,

   such as a shield, then set pEquipOffhand to FALSE.

   Otherwise, leave it blank.

   
   
   




3. If you want your object to be equipped in body part locations

   of a specific shape, such as a helment that only fits orcs,

   then set pEquipShape to the shape string,

   such as "orc".
   
   





4. To make the object only fit certain sized characters,

   set pEquipWeightMin and pEquipWeightMax to

   the character's minimum and maximum weights. This way

   you can make clothes that only fit small characters, etc.
   
   





5. You can add futher restrictions to what characters can equip

   your item by providing your

   own EquipCanBeEquipped() method. For example: You

   might have a sword that can only be carried by character's

   named "Arthur".

   
   
   




6. Whenever the object is equipped or unequipped, a

   call to MoveNotify() will be made. You can

   add a MoveNotify() method to your object so that its magic

   abilities will only activate when it's equipped.
   
   

That's it, your object can be held or worn.

• 
  
  Equip(), supported by cCharacter objects, will cause

  a character to equip an item.

  
  
  



• 
  
  EquipCanBeEquipped(), supported by cObject objects, will

  indicate whether or not a character can equip the item.

  
  
  



• 
  
  EquipUnEquip(), supported by cCharacter objects, will cause

  a character to unequip an item.