WHEN DO WHITE DOTS ON TERRAIN SPACES DISAPPEAR?

Terrain spaces with white dots, one for each of the six basic floor/ground
types, are useful for signaling the player about something of interest.
Sometimes these should remain permanently, such as in a room where the
player can rest to restore health and spell points.

Many times, however, these signal "one-time" specials that exist until the
player does a certain action with them, and then they disappear.  These can
be as simple as a one-shot message node, to display a message that the
player only needs to see once, or a dialog indicating that there is an item
on the ground.  Once they see the message, or pick up the item, the dot
disappears and the special can not be used again.

I have discovered that certain chains of specials, placed on a white dot,
fail to make the dot disappear.  So I experimented to find out exactly what
conditions make it do so.

CONCLUSION:  The white dot will disappear if the FIRST special in the chain
has the StuffDone1 and StuffDone2 fields set with a stuff done flag that
becomes set to 250 at any point in the chain.  This is true even if the
first special is a node that MAKES NO USE OF A STUFF DONE FLAG, i.e., a
node in which those fields are labeled "unused."  This means, of course,
that those fields really _are_ used.  Since this may sound confusing, I'll
give some examples.

EXAMPLE 1:
A white dot space with a one-time text message, and the first two fields
indicate flag 10,0.
Result:  Player steps on the space, the message is displayed, and flag 10,0
is automatically set to 250 by the game.  The white dot disappears, and the
message can not be seen again.

EXAMPLE 2:
White dot space with a dialog describing a pretty flower that can be
picked.  The first two fields of the dialog node are labeled with flag
10,1.  Pressing the "take" button jumps to a node that gives the player an
item, the flower.
Result:  Player steps on space, message about flower is displayed.  Player
hits "take," thereby setting 10,1 to 250, and is given the flower.  White
dot disappears, and the dialog will never be shown again.

EXAMPLE 3:
Same as Example 2, except the StuffDone1 and StuffDone2 fields of the
dialog node are left at -1.  Instead, the give item node is labeled with
the flag 10,1.
Result:  Player steps on space, gets message about flower, hits "take."
Player is given the flower, which sets 10,1 to 250.  The white dot DOESN'T
disappear.  Player steps on it again, gets the same message, hits "take,"
but doesn't get another flower, because flag 10,1, the flag for the "give
flower" node, has already been set.

EXAMPLE 4:
A box for which the player needs a certain key, a special item.  White dot
with 'has special item?' node first in the chain.  If player doesn't have
it, display a "tough luck" message.  If the player has the item, jump to a
dialog node saying they open the chest and find a pretty flower inside that
they can take.  If they hit "take" jump to a give item node labeled with
flag 10,2.
Result:
a) Player steps on space, but doesn't have the key.  "Tough luck" message
shown.  White dot remains, and they can try again later.
b) Player steps on space, has the key.  Dialog message shown saying box is
open, do you want the flower?  Player hates flowers, hits 'leave.'  White
dot remains, and they can try again later.
c) As above, but player hits 'take'.  Player gets flower, flag 10,2 is set
to 250.  WHITE DOT REMAINS.  If player comes back, dialog shows message
that you open the box with your key, and here's a flower.  Player hits
'take,' but gets no flower, since 10,2 has already been set.

How do you get the dot to disappear once the player takes the flower?

EXAMPLE 5:
Identical to Example 4 (has special item?, then dialog, then give item node
with flag 10,2), except that the first two fields of the "has special
item?" node, which are labeled "unused," are filled with the numbers 10 and
2.
Result:  Player steps on space, gets dialog message, hits 'take', gets
flower & flag 10,2 is automatically set to 250.  WHITE DOT DISAPPEARS.
Player steps on space again, and nothing happens at all.  Success!  The dot
disappeared because the first node (has special item?) was labeled with a
flag (10,2) that became set later on in the chain, even though the first
node made no real use of the flag.

To reiterate:
You have a white dot space with a chain of specials.  The white dot will
disappear IF the first node in the chain has its first two fields labeled
with a stuff done flag (whether or not it will make use of it) that gets
set to 250 by ANY special in the chain, the first one, the last one, or any
in between.  It seems strange to fill in fields labeled "unused," but in
this case they actually are used, just for the purpose of eliminating the
white dot.

Scott Evans
mountaineer@loop.com

--Scott

"It's a man's life in the British Dental Association."
-Lemming of the BDA