Dungeon Master Forum

Are there 2 different kinds of item swaps?

1.Icon change but not action change:

I was witnessing a torch burning down;
it seems a torch consists of 4 icons,
(full lit , half burned, almost burned up and
useless; depends on charges.)

having a "full lit" torch in the hand, uses up
its charges. When enough charges are being
used, the icon changes to "half lit" and so on.

when you enter the action dialogue of the
torch, you get the "swing" as an option.
This command stays when the icon changes.
(e.g. from full lit to half lit torch)
How come? (these icons must somehow be
linked to a single item..normally, swapping
icons means swapping items)
===================================
I was wondering whether it is possible to use
that for a repetitive animation.
===================================
Imagine the normal torch icons would be the
"fury" sword animation.
When you put it in hand, you have an animation
started, flames dancing on the blade, for
each torch icon would represent a frame.

it should cycle through the frames by 6 ticks
(whatever) and then begin anew from the start.

like an ultra fast loop of the burning out of a torch.
naturally I would have thought you could not
attack because the action dialogue would get
cancelled all the time, but if only the icon changes?

(what is it with the items that have 2 icons ?
Illumulet (lit /unlit), fury, waterskin..)

You will use up some item icons which is bad.
(afaik,item icons are limited)
also there is the problem where and/or or not when
to run the animation.
(always?)
In this case(fury sword)
I would have the blade be animated when it is
held in the action hand, not in inventory.
well: but is it worth it?

it's perfectly doable and I find it interesting. Though there aren't many items to do it.

you can &SETCHARGE with a DSA.
Full torch has 15, burnt torch 0.
Make a DSA that calls itself each 2 ticks for example, check if there's a torch in character's hand.
If yes, check the charges: above 0=> decrease by 1, otherwise set to 15 and voila!

I believe there are 2 items
with 4 icons to use :
the torch and
the compass.
(The torch is kind a atmospheric ,
you do not really want to lose it.
but the compass could be emulated by
messages on the lower part of the
screen, like now facing north
and it would not hurt so much, imo.)

there are 11 items that use 2 icons, but that
hardly is enough for a proper animation, neh?.

To the DSA example: I can follow the logic,
but sadly i am not yet able to put that into
code or get the syntax correct.
I have a vague idea. But not close enough
for checking you will need &CHPOSS, right?
I am very interested in getting this to work.

I hope I will come back to this soon! thanks.