Hi all:
OK. I came up with this idea as I was working yesterday:
We all know that if there is an object in the static.ini file that has the same name - [buildings.House$abc] - in two or more places, when the object is placed on a map for a mission the number will jump from the first occurrence to the last.
Example: [buildings.House$abc] at Object 0, Object 75, and at Object 150. When you place Object 0 on a map for a mission it will 'jump' to Object 150. With this in mind we can make triggers to whatever categories we want to make. I've been doing this for the past couple of years for my humans but just now came to the realization that this could work for this situation just as well.
Here's an example (leaving out the full text-block(s) for the objects) and just using the object-name line of text; in practice you would use the full text-blocks in the appropriate areas:
Place [buildings.House$BP_Earth] at Object 0 and at Object 50 - the beginning of Earth Blast Pens but, more importantly, the beginning of ALL Blast Pens.
When you place Object 0 on a map it will 'jump' to Object 50 at which point you will be into the section of all Blast Pens.
Now, you can subdivide this group into Earth Blast Pens, Concrete Blast Pens, Grass Blast Pens and Coral Blast Pens by placing other triggers under Object 50 using [buildings.House$BP_Concrete] as Object 51, [buildings.House$BlastpenGrass] as Object 52, and [buildings.House$BlastPen_CoralSand_Large] as Object 53.
You would place a copy of [buildings.House$BP_Concrete] after the last Earth Blast Pen; a copy of [buildings.House$BlastpenGrass] after the last Concrete Blast Pen; and, finally, a copy of [buildings.House$BlastPen_CoralSand_Large] after the last Grass Blast Pen.
If [buildings.House$BP_Earth] is the Earth Blast Pen you want to use then you simply place it. If, however, you want one or more of the other Earth Blast Pens you then scroll through the rest of the Blast Pen triggers to get the other Earth Blast Pens at starting at Object 54.
You could jump right to subdivisions from the top of the Objects list using the Concrete, Grass, and Coral triggers but I feel this would clutter the top of the list and you can subdivide just as easily in the sections themselves.
I know this is an extreme example but I'm just using this as an example. I wouldn't use sub-sections unless there was more than say, 30 objects in a section. You could place all hangars together then subdivide them into German, RAF, Pacific, French, or whatever logic you wish to use. You could use triggers to get into the middle of a section then scroll up and down to find the object(s) you want.
Two advantages to this system:
No one has to try to code another menu item for FMB, and, as you add objects to the static.ini file, the triggers would still get you to the right sections even if their number changes.
I realize this sounds complicated but, once you understand the process, it's really very simple. In the case of the stock static.ini file in DBW someone has considerately divided most of the objects into groups and you can just copy/paste text-blocks to make the triggers at the top and for subdivisions.
Bob
Author
Topic: New "Objects" menu item (Read 3637 times)
