Intermediate Tutorial: Placing a Chain Event
Chain events do not do anything in the sense that other events provide an action that is directly visible to the player. Chains offer the designer alternatives in triggering events, allowing for complex triggers to be used without any need for scripting or programming. Chain events are also unique in that you will never use them by themselves - they are always used in conjunction with events of another type.
- Select the place on the level where you would like to place your Chain event and click there. This will be some place where you wish another thing to occur, such as a Text Statement event.
- From the Event Type menu, select "Chain".
- From the Event Trigger menu, select anything other than the default "Always" - you would never want to use Always with a Chain event, as it would simply negate the chaining ability. In this image, I have elected to show all the menu items at once, where normally you would need to scroll down the list.
Example 1: You want the player to read a message only at night, perhaps something warning of impending danger. To do this, select "Nighttime".
Example 2: You want the party to notice that the walls of a certain building are of exceptionally high quality, and you have decided this is something that only dwarves would notice. Select "Specifif Race in Party". When the event is placed and the Race menu becomes active, scroll down and select "Dwarf". - Click "Add". Note that after adding the button will change to "Edit" as it always does, but Edit will not do anything for this event.
- "Normal Chain" is present under any event placed in DC. In the case of the Chain event, the Normal Chain is only followed if the Chain event does not happen.
Example: The Chain event is set to trigger under the condition of "Nighttime". When it is Daytime the Chain will not activate and any events in the Normal Chain would be active, so that you might place a Text Statement event that declares, "It's daytime now." - The Chained Event is called when the conditions set in the Chain Event Trigger are met. Any event, including another Chain event may be placed here.
Placing Chain Event
Since each event has it's own trigger, you will really be looking to use the Chain event for complex triggers.
Example 1: Following the above examples, let us say that a building has special walls that only a dwarf can see the quality of, and that they only notice at night because the building technique is associated with some monster that is and enemy of dwarves. Place a Chain event, and select "Specific Race in Party" and set it to "Dwarf", then in the Chained Event chain, place a "Text Statement" event, with an Event Trigger of "Nighttime". Write a message of dire warning - "Oh no, those walls were made by the hated deep smurfs, the most deadly of enemies."
Example 2: Let's say you want the above scenario to be even more specific - not only will dwarves only notice the walls at night, but only members of the Secret Masonic Order of Dwarves (SMOD) will know that the deep smurfs are behind it's construction and in your design, all members of SMOD are men. Place the Chain event as before, this time in the Chained Event chain, place another Chain event, and choose the Event Trigger of "Gender is not in Party" and select "Female" from the Gender menu, select "Female". In the Chained Event chain of this event, place your Text Statement as above.