Kortor1/TSL scripting functions-non in-game debugging, game termination by scripting?

[coaxmetal]

hey, all. first off a thank-you to all this forum's contributors. there's no way i'd ever have gotten as much as i did out of KotOR without the efforts of everybody at Holowan. Thanks for the fun!

 

anyhow, after enjoying mods and making a few easy ones (item tweaks and the like), i've run into a scripting-related wall, and unfortunately neither searching for relevant threads nor reading the scripting tutorials helped much (they were some great tutorials, they were just written about the fun stuff like making NPC's and using critter events, not messing about with ugly core functions. thanks to ). i'd like to ask the community for help before ploughing the rest of the way through the NWN Lexicon (thanks to beancounter for including the link in his tutorial...man, that lexicon's big).

 

so, here's the issue: i'd like to make a utility that runs in the background while kotor/tsl runs in the foreground, recieves messages from kotor/tsl, and executes operations based on those messages. after some digging around, i can't find any scripting functions that quit the game(this sounds weird, i know, but it would truly help for doing some interesting stuff), or any that are 'external' to the game which are not logfile-related (is there a logfile? i can't find the logfile. i feel stupid) or server-related (there's obviously no server use in KotOR, so i'm not sure how much i can trust NWNLexicon there), so i can't do any external debugging for a utility i'm writing. (if i finish it and it turns out to be useful or cool in any way i'll share it).

 

what i mean by external debugging: to me, debugging is mostly getting a script or program you wrote to send messages to you when stuff goes wrong. so, to me, internal debugging means debugging that's done as part of the program, like the SendMessageToPC function (what would scripters do without tk102?) which prints a string on your screen while the game's still running; external debugging would do something like print a bunch of strings to a text file on the hard drive.

 

so, it would be really cool if someone pointed me in the right direction (or just told me i was completely insane, which i already know i am:P). all replies are welcome, and a link to a list of scripting commands that could help would be great. What's been done in the past for this stuff? or should i just go devour more of the NWN lexicon?

 

thanks for reading!

[tk102]

There is not much in the way of external debugging functions (as you describe them) available in the "ShipBuild" versions of the game. The devs turned off many debug functions when the game shipped.

 

However, hope is not lost. The game does write to the harddrive during gameplay and (obviously) during saves. This includes text written by the SendMessageToPC function. When the game is running, look for a folder created in the saves directory called GameInProgress or something similar. It is normally deleted when the game terminates. The GFF files in it dynamically store game data... in theory you could read that with your external app.

 

If I find/remember more details I'll post them.

 

 

http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=1711838#post1711838

[coaxmetal]

thanks so much, that's just about exactly what i'd need for the app...and i'm amazed i missed the GameInProgress folder.

 

that the developers turned off the other functions is somehow unsurprising considering the whole lack of multiplayer thing KotOR and TSL have...unlike NWN. another one i should've seen coming...really too bad, the logfiles would've been useful.

 

the thread's helpful too, and i agree with Darth333 about the virtues of perl scripting. and i have to download your latest app. which i should've already done. talk about doing things the hard way...

 

off to build more strange stuff. thank you again, sir