Countdowns

From AgeofWiki

Countdowns can be used for many things; how long you can stay in an area, how long you can ride a horse, etc. But sometimes the Counter effect just gets plane boring. Luckily, there are a few alternative solutions. I’m sure if you used your imagination, you could think up many. Below is an example; including a compete overview on the triggers, and how to get it to work.

Resource Countdown

Sometimes you only need a timer showing for a few seconds; sometimes you only want it showing for one player. This is a way to accomplish that. Assuming that your scenario doesn’t involve collecting resources (most RPG’s don’t include resources), this will work in a user friendly way. Instead of taking up screen space, this counter will acutely be displayed in your resource menu (fig 1). For my example, I am going to have the timer start at twenty (20), than count down to zero (0).

---

TRIGGER 1
Name: Timer_1
Active: Yes
Loop: No
Priory: med/high

Condition
Always
Effects
Quest var Set
Var name: What ever you want. I would suggest using something easy to remember; like lmt (limit)
Value: Set the value to the same as the timer (if the timer counts down from 20, set the QV to 20, etc)

Grant Resources
Player: The player that you want to see the timer (ex: 1)
Resource: The resource that you want to display the time (ex: food)
Amount: Enter the number that you want the timer to start on here (for me: 20)

---

TRIGGER 2
Name: Timer_2
Active: Yes
Loop: Yes
Priory: high (for best results, set to high)

Condition
Timer
Seconds: 1

Quest Var Check
Var name: Same as above (lmt)
Operator: => (this means that if “lmt” is above 1, than this trigger will fire)
Value: 1 (as long as the value of “lmt” is above, or equal to 1, than this trigger will fire looped)

Effects
Grant Resources
Player: The player that you want to see the timer (ex: 1)
Resource: The resource that you want to display the time (for me: food)
Amount: -1 (this means that every second, the food amount will go down 1

Quest var Modify
Var Name: Same as above (lmt)
Operator: The -
Amount: 1 (this means that every second, the amount of “lmt” will go down by 1

---

TRIGGER 3
Name: Timer_3
Active: Yes
Loop: no
Priory: med/high

Condition
Quest Var Check
Var name: Same as above (lmt)
Operator: == (this means that if “lmt” is equal to 1, than this trigger will fire)
Value: 1 (see above)

Effects
Grant Resources
Player: The player that you want to see the timer (ex: 1)
Resource: The resource that you want to display the time (for me: food)
Amount: -1 (this means that every second, the food amount will go down 1

Quest var Modify
Var Name: Same as above (lmt)
Operator: The -
Amount: 1 (this means that lmt will now be reduced to zero (0), and you can start the sequence over again)

---

Here is what each of the triggers actually means;
Trigger 1: This starts the whole sequence. What it does it gives the player 20 food, and sets the QV “lmt” to 21.
Trigger 2: This is the trigger that does the visual effect of counting down. In the conditions section, the Timer condition is active, and this is looped. So that means every second this trigger will fire as long as the QV called “lmt” is above 1. Every time that the trigger is fired, “lmt” is also reduced by 1, so it will keep repeating until it is out of time. This makes it easy to use big numbers for this timer.
Trigger 3: This finishes up the trick. When the timer reaches 1, this trigger will take over. You can add effects of your desire; such as message, or change unit type. Also, you can use this to reset the loop and do the whole thing again.