Lua Programming Help Thread

[slicer4ever]

jw but is their a not symbol?

edit: also what does the following error mean?

lua:14240: control structure too long neas ','
?

here is the line it is talking about:

for i = 1,42 do

[Dark_Cloud]

ive tried both v1 and v2 of the lua solitaire and they both load but freeze when i click any button, can you tell me what im doing wrong? :Cry:

[slicer4ever]

they may call kernal commands are they lua files? (sorry not looking for them but if they are i could take a look)

[JoeDaStudd]

hi,
how do you call certain images from a sprite set?
eg how would i select the bottom middle one from the sheet below?

Edit: the image size is 144x256

[slicer4ever]

just make independent pics of each on:
like if you want the bottom left one you copy his pic onto a new image (just him use paint if you don't have anything that can modify pics)

then load his pic and call him in your program when need him

[JoeDaStudd]

ok thanks i thought i would be the easiest way but wanted to make sure it couldnt be done without using paint. Thanks again

[Bronx]

anyone good with artificial intelligence? if so pm me cuz i need some quick help! thanks

[HaxxBlaster]

Try to just think logical, with several steps if to take action or not.
But it really depends on what type of game you are creating.

[slicer4ever]

so anyways how about my question?

[ZereoX]

Slice you got and error lua.14240 that means there somthing wrong on that line i just dont hope you have that much lines.Post a part of you code.

[slicer4ever]

ok :

well 1. that's only half way down my code i really have: 34139 lines of code
2. it's worked untill i put the line beforehand so thus i ask what is the not symbol?

[Bronx]

anyone good with artificial intelligence? if so pm me cuz i need some quick help! thanks

Anyone?!?!

[Altair]

@Slicer:The not symbol is "~"

@Bronx: Have you tried the tuts by Vaza? If so, I dont have any better advice. I have to get started with AI myself.

hi,
how do you call certain images from a sprite set?
eg how would i select the bottom middle one from the sheet below?

Edit: the image size is 144x256

You can "grab" a smaller image from a bigger one. You dont have to have them as seperate files. Altough that might be easier, but I believe this way the total image filesize is smaller. What you have to do for the bottom middle is this:

newImage:blit(0,0,sprite,49,193,48,192)

where newImage becomes your bottom middle image.

(I assumed one smaller piece is 144/3=48 wide and 256/4=64 high)

[Altair]

Woops! doublepost...

jw but is their a not symbol?

edit: also what does the following error mean?

lua:14240: control structure too long neas ','
?

here is the line it is talking about:

for i = 1,42 do

For the error, check here: http://www.lua.org/source/4.0.1/src_lcode.c.html

Unfortunately I dont know C so someone else will have to explain this to you. Maybe the for loop is to big? As in 42 is to big? Cant imagine why though.

[SG57]

slice4ever - I need to see the line before that for loop and the line after the for loop...

By the looks of it, you have a structure above the for loop, and you have set too large of a value/data type in it... im just guessing though, so...

[Bronx]

yeah, i have used vaza's tut. but the cars only go one direction

[slicer4ever]

ok well then since when the games finished it well be open-source anyways i'll post my code just give me about 5 min to transfer it from my laptop(reason why i didn't post it before)

edit: o and i thought the ~ was congruent not the not symbol do to in math you
use:
~
=

to represent congruency but whatever that well allow me to optimize my code a lot more

wait then i'm stupid cause == is congruency and i've neven even notice so well someone give me my sign i guess...

edit2: k here we go: dl a working version and a non working version (the line for non-working is on 14240 and search for -- in the working to figure out where the code is that's surpose to be there

note i know this is a highly un-optimized codeing but that well be improved upon in the future

here:
http://slicer4ever.50megs.com/lua%20risk.rar

[SG57]

Well.... in C the 'not equal to' operator is the !...

if ( true != 1 )
break;
}

[slicer4ever]

yea same for flash so why i tried that i kept thinking ~= ment congruent not,not


edit: since the new copyright thing has came out i have all my own pic's(thanks to deanaw22) i'm just using the idea and name would i need to change the name and if so i'll change it to:
the world domination game

edit: also you forgot your opening bracket also isn't 1 another way for saying true where's 1 is true and 0 is false or is that only on calculators?

[Altair]

boolean is: true and false

1 and 0 are just numbers. They could just as easily been 9 and 374 for that matter. It depends on what you associate them with.

BTW I can't download the file, or is it already gone or something? It says Forbidden!

[Grimfate126]

i have a question: in the lus snippet "firing multiple bullets" by pspmillionaire, the bullets shot, but they only shot half the time you pressed "X". like you had to press it a couple of times to get a bullet to shoot. i know that this is becuase of the oldpad satements. is there a better way to make the bullets shoot, so that EVERY time you press "X', a bullet shoots??? thx.

[Vaza]

yeah, i have used vaza's tut. but the cars only go one direction

You can add 4 major operators for it then.

math.randomseed(os.time())

--This determines the direction the AI will go.
PositionAI = math.random(1, 50)

if PositionAI == 1 then
Char.Direction = "Left"
elseif PositionAI == 2 then
Char.Direction = "Right"
elseif PositionAI == 3 then
Char.Direction = "Up"
elseif PositionAI == 4 then
Char.Direction = "Down"
end

--[[ This means if math.random chooses 1, 2, 3 or 4,
 the direction of the Character will change
This is just sample code, you may want to make 
it more complicated]]--

CharacterAI = math.random(1, 100)

--[[ If math.random Chooses 1 or 2,
the Characters action will change to the action associated
with that number.
if it doesnt choose 1 or 2 then the action
that was active previously will continue being executed
until it is changed.]]--

--Action 1 and 2 can be whatever you want, you can add more, by duplicating some code and changing variables

if CharacterAI == 1 then
CharAction = "Action1"
elseif CharacterAI == 2 then
CharAction = "Action2"
end

if CharAction == "Action1" then
if Char.Direction == "Left" then
--Action1 code moving left here
end
if Char.Direction == "Right" then
--Action1 code moving Right here
end
if Char.Direction == "Up" then
--Action1 code moving up here
end
if Char.Direction == "Down" then
--Action1 code moving down here
end
end

if CharAction == "Action2" then
if Char.Direction == "Left" then
--Action2 code moving left here
end
if Char.Direction == "Right" then
--Action2 code moving Right here
end
if Char.Direction == "Up" then
--Action2 code moving up here
end
if Char.Direction == "Down" then
--Action2 code moving down here
end
end

--Vaza

[Bronx]

You can add 4 major operators for it then.

math.randomseed(os.time())

--This determines the direction the AI will go.
PositionAI = math.random(1, 50)

if PositionAI == 1 then
Char.Direction = "Left"
elseif PositionAI == 2 then
Char.Direction = "Right"
elseif PositionAI == 3 then
Char.Direction = "Up"
elseif PositionAI == 4 then
Char.Direction = "Down"
end

--[[ This means if math.random chooses 1, 2, 3 or 4,
 the direction of the Character will change
This is just sample code, you may want to make 
it more complicated]]--

CharacterAI = math.random(1, 100)

--[[ If math.random Chooses 1 or 2,
the Characters action will change to the action associated
with that number.
if it doesnt choose 1 or 2 then the action
that was active previously will continue being executed
until it is changed.]]--

--Action 1 and 2 can be whatever you want, you can add more, by duplicating some code and changing variables

if CharacterAI == 1 then
CharAction = "Action1"
elseif CharacterAI == 2 then
CharAction = "Action2"
end

if CharAction == "Action1" then
if Char.Direction == "Left" then
--Action1 code moving left here
end
if Char.Direction == "Right" then
--Action1 code moving Right here
end
if Char.Direction == "Up" then
--Action1 code moving up here
end
if Char.Direction == "Down" then
--Action1 code moving down here
end
end

if CharAction == "Action2" then
if Char.Direction == "Left" then
--Action2 code moving left here
end
if Char.Direction == "Right" then
--Action2 code moving Right here
end
if Char.Direction == "Up" then
--Action2 code moving up here
end
if Char.Direction == "Down" then
--Action2 code moving down here
end
end

--Vaza

thanks. i did actually set enemy.direction = math.random(1, 50) but it didnt work. ill try to do u posted here

[slicer4ever]

damit ok 1 min i'll re-upload them somewheres else

edit: here we go:

http://www.geocities.com/slicer4ever06/lua_risk.zip

[Altair]

Wow thats way too much code and not very clear (to me that is, I dont code to clear myself, but its completely clear to me).
You do the same thing alot of times, only for different table entries, why dont you use a for loop for that, instead of everything beneath eachother?
I counted the amount of lines for one thing that you do for all the countries and its 11607!!! I think this could be reduced to like 250?

Anyway Its to much for me to help you Im sorry. Its also pretty hard without being able to run it, since I dont have the pics. I hope SG57 can help you. Atleast he knows C so he'll probably can tell you how to handle that error.

[slicer4ever]

yes well as of which at the time i did most of the codeing i didn't know how to incorporate the number into the name if you notice i uselike:

countries1
countries2
etc

now i know i could have done sometin like:

for i = 1,42 do
countries..i
end

at the time i didn't know how to add the current i to the end of the name and i didn't relize ~ was the not symbol although i have an idea for now of how i may be able to bypass my currentsituation

edit: i did manage to bypass the section i was haveing the problem with but now a new one has come:

i use:

for i = 1,maxplayers do
then i do:
player..i..circle

although that's the line i get the error on should that when lua reads it make it as:

player1circle
player2circle
etc

[Altair]

although that's the line i get the error on should that when lua reads it make it as:

player1circle
player2circle
etc

Could you rephrase that, as I dont understand.

You could also use an array:
for i = 1,maxplayers do
player[i]circle
end

[slicer4ever]

what i was asking is when i do the following:

for i = 1,maxplayers do
player..i..circle
end

when luaplayer goes and reads that line(player..i..circle) shouldn't it output it as:
player1circle
player2circle
player3circle
player4circle
player5circle
etc

but either way i'm around that now and about to release to my beta testers in 5-10 min

[Altair]

That's great news! Lol evrytime you ask something you solve it yourself before I even understand your quesion. How long do you think untill official release?

Also is everything functional? I mean the game works as it would in real life?

[slicer4ever]

no i still need cards and alot of other things but i have a big battle system i need to ensure is working properly so this is why i'm giving it to my beta's as soon as i get my laptop to read my flash drive

edit: the not symbol(~) is just what i needed to cut down my code just enough to get it working=-)