Scripted Sequences

scripted_sequence sometimes is very clunky to use in Half-Life. Featureful SDK provides a lot of new parameters and flags to get around its limitations, while preserving the original behavior for the sake of compatibility.

This page describes only changes introduced in Featureful SDK. Entity reference for standard Half-Life parameters and spawnflags can be found on twhl wiki.

Non-parametric changes

• The game doesn't crash anymore if scripted_sequence is deleted while script is played.
• Target Monster can be !activator for chained scripted sequences (use in conjunction with Target's Activator parameter).
• Technical change: scripted_sequence C++ class (CCineMonster) doesn't inherit CBaseMonster anymore. Instead, it's based on CBaseDelay.

New options for existing parameters

• New option for Move to position - Teleport. Unlike Instantaneous it does not require scripted sequence to be called twice in order for monster to proceed playing animation.

New parameters

• Fire on Possession - fire a trigger after the monster gets possessed by script.
• Fire after moving - fire a trigger when the scripted movement is done.
• Fire on Animation start allows to sync animation start and firing a trigger (e.g. useful for retina scanner animations). Note that save-load in Half-Life resets the animation, but the trigger is designed to fire only once to avoid unwanted side-effects.
• Target's Activator allows to set activator to either script itself or the possessed monster when triggering a script target at the end of sequence or at the animation start.
• Turn Target makes monster face the specified target instead of a script entity.
• Turn mode makes monster turn to script entity position instead of aligning with its facing.
• Move Target makes monster to walk/run/teleport to the location of the specified entity instead of a script entity.
• Move to radius makes monster stop moving when they approach the provided distance to the move target.
• Priority allows a script to possess the monster even if they're currently possessed by another script.
• Required follower state - the script will play depending on whether the monster is following the player or not.
• Repeat action X more times repeats an animation multiple times.
• Interruption policy. The alternative to the No Interruptions flag. This can be set to By Death Only which would allow to make the script uninterruptable unless the monster dies during the script. The No Interruptions flag should be unmasked in order for policy to work.
• Search policy. By default scripted_sequence is searching a monster by targetname and then by classname (using the name provided in Target Monster). This is usually redundant and can be unwanted. This parameter allows to set whether you want the script to search the monster by targetname only or by classname only.
• Apply search radius. By default search radius is taken into account only when searching for a monster by a classname. This parameter allows to apply the same behavior when searching the monster by the targetname.
• TakeDamage policy - set the monster to be invulnerable or not killable during the script.
• Master - allows to prevent the monster possession until master entity is unlocked.

New spawnflags

• Continuous animation allows a smooth transition between animations that are meant to play one after another.
• Apply new angles. If monster turns during the animation, set new angles after sequence finished (example: houndeye's jumpwindow animation).
• Auto-Search makes the scripted_sequence to act as if doesn't have a name. This allows to remove the script from the map while in-game with some other entity's KillTarget while preserving the behavior of the unnamed script.
• Try once. By default once triggered the script will continue to search for the target monster if it could not find one instantly. This flag prevents such behavior making scripted_sequence do the search only once per firing. If it could not find the appropriate monster, nothing happens.
• Don't reset head turn. When monster is talking to someone else, the monster turns its head to the listener. By default playing scripted_sequence on the monster resets the head turn. Use this flag to avoid such behavior.
• Force idle looping for force idle animation looping even if it doesn't have a loop flag.
• Remove on interruption. This flag is useful in scripts with idle animation to ensure that the script won't be activated by some external trigger again after it was interrupted by damage dealt to the possessed monster (which could lead to weird situations like monster starting playing the idle animation again).