is NPC spawned

[Esildor]

Hola,

Is there a way to check if an NPC is spawned before doing something?

Something like:


if (defined $qglobals{"MjarakIsDead"}){
my $mjarak = $entity_list->GetMobByNpcTypeID(4770015);
if ($mjarak == 1){
quest::ze(15, "texthere");
quest::settimer(4772, 120);
}
else {
}
}


The if ($mjarak == 1) { was just wishful thinking, I've tried if ($mjarak->IsMob()){ too.

[Esildor]

Found EntityVariableExists() under the mob-> commands,

Tried the following with no luck.


if (defined $qglobals{"MjarakIsDead"}){ ###Mjarak 2 min warning
my $mjarak = $entity_list->GetMobByNpcTypeID(4770015);
if ($mjarak->EntityVariableExists()){
quest::ze(15, "texthere");
quest::settimer(4772, 120);
}
}

[joligario]

The if ($mjarak == 1) { was just wishful thinking, I've tried if ($mjarak->IsMob()){ too.

What about just:
if ($mjarak)

[Esildor]

What about just:
if ($mjarak)


Tadah! if ($mjarak) { works, Thanks Jolig!

[demonstar55]

EntityList::IsMobSpawnedByNpcTypeID() should work with both lua and Perl. (I'm not sure the exact syntax though :P)

[Esildor]

EntityList::IsMobSpawnedByNpcTypeID() should work with both lua and Perl. (I'm not sure the exact syntax though :P)

Grabbing the entity with:


my $mjarak = $entity_list->GetMobByNpcTypeID(4770039);
if ($mjarak) {


Is working fine. Is there any reason that doing EntityList::IsMobSpawnedByNpcTypeID() any better?

[demonstar55]

Grabbing the entity with:


my $mjarak = $entity_list->GetMobByNpcTypeID(4770039);
if ($mjarak) {


Is working fine. Is there any reason that doing EntityList::IsMobSpawnedByNpcTypeID() any better?

It does the same thing, but in code, so you don't have to worry about go through the quest system. It also makes sure the NPC is alive, since the enity list can contain mobs that are dead and will be quickly removed :P (they get removed on the next cycle)

[Esildor]

It does the same thing, but in code, so you don't have to worry about go through the quest system. It also makes sure the NPC is alive, since the enity list can contain mobs that are dead and will be quickly removed :P (they get removed on the next cycle)

That seems silly, why would it contain dead mobs?

Also, you said in code but not in the quest system, what exactly do you mean by that, it wouldn't be handled in a perl for example?

[Zaela_S]

That seems silly, why would it contain dead mobs?

If I remember correctly, to prevent re-entrancy issues. Lots of things iterate through the NPC list, often with more than one iteration "in progress" at one time. Removing an NPC from the list at the "top level" iteration will make all the other iterations in progress stale and buggy. Much safer to flag the NPC as dead now and then remove it from the list on the next "bottom level" iteration (the NPC::Process cycle).

Because code, in other words.

[Esildor]

I see.

The entity variables I'm using won't last long, only 2 minutes. Using it for a lockout system, if someone zones in and the mob is up it's going to despawn it w/in 2 minutes unless the player leaves the zone. If I'm only using the variables for a relatively short amount of time, should I really be worried about them being buggy?

Sidenote, anyone know of a way to return the time remaining on a qglobal to players?