deadmarine, do you know what "Binary" numbers are? If you don't, it goes like this:
____8_4_2_1 (The _ are spaces so I can keep the numbers in line.)
____0_0_0_0
Ok heres how "binary" (word used for this type of math) works. The numbers above represent "powers" of 2 since in English "bi-" = two ("bi-"cycle = 2 cycles, or 2 wheels) [color=yellow] Now for the concept: as stated in earlier posts for the bottom row, 0 = off, and 1 = on.____8__4__2__1
____0__0__0__1
By putting this 1, or "on" sign under the number 1, the number that comes out is 1.
____8__4__2__1
____0__0__1__0 Now since the 1 or "on" sign is under the number 2, the number that comes out is 2. Simple yes? Now here comes a slightly more difficult part.
____8__4__2__1
____0__0__1__1
Now there are two 1/on signs under the numbers.
That means you add the numbers that are "on" together. Since the 1/on is under the numbers 2 and 1, it is 2+1, or 3.
To understand why it is powers of two are used (2^0 = 1, 2^1 = 2, 2^2 [or 2•2] = 4, 2^3 [or 2•2•2] = 8, and so on) but not powers of 3 or any other number, is because of how weird the number 2 is. With the 'binary' system, you can get an "output" of all whole numbers.
____8__4__2__1 (This shall be the top row or top of the graph)
____0__0__0__0 = 0
____0__0__0__1 = 1
____0__0__1__0 = 2
____0__0__1__1 = 2+1, or 3
____0__1__0__0 = 4
____0__1__0__1 = 4+1, or 5
____0__1__1__0 = 4+2, or 6
____0__1__1__1 = 4+2+1, or 4+3, or 7
____1__0__0__0 = 8This pattern (if you can see it) goes on and on exponentially on the top column (x•x•x•x•x•x•x•x and so on) 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 and so forth.
Now if you already understand this, you just don't know how to put it into trigger form.
Look at switches: they only have an "on" position, or an "off" position. They start off at the "off" position in the game if you did not know.
Isn't it interesting that 'binary' numbers also have an "on" position (1) and an "off" position (0)? Why not say the numbers on that 'binary' chart up there, instead of 8, 4, 2, and 1, make them s4,s3,s2,s1 (switch 4, switch 3, switch 2, switch 1)??? They can be substituted with each other because they BOTH act
EXACTLY THE SAME! They both have an "on" switch and an "off" switch, and depending on which ones are "on" and "off"(
condition for a trigger), they will produce a different number, or
actions for a trigger.
Do you see how they are alike deadmarine? I hope you do, because this is what they were talking about in posts before about "0" and "1".
The TriggerThe triggers for anything you want to happen in a game are easy or hard depending upon what you know and also your logic and thinking skills. Now, you want when some guy goes to this BLUE beacon (Colors are cooler things to look at than variables like x, y, and other things), he will either teleport to the TEAL beacon, the RED beacon, or the PURPLE beacon. Ok, now that we see what we're trying to do we have to put it into trigger form.
In triggering, you would put 1 location over each beacon and do the triggers with the laoctions, but since I do not want to confuse you, I shall say that the beacons already have locations on them.
Knowing about how switches work exactly like this foreign 'binary' system, lets try to find the least amount of switches we need to do this: To figure out how many switches we need, we use the numbers back from the old 'binary' system (since S1=1,S2=2,S3=4,S4=8 and so on) and work the graph below.
___S4__S3__S2__S1
____0___0___0___0 = 0
Since there are 3 possible beacons to teleport to, we're going to need more than 0 switches.
____0___0___0___1 = 2
Nope, 1 switch only works when you have
two choices, not three. To understand these two "choices", think of a coin. When you flip a coin, it is either heads or tails. You could make heads = 0 and tails = 1, making 2 choices. When Switch 1(S1) is cleared (0) it would be "heads". When Switch 1 is set (1) it would be "tails".
____0___0___1___1 = 4
The
maximum amount of choices TWO switches can handle is 4. Therefore, you need two switches to teleport to either the TEAL, PURPLE, or RED beacon randomly from the BLUE beacon. Any of this making sense to you?
Now since each number that comes out of this 'binary' system, we could substitute the numbers to be the actions of the trigger. Some people have tried to show you how the triggers would look like, but you couldn't understand. I think you'll be able to understand mine hopefully. Watch:
| Trigger |
| Description: |
| Putting binary numbers into this trigger |
|
| Players: |
| ¤ Player Kirby |
| Conditions: |
¤ S2 = 0 (cleared)
|
| ¤ S1 = 0 (cleared) |
| Actions: |
| ¤ 0 |
Understand? "0" can be any action that you wish it to be. And by the beauty of this 'binary' system, you will always get a different number, or "separate action".
| Trigger |
| Description: |
| Continuation for Binary numbers |
|
| Players: |
| ¤ Player Kirby |
| Conditions: |
¤ S2 = 0 (cleared)
|
| ¤ S1 = 1 (set) |
| Actions: |
| ¤ 1 |
Don't become "shocked" if you can't understand the trigger. This is
exactly like the 'binary' system I had shown you at the beginning of this writing.
I will add 2 more triggers onto this text just to show you that there ARE 4 possibilities for two switches.| Trigger |
| Description: |
| More Binary numbers |
|
| Players: |
| ¤ Player Kirby |
| Conditions: |
¤ S2 = 1 (set)
|
| ¤ S1 = 0 (cleared) |
| Actions: |
| ¤ 2 |
| Trigger |
| Description: |
| Binary numbers, yet again |
|
| Players: |
| ¤ Player Kirby |
| Conditions: |
¤ S2 = 1 (set)
|
| ¤ S1 = 1 (set) |
| Actions: |
| ¤ 2+1, or 3 |
So the possibilites are: 0, 1, 2, 3. That is 4 possibilities. Now, since there are only three beacons, what do we do with the 4th possibility? Let us look at how randomizing switches work.
'Randomizing' a switch means when you put this as an action in a trigger, the switch will turn null (neither cleared nor set) and then become either cleared or set. You can only 'randomize' one switch at a time, or that to 'randomize' two switches you have to put two actions in a trigger, one for each switch. I am now going to use about the same method one person used to show you how this works, but with the knowledge you have just learned you should be able to understand.
Ok, lets say that when the outcome we get after 'randomizing' the switches equals 0, the player will teleport to the TEAL beacon. In other words, when the person is on the BLUE beacon, if S2 = 0 and S1 = 0, then the outcome will be 0 and the person will teleport to the TEAL beacon. Simple to understand now, isn't it?
Now lets say that you are teleported to the PURPLE beacon when the outcome is 1 and the RED beacon when the outcome is 2. For switch terms, you would teleport to the purple beacon when S2 = 0 (Cleared) and S1 = 1 (Set); you would also teleport to the red beacon when S2 = 1 (Set) and S1 = 0 (Cleared).
I hope you get what I am saying.

But wait, what if this 'randomizing' makes the outcome be 3

???
Since we want it to be an equal chance of going to each of the three colored beacons, how can we do it if there are FOUR possibilities???Have you ever heard of a game in real life called "Four Corners"? It goes like this: one person stands in the center of a square room blindfolded and counts to 10. While the person is counting, all the other people walk around the room. By the time the person blindfolded gets to 10, the people NEED to be at one of the four corners of the room, or else they are out (they lose

). Now this blindfolded person makes a random guess by pointing at one of the four corners of the room. If the person points at a corner with people in it, the people in the corner LOSE!
The game repeats until there is one winner and bla bla blaNow heres the thing about this game: not all of the corners need to have a person there. So lets say all of the people trying to not lose stay in 3 of the 4 corners. What happens when the blindfolded person points to a corner that has no people in it? The game just repeats; its as simple as that. If you don't understand, think of it this way.
You are the person with the blindfold. There are 3 people still left in the game: Mr. Blue, Ms. Teal, and Mr. Purple. Since all of them want to be the last one left, they all make sure they're each in separate corners just in case if you pick two of them out at the same time, leaving the 3rd one left the winner. So now, you have counted to 10, and there are 3 corners, each filled with one person/outcome. You pick the empty corner. What happens? You do the round over!THAT IS WHAT OUR 4TH POSSIBILTY DOES; IT WILL JUST RE-DO THE GUESS!
Now we have just gotten done with the extremely long and boring (but needed!) explanation of what the trigger will do. Unfortunately, now we have to do the literal terms. What I mean is that in math, you are solving how many cans paint you need to buy to paint a room. Lets say you need 4.6574 cans of paint to color your bathroom/watercloset. Even though techincally you need 4.6574 cans of paint, there aren't many stores out that that sell about 2/3's of a can of paint. It's like being paid 1/2 a penny for doing a job. In reality, Either you get paid nothing, or 1 penny. So, you need to buy 5 cans of paint, even though you only need 4.6574 "cans". I hope you already learned that in math because that is the best I can explain that concept.
The Real Triggering<(o.o)> If you are tired, take a 2 to 5 minute rest. This has gotten rediculously long, so you should try to understand everything slowly enough that you don't get overwhelmed(completely confused).
Back to the literal terms of how triggers work. Now to make things easy, lets name the "location" over the Blue beacon BLUE, the teal beacon TEAL, the purple beacon PURPLE, and the red beacon RED. Easy to remember right? The
Blue beacon is the beacon we're going upon, and the other 3 beacons are where we are teleporting to from the blue beacon, okie-dokie?
| Trigger |
| Description: |
| Randomizing the switches |
|
| Players: |
| ¤ Player Kirby |
| Conditions: |
| ¤ I have gone to the blue beacon, which is at location BLUE |
| Actions: |
¤ Make S2 Random
|
¤ Make S1 Random
|
¤ Set the Control Switch
|
| ¤ Preserve trigger (to use this more than once) |
I believe you understand the condition, and that you also understand S2 has 'randomly' become cleared (0) or set (1) and that S1 has now also become 'randomly' cleared (0) or set (1). I don't know if you understand the control switch though.
The control switch is like a fuse box. It is a fail-safe to make sure that the teleport to the beacons will truly be random. I will show you only one possibility for the teleports and how the mysterious 4th possibility (Re-Do the 'randomizing') works.
| Trigger |
| Description: |
| Whats with the Control Switch? |
|
| Players: |
| ¤ Player Kirby |
| Conditions: |
¤ S2 = 1 (Set)
|
¤ S1 = 0 (Cleared)
|
| ¤ The Control Switch is set. |
| Actions: |
¤ 2, or I will be teleported to the red beacon, which is at location RED
|
¤ Clear the Control Switch.
|
| ¤ Preserve trigger. (to use it more than once.) |
Remember that Teal = 0, Purple = 1, and Red = 2. Now to explain why you have this control switch. The reason is that lets say you have 2 units that want to teleport alright? You have them teleport one at a time.
Let us say that when the first unit came to the blue beacon, or location BLUE, the switches 'randomized' making S2 become 1 and S1 become 0. That means the number outcome is 2 (because S2 is actually 2 and S1 is actually 1 on the chart far above), so therefore the unit will teleport to the red beacon, correct?
__4__2__1_
__0__1__0_ = 2
_S3_S2_S1_
__0__1__0__ = 2 (Just for recap of beginning)
Without that Control switch in place, as soon as that 2nd unit steps on that blue beacon he will teleport to the red beacon because the 2nd trigger (Whats with the control switch) will happen before the 1st trigger (Randomizing the switches) can do its duty. THAT is why you need the control switch. No matter whether the switches are set or cleared when the unit steps on the beacon, the switches will 'randomize' a split second before the control switch is set, making it 100% sure that it will be an equal possibility. Also, for each of the 3 possibilities you need to the Control switch set, and also you clear the Control switch so that the next unit on the blue beacon needs to re-randomize the switches before he can teleport as well. Clever, yet simple yes?
To do the simple "re-do" choose one of the four possibilities. I have chosen when the answer is 3, or when S2 = 1 (Set) and S1 = 1 (Set) Examine carefully:
| Trigger |
| Description: |
| How to "re-do" a 'randomizing' |
|
| Players: |
| ¤ Player Kirby |
| Conditions: |
¤ S2 = 1 (Set)
|
¤ S1 = 1 (Set)
|
| ¤ The Control Switch is set. |
| Actions: |
¤ Randomize Switch 2. (Thats the official name when looking at default triggers)
|
¤ Randomize Switch 1.
|
| ¤ Preserve Trigger (In case you need to "re-do" again) |
This is a very simple trigger if you can understand it. Because S2 and S1 were not one of the 3 teleporting choices, we just have S2 and S1 "re-do" if you understand what I mean. They each become "null" (neither cleared nor set) and then become either set or cleared. To be truthful, the 'randomization' could make S2 = 1 and S1 = 1 AGAIN instead of becoming one of the three teleporting possibilities. (this is proof of it being almost purely 'random')
Well, there you have it; the extremely long essay-like topic on the detail of how the random triggers work just to teleport from this Blue beacon to either the Teal beacon, the Red beacon, or the Purple beacon.
I sure really do hope this helped you dead marine, I spent 1 hour and 30 minutes writing this in such a way that you could understand it.