MSFD Pitfalls

Inconsistent Commas

The scripting language is fairly forgiving in terms of comma usage or not, but the inconsistent use of commas can cause difficulties:

This will work:

Player->PositionCell, -1396, 124, 3312, 90, "Cell ID"

and this will work:

Player->PositionCell -1396 124 3312 90 "Cell ID"

but this will sometimes have problems:

Player->PositionCell -1396, 124, 3312, 90 "Cell ID"

Object Names

Don't start object names with an underscore. Otherwise, some script operations will fail.

This will cause runtime error.

_wr_testNPC->forceGreeting

This will work fine

wr_testNPC->forceGreeting ;--Okay.

Fractional Numbers

A constant float specified without digit before the decimal point will cause a runtime error. Floats in the range: -1 < 0 < 1 should be specified with a leading '0'. Otherwise you'll experience a runtime error.

This gives you a runtime error

if ( number == .2 )

This runs fine

if ( number == 0.2 )

34th Variable

If you have a script with 34 or more variables of the same type (short, long or float), the 34th variable of that type can cause errors when used. For that reason, most scripters call it "DoNotUse" or something like that to remember that they should not use it. The reason for this problem seems to be that the ASCII character 34 is the double quote character.

Short 32ndVar

Short 33ndVar

Short DoNotUse ;Really the 34th Var

Short 34thVar

Short 35thVar