Move the campaign camera to a character with script

[Withwnar]

This script makes the campaign map camera jump to the location of a specific character. NOTE: it only works for the player's faction, not AI characters.

Background

With script we can test that he exists and select him but camera positions require x,y coordinates. So to point the camera at him would first require that we find out what those coordinates are (tricky if not impossible) and then a massive script containing one snap_strat_camera for every tile on the map, each wrapped in an IF statement such that the one that is executed is the one that matches his tile. This tutorial does it another way...

This script uses the zoom button on the character's detail scroll. All it needs is the name of the character - "Boromir" in this example...

call_object_shortcut strat_ui capital_zoom
select_ui_element construction_button
simulate_mouse_click lclick_up

select_character Boromir
select_ui_element garrison_info_zoom_to_button
simulate_mouse_click lclick_up

hide_ui
show_ui

I couldn't figure out how to show the character scroll directly. So it first shows a settlement scroll which, after selecting the character, switches to showing the character scroll. Then it auto-clicks that scroll's zoom button. Finally it closes the scroll by hiding and reshowing the UI (I couldn't figure out how to close a scroll either).

To show the settlement scroll it selects the faction capital and then auto-clicks the Construction button. I guess that other scrolls could work here but I didn't try it.

garrison_info_zoom_to_button - not a typo. For some reason (bug?) this works but character_info_zoom_to_button does not.

This method works wherever the character is:

1. commanding an army
2. in an army commanded by someone else
3. in a settlement
4. in a fort
5. on a ship

Only in situation 1) will he be 'physically' selected, i.e. his character icon highlighted and his movement range displayed. For example...

Attachment 245923

...the left is the outcome of this script, the right is how it would be if I had manually selected him.

Also, the camera will not be centered on his location, it will be to the right of him. This is because the zoom button puts him in the center of the left half of the screen, the right half being taken up by the scroll. As shown here...

Attachment 245927

Naturally the duplicate name problem still applies. If there are two Boromirs in the player's faction then this script might be zooming to the wrong one.

[Gigantus]

The result looks similar to missions that involve a character. Couldn't that be used as well? If you use the assassinate mission for the players faction with the character as target (would that trigger?) and then put the duration to 1000 rounds. then you could 'call him up' any time - with your own message and pic.

script

create_mission [mission name] [faction that gets mission] [target character name]

descr_mission

mission  assassinate_general [mission name]
{
    COUNCIL_MISSION
    duration 1000
    event_mission
    paybacks
    {
         payback_id [payback name]
    }
    expire_on_hide_disabled ; prevents disabling of mission if character hides
}

[Withwnar]

Ah, for zooming to an AI character. I have never dabbled with missions so I couldn't say. Would this mean that the mission remains in the Missions scroll from then on? I can't see anything like a cancel_mission command.

[Gigantus]

It's the 'duration' number that sets the length of the mission - that's how long the mission stays. I assume that the death of the character, regardless how, will cancel the mission.