Engine Variables     A-E      F-J     K-O     P-T     U-Z

Though Skeezix has a list of his own on his site, it's a bit scattered.  I've clumped them here for ease of looking up.  They're listed alphabetically on the left, then explained on the right and an example of its syntax given.  Commands marked with a * have a more detailed explaination at the end of the section, such as a list of variables or options.

Color key: command argument1 argument2

Zot engine variables are hard-coded into the engine by Skeezix himself, and are very helpful, multipurpose variables that can't be altered.  All of these start with an underscore ( _ ) in their name, so don't name your own variables like that or doom will befall you!

Some small notes, if the variable involves VELOCITY, then the line "option     velocity" must be in the sprite's definition to use them.  You CAN have some sprites use velocity and some not. :)

_player_dirmask	You can use a bit value here to disable inputs from the player, such as certain buttons.  The bithash you enter ALLOWS those keys, it does not turn them off.  Here is Skeezix's guide: left=1, right=2, up=4, down=8, fire=16, action=32 So, if you don't want or need say the down button, add all of them up except down and you get your bithash, 55.  Leaving it out altogether defaults the hex number "3F" which is all enabled. _player_dirmask 55
_player_movevelocity	Skeezix describes this as "thrust".  It's how much power your character uses to move, the higher it is the more immediate and powerful your movement is, and the faster you gain momentum! _player_movevelocity 5
_player_jumpvelocity_y	Thrust under your jump (UP button).  Be M.J. with a higher value, but remember it fights back and forth with gravity! _player_jumpvelocity_y 3
_player_speed	This is the player's base speed, not related to velocity.  You can add and subtract to or from it for triggers that slow you down and such. _player_speed 1
_player_x/y	Teleports the player, use with discretion as evil things happen when you teleport into another sprite...(x,y) coords of destination required. _player_x 3,5
_ticks_since_begin	Amount of time since the game was started, can be used for events that happen every so often, or a game clock maybe? _ticks_since_begin 10
_world_friction_x/y	Sets how quickly the momentum of a moving sprite dissipates when it stops moving.  X is normal friction axis, Y would be more for a space fighter type game that involves moving up and down. _world_friction_x 10
_world_gravity_y/x	Yep, just gravity.  Y is normal, sidescroller, verticle gravity, and X could be used for wind pushing your character back for instance.  These CAN be negetive, to push you up or forward rather than downward or backward! _world_gravity_y 7

ai*	Tells Zot which AI your sprite uses.  Begins with mob_ unless specified. ai     wander
ainear	Same idea as ai, except the sprite uses this when it gets close to the player.  Same arguments. ainear     flee
angles	Sets how many angles it generates for vector movement.  4-32.  (as of now, doing a complete 360 degree spin crashes the game, as it does not know to go from the last one back to 1) anim_statedef     angles     32
anim_statedef	Tells the engine which state it's animating. up, upright, right, downright, down, downleft, left, upleft, still, inactive, dead. anim_statedef     right     bounce
anim_steps	Tells the engine how many frames it's animating to, can be any amount.  (I've used up to 9 with no problems) anim_steps     9
avatar-image	When using a dialogue window, the image displayed. (Showing who is talking) avatar-image     portrait     #taken from image-list!
avatar-name	An optional subtitle with the name of the sprite as specified in "name". avatar-name     enemy1    #displays the "name" line of sprite "enemy1"
action and action-group	These are special commands, which are used with the following inputs: goto-text, post-message, end-dialog, end-game, kill, variable-, trigger-change, make-sprite, goto-floor When you use "action" as a command, you follow it with one of the above inputs.  HOWEVER!  If you use action-group, you list the inputs to be executed. action     kill     enemy1 action-group kill     enemy1 variable-add     myscore     10 action-group    end

charmap	Tells the engine which characters to match up with what artwork segment.  Enter a string of text characters, in the same order as your font artwork. charmap     "ABCDEFG..."
char_offset_x/y	Spacing (pixels) between characters (segments of artwork) in the font art.  x for horizontal offset, y for verticle offset. char_offset_x     16     #16 pixel wide letter

* More on AI types:

mob_arrow - Travels in a straight line until it collides with an impassable.

nil - Does nothing on its own, like an idle passerby or a column, tree etc.

player - The player, duh!  Player sprite MUST have this.

mob_robotron - When the player comes in range, the AI chases him down until it makes contact.  (Works best with when-collide triggers for damage!)

mob_flee - Runs away from the player when he comes in range.

mob_wander - AI wanders around its spawn.

mob_bounce - Same as mob_arrow, but ricochets off of impassables.

mob_animonce - Performs an animation one time and removes itself.  Mines, booby traps.

mob_generator - Spawns a specified sprite near it at a specified incriment.  Like a robot factory spitting out enemy robots.

mob_gaurd - The entity gaurds its spawn point until an enemy comes within ainear range.

flip_x/y	Used with an image-list entry, after the name and art you put flip_x to flip the X Axis (flip horizontally), and flip_y to flip the Y Axis (flip vertically). floor     tile.pcx     flip_x
font	Begins a font-block, where you put in offsets and artwork for later use in text.

height

Height in pixels of the sprite's body.  Also for tilemaps the height in tiles of the level. height     72

kern_offset_x/y	Sets the spacing between characters in a font when they're drawn on the screen.  X is spacing between letters in a word, Y is spacing between lines. kern_offset_x     2    #2 pixels between letters
kill	Used in a trigger if a variable becomes less than 0, to kill a sprite. kill     enemy1

name	A sprite's name, only used for a handful of things, such as a name display in dialog or a make-sprite _from "name" type trigger. name     Joe     #in avatar-name, shows "Joe" instead of, say shopkeeper.
near	Tells the engine how many tiles away "near" is, so certain AI types can work at attacking the player. near     5

option*	Specifies various modifiers for sprites, tiles and the like. option     impassable
on-player-entry	When the player enters this tile (x,y), a trigger fires. on-player-entry     3 5
on-floor	Only happens if the player is on this floor (level). on-floor     player
on-variable-*	Various variable-logic inputs, see the list at the end of this section.
on-no-sprite	Trigger fires when none of the given sprites exist on the given floor. on-no-sprite     boss    #when the boss dies, changes level.
on-pickup-sprite	Trigger fires when the player picks up the given sprite. on-pickup-sprite     key

*More on options:

Sprite options:

     pushable - Must be impassable, if another impassable sprite rams it, it will move.

     impassable - You can't walk over this type of sprite, but airborne sprites fly over them.

     carryable - Can be added into inventory, for keys and powerups.

     indestructable - Cannot be destroyed by the player's shots.

     airborne - Flies, ie is not affected by anything underneath it, like moving tiles.

     ethereal - Remember NOCLIP mode?  It can pass through any sprite or tile that's not impassable.

     nostill - The sprite's animation won't return to the "still" state, but will keep looping the last played animation.

Tile options:

     impassable - You can't move through these tiles, like walls and solid architechture.

     impassable_up - Use up, down, left, and right to specify specific directions you can't enter the tile from.  Remember those pipes in Mario?

     autotile - Basically, this nifty contraption slices and dices a large artwork file (currently up to 256x256, though Skeezix is updating it to allow more) into a gazillion little 16x16 tiles to use on the tilemap SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO!  Just use the tile, followed by < for horizontal and ^ for verticle autotiling.  If you have a 64x16 block, you'd use this: ,<<<  To repeat the same art twice, you'd do ,<<<,<<< etc.  Add a row of ^^^^^^^^ under that to tile down.  This should ALWAYS be done LEFT to RIGHT, TOP to BOTTOM!

Trigger options:

     continuous - Once the trigger fires, it will keep doing so until you tell it to stop, or it is removed.  Skeezix's example was damage over time traps, mine is a hot floor or drowning.

     disabled - Temporarily or permanently disables the trigger.  If you need it later you can undo this to use the trigger again, very handy.

     onceonly - The trigger will fire one time only, so it is not re-triggered over and over.  Like a help dialog to tell you a building is a shop when you enter it, but not every time you enter.

post-message

Simple, yet elegant way to post a message centerprinted across the screen.  Argument is the string in quotes.  You can use variables also, those start with $. post-message     "Welcome to Zot-Helper!" or if var1 is set to say Whee!, "$var1" would say Whee!.

text-menu	Opens a text-menu, or dialog box. text-menu     talk_to_joe
tile	Starts a tile block, followed by the character that represents this tile in the tilemap, then the name of the tile, image, and any options you use. tile          / name      wall image     wall option     impassable tile          end
tilemap	This is the big chunk of characters that makes a level, made from defined tiles. tilemap     level1 height       5 width        10 row           ////////// row           ////////// row           ////////// row           ////////// row           ////////// tilemap     end
trigger*	A trigger does something when something happens, like a relay.  There are a bunch of trigger conditions and such at the end of this section. trigger     * when-collide     player     enemy1 action     kill     player trigger    end

*More on triggers:  The types of trigger conditions, or on- statements, are listed under O, at the end they are explained individually.

Events:  Also note there are a seperate type of ingame triggers called events.  These are performed while you play, real time.  Unlike triggers, which are plotted to happen, these happen when they happen in the game, like contact between sprites.  Triggers are called ON-STATEMENTS, and events are called WHEN-STATEMENTS.

when-collide - This is what fires when sprites hit each other.  Remember, contact can't be plotted like a trigger, therefore it's an event.  Requires two sprite names.

• when-collide player enemy1

when-dies - Fires an action when a specified enemy dies, not the player mind you!  Requires the name of a sprite.

• when-dies enemy1

when-ltezero - Fires an action when a value in a variable hits 0 or drops below it.  Think of player or enemy health.  Requires the name of the affected sprite and variable.

• when-ltezero player health

variable-add	Adds an amount to a specified variable, you supply the variable and what to add to it. variable-add     myscore     10
variable-set	Same as -add, but sets the variable you give to the amount you give, rather than do math with it. variable-set     myscore     0
variable-sub	Same as -add, but with subtraction.  Normally uses _from.variable argument though. variable-sub     _from.myhealth