Scripting Scope Questions

Hey, all. First post for a new member -- I'm excited to be a part of this unique little endeavor. I've had some interesting ideas...nothing I want to give away quite yet, but some script ideas for objects that could be mildly to moderately controversial, but could also provide an interesting new dynamic for SLers who were interested in trying them. My ideas are contingent on the following questions, though:

• Is there a way to generate effects local to a particular object user? For example, could an object generate particles that only the object wielder would see?

• Is it possible to generate local effects on things that you are not in posession of? For example, highlights on all female players? Scope locally?

• Is it possible to adjust view location and characteristics by script? For example, could I force gray-scale everything in the user's view, or force the view to zoom in on a particular object? Scope would, again, be local to the individual object user.

• Finally, is it possible to force/spoof conversation via scripting? For example, if the object wielder is holding the object, they may "hear" other people saying things that they are not, or may "blurt out" something that they didn't type in? Again, this would be a local effect, except in the case of accidental speech, which would be global.

You can probably guess where I'm headed with this...attempted simulation of mind-altering substances. I got the idea from when I visited a club party in SL. I spent the entire evening chugging on a bottle of Vodka, but nothing really happened to my play experience as a result of it. I'd like to try to create objects with scripting and animation that would mimic the effects of intoxicants -- from substances as "light" as beer, to "heavy" substances like the club drug Ecstacy, DXM, LSD, or even street drugs like Crank or Speed. I'm currently mulling over how to implement an "addiction" mechanic, but I don't know if such a thing would be possible without needing to interface with the player object/notecard. Any thoughts?

Welcome to SL Sam.

My suggestion is to also mimic the effects of chemical additction.

Light and dark substances? There really is no continuum - chemical addiction = helpless, loss of control and eventual death.

Now that would be somthing to script.

Interesting idea. I don't think there's a way to render effects that are *completely* local to the owner, but there may be ways to make them more visible to the owner than to other people. I'm thinking of Tcoz Bach's heads-up displays used in one of his games. Maybe you could attach a semi-transparent object near the avatar's head so that, in mouselook mode, everything would be seen through the object. (And if the object were fully transparent from the other side, it would be less visible to other people.) Particles emitted by such an object would probably be more visible to the user than to others, but they wouldn't be invisible to others. (It might not be so bad for other people to have a visual indicator that you're inebriated, anyway. )

I don't think there's any way to highlight just the female avatars. The only way to force a zoom is to have an avatar sit on a scripted object, and then the zoom is fixed, not variable. As for spontaneously blurting out things, you could have an attachment rename itself to the avatar's name and then say things at random, so that in chat it would superficially look like the owner had said them. I don't think there's a way for the owner to "hear" things that others haven't said.