in Twine 2, does SugarCube 2 have a (live:)

Sage

in Twine 2, does SugarCube 2 have a (live:)
Or is this only Harlowe thing?

greyelf

I don't know of a built-in equivalent but there is a <<timedreplace>> macro in Leon's Combined Replace Macro Set, which @TheMadExile has converted into his <<replacelink>> macro set that is downloadable from the SugarCube website.

Otherwise basically all Harlowe's (live:) macro does is setup a recursive call to Javascript's setTimeout function.

Sage

Thanks GreyElf! That's exactly what I'm looking for.

TheMadExile

greyelf is correct. Using <<timedreplace>> from the <<replacelink>> macro set is probably the closest you're going get to (live:), short of writing a custom macro.

Note: To head off the inevitable question. I've thought about adding a macro like (live:) before, the reason I have not is because, frankly, I'm not convinced that it's a good idea. It's all too easy, using (live:), for an author to generate naive code which negatively affects players (this has been proven more than once on these very forums).

Beyond the dangers of such a macro being so readily accessible, many of the things you might use it for can be done via the task objects, so that's one option. And, in cases where you really do need something like it, as greyelf pointed out, there are the setTimeout() and setInterval() functions (though, I urge caution).

Sage

@TheMadExile

That's actually very insightful. What I was doing (or attempting anyway) was a port of the Real-time combat system that @TimSamoff did for Three Dragons.

Tim, if I'm overstepping my bounds let me know.

But anyway he provided me the insight and the guidance from his Harlowe piece and I am trying to use it in SugarCube.

It's very complete (and a great piece of work) but he does use (live:) to make it seem more like it's actually happening now.

Thoughts?

Would I be better off trying a differnt mechanic to generate that immediacy that his delivers?