HwyGuy

I have now moved along on this process. I currently have 2 tables stones and beach filled in with 5 items each - 'Mick", 'Keith' etc I have a function that chooses one of the items as the member that is being held outside the table - jail or something RemoveRandomItem(stones) RemoveRandomItem(beach) I have a second function that then chooses, but does not remove the member for each of the tables. GetRandomItem(stones) GetRandomItem(beach) I can now show this chosen members name to the player in a dialog box. pickedstone is Keith pickedbeach is Brian BUT What I cannot do is then transfer the chosen member - I think it is an item - to the Player with a move command, when I do so I just get the name that was assigned when the function chose it in the first place. eg lua statement local pickedstone = GetRandomItem(stones) lua statement local pickedbeach = GetRandomItem(beach) local HiddenMessageBC = 'chose to show: ' .. pickedstone .. ', chosen to show: ' .. pickedbeach Wherigo.MessageBox{Text= HiddenMessageBC} will give chosen to show Keith chosen to show Brian <=== what I was expecting good so far BUT if I attempt to zitempickedstone:MoveTo(Player) zitempickedbeach:MoveTo(Player) what I get in Inventory is pickedstone pickedbeach <=== not Keith Brian I have tried local itempickedstone and local pickedstone, - emulator didn't like either How do I get what is contained in pickedstone into inventory? Is there a Value or Contains expression? Do I need a this == that and itemthis"MoveTo(Player) sort of thing? If so = Why? Is this something that can actually be done? I have seen the Ranger Fox Clue cartridge and that is what I have been aiming at with all this, but with less following of the actual game of Clue. Thanks again for spending time on this

so - I got the Emulator to work with stonesTable = {"Mick", "Keith", "Charlie'", "Bill", "Ronnie"} - must have used the wrong brackets when I tried it the first couple of dozen times, but those are strings and I want to get items into a table. Then I wish to store those items in a zone to be put into the Players Inventory. I have been unable to do any of that with the strings. Can you access any of the functions in the Author Script from the "main" portion of the cartridge? None of them appear in the Functions Tab or if you attempt to do a lua statement in a zone. I had not planned to put everything into the zones at the beginning but more "on the fly" as you go through the cartridge - is that something I will not be able to do?? It is a change in philosophy but not a deal breaker I suppose. But I still need to figure how to get the Items into a table and then into a zone from the Author Script. If you initialize an item in the Items Tab - is that recognized in the Author Script? It seems to me that you would have to have it initialized somewhere be to be able to use it after coming from the Author Script to the main portion - is that correct?

Thank you for straightening out the "{" vs "(". Changed that and received the Message of "Chosen: nil Length 0. when I entered the first zone. Hmm not right!. That was using: table.insert(stonesTable, "Mick") <--- used () did not work table.insert(stonesTable, "Charlie") table.insert(stonesTable, "Keith") table.insert(stonesTable, "Bill") table.insert(stonesTable, "Brian") So I changed the input to stonesTable = {itemMick, itemKeith, itemCharlie, itemBill, itemRonnie} <--- used {} and did not work Received the same output. Changed the input to stonesTable = {43,49,89,33,76} <-- used {} here & worked Output was Chosen 49 Length 5 WOW! what I expected Changed the input to table.insert(stonesTable, 43) <--- used () here and worked table.insert(stonesTable, 33) table.insert(stonesTable, 16) table.insert(stonesTable, 19) table.insert(stonesTable, 12) Output was Chosen 16 Length 5 again what i expected. So both () and {} worked with numbers, and neither () or :{} worked for either of the text or items input Therefore - a long way of saying - the insert of "Mick" or itemMick did not result in a table. Or at least one that can be accessed by me. I suppose I could just use numbers and an if:then statement for if 16 then Trevor Linden else if 12 Stan Smyl else etc - but that is awfully clunky. Why did itemMick or "Mick" not work? Everything I see says it should. What changes does anyone see for me to get this to work? Thanks again HwyGuy

I now have an idea that the cartridge is not populating the stonesTable. Since the cartridge was not working using "Mick" , "Keith" etc as text strings - I made items of each of the names in the main part of the Earwigo program and then filled the table with : table.insert(stonesTable, itemMick) etc When I ran the Emulator, I could go in and out of the 2 zones BUT still got the "Generic Message". When I attempted to put in a line - stonesItem:MoveTo(Player) I received an Error Message of "Attempt to call method "Move To" (a nil value) Is this because there is no data in the table or is stonesItem a nil value for another reason? Or am I barking up the wrong tree entirely?

The Emulator really didn't like the 2 ".." at the end of the #stonesTable - so I left them off. Unfortunately all I get when I run, and enter zone Hello is "Generic MessageBox" showing up on the Emulator screen. I have tried to send the stonesItem to Inventory but that doesn't work. I attempted to send an Item to the Inventory if #tbl was nil and nothing went to inventory, so I am assuming the Table populated I have added a second Zone with a Message to show when I arrive in there, but I have done that in the main part of the program. - It works!! woo woo I have added an Item (rocket) to put into the inventory, just to see if that worked , as that is where I eventually want to have the stonesItem reside. This is currently the entire Author Script that I have: require "math" math.randomseed( os.time()) math.random() math.random() math.random() stonesTable = {} function cartdemo:OnStart() Init() end function Init() table.insert(stonesTable, "Mick") table.insert(stonesTable, "Charlie") table.insert(stonesTable, "Keith") table.insert(stonesTable, "Bill") table.insert(stonesTable, "Brian") end function RemoveRandomItem(tbl) if #tbl == 0 then return end local idx = math.random(1, #tbl) return table.remove(tbl, idx) end function GetRandomItem(tbl) if #tbl == 0 then return nil end local idx = math.random(1, #tbl) return tbl[idx] end function zoneHello:OnEnter() zitemrocket:MoveTo(Player) local stonesItem = GetRandomItem(stonesTable) if stonesItem == nil then stonesItem = 'none' stonesitem:MoveTo(Player) end local stonesMessage = {" Chosen: " ..stonesItem.. " , Length of Table = " ..#stonesTable } Wherigo.MessageBox{ Text=stonesMessage } Any suggestions of why Generic MesageBox and not the desired Message? I am assuming the contents of the table are String values - can those be put into Inventory or do I need an IF:Then statement to check if the string name is THIS then the Item is THAT? As always thanks - I feel I am slowly moving forward - unless that is me plunging towards the ground face first.

Thank you for putting up with this continuing saga. I checked - I had used the stonesMessage in the coding - just not the forum. I have removed the extra 2 tables to try and "dumb it down" for me but I am still having the same problems getting it past the Emulator. I have tried every variation of the message that I can think of and I get some form of this message from the Emulator each time: My current lines 340 to 344 are: local stonesMessage = {"STONES: Removed: " .. removedStones .. ", Chosen: " .. stonesItem .. "Entries left: " .. #stonesTable } Wherigo.MessageBox{Text=stonesMessage, Callback=function() } end I have tried double brackets, putting the message inside the MessageBox, added local to the 2 variables, etc. The only thing I wonder about is in the setup of the cartridge - the boxes where the properties of the variables are assigned - my boxes are blank - no ~var or .. . Would this be a cause? I believe I have everything typed the same as your demo cartridge in the rest of the Author Script. If I knew how I would include the cartridge. Take your time to peruse this - it has become more of a white whale than a viable cache option at this point as I still am unclear of how much info from the Author Script is readily available to use in the main body of the cartridge. Ex. would the variable "removedstones" be able to be placed in inventory? etc. Thanks again HwyGuy

I spent some time looking at your Fun with Tables cartridge and then ran smack into the Emulator not liking the MessageBox output. Before I managed to make any headway on it - real life intruded. I now find myself relooking at the demo. Again I can't get anything past the Emulator. I keep getting errors like "unexpected symbol" near a } " or a couple of others. I have tried changing the " to [[ as I have seen in other examples, changing the ' to " , changing STONES to Stones, adding local in front of stonesRemoved, took out the #tbl output. Managed to get exactly - Nowhere! Frustration is rearing its ugly head - as it did a year ago. One time I got output that was the first 2 words - "Stones removed" but no variables. That was so many attempts back I couldn't find what I did with a telescope. It was the only time it worked. SO - I figure I know its me. I have just been using what was currently in the Fun with Tables cartridge. I did rename it to demo and changed the name in the function statement. Do any of the variables, need to be defined in the Variables tab in the main part of Earwigo? I am unsure of what needs to be in a MessageBox statement - such as what is the CallBack? Can I write these MessageBox statements in the main part in the Messages tab? I didn't think you can access variables inside the Author Script from the main part. Are those "." between each part of the MessageBox statement or are they "," ? I think I have seen both and I have seen "~~" as well. Tried them all. I have been unable to find an example of the way that the message was constructed in the Fun with Tables cartridge with the use of : local stonesmessage = {blah blah} and then Wherigo.MessageBox{Text= stonesMessage, Callback = function() ......... I have found lots with just the Wherigo.MessageBox statements so I am unsure of what I should be seeing in this paticular example. At this point I am at a loss for which way to turn now. Thanks again for getting this far in my confusion HwyGuy

So - am I correct in understanding that you can in fact MOVE the AL and all the stages. BUT - if you do that, the cachers who found the first, original locations will not be able to find and get credit for finding the new locations, even if the name of the AL and the stage locations have changed? I have had to change the stops in a Wherigo so have renamed the cartridge and cachers who had found the first one could then find the second and get another smiley. Is this not the same scenario or am I missing something totally obvious? Must be a poor computer database program that HQ is using.

I downloaded the Cache Pursuit cartridge and have tried to understand the "makeup" of the table. The ones you used are like Ferrari's and I wish to make a model T table. I want to be able to enter 3 separate groups of 4 or 5 items into (for ease of keeping track in my mind) 3 separate tables, then randomly remove one item from each of the 3 tables, and then randomly show the players one of the remaining 3 or 4 items from two of the 3 tables when they enter a zone. Confused yet? From Cache Pursuit, the first table would be qgroup, I will use one of my own eg. Stones The 5 original items would be then inserted into a table with a "table.insert" - I would then come up with 2 more table names for the other 2. eg. Table ==> Stones Items ===> Mick, Charlie, Keith, Bill, Brian Second Table ===> Beach Items ==> Carl, Al, Brian etc. The items would be removed from each of the tables with a tabInitial = RandomObjects(Stones) command and then an "entry = tabInitial:GetNextWithRemove()" - this wasn't in Cache Pursuit but I saw it on another forum post. When I want to show an item to the player I can pick it with a "tabRandom:GetNext()' - again another farum post Any time I have attempted this - I get bogged down in errors in Emulator. It doesn't like the RandomObjects command - always looking for things inside a " or near a ) or...... I realize that I could follow the Cache Pursuit idea of the 3 tables inside a larger table. I would assume that instead of one item being inserted into a table, you would have to insert two - a category and an item eg. Stones, Keith Stones,Mick etc others Beach, Dennis Beach, Carl etc to keep the items able to be accessed separately. Where this falls apart for me is that I get totally flummoxed after staring at the Cache Pursuit, I have no idea how to remove just the item from the 2 item line in the table eg Charlie I don't think that in my model T idea I have the size concerns like in the Cache Pursuit so the 3 separate tables works for me. Am I close to the correct idea? Any ideas of why RandomObjects causes so much angst? One note: I downloaded Cache Pursuit, installed it into Earwigo and attempted to run it in Emulator to see it work - Emulator crashed - looking for something near a ) = Figures!! Thanks again for your help but this is getting to be a pain lol HwyGuy

The Earwigo - WWB - the Wherigo™ Web Builder forum on Google Groups has had only 2 topics this year, the last being Feb 11. So - not so much.

Case sensitive - yes - that could easily be my problem. I must admit I had paid just about no attention to case. Is there a listing of the predefined commands somewhere? That might help with further problems before they start.. Thanks for your time spent in getting me going in the right direction. HwyGuy

OK - have had a chance to look this over after a death in the family sidetracked me for a bit, I understand most of what you placed in your answer - thank you for that. I have tried most of it and always run into the Emulator tossing it back at me, which is why I sent the first post. So what I did was write three parts in a function in Author Script section and run one part at a time 1 assign values to two variables and attempt to print them the variables were assigned to be numbers 2 assign alpha characters to two variables and try to print them - the variable were assigned to be strings 3 assign alpha characters to three variables then put them in a table and then try to print the variables. - the variables were assigned to be strings What I got were error messages in the Emulator for each of them. 1 ERROR cartridge.lua:560: '(' expected near 'arrow' 2 ERROR cartridge.lua:570: '(' expected near 'Greeting' 3 ERROR cartridge.lua:592: '(' expected near 'itemApple' Pretty much what I have been running into each and every attempt at any of those actions for the last months. So - still confused Here is the Author Script where I inserted the --- in front of the 2 sections I did not want to run on each of the 3 attempts. function TryforTable --- 1 --- arrow = 2 --- bow = 3 --- Print (arrow + bow) --- Print (10*arrow + bow) --- 2 --- Greeting = "hello" --- Hello = "HwyGuy" --- Print (greeting hello) --- 3 itemApple = "This is an Apple." Lime = "This is an Lime." banana = "This is a Banana." fruits = { itemApple, Lime, "banana" } print(fruits[1]) -- This is an Apple. print(fruits[2]) -- This is an Orange. print(fruits[3]) -- banana end The Author Script did not turn the "banana" in the third section a nice black colour after I cut/pasted it in but I attempted to run it anyway, as I couldn't figure how to change the formatting to get the output expected . Any thought on where I am on the wrong track and how to get back on the rails?? Thanks HwyGuy

For several months, off and on, I have been attempting to write a cartridge in Earwigo, where the player attempts to find a number of items to be scattered in a number of zones. A modified Clue scenario if you will. I have read the posts here and have Googled Lua commands and I fear I am more confused than when I started. I did look at Battleships and Wack a Lackey but whatever I attempted from those was lost in the differences. I have tried various iterations of all the questions below and can never get it past the emulator. If I take out ALL mentions of tables etc then I can enter the first zone after start and have some things work but not what I want. I have been attempting to populate the tables on exit from the Start zone and putting the various functions etc in the Author Script tab in the Cartridge tab. I have attempted to populate a table a couple of different ways and each time the emulator finds a ") expected near a ," error or some variation. I plan to remove one of the items in the table and have Gallagher smash it with the sledgehammer. BUT that is another days frustration.. table = {'Apple', 'Banana', 'Orange', 'Watermelon' , 'tomato'} or a series of: table.insert(entry, "apple") then table.insert(entry, "banana") etc ... Neither way got past the Emulator. Should I be attempting to use an array instead of a table? Adding a whole lot more headaches. What I have not seen in any of the posts is a complete "idiots" list of parameters. If an entry is : table = {'Apple', 'Banana', 'Orange', 'Watermelon' , 'tomato'} does table require a var_ prefix? ==> var_table or is it tabentry ?? IS table a variable with a "string" designation? ARE apple, banana etc Items? Do they need to be identified as itemApple, itemOrange etc when putting them in the table? DO you need a Require "table" line at the start of the Author Script the same as Require "math"? In one of the posts it gave wonderful examples of coding to manipulate data from the tables using Random. Great except - does word Random have to appear in the statement? The example I am asking about was: tabRandom = RandomObjects({itemHammer, itemNail, itemRope, itemKnife}) many of my questions are a direct result of this example. entry = tabRandom:GetNext() where in this example is the Random generator - I am assuming RandomObjects but can I change the Objects part to something I wish to use like "squished" or would that be to the left of the equal and be tabSquished ? I also want to follow up this table with another of the implements used to smash them - hammer, mallet, bat etc. So the next table would be TabSmasher = RandomObjects ((itemhammer, itemmallet, itembat, itemsmashomatic))?? Would there be a conflict with the 2 RandomObjects parts? Thanks for looking at this and I hope it makes sense and the frustration hasn't totally made it that I missed a simple vital step that anyone should have seen. HwyGuy

Thanks Tungstène. I was afraid of that. I will add the line to the page.

I just did a point to point cartridge using your /Kit program. I works great! But - there is always one of those - when I field test it using an Android phone - at each question I get a small box stating "Scan QR Code". That has confused cachers on previous cartridges. I have looked at the lua file and see no mention of QR Code. Elsewhere on the net - I see a mention or two of this and the consensus appears to be that it is in the Wherugo app. IF so. is there any way to turn it off? Is it because there is another app that is a QR reader that is "infringing" on the Wherugo app? Any ideas? Thanks in advance. HwyGuy

I have done both an AR cache (with 3 parts and a final), an Adventure Lab cache (with 5 sections) and a Wherigo (one of mine - with a group) in the past while. I normally use a Garmin 64s but used my 2 year old LG5 smartphone for the 2 tests. For the AR - the phone gave a couple of the spots with the accompanying dialog but the download speed, processing speed? was so slow that after that the dialog boxes were just a blank rectangle on the screen. I got frustrated searching around with no concise directions of where to go or which direction to look. One of the people in the group had a new Apple iPhone and I just tagged along with them after a while. I got to the final and there was a cache and a log. For the Lab cache, I did it with my wife who has the exact same phone, purchased at the same time, with the same SD card etc. She managed to get through the 5 stages, with a few minor "wanders" to get the program to accept you were "in the zone". My phone had me 90m away and I could not get it to get any closer with any amount of wandering. I actually got credit for one zone because my wife had done one of the questions and the phone decided that I was now there (when I was nowhere near) and I could answer the question. I went back a few days later and used my wifes phone and signed into the app with my login and completed the other 4 zones. For the Wherigo - I did it with a group of 12. I used the same phone as above. There were a variety of phones, and Garmin devices. In the 10 stages, I was amazed at the variety of locations that the devices triggered the zone entry. My phone was close except for one where I ended up following the arrow out into traffic (never said I was bright). The Garmin seemed the most accurate and a couple of the phones never did get entry (can't go through a brick wall). At the final GZ my phone "dinged" at 1m from the cache but most of the others were across the lane for a time and some slowly moved over. As the cache owner I was taken aback at the variety of the variation at each location. I am not happy with either of the 2 new types of caches. I do not like using the phone for caching - it gets you close to the GZ but it is very jumpy. I travel a lot and I am not willing to pay $12/day for roaming (the current cost in Canada) and I cache for enjoyment - not for being frustrated by technology, service problems, or the "look everywhere around you" idea that the AR app required - I don't enjoy Where's Waldo? As for the Wherigo - I am not convinced I will write any more - if the phones are that "jumpy" that if I take you to a spot to see something specific - you could be quite a ways from the spot and miss the point of the stop entirely. While I understand Lab caches at an event, why should a cacher get credit for 5 finds on a single Lab cache and 1 find for a multi? Am I missing something or is this just an attempt at attracting more "numbers hounds" at the expense of those of us that have been the loyal customers for years? I suppose the point of this long ramble is - I do not like the direction Geocaching.com is going where the Smartphone is becoming the "go to" device for caching when there seems to be such a wide variation in produced results. Obviously the 2 cache owners in the above examples (plus me) spent a considerable amount of time planning and programming their creations. For me to have the "less than optimal" experience doing their caches through no fault or theirs does not seem like what I want caching to become or what will keep CO's happy.

Finally figured this problem out. I re-entered the zones on a new cartridge in Kit, saved a new lua file and then saved a lua file from the Earwigo cartridge I had the problem with earlier. Whew! Going through the two lua files - I quickly realized that the zonepoints had not been present in the first transfer from Kit. I suppose that is the indexing problem that the emulator didn't like. I did a cut and paste of the zonepoints for each zone from the Kit lua to the Earwigo lua and the emulator works just fine. And we do this for fun?? lol Thanks HwyGuy

I have done a simple point to point to point cartridge in Kit. The built in Emulator works fine. But when I either compile it or just zip it and take it into either Earwigo or Builder and immediately run their emulators, I get errors. I am not too worried about the ones in Builder, but I do want to do some add-ons in Earwigo. When I run the emulator in Earwigo I always get the error as shown in the screen shot. I have renames zones and/or added media to change the number of lines in the lua file but the emulator always states it is line 502 where the error occurs. I believe all the zonepoints have the zone coordinates centered inside them. Since I haven't changed anything between emulator runs, I have no idea how to proceed. I have restarted and rebooted between attempts as well. Thanks HwyGUY

Every time I attempt to sign in to Kit - I get a Server Error in '/' Application error and it hangs up. I have tried 2 different computers, rebooted, resigned in etc. - still no go. I therefore don't think is is something at my computer. Have I done something wrong somewhere or is the site down? Thanks HwyGuy

I am getting this error every time I attempt to enter the Wherigo\kit site. I have tried on 2 different computers and it is the same on both. Is the site down today?

One of my latest PQs which I have set to 1000 caches is topping out at 500. I changed the 1000 to 700 and it topped out at 500 again. It is only happening to one of my PQs. I have selected a large area and fit less than 1000 caches in a fron/to date sequence. The first 7 sequences work - the last doesn't. Any one else getting a problem like this? I don't want to have to do another sequence if I don't have to.

Why does a cache located in Kosovo still show on the cache page as being in Serbia? Many countries have now recognized Kosovo as a separate nation - is there a reason the Groundspeak has not? Thinking of going to that area in the spring and just noticed the discrepancy. Thanks for any info.

Of course there is always the possibility that they don't come at all. I have received only 1 of 16 in the last 3 days. Groundspeak shows as they have been generated but as has happened all too frequently lately, they are not sent out by the server. I have checked with my ISP and they say there is no filter on their end. If some of the previous Forum responses by Groundspeak employees about this problem is any indication - it will be a frosty day in hell before anything will be done to fix the problem. Sooner or later, the PQ's will mysteriously start arriving again or I will have to delete the present PQ and resave the exact same one to nudge the server to start sending to me again. All in all a real pain in the butt. In the meantime no notice of problems or any indication of care by this Company. Can a rate increase be far behind?

I received a Diabetes TB in the mail and "Grabbed it". On the tracking page of the TB - it shows me as having "grabbed it". BUT - This TB does not show up in my inventory. So how do I show as getting rid of it?? Thanks

I received a Diabetes TB in the mail and "Grabbed it". On the tracking page of the TB - it shows me as having "grabbed it". BUT - It does not show up in my inventory. Now how do I show as getting rid of it?? Thanks