Dragon Ball Z radar help

[Tero]

Good evening.
I am in need of some assistance.

I am trying to recreate the Dragon Radar from the Dragon ball Z show.
I know it has been done before and can work as I had the coding a few years back (I cannot remember who initially made it otherwise I would credit them here).

I have added the pictures below I wish to use.

The plan is for it to be used as an item from the inventory.
Use 'Dragon radar' and a picture displays.

I would like with each click for the radar to increase its field of view (all pics added below).

The tricky part im struggling with it for the radar to display an event in relation to the playable character. As the character moves around the event I would like the radar to depict this.

Hopefully I have explained myself enough for you to understand what I mean. If not please send as many questions as required.

 

[HexMozart88]

OK, so I think I somewhat understand, but a couple of questions about the radar itself. First of all, where are these dragons going to be located. Random spots in the map? Are they going to be in plain view or invisible? Second of all, does one single radar screen extend across every map or is it just for the current map?

 

[Tero]

The events that the radar will be plotting will be visible and in plain view.
The radar screen will only need to display the location A ‘dragon ball’ (event square) is on the current map.
Ideally I would like the ability to plot up to 7 events, and give an idea of distance from the main character to the event (thus the different scales of the radar). Although I can sort the different scales at a later date if that makes the request less complicated.

 

[Tero]

additionally to distance I need direction the event is in from the current Character is stood.
If anyone has any ideas that could point me in the right direction that would be great.

 

[HexMozart88]

I made a minimap a while back that has some similar ideas. By "relative to the player", I assume you mean the radar scrolls while you move? If that's the plan, that's a bit trickier, but still potentially doable. It would involve variables for the player's location, and a lot of show/ move picture commands that use the player's position (multiplied by a factor because of the different units) and display in that spot accordingly. The only thing I'm unsure of here is how to move the radar without making it go over the edges. Were it simply a matter of the indicator moving, it would be easy. If it's the grid as well, you may have to make several pictures that vary depending on the player's location.

 

[Tero]

The 'indicator' that displays where the item is would be the yellow dot (looks bigger in the pics above). I just need to have 2 pics displaying I suppose; 1 - the main radar image, 2 - the yellow dot that moves to different locations on the radar depending on direction and distance relative to the player.
You are correct I want the radar to display relative to the player.
I plan on linking the radar to a key item style thing. So the player would go to their items, click on 'radar' which would then open it up (nice and easy to do). I do not plan to have the radar open all the time with a constant update (maybe this could be the next step to look at after the concept works).

 

[HexMozart88]

OK, so then that's easier.
Opening: go into the database and set the item to a common event.
Displaying the radar: Set a variable to determine zoom that increases every time you press Enter/Space. If it gets to the max and the player presses space again, go back to 0. Then, use a series of conditional branches to check which picture to display at each zoom level.
Scrolling: Set two variables for the event's X and Y as well as the player's, then display the indicator based on where the event is. If the player is above or below a certain point on the map, erase the indicator picture. Having the indicator move up or down depending on where the player is would probably mean having the picture coordinates as a variable that includes both the player's coordinates and the event's. I'm not fully certain what operation you'd need to have it display accurately, so you'll probably need to do some playing around on your own there.

 

[Tero]

perfect that makes sense to me. It will prob take me a few days to get sorted so I'll see what happens and keep you posted. If you come up with any other pointers please let me know (same goes to anyone else reading). If/when I get this sorted I'll share what the completed system looks like.