Quest Phasing

[Neccta]

I'm writing a quest line that involves big scenes that can't be played over top of each other. I can phase them so no 2 players will be in the same phase. One way would to create a table of phases that I could use, then use math.random to select one. But then there is a possibility to phase into another players phase while their scene is playing.
Does anyone else have an idea of what I could do? Maybe something that is more efficient.

 

[Tommy]

Why not just credit the people who has the quest once the cinematic is over with? Would be better than wasting time trying to phase everyone.

 

[Rochet2]

Store which phases are in use.
Then loop through them to find a free one.
You can store the phases or the powers of 2.

Example without using a table:

local phases = 0
local uint32max = math.pow(2, 32)-1

-- Returns unused unique phase from phases or nil
function GetAndReservePhase()
    local phase = 2
    while (phase <= uint32max) do
        local addPhase = bit32.bor(phases, phase)
        if (addPhase ~= phases) then
            phases = addPhase
            return phase
        end
        phase = phase*2
    end
end

-- Frees the given phase (can be mask)
function FreePhase(phasemask)
    phases = bit32.band(phases, bit32.bnot(phasemask))
end

-- Example:
local a, b, c = GetAndReservePhase(), GetAndReservePhase(), GetAndReservePhase()
print("Reserved phases:", a, b, c)

FreePhase(b)
print("Freed phase:", b)

local d = GetAndReservePhase()
print("Next free phase:", d)

 

[Foereaper]

Remember you would have to reset the specific phase whenever a player enters, seeing as you'd technically reuse phases others have been in before.