RE: Condition "Can player purchase game?"

what *exactly* does the condition "Can player purchase game?" do / check for?

MMF Help file states : "This condition returns true if the player is authorized to buy the current game."

what does "not authorized" mean? what player would be "not authorized" to make a purchase, if i had already made sure they were signed in?


my problem is that no matter what i do, if my event is:

- player presses button 1
- can player purchase game? = true
= SHOW MARKET PLACE

it will only work with pad 1. no matter what indexes i have assigned, and what pad is controlling everything, it will only "show marketplace" if i am using pad 1.

HOWEVER

if my event is:

- player presses button 1
- game is in trial mode
= SHOW MARKET PLACE

this works for all pads.

so i want to know if there is a serious reason why i have to use the condition "can player purchase game".

please help!

As I understand it 'Not authorized' would be something like the player having an offline account, or not being signed in. I've got some extra profiles set up on mine for testing which aren't on xbox live, so I assume they would not be authorized for example. I'm not sure what happens if you don't use that condition.

The 'show marketplace' asks for a player index, which is different to the gamepad number, could this be the problem?

cole, i had a look at megacity and you are doing it quite differently to how i had it setup and what i thought was the correct setup.

please could you explain/talk me through the events you have for assigning pads at the start of the game?

I'd also like some clarity over getting the correct events in place for these functions, just to take the guess work out of it.

MegaCity is a single player game, I just made it so it can be controlled by 4 controllers at once if the player so desired. Kind of like a rudimentary co-op mode.

So on the controller screen, once a controller is activated (by pressing A in this case) it will set a 1-15 global value which describes the controllers being used. (See here: http://community.clickteam.com/showthread.php?t=71404). I've got 15 events checking for each possible combination then setting the value accordingly. From then on in the game I used this global value when testing the gamepad object (apart from the buy button which is separate for each player).

I also have a global value called 'master player' which is the player index the game loads & saves data from. The player can also set this at the controller screen by pressing Y in case they don't want it to be the first player (which in my system is the default- if p2 presses A first, they will be the master player by default for example.) So the system player index is set to this which tells it to load/save data to that profile.

I've also got another 4 global values called 'player1'-'player4' which get set to 1 if a player is present in that player slot. So if there is a 3rd player then 'player3' is set to 1, if not then it's 0.

For the buy button I've got 4 separate events for each of the player slots, checking: 'Game is in Trial Mode' , 'Button pressed (relative to the player slot)' , 'Player Can Purchase Game (relative to the player slot)' , 'Gamer Services are Connected', and also if the 'player' global value is 1. Then for the event, open marketplace for the 4 different slots.

Wish I could describe it more clearly! As soon as I try it sounds very confusing. Maybe I'll find the time to make an example mfa but I've been quite busy recently.

cole, thank you so much for the reply.
would you be willing to post a few screenshots of your setup?

i have a one player game, which is playable on all four pads, but no matter what methods i try it only lets me "show marketplace" if i am using pad 1. it is driving me crazy.

When testing with the other gamepads, are you definitely logged in & connected on that controller with an xbox live account?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by colej_uk

When testing with the other gamepads, are you definitely logged in & connected on that controller with an xbox live account?

---

yep 100% sure i am logged in with the pad i am trying to buy the game with. i checked on megacity and it definitely works correctly the way you do it, so i must be doing it wrong.

i will explain my entire setup below and maybe that will be easier for you to tell me what im doing wrong!

Frame 1
--------
Gamer Services Object Properties:

- Connect at start ticked, no other boxes ticked.

Events:

- Button A of player 1 is pressed = Assign gamepad(s) 1 to player 1, Set system player index to 1, go to next frame
- Button A of player 2 is pressed = Assign gamepad(s) 2 to player 1, Set system player index to 1, go to next frame
- Button A of player 4 is pressed = Assign gamepad(s) 4 to player 1, Set system player index to 1, go to next frame
- Button A of player 8 is pressed = Assign gamepad(s) 8 to player 1, Set system player index to 1, go to next frame

Frame 2
--------
Gamer Services Object Properties:

- No boxes ticked.

Events:

- Pressed Fire 4, Player can purchase game = show marketplace for player 1

Quote:

---

- Button A of player 1 is pressed = Assign gamepad(s) 1 to player 1, Set system player index to 1, go to next frame
- Button A of player 2 is pressed = Assign gamepad(s) 2 to player 1, Set system player index to 1, go to next frame
- Button A of player 4 is pressed = Assign gamepad(s) 4 to player 1, Set system player index to 1, go to next frame
- Button A of player 8 is pressed = Assign gamepad(s) 8 to player 1, Set system player index to 1, go to next frame

---

'Assign Gamepad' only assigns it to the mmf2 player index for things like built-in movement controls. It doesn't assign to an XNA player index (I think). The XNA player index is the same as the 4 circle lights on your xbox.

Quote:

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Pressed Fire 4, Player can purchase game = show marketplace for player 1

---

So here, since the 'show marketplace' command uses the XNA player index, it's opening the marketplace for whatever account is currently player 1 on your xbox and not the necessarily mmf2 player 1. Hope that makes sense.

Great help Cole - I noticed that the assign gamepad worked only for the mmf2 index, was a bit confusing at first.

Good to see the actual methods used on a published game, thanks.

cole,

i still cant get it working.

if you are willing to make an example mfa, i could paypal you some money

I'll send you the player select screen & a frame with the buy link from megacity if you like? I'd rather not publish it as it is a bit messy (I was working it out myself when I made it). Looking back on it now I think there are some things that I don't need in the code.

Hopefully I'll find the time to make a proper example file soon.

that would be so fantastic ! ill PM you my skype ID and email now