A new option should be added to the message box. The option when ticked would send the message to the closest object to the object sending the message. You could tick this box along with the “choose objects to send to” which would send it to the closest of the selected targets.
I mean, I could see something like this being useful, because there isn’t really a way to specify data exchange based on proximity. There’s a message option for last contacted object.
What I believe woulf be a great feature would be “Pass note”, which acts as sending a message to a certain object type, when in a certain proximity range. The other object would have a trigger “Note”, which acts the same as the mailbox trigger for messages. This way, if you have tons of the same object on screen, only the ones nearby will get the “Notes”.
This can be used for sending numbers to close range objects, like if you pick up a key, and set a number to 1, going to a door that requires you to have a number 1 would open on proximity on any level in the game. Can also be used for sending health or anything really.
This could be achieved already by having a GUI computer store all numbers and info desired, and the other object could just proximity the player instead, message the GUI computer, then the GUI computer messages that last contacted object back with whatever information was requested from the data it has collected from the player. It’s a bunch of extra steps, and most people wouldn’t think of doing it like that, so maybe the Note idea will help.
hmmm. that’s confusing.
Here’s an idea I just had. So let’s say you only want the closest objects to message the player, or you only one the closest objects to be messaged by the player, when an enemy gets close to the player, have proximity send a message to the player, then have the player send a message back to the last contacted object. I’m not sure how this will work with multiple objects sending messages based on proximity, but I’m curious if last contacted object specifically means that object, or all of the same type of object. It’s something I’ll have to either test out, or somebody else test out, but you are welcome to test it out if you do it first.