Fallout 2 utility Is it possible to have LVARs in sfall global scripts?

Is it possible to use LVARs in sfall global scripts (i.e. scripts prefixed with gl_)? The script doesn't get run globally if I correctly include it in scripts.lst, but otherwise its LVAR doesn't seem to work correctly;

If I give it a filename which is too long and include it in scripts.lst then the game crashes, but if I give it a filename longer than 8 characters but not long enough to crash the game, then it seems to work globally, and the LVAR worked mostly correctly? But when I reloaded the game during combat then I saw weird unexpected behaviour with its variable.

The reason why I need a LVAR is because ideally I would like the variable to be only accessible by this particular global script. But if that's not possible then I'll use a GVAR.

 

Okay, I'll use GVAR.

The problem with the docs, which I read before posting the thread, is that they don't mention that gl_ scripts stop working globally if they're included in scripts.lst (therefore no LVARs) - it might be worth updating them to mention that.

 

But the docs imply that they aren't recommended over GVARs in the normal circumstances: https://sfall.bgforge.net/global-variables/
"The functions are intended for use when a patch to a mod requires the addition of a new global variable, a case which would otherwise require the player to start a new game."

Is there a benefit of sfall globals over GVARs?

Edit: I suppose that I prefer to use only one type of global in my own code, instead of first using GVARs and then adding sfall globals if I write patches for my mods, which is good enough to break the tie in this choice.

 

I thought of this, and I was going to start numbering my GVARs from some number like 8150, but then the Fallout engine loves assuming that everything is in order, so I wasn't sure whether that would work. Although even in that case I could have defined a few hundred dummy variables which I ignore, but that's not very neat, so in the end I agree about using sfall globals.

Though I would love to have a different type of sfall variables which are only accessible within a single .int script.

 

It's the equivalent of private variables in other languages - in this case the benefit would be that you will know that the variable will be used in this file only, and you won't need to look for other files reading it or changing it.

Having global mutable state can easily lead to messy code, but with Fallout 2 modding global mutable state seems unavoidable because a lot of the logic happens in hooks or global scripts which can't easily pass information to one another because they don't call each other. But file-local variables might be a tiny improvement.

It might not work because I haven't figured out whether vault13.gam would be a problem, but it doesn't matter, there's no point in attempting this instead of using sfall globals anyway.

 

You're correct, however I meant to say something else - I'm looking for private variables which get saved with your game state.

 

Maybe I'm doing something weird. I already have 4 sfall global variables in my WIP mod which is very small in scope: 1. used during initialization, keeps track of whether it's a new game or a game is being loaded, 2. for keeping track of whether a player has crafted a certain weapon, if yes then add a chance for vendors to restock ammo for it; 3. same but for a different weapon; 4. pending charges for the recharger rifle so that even when it's out of your inventory its ammo can recharge, and when picked up all ammo from the variable gets added to its magazine.
I'd love to get some code reviews once I'm finished with the first release of the mod.

Also when you say that you haven't had a mess of global variables, that's evidence that maybe it doesn't tend to happen in Fallout modding. Global mutable state often leads to a very bad mess in regular programming, but that doesn't mean that Fallout modding is going to be the same.