[nephy13]

For all of the situations I can imagine (I accept there could be many other situations...), you can avoid using "artificial" flags by properly querying the entities in the game. For example, to see if a timer has completed, then query "finished" on it rather then using the timer trigger to set an external flag. To flag that a specific zone has ever been entered, just deactivate the zone when it is triggered (since you only need to trigger the zone-entry once in this case, it would be correct to deactivate it when it triggers anyway).

If you *really* need to make a flag, I'd suggest the best way is to create a non-creature like a dialog (which is always invisible) and use active/inactive as your flag value. Be aware that doing this will put Trykers out of work...

For a counter, you could use a timer that is paused (Put it as active in the editor and add an on-activated event that pauses it). You set the initial timer value to, say, 5 "seconds" and then you can add or subtract from this value. You will get the timer triggering when value becomes 0. You can alternatively query the "finished" flag to see whether the current value == 0.

Please be aware that if you set the initial time to 5 seconds, then you can only count down 4 times before the timer is triggered (I've tested this a few times and it seems consistent). Presumably the timer counts down once before you can pause it. So, if you want a counter for 5, then set the intial value to 6. Additionally, you must be aware that it would be reasonable for Neveraxx to change this behaviour on a whim, since this is not really what timers are for.

*Warning! Using these tricks is an ungodly fudge of the highest order and will prevent you from ever getting to programmer heaven*