Editor documentation wrong

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Editor documentation wrong

Postby hectavex » Sat Jan 04, 2020 7:03 pm

It seems some stuff in TheQuestEditor.pdf document is not working:

1) Where it talks about Scripting Monsters, suggesting a monster can have more scripts, the only place I can assign a script is after I add a monster to a block and then edit the monster on that block. I see no way to assign a script to the Monster Type. This is problematic because it means you cannot spawn new monsters with scripts. There is also no attachScript() to add one, no clone(), and the various createMonster() functions have no script option either.

2) The finditem() / receiveitem() / move() / movepos() all not working for monsters, severely limiting our monster scripting options.

3) I've tried player.Move() and MoveMode() to another Surface map region but it always crashes the game.

Maybe I am doing something wrong?

Thanks for the great game by the way. Editor is very nice too!
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Re: Editor documentation wrong

Postby Elendil / Redshift » Mon Jan 06, 2020 8:42 am

Yes, those are likely true. The editor was never completely finished. The old documentation more so.

When I took over I tried to fix any bugs I could find but fixing scripting problems was not a goal, sorry.

The editor's functionality is basically what you can make work. The documentation is very helpful but there are some missing functionality and edge cases as you've discovered. See the tutorial and try looking at existing worlds (not the least the main world) on how scripting is used and post your questions here.

I'm very busy but Catacomber (major developer behind most of the available third party worlds) might have time to help, as well as others.
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Re: Editor documentation wrong

Postby hectavex » Mon Jan 06, 2020 11:12 pm

Dear Elendil, thanks for replying.

I kind of assumed that is the answer I was going to get. It's understandable with your work load and The Quest being what, 13 years old now? Even Elder Scrolls Creation Kit is pretty clunky by comparison.

I got The Quest recently on Steam sale because I was excited someone actually tried to make an indie Morrowind + Wizardry type game. I had to see it in action, and I was pleased, even more so that there was an editor too.

A week or two later, here I am building a 14x14 world in The Quest Editor. But when I discovered the missing/broken scripting features it put my custom world on indefinite hold. I tried about 6 different workarounds to get a fun hunting gameplay mechanic working. Well I eventually got a decent one working (code at end of this post), but it leaves much to be desired. I probably will halt this project and wait for The Quest 2.

I did read thru all the tutorial pages and forums, and I read over every core game script. They were very basic, I think the rope script was the most complex lol! But I did notice these scripts were only using maybe less than 50% of the documented features, so it was probably incomplete, and I already expected that when posting this question I just wanted to make sure it wasn't something I was doing wrong.

Looking over the forum and not seeing many of my problems mentioned, makes me believe I am already pushing the limits here.

Nonetheless, I am also developing my own game engine (for the last several years), and The Quest Editor has inspired me to dust this old thing off and get back to work. Seeing what just a small indie team can do really inspires me, so thank you!

Here is my game engine wip:

https://github.com/perrybutler/astral

Here is the custom world I was building for The Quest (on hold):

Image

Image

Here is the hunting script I made work in The Quest Editor:

Code: Select all
cleankill = 0;
cleanhit = 0;

if (evthit() && isweapon("pb02_huntingbow")) {
    pb02_gameanimal1000.addhp(-1);
    pb02_gameanimal1001.addhp(-1);
    pb02_gameanimal1002.addhp(-1);
    if (gethp() == 0) {
      cleankill = 1;
    }
    else {     
      cleanhit = 1;
    }
}

r = random(3);
if (r == 0) {
  if (pb02_gameanimal1000.isvisible()) {
    pb02_gameanimal1000.sethidden();
    pb02_gameanimal1001.setvisible();
  }
  else {
    pb02_gameanimal1000.setvisible();
  }
}
else if (r == 1) {
  if (pb02_gameanimal1001.isvisible()) {
    pb02_gameanimal1001.sethidden()
    pb02_gameanimal1002.setvisible();
  }
  else {
    pb02_gameanimal1001.setvisible();
  }
}
else if (r == 2) {
  if (pb02_gameanimal1002.isvisible()) {
    pb02_gameanimal1002.sethidden();
    pb02_gameanimal1000.setvisible();
  }
  else {
    pb02_gameanimal1002.setvisible();
  }
}

sethidden();

if (cleanhit == 1) {
  message("Clean hit! The animal scurries away.");
}
else if (cleankill == 1) {
  message("Clean kill!");
  player.receiveitem("base_com_meat", 1);
  pb02_gameanimal1000.setfullhp();
  pb02_gameanimal1001.setfullhp();
  pb02_gameanimal1002.setfullhp();
}
else {
  message("The animal sensed your murderous intent and evaded. It fled into the distance.");
  pb02_gameanimal1000.setfullhp();
  pb02_gameanimal1001.setfullhp();
  pb02_gameanimal1002.setfullhp();
}


Like I said, workarounds were required to make this hunting script work. It's pretty easy to follow.

It works by using a group of monsters to simulate one monster on the run. Each time you interact with the monster it "runs away". You only get meat if you kill it with the hunting bow, any other action resets the hunt.

This script would get much larger to support other hunting weapons or more monsters on the map. And it has to be cloned for each map we want hunts on. So it's not really that feasible. But it's fun.

What I originally wanted to do was make it so that each "clean hit" adds a meat to the monsters inventory for looting when it dies, and each "wrong hit" would remove meat from its inventory. The idea was that you will spoil the meat by hunting with a regular dirty/poisoned weapon. Alas, these scripting features don't work.

I should also mention I had a bunch of custom graphics in this, desert texture, 2 cactus, donkey, horse, hills, 2 stone mountains, snake, double barrel shotgun (lol i had to try it...) etc. All ripped from Google Images as prototypes and they looked lovely in the game.

One thing I'd like to see in The Quest 2 editor is ability to import/export map regions. That way multiple people can work on a world at the same time. Sort of a poor man's collaboration. I'm excited the new editor will support custom music, as I make my own.

I have some experience doing game design and engine development, although I have no professional products on the market in this domain (yet!), if you guys ever want to chat about this kind of thing then feel free to reach out to me in private message, I am mainly on discord.
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Re: Editor documentation wrong

Postby Elendil / Redshift » Tue Jan 07, 2020 10:54 am

What you created is impressive. :)

Scripting in The Quest 2 should be much more capable, though exactly what'll be possible is not set the least. We'll see. ;)
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Re: Editor documentation wrong

Postby hectavex » Thu May 14, 2020 11:44 pm

I forgot to post some screenshots a while back...here they are.

https://imgur.com/a/Rlcikvv

Disclaimer: I ripped the new graphics from image search, they're not mine, used as placeholders only.

Keep up the good work guys!! Still looking forward to The Quest 2. I am listening to The Quest soundtrack right now 8-)
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Re: Editor documentation wrong

Postby Reckoner » Fri May 15, 2020 1:45 am

hectavex wrote:I forgot to post some screenshots a while back...here they are.

https://imgur.com/a/Rlcikvv

Disclaimer: I ripped the new graphics from image search, they're not mine, used as placeholders only.

Keep up the good work guys!! Still looking forward to The Quest 2. I am listening to The Quest soundtrack right now 8-)


That looks fantastic!
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Re: Editor documentation wrong

Postby Catacomber » Fri May 15, 2020 3:21 am

Not everything in the original editor document works right. It can crash the game. I've tried that trying to spawn monsters via script and it just doesn't work. Just try what you can and if it works that's great but don't be discouraged if it doesn't. It's not your script more likely than not. It's just that it's not really doable because it wasn't implemented. Elendil has done a lot to improve the Quest engine but there are some things that just were never meant to work. They are alluded to in the Quest editor but were never really implemented.
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Re: Editor documentation wrong

Postby Jax32 » Fri May 15, 2020 8:50 pm

hectavex wrote:I forgot to post some screenshots a while back...here they are.

https://imgur.com/a/Rlcikvv

Disclaimer: I ripped the new graphics from image search, they're not mine, used as placeholders only.

Keep up the good work guys!! Still looking forward to The Quest 2. I am listening to The Quest soundtrack right now 8-)

Could you upload this new extension here? Please!
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