Some General questions about ZC Quest Editor

[Poke Alex]

Hi everyone, I just discovered Zelda Classic and have been thinking about a project I'd love to do using the Quest Editor. Before I get started, though, there are some questions I have about how much customization one can give one's quest. Sorry if any of these have been asked before....

1. How do the maps work? I read a bit about maps and dmaps but I can't quite figure it out. Am I limited to one 16x8 overworld and nine 8x8 underworlds? Are there more possibilities than that, or should everything stay within that total number of rooms?

2. Can there be more than one Zelda? I'd like to have a mini-princess sort of character at the end of each dungeon. I guess they could be just the "Old Man"-type character in a room behind the boss. I think I just answered my own question.

3. How customizable is the Triforce? What I have in mind for my quest is an object similar to the Triforce, broken into pieces and scattered throughout the dungeons. But the object I envision is 6 pieces, not 8, and is star-shaped and not triangular. Would something like that be possible?

4. Is there "layering" available for atmosphere effects? (i.e. fog or whatever) I see in screenshots from some quests that people have used snow/rain, so I would guess that it can be done...

5. Is there any source available somewhere (besides this forum and the basic editor walkthrough) that would tell me the answers to these questions?

Thank you!

[Ganonator]

1) Maps are just an array of 16x11 screens. You can have up to 255 maps, each having 128 screens. That's a fuck-ton of screens, and anybody that comes out filling those maps up (C-dawg) deserves a medal.

Because maps are just room data, D-maps, or level maps, are used to control palettes, the map and compass item, and boss data. These reference maps for the tiles and combos, but have their own hierarchy for environments. These are under quest -> dmaps.

2) You can put as many 'Zelda's in one quest, however, when you visit the first one, your game ends. So you'll have to use your trick instead.

3) Just with the sprites. There's a topic in ZC Suggestions right now about it.

4) you can have up to 6 layers, with your choice of transparent or opaque. layers 1 and 2 are below link, 3 and 4 above link but below flying enemies, and 5 and 6 above all. There are no atmosphere effects per se, but you can add snow or rain tiles to layer 6 to give that appearance. Play 210test.qst for a test of that.

5) www.zeldaclassic.com/faq.php <- at the time i checked this, no-ip.com was down, it may not be correct.

any more questions? please ask.

[ZTC]

EDIT gah, sniped!


note, some of the explanations are kind of generalized and vague, I just started working with Zquest again after a 1 month haitus, so bear with me ;)

1. maps are not limited to the 'basic' set, so yeah; like for one of my quests, there's 2 regular overwords, 2 others to form a gigantic one, a 'mini' overworld, and over 16 dungeons

2. yeah, there is a way to do that, but I can't remember how to do that without a warp glitch

3. there's a rule allowing for 3 or 6 Triforce pieces to pass at the L9 gate guy, and yes, the triforce tiles can be edited to a degree

4. yep, one can do at least 6 layers

5. here's one by idontknow-- http://www.geocities.com/idontknowtutorial/contents.html?1048292445858
also look around the Zelda Classic homepage for other ones
(as I can't remember where Alpha Dawg's tutorial is located :shrug: )

[Poke Alex]

Thanks so much for the repsonses guys! Looks like I'll be coming up with a quest in my spare time (whenever I find some)...

[DeFray]

I'm not going to answer all of your questions, because I think Ganonator and Cyborg have done an excellent job of answering them already. However, here are some of my ideas:

2. I think you can use the "Zelda" guy in many different rooms and not end the game. Correct me if I'm wrong, somebody, but I think it's just the "Zelda" flag that ends the game.
This means you could make pictures of many different maidens and put them into the different dungeons. So, your idea would require you to draw some new tiles and probably to use layers. But, my point is that it's definitely possible, you'll just have to do some extra work. Of course, I could have misunderstood your question.

5. If you're trying to get the hang of ZQuest, Alphadawg has a very nice tutorial available. The easiest way to find it is to go to the top of this ZeldaClassic page and click "Tutorials".

You're welcome :)


By the way, Poke_Alex, welcome to the forums!

[ZTC]

gah, it was under my nose, here's the mirror for Alpha's tutorial--
http://www.casadealphadawg.com/zc/zqtutorial