The Philosophy of Zelda Classic User-Friendliness

[splattergnome]

One trend I have seen in recent times is that whenever new users ask for certain additions in the suggestion forum, more experienced users tend to respond that they are not neccessary because they can be readily simulated by the existing tools provided by Zelda Classic. While I think its a good thing to provide alternative suggestions on how to implement something in somebody's quest, this does show off a problem I see with Zelda Classic:

ZQuest, as it currently is, is not particularly user friendly for new users. While it is possible to create all types of wonderful and detailed quests with tiered secrets and the like, it is currently very unorganized and frightening to new users. The lack of current up-to-date tutorials and help file only help make things more confusing.

I think that making ZQuest more user-friendly for new users to attract new talents should be a major priority. There are many ways to do this - everything from sorted out flags with pull down menus (this would be particularly nice to sort flags according to type), context-sensitive help - even by adding new hardcoded options.

Now - I can see why people dislike hard-coded solutions when one can hack better solutions through screen warps and inherent flags - but sometimes a few more options would make things easier and faster for new people just interested in making a quest. Mazes, guys, shops - these may all be deprecated (since designed "only" for classic Zelda-type quests and now at least partially possible to simulate with the current engine functions) - but they are important for new users. I would even go as far and say there should be more types of standard rooms and guys and the like. If it helps one user complete a quest which is fun to play, then it has been worth it.

As it is, they will probably be confused by mention of "combos", "tiles", and "flags" - a bit of rearranging, even a bit of renaming (do we really need to keep "Armos->Item" when it isn't only used by Armos?) can go a long way. I am not against ZQuest's complexity - indeed, I want to see more advanced features and possibilities to make more complex quests. However, I think it is also important to cater to newer users as well and not scare them off.

I would like to hear other people's thoughts on this - and ideas on how Zelda Classic could be made more user-friendly and easy-to-use.

splatty

[Nicholas Steel]

an expert always starts as a beginner.

everyone here including zc developers started as beginers... (developers new more stuff about it etc. but they still started as beginers)

[80s Knight]

I agree with Franpa. A month ago, I was a 100% beginner to ZQ. Thanks to a tutorial and my own experimentation, and a few questions asked here, I'm quickly becoming more and more advanced in my ZQuesting. :)

[rocksfan13]

I agree with both franpa and 80s Knight.

When I started I had no clue. Couldn't even figure out how to change the colors. But with time I have grown into an above average author. Not yet an expert as the Zquest becomes ever bigger with new additions.

I don't think anyone will ever be an expert as long as they are still adding things. Close maybe, because even the best of the best of the designers get bugs and still ask questions.

Just look at DarkFlameWolf. She's been asking questions recently and she's a very well known author.

[Petoe]

Well I definitely think ZC needs more features that makes building quests easier and less time consuming. Right now those kind of features are even more important than any new super cool features (like Roc's feather, enemy editor etc.) in my opinion.

But in the end, ZC is not that tough program to use/learn if just some effort is put into learning it. Thank goodnes there are some good tutorials out there. But instead of tons of different ZC tutorials made by numorous authors there should be one "official" ZC guide which explains EVERY damn feature and how to use it...

[rocksfan13]

I'm pretty sure that WAS Eckels' goal.

I just think it was lost along the way and in the dust.

[Zenphobia]

Just out of curiousity, where is there an up to date tutorial?

And for the most part, I agree with the topic starter. Applying the, "well I could do it, everyone should be able too" doesn't make the program any easier to work with nor is it really a response to a constructive critique.

Learning about the program is honestly a pain in the ass, not so much using the program itself. The tutorials I've found were old, thus, trying to work with the options they're discussing takes a lot of guesswork and random searching through DOS based menus (DOS is probably problem #1). It's also not very encouraging to new comers when the website hasn't been updated for over a year.

[Freedom]

Here's what info I've gotten uploaded that I've compiled.
http://members.toast.net/mfreedom/ZC/zcquests.htm

[firefly]

I'm really old to ZC, so I don't have many problems with ZQuest, but it pains me to see people that don't know how to use Zquest and they move to "more fancy games", what I suggest is to have a quest with a good story and many features and have it in Zelda Classic folder and by "default", so it encourages the player to build a quest, then, make Zquest more user-friendly, the difficult features of Zquest often discourage people, for example, someone wants to trigger a secret when you get the map in a dungeon, but the difficult process of making a boss trigger flag often discourages people, and this make people think: "why am I wasting my time in this?, I can't do what I want, so I'll better move to better games".
Just think.
At least this is in my opinion, I don't know what you guys think.

[vegeta1215]

When I started learning ZC all that was available was was mottzilla's tutorial. It was very helpful though not nearly as comprehensive as AlphaDawg's. Needless to say I spent about a week learning ZC, staying up till like 3 am each night fiddling with it. The hardest part is getting used to the terminology. Also, once you get the hang of warping (to go in/out of dungeons and caves for examples), the rest becomes easier.

I haven't used ZC in a long time, so I'm sure there are some new things I have yet to learn such as layers.

btw, here's a link to an archived version of the original ZC homepage, which has mottzilla's tutorial for those of you that are curious about it: http://www.jcraner.com/zc/zqtuts.html