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Majora
03-07-2007, 08:34 PM
What's the current status on NeoFirst? Just curious :)

_L_
03-08-2007, 06:21 AM
I'll get back to working on it once 2.5 is out. Then hopefully it'll be done before 3.0.

ShadowTiger
03-08-2007, 10:34 AM
I've been learning the hard way, ... and often, ... ... that my custom boss and wall tiles suck. ;_; XD *Returns to his vat of emo ice cream for solace*

I'm STILL assembling L2's cave/dungeon combo walls, similar to Mr. Z's. I have NO BLOODY IDEA how the HELL he did those to make them work. I'm also designing a set of walls for the elaborate and beautiful Level 3. It will have a light and dark set, running parallel to each other. One will be destroyed and ruined, yet still beautiful, while the other will be very well designed, yet horrifically awe-inspiring (In the bad way; the evil, horrific way.) menacing, yet similar enough to the Light walls to BE the light walls.

Not going so well. > <. If anyone has any designs for them they can draw up in Paint or something, that would be so very helpful. =/ I can sprite them rather easily, but I have no conception of WHAT TO SPRITE, y'know? :p

Petoe
03-08-2007, 11:45 AM
Done before 3.0 is out? Oh man, I thought this quest was supposed to be released with 2.5. :(

Well good luck to ya with this project, it is a very important one for the whole ZC community.

The_Amaster
03-08-2007, 07:46 PM
Yeah, I'm sorry, but I thought the whole point of NeoFirst was to show off 2.5's new features. And when you say 3.0 I'm assuming the devs have a plan to release 3.0 within, at the very max, a year after 2.5, or else you wouldnt say that.

Majora
03-08-2007, 08:32 PM
3.0? Wow... I thought it WOULD be by 2.5 (or .6) but 2.5 comes first.

If I can offer my services in any way, let me know (I personally want to actually work on NeoFirst, I guess you could say "part of the (project) team":D

ShadowTiger
03-08-2007, 11:01 PM
To say that NeoFirst MUST come out with a whole number release (2.5, 3.0, etc.) is like saying that a starving man MUST wait to have a bucket of chicken assembled for him rather than eating one chicken leg from said bucket as it's stocked in there. I'm sure you'd all rather have a complete NeoFirst rather than a quest slapped together to be released to the public. Besides, public builds won't be withheld. O.o' They'll still have whatever tips and tricks NeoFirst will use as they'll always be unpassworded. It'll just be incremental (Similar to the current state of the builds.) until a final release.

Petoe
03-11-2007, 03:29 AM
ST, I know that Neofirst is supposed to be a full, playable custom quest with dungeons and a final boss etc. But its main purpose is still to be a kind of tutorial to show off the new features and how they are used am I right?

Maybe you haven't noticed that there's a horrible lack of tutorials in the world of ZC at the moment. Developers add all these new features but no one cares to explain how they work. I'm sure I'm not the only one who is pissed at the fact there are no FAQs/Tutorials for the new features of ZC. And therefore I really think you guys should release NeoFirst with ZC 2.5 even if it's not finished... unless someone is secretely working on a super awesome ZC guide that people are unaware of...

Shoelace
03-11-2007, 06:04 AM
I agree with you Petoe about the lack of tutorials around. I don't know half the new features that are on ZC anymore. That is why I was trying to get a tutorial forum at PureZC as it is needed. Neofirst was supposed to be a tutorial quest but it just turned into something bigger. It is just the nature of the beast. For example, I thought it was going to be released at the end of August which is why I made the level so quick, 2-3 weeks something like that. I personally am very disappointed in the level I made for Neofirst as I could have done way better. It was just I thought level 2 was going to be made immediately after level 1. But 9 months later it still isn't.

But I do understand that it has taken a different direction. Jman did want this to be a tutorial quest that would be released with the 2.5. However, it just got bigger and bigger. Of course the quest will be better as a result, however, it just won't be out anytime close to the release of 2.5.

Nicholas Steel
03-11-2007, 06:12 AM
after its release someone could write documentation explaining how everything was done in LI... so we have a tutorial with sample work...

Petoe
03-11-2007, 07:25 AM
after its release someone could write documentation explaining how everything was done in LI... so we have a tutorial with sample work...

Yeah, well... true.
Actually, after LI is finsihed, I have been thinking about starting making a new, very huge and thorough ZC/ZQ guide because without any new tutorials newbies will have no clue what to do with ZQuest and therefore ZC will continue dying.
The problem with my plan is 1) my English is not very good and 2) starting that guide would mean no new quests from me in a looong time and I really don't want to put my quest designign career on hold. :(

Oh well, it's just really frustrating that no one seems to understand how important it actually is to have readme files and guides for ZQuest and no one is even doing anything about it. The least that could be done would be the release of NeoFirst, no matter how unfinished it would be.

erm2003
03-11-2007, 09:29 AM
Well, remember this thread?
http://www.armageddongames.net/forums/showthread.php?t=94214

I don't know if koopa is still working on it but at least something was in the works at some point. Is anyone still working on that project?

The_Amaster
03-11-2007, 11:13 AM
Well, some features like Roc's Feather are pretty obvious, but I agree, scripting in particular could use a good comprehensive tutorial.(Yes I know some have been writen, but there still isn't much for those who have never seen a line of code in their life)

WindStrike
03-11-2007, 12:02 PM
Hmm... I believe ShadowTiger was working on a scripting tutorial for newbies... and had a start over at ZCU, but it never really got to the point where one learns to do something.

Petoe, I think the ZC/ZQ guide would probably be better as a group project, as it is WAY TOO FREAKING MUCH for one person (unless you're as fast as Data). ... I believe I just stated the obvious. Crap.

... yeah, my quest is semi on hold as well until 2.5 - I regret dling 16c... shoulda just stuck with 16... unless any of you can suggest a build that's somewhat stable.

And until I know just what is really what in this NeoFirst, I don't think I can really contribute. In other words, I'm waiting for 2.5 - duh, we're all waiting for 2.5. *slaps head*

ShadowTiger
03-11-2007, 12:31 PM
I believe ShadowTiger was working on a scripting tutorial for newbies... and had a start over at ZCU, but it never really got to the point where one learns to do something.It seems to have moved to Pure where there's more traffic. Lots of people seem to want to wait until scripting is finished to get to learn it though. Really not sure why.

I do quietly wish that the quest hadn't expanded as large as it had, but in theory, that'd be a good thing, as it'd mean more member contribution, and more elements to analyze within the quest to show people how they were done and what they could do with them. It's just that there's so much to do. XD

Plus, the only Beta-worthy PC in my house at the moment crashes after a literal random period of use, with no chance to reuse it until at least an hour or two has passed, where it will simply crash again. We don't know what the problem is, though we have some theories.

Revfan9
03-11-2007, 12:33 PM
Well, I'm trying to do my part. I did write a basic Zasm tutorial. But... I'm the only one who will touch Zasm, so that proves how worthless I am.

The_Amaster
03-11-2007, 01:29 PM
There's a question. I always forget, whats the difference between ZScript and ZASM?

ShadowTiger
03-11-2007, 02:12 PM
This is totally not the right thread for that, so let's continue this discussion elsewhere, ... after you read my response since that's where you'll be expecting it. (So don't reply here. Start a new topic and quote this post.)

ZScript is actually derived from Zasm. All of the programming and such is done in Zasm, and converted from ZScript to Zasm for the purposes of ZQuest as you compile it. Some commands are missing from Zasm that are in ZScript and vice versa, I think. Zasm is more like stocatto line by line commands, whereas ZScript is an intricate script of C in the usual sense. You must write your Zasm in a .txt file and import it as a .z file, I think. (Though I'm probably wrong.) You can compile your own ZScript within ZQuest in the compile script area under the Tools menu.

Majora
03-11-2007, 03:38 PM
Well, even if this is the wrong thread, I don't mind people going off topic here (so long as its useful)

Scratch that, I just read the rules for this forum

CJC
03-11-2007, 10:26 PM
The problem with releasing NeoFirst on a non-stable set (I.E: Not 2.5 or 3.0) is that it's supposed to be a microcosim of all ZC's features, and as the game progresses the features will increase in number.

There was the advantage of the long delay for 2.5, but if it doesn't get finished before that version is released then it won't get finished (Unless you keep working on it in 2.5 and 2.5 alone, which I'm perfectly fine with.)




...I can't contribute much to the project, though. My new computer has Windows Vista on it, and it's not compatible with ZC or ZQuest.

The_Amaster
03-11-2007, 10:48 PM
I kinda meant for it to be on topic, by pointing out that that's somthing that the tutorial has to cover, as I'm sure it'll be a common question.