Some words on 2.5 beta builds

[bobrocks95]

It seems that most users that use ZC have never even bothered looking at a 2.5 beta build. People hear stories of how the betas 'constantly crash', or may 'screw up your computer'. These stories are, for the most part, untrue. The latest build such as 738 and 742 are both very stable. Many people stray away from the betas, while the truth is that if they simply used the beta, not even ZQuest, simply playing quests in it, 2.5 would be released MUCH sooner. A suggestion that I like to tell people is to simply play 2.10 quests, preferably ones that you've already beaten(as if there IS a bug, there's a chance that it may require you to restart or may break some feature, such as a previous one that lost me a heart container from a boss) in the latest beta build. Then you simply need to report the bug in this (http://www.armageddongames.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=153)
section of the forums(be sure to check if someone else has reported the same bug before you).

If at least half of the people that used 2.10 would at least give a 2.5 beta a small test run, I'm sure most of them would stay.
In addition to scripting, a feature that makes ZC's boundaries nearly limitless, there are a TON of new features in 2.5. My personal favorite is the 'large' mode, which as features such as... Well... Some pictures would do better, since there's so much:

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj257/bobrocks95/zelda003.jpg
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj257/bobrocks95/zelda002.jpg
http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj257/bobrocks95/zelda001.jpg
As you can see, the numbers below the main screen allow you to switch between remembered screens that you choose, for better multi-tasking.
The icons at the very bottom allow you to switch between the different screen options, instead of pressing page down/up.
On the right, you can easily have different screens on your combo sheet open at once.

Along with all the other new features that will come to 2.5, it all makes the program amazing, but without people helping by reporting bugs, 2.5 will not be released until around late '08, '09, and maybe even later. Please help this cause!

As a side note, you can get the 2.5 betas here (http://www.shardstorm.com/).

[Revfan9]

Umm... That's KINDOF what most people who beta test already do. I don't play these quests in the new betas due to 2 things:

1. I don't really have the attention span to try to play quests, and most of them aren't really good enough to hold my attention anyway.

2. I'm too lazy to file bug reports.

And I'm sure the reasons of everyone else who doesn't beta test are similar.

[bobrocks95]

I was saying that for people that may actually read my post and decide to try 2.5, like I intend, just showing that lazy people wouldn't have to work in ZQuest to help report bugs, just that they could have fun.

[MoonCheese]

I just started a gigantic quest recently for 2.10. Do you people think I should convert it to 2.5 now and save trouble converting and such later, or just keep working in 2.10? Will 2.5 be built to play 2.10 and earlier quests properly, or will we all have to maintain 6 or so versions of ZC for different quests like we do now?

[DarkDragon]

The following versions of ZC are full releases, and their quests are supported in 2.50:

1.84
1.90
2.10
2.50

If an author published a quest for a beta, compatibility is not guaranteed.

[bobrocks95]

2.5 is planning on, upon its release, to support all 2.10 quests, and I believe 1.90 quests as well. Of course, things would go faster if you switched now. Are you planning on having lots of custom things like scripts or custom items? If so, 2.5 would be better.

EDIT: DarkDragon beat me on the first part:tongue:.

[Pineconn]

DarkDragon, is the name officially "2.50" now?

Anyway, I used to scare people away from 2.5 when it was very buggy (like a year ago). However, after some recent extensive compatibility testing and really trying to break it, 2.5 holds up. I think I'm ready to endorse it when I can no longer find major bugs (which are almost extinct).

[bobrocks95]

Exactly my point. Most users are simply scared by it, which is why we need to 'endorse' it as you say so that it WILL be completely free of bugs somewhat soon.

[Endarire]

Does it allow for the Roc's Feather? <crosses toes>

[Joe123]

Yep.

[jman2050]

Yeah I'm looking at the code and testing out 2.5 now and I really don't see what people are complaining about still. Most of the bugs, while annoying, are minor in nature. The biggest issue we have remaining is bringing 2.5 to a 'complete' state, i.e. standardizing labels and UI, tying up oose unfinished parts of the engine, and then finally just having a big stress test to finish things up.

[Endarire]

Yay at Roc's Feather!

Does it allow for assigning any item in inventory to any button (A, B, select, start, etc.) such as in Oracle of Ages? Are there more buttons for items like in Ocaraina of Time?

[Pineconn]

(You can set items to select or start in the GB Zelda games?)

As far as I know, you can assign items to only the A and B buttons in 2.5. The B button is no longer necessarily designated for the sword only.

[bobrocks95]

I thought it was A that was auto-assigned to the sword?
Anyways, you just have to check a rule that says you can select what weapons are assigned to for A or B. It messed up my subscreen though, items wouldn't show up...

[Joe123]

Yeah it was A.

You have to set the sword to be in your subscreen as an active item though, it's not per default.

[Endarire]

UPDATE: Unignore this bug. It happened to me again. I believe the cause is starting ZC 2.5, setting stuff, exiting, starting ZC 1.92B183, then restarting 2.5.
BUG: The latest build (743) sometimes won't save custom key bindings between sessions. When I reset the keys, click OK, and restart ZC, the keys are returned to their default bindings.

BUG: In the editor, when I try to load a quest (1st.qst) but don't add the .qst extension, I get an error message. When I did this in the 1.92 editor, it simply loaded 1st.qst.

REQUEST: To place a special item like a Roc's Feather, open the item editor, select the item (Roc's Feather in this case), then place the item on the ground on the appropriate map.

[bobrocks95]

REQUEST: To place a special item like a Roc's Feather, open the item editor, select the item (Roc's Feather in this case), then place the item on the ground on the appropriate map.

Umm... What exactly do you mean there? To be able to place items THROUGH the item editor? If that is what you want, what's so hard about just going to the screen and setting the item and where you want it?

[Russ]

Well, the hard part would be figuring out how to set it up in the item editor so he could use it.