A lot of questions from an ex-ZCer

[Aegix Drakan]

Heya. I'm gonna try to get off my lazy butt and actually MAKE that quest I've been wanting to do for a long time. But there are a lot of questions I want to ask, since my quest kinda depends on them. Wall of text, in 3...2...1...

1: How stable is the current Beta? Quest-able? I'm perfectly open to the idea of making my quest in 2.10, but there are a few cool things in the new betas I'd like to use (strings when getting a new item, subscreen editor, colored text, NPCs, easier layering, etc). Is it a good idea to use the newest beta, or should I just stick with 2.10 just for the sake of stability and accessibility for eventual players?

2: I have this one time only cutscene I want to do, and none of the "tricks" I'm planning for the others (triforce wraps, etc) will work here. - I want the player to go into a house and meet an old man, he goes blah-blah-take-key-from-my-chest-blah, and then after moving away (using direct warp to make the text vanish), the story-text will never appear there again. I'm assuming I'll need to somehow change the warp to get into the house, but how do I do that?

3. I want to make the Player's progress linear. - Can I use bait as a kind of boat ticket, and give the player one after each dungeon so they can access the next area? Can I use this trick more than once? Can't lose bait by accident? Does the Goriya event go away forever after using bait on it?

3. Does timed warp start counting right away, or does it wait for the message boxes to finish?

4. If I have the player on a conveyor to make them exit a cutscene through a side warp, will they actually go through the side warp automatically, or will they HAVE to press a directional key?

5. How do you make Keys that only open specific doors? I might want to make a minor puzzle or two that uses this (like a certain rare shop that only opens after you find a particular key)

6. How do you change the Link sprites? I tried going into graphics-> link sprites, and selected different ones, but it won't use the ones I want. Instead, it stays the same, or it shows the heart meter parts cycling. (trying to use hatless link instead of normal link). Do I HAVE to copy paste all the tiles to replace the old ones? Because dangit, the hatless sprites are 30 pages down on the tile list!

7. How do I make it so custom bosses only happen once? Normal bosses go away forever, but custom bosses I don't go away, I think. How do I do it?

8. :tongue: Oh yeah....and how do I go to the save screen in ZC again? I totally forgot. It's been a long time....

9. Also...Is there a shortcut to selecting combos? I mean...DoR has tons and TONS of combos to sift through...I'm pretty sure there was a way to jump to a combo by selecting it on your map, but...I can't seem to get it to work. Having to wade through 500+ combos by using control+Pagedown really gets on your nerves fast.

Please, and thanks a bunch.

[pkmnfrk]

1. Go with the beta. They're not 100%, but they're leagues ahead of 2.10 in both features and stability.

2. The most straightforward way I can think of is to use a script. I'll show you an example when I get home and have access to my normal PC.

3a. Yes, you can use the bait like this. To make it more seamless, though, you could use a script to check how many triforce pieces Link has, and open a door (or whatever)

3b. If I had to guess, I'd say that one tick happens BEFORE the message, and the rest wait.

4. Hmm, never tried that. But, a timed warp may work better here anyway.

5. Hmm... The easiest way I can think of is trickery with DMap levels and level-specific keys...

6. I've never seen this. Could you post a test quest so I could check it out?

7. Depends what you mean by custom boss. If you're talking about a multi-screened boss-like contraption, level design is the only way.

Regular bosses, however, are simply glorified enemies that have the "Never returns after death" flag set.

8. You've got two choices: Die, or hit F6.

9. In the betas, you can select "favourite" combos, and also make pre-made multi-layer combo blocks (eg, a tall tree with the bottom on layer 0, and the top on layer 3). In the actual combo editor, hit P to enter a page number to jump to.

HTH :)

[Aegix Drakan]

1. Go with the beta. They're not 100%, but they're leagues ahead of 2.10 in both features and stability.

...Really? ...Well, that's great news! I just hope that when it's done, it'll still be playable in whatever the next version will be. (a quest's no good if no one cna play it!)


3a. Yes, you can use the bait like this. To make it more seamless, though, you could use a script to check how many triforce pieces Link has, and open a door (or whatever)

...I'll probably still go with the bait or something. I mean boat ticket quite literally. After clearing a dungeron, the player will have to take a boat to the next area.



3b. If I had to guess, I'd say that one tick happens BEFORE the message, and the rest wait.
4. Hmm, never tried that. But, a timed warp may work better here anyway.


Thanks. I'll go and do some more thorough testing on this when I have time.



5. Hmm... The easiest way I can think of is trickery with DMap levels and level-specific keys...


Thought so....Well, I can probably handle that. And it's just a passing thought.



6. I've never seen this. Could you post a test quest so I could check it out?


I'm not trying to make link's sprite change over the course of the game. I just want his default sprite to be hatless link, not normal link. I tried going under Graphics --> link, to change his appearance, but it doesn't want to work. (hopefully easier in the betas)



7. Depends what you mean by custom boss. If you're talking about a multi-screened boss-like contraption, level design is the only way.


Ahhhaaa.....Right...So if I have the first boss as...say, a monster rush with a dramatic *boom* at the end...what kind of things should I do to make sure that the player will go to the *boss has been defeated* room, rather than to the first room where it starts?



8. You've got two choices: Die, or hit F6.


AAhh...F6...Thanks.



9. In the betas, you can select "favourite" combos, and also make pre-made multi-layer combo blocks (eg, a tall tree with the bottom on layer 0, and the top on layer 3). In the actual combo editor, hit P to enter a page number to jump to.


huh... I was POSITIVE that there was a faster way to jump to a specific combo's position in the combo pallette on the side, by selecting it..... Guess not. Well....Favourite combos will work well too, I guess.



Thanks a bunch!

Hopefully I can get this show on the road and get this job started. I have a special motivation this time. I want to get this quest on!

[Joe123]

I'm not trying to make link's sprite change over the course of the game. I just want his default sprite to be hatless link, not normal link. I tried going under Graphics --> link, to change his appearance, but it doesn't want to work. (hopefully easier in the betas)Oh yeah, in the 2.10 you had to copy all of the hatless tiles and put them where the normal tiles are at the top of tilepage 0 'cause Link's sprites are bound directly to those positions on the tilepage for some stupid reason. We have a proper Link sprite editor nowadays though, so you can select his sprites just like you would for a Weapon/Misc. or whatever.


huh... I was POSITIVE that there was a faster way to jump to a specific combo's position in the combo pallette on the side, by selecting it..... Guess not. Well....Favourite combos will work well too, I guess.
There is, in the betas we have 'Scroll to combo' in the right-click menu.

[Anthus]

You can also scroll through the list much faster by holding Ctrl+Arrow key. You can do it slower with Shift+ Arrow keys. Hitting either Shift or Control with mouse scroll (Options-> Mouse Scroll) will also speed it up.

For a one-time cutscene, without scripting, it would depend on where it is in the game. If it is in the beginning, just have the exit take you to an identical map you entered from, and this new map will take you to the rest of the quest. If it is anywhere else, in the betas you can use a room state carry over to change the entrance to the house to another warp. This is done in the Screen Data tab.

[Aegix Drakan]

Oh yeah, in the 2.10 you had to copy all of the hatless tiles and put them where the normal tiles are at the top of tilepage 0 'cause Link's sprites are bound directly to those positions on the tilepage for some stupid reason. We have a proper Link sprite editor nowadays though, so you can select his sprites just like you would for a Weapon/Misc. or whatever.

...Yet another reason to switch to the beta. Thanks. Ok, Beta it is!



There is, in the betas we have 'Scroll to combo' in the right-click menu.

So THAT'S why I rmember that feature! About 6 months ago, I was planning to start my quest, and I was using the beta of the time to do so. ...Well, thanks a whole whole lot.



You can also scroll through the list much faster by holding Ctrl+Arrow key. You can do it slower with Shift+ Arrow keys. Hitting either Shift or Control with mouse scroll (Options-> Mouse Scroll) will also speed it up.

Yeah. I knew about that. althouhg I didn't know that ctrl and shift did it differently.


For a one-time cutscene, without scripting, it would depend on where it is in the game. If it is in the beginning, just have the exit take you to an identical map you entered from, and this new map will take you to the rest of the quest. If it is anywhere else, in the betas you can use a room state carry over to change the entrance to the house to another warp. This is done in the Screen Data tab.

...I'll have to use a room state or something then. See....It's right AFTER the beginning. the player does the intro stuff, gets free roam in a town, and then needs to find the old guy who will give them a key to get out of the village. So scripting or room states, huh? Thanks a bunch!


*cracks knuckles* Ok. Time to get me the latest Beta and get this thing started. Thanks for the help!

EDIT: ......umm....where can I get the beta? I can't seem to find it on the forums, or on ZC.com....

[pkmnfrk]

http://shardstorm.com - Your #1 stop for all things beta related!

[Yapollo]

Good luck with your quest.

[Aegix Drakan]

Thanks guys.


And HOLY CARPAL TUNNNEL SYNDROM does ZC look different now! When I booted up the latest beta...I had to blink a few times just to take it all in. Arrows to show where you can't walk offscreen? Multiwarps? THREE combo pallettes?

Yikes. The devs have been industrious while I was out of the loop. 0_o



But I've been having two small problems...

When using a timed warp, link refuses to appear on the green square on the screen I'm sending him to. After X amount of tics, he's supposed to appear on another screen, in a tree (so that he can't trigger another warp during the scene), but he just appears on the ground pretty much where he was on the previous screen. I'm using Insta-warp with opening effect to warp him (and I'm using side warp A, ans specified by the timed warp screen)

Also...I can't get strings to show. I set the string, and I set the guy to "empty" but no strings show up. I must be missing a step somewhere. What else do you need to do to make a string pop up?

[Freedom]

Thanks guys.


And HOLY CARPAL TUNNNEL SYNDROM does ZC look different now! When I booted up the latest beta...I had to blink a few times just to take it all in. Arrows to show where you can't walk offscreen? Multiwarps? THREE combo pallettes?

Yikes. The devs have been industrious while I was out of the loop. 0_o



But I've been having two small problems...

When using a timed warp, link refuses to appear on the green square on the screen I'm sending him to. After X amount of tics, he's supposed to appear on another screen, in a tree (so that he can't trigger another warp during the scene), but he just appears on the ground pretty much where he was on the previous screen. I'm using Insta-warp with opening effect to warp him (and I'm using side warp A, ans specified by the timed warp screen)

Also...I can't get strings to show. I set the string, and I set the guy to "empty" but no strings show up. I must be missing a step somewhere. What else do you need to do to make a string pop up?

1) in the screen data there are some options about your warp.

2) in the dmap there are selections you need to uncheck to get your strings to work.

[Aegix Drakan]

1) in the screen data there are some options about your warp.

2) in the dmap there are selections you need to uncheck to get your strings to work.

1) Yeah...I JUST found those. ...I had *timed warp is direct warp* checked...and I just now realized that the green tile is the CONTINUE point, not the warp exit. Thanks.

2) ...Thanks. I'll take a look at those. EDIT: Awesome. Found what I needed! I now have TEXT!


Thanks for the enlightenment, Freedom. ...Back to Zquest I go!

[Aegix Drakan]

Sorry for the double post, but it's better than creating a whole new topic. :s

Neither the timed warps, nor the conveyor trick are working right for my opening cutcene. I want a few strings to display, and then after the strings finish, the user will be taken to the next screen.

Well, the timed warps make it so the user will teleport to the next screen even DURING a string, and the *conveyor takes user to side warp* trick makes Link start moving to the side of the screen as soon as the first string is done. I.E, after the first string display, link (who was previously immobile) now suddenly starts being moved by the conveyor, and misses the rest of the string. I also have *text freezes link's movement* checked.

Is there a way to make it so that I can show those 3-4 strings, and have it warp to the next scene only AFTER it's done?

[Freedom]

someone else might know a better way, but how I did it in Castle Haunt III was to make several identical screens each only displaying one string of test, and then I set the timed warp to give them what I felt was enough time to read it before warping them to the next screen.

the problem with using more strings is that you can't time when they will push the "A" button for the next strings.

Doing it my way also knocks out all that conveyor crap which is troublesome even on a good day.

build your screens on layers and use those layers on all the "base" screens and it goes fast and easy.

[Aegix Drakan]

Thanks Freedom. That's a pretty ingenious idea!

At this point, I'll probably just a use a script though (I came across one that does exaclty what I want it to).

[Joe123]

You can make it look a bit more old-bie friendly with 'Small Mode' if you use ZCLauncher or edit the config file.