Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cloral
One word: sweet!
As you say though, it would be nice to have it not solely based off of keyboard keys - one problem there being that we then have to memorize what they are. When you are in preview mode you lose the ability to edit, right? Perhaps you could then overlay the combos and the thing at the bottom of the screen with buttons to press. Another idea would be to turn that bottom thing (we should name it so I can refer to it concisely) into a listing that reminds the user of what all the usable keystrokes are so they don't have to memorize them. Like:
R - Revert Screen
S - Trigger Secrets
F - Freeze Animations
...
Or if we use buttons:
[Revert Screen] [Trigger Secrets] [Freeze Animations]
Either way would be really helpful.
You took the words right out of my head, as this is exactly what i've been planning on doing :) you do lose the ability to edit, yes. Think of it as being in the same 'state' as when you're placing flags in ZQ. mouse clicks on the menu aside from what we specifically specify are disabled, as are the normal keystroke operations. Also note that this is merely an observation mode, so it won't do ANYTHING to your quest in terms of changing it.
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
I am anxious for this myself. I kinda wonder if now that ZC had gotten to the point of having alot of the things we all want in it, is it time to start making it innovatively easier to use? I can't wait to see this one happen
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
jman, I must say, I am awed, floored, and bewildered. :p Extraordinarily so. Impressed takes precedance over those though.
A few questions and comments, really. One, what exactly does "preview mode" look like? I mean, it seems rather ... well ... hard to believe. o_O'
How does it handle havinig multiple kinds of secrets on the same screen? For example, you have sword triggers, button triggers, fire triggers, enemy secrets, .. a lot of these are intertwined, but remain somehow seperate at the same time. And tiered secrets! I mean, .. jman, you saw what C-Dawg did in Sabotage Dragoon with those "trains" of buttons, like under the Dusted Forest, and in the Inverted tower with the "fairy" that you remain under to guide you through the damage floors. So yes, how does it handle such complex tiered secrets like that?
Oh, does it also work on layers? :p
Oh, and what about the undercombo?
Once more, VERY impressed. This is like, ... ... having a whole bunch of dreams come true at the same time. :drool: :laughing: Dude, you are SO the man. :highfive: I so underexaggerated that too.
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
Damn fine work jman. This will certainly make things easier on us quest makers and I must say that I've never been looking forward to a new ZC like this one, this is just plain awesome. :thumbsup:
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
Whoa!
I mess with a lot of secret combos... and this... this would save me loads of time with loading a quest in ZC over and over again to test them! :)
I think 2.11 is going to blow people's socks off if it gets stable.
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
Not all the functionality is in yet, as it is still work-in-progress. Son enough, it should be easy to seperately trigger secrets and have them behave as they do in ZQ, as well as look at undercombo effects, show special items, and even show what strings would look like on-screen and let you step through each linked string in the sequence. As for what it looks like? For now, it looks exactly like it does when editing a screen, except none of the menus or interactive elements can be interfaced with aside from what I described. As the feature gets more complete though, the extra space would be overlayed with information to help out the ZQer in preview mode.
And yes, it can do tiered secrets, animations and all ^_^
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
Quote:
Son enough, it should be easy to seperately trigger secrets and have them behave as they do in ZQ, as well as look at undercombo effects, show special items, and even show what strings would look like on-screen and let you step through each linked string in the sequence.
And you have a little "Avatar" that gets to walk over these and trigger them? What about sensing damage? And obviously, pardon the initial ignorance we're all bound to have, but so how do you trigger each secret, if you have one keyboard button per item you want to trigger? There's no seperate button for sword secrets, button secrets, etc.
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
anybody notice that neither DN nor fcf have said anything since this was announced. somone's jealous, me thinks!
this sounds incredible, jman. I can't wait to make use of this feature. though, how does it work exactly? do the kays that were mentioned earlier controll everything that happens, or is some of it automatic, and those keys trigger certain events?
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
PREVIEW MODE! Sweet! Also, when in preview mode, pressing E once should spawn the enemies. Enemies that enter from the side will do so and enemies placed via enemy placement flags will spawn at such places. Pressing E again will make all enemies disappear.
Oh! And pressing M in preview mode should toggle the music on & off
Re: 2.11 Beta 1(and 2) Progress
I'm not going to place the entire engine in ZQ. That'd be a waste, so no enemy spawning ^_^. Also, playing music is Dmap dependent, not screen dependent, and since the screens have no direct association with Dmaps, knowing what music to play if such a function were added wouldn't work.
BH4 - An avatar isn't displayed, though that does remind me to add a function in editing mode that lets you see the item/link spawn points without having to go to that tab at the bottom of the screen. As for triggerring secrets, I would only need 2 keys at most because of the way secrets are triggered (the behavior being that triggering one flag triggers ALL secret combos defined, with the exception of an enemies->secret room in which the secret tile flags [16-31] are triggered by killing enemies, whilst all other flags are triggered seperately), so that isn't a problem. Also note that preview mode is strictly for examining the technical aspects of your quest to make sure they work. Actual playtesting would still employ ZC, as it should.
*b* - The keys control certain behaviors. By default, preview mode doesn't do anything that ZQ wouldn't do normally, except that you can't edit. It's only by employing the keys that you can trigger and watch the dynamic elements go into effect. You'll probably understand better once the new beta is released.