What should be the next big "project"?

[idontknow]

What should be the next big feature for zquest that should be worked on?
A) Complete NPCs (with movement, dialogue, and other such behaviors, including full functionality overworld dmaps!)
B) Custom Enemy Editor
C) Pick-Up Blocks (like push blocks, except Link can lift them and then throw or drop them, and other such items that link can pick up, like rocks)
D) New Items (such as implementing Farore's Wind and Nayru's Love, possibly a Lightening rod, rock's feather, etc.)
E) Sound Effects Editor (possibly be able to choose what file sound effects use to replace default sound effects, and editing such files with the grabber tool, and also being able to include new sound effects, such as breaking pots, thunder, etc.)
F) Global Triggers or Events...having new flags that would trigger something on another screen, without using boss flags, trigger enemies, and such!
G) Weather effects! Being able to have link's and enemies' pallettes change on a specific screens to simulate change in darkness, or for a volcanic effect in a fire dungeon, etc, and other such "weather" effects.

[*b*]

I voted for an enemy editor. if I could have voted for two things, it would have been Global Triggering as well. both would allow much more versatility in ZQuest

[Jarty]

Wouldn't NPC's require some form of scripting? And if so, could it also be applied elsewhere?

[Blonde799]

How about H) VARIABLES!?

An enemy editor would be the most influental addition among those listed.

[ShadowTiger]

I think adding more sound slots would be prime. Would that be easy to do? ... Basically, this is implying something like the background lava bubbling of the OoT Fire Temple, or gears grinding, motors revving, (You'd be surprised what you can truly do in ZC. ) etc. So far, all we can work with is the waterfall SFX, boss roars, and a few others. We'd even have to go so far as to replace the Pick Up SFX if you want a particular effect done. (The Wind Waker boss-defeated sound.)

[Orion]

Next big project... break for DN, FCF and the beta testers

[4matsy]

Hmm...

One thing I've been thinking about recently that no one's really mentioned: having ZC's palette system overhauled.

Odd, I know, but the way I'm thinking of would allow a lot more flexibility...

- Main idea is, there would be this "master CSet bank" where a single copy of every CSet in the quest would be stored...
- You could specify which CSets out of the master bank to use for level palettes. Every level palette would consist of what is now CSet 0 through 11 as well as Extra Sprite Palettes...in other words, you could define boss and Link's ring colors per level, and also the whole range of 0 to 11, rather than just 2, 3, 4, and 9.
- You could also set up palette cycling in the same way, referencing the cycling CSets from the master bank.
- Eliminating the "Dark"/"Cycle" fiasco, just enabling them both permanently regardless of whether Interpolated Fading is on. Dark would simply work on the master bank's currently selected CSet; and Cycle would be unchanged, opening the dialog to set up the palette cycles...
- Caves and passageways, you would also be able to specify a level palette for. A and B are the only two level palettes remaining that're hard-coded to a particular location...

This would, for example, allow the Zelda Challenge: Outlands palettes to be accurately reproduced; as this system fits more in line with the original NES Zelda 1's palette usage, where all eight NES CSets (equivalent to ZC's 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9) could be changed per level. I'm sure many other tilesets could benefit from this setup too somehow.

*looks around suspiciously, as if expecting to be bricked any second, and prepares to run*

...Oh, and it'd be real nice if ZC could run in 16-bit mode and use 256-color CSe--*is bricked, hard and fast, by the dozens, from a multitude of directions*

[vegeta1215]

I think a custom enemy editor would be best. I remember reading that Phantom Menace had partially finished an enemy editor before he handed over ZC to War Lord back in late 2000.

By enemy editor, I don't mean one that would let you create new enemies, but one to edit current enemies. One that would make it easier to choose the tiles they use, the animations, the weapon type, how much damage they do and take, etc. Things like that.

[NerdWarrior]

thI think it's time for an enemy editor. I'm tired of seeing non-Zelda quests and knowing what kind of enemy something is. Let me see a boss that shoots arrows.

[DarkDragon]

The next *big* project?
Heh, well, in my opinion, the entire combo system confusing, limiting, and hacked-together; the fact that most modern quests are filled with what amounts to clever tricks is a good indication that combos are clunky relics whose time has come. I'm all for axing it *all* and replacing it with Megazeux-style scripting. Such would be powerful enough to encompass all of A, B, D to a limited extent, F, and G. With such a system and a few new hard-coded items, LttP Classic would be well within the realm of possibility.

Of couse the above is unrealistically ambitious; though I'll push for it till the day ZC is abandoned, shrivels up, and dies.

Hypercrash, extending CSets to 256 colors seems a relatively simple-to-implement, backwards-compatible step towards much nicer-looking tiles. Or is there some Allegro limitation restricting us to 256-color video modes?