ZScript tutorial status?

[DarkDragon]

I'd really like to get a solid, complete tutorial stickied at the top of this forum. I know several of you have talked about writing some; what progress has been made so far? I've seen very helpful examples and explanations scattered about various help threads in this forum, but I feel it would be more helpful to beginning ZScripters if something comprehensive were located in one place.

A complete tutorial from one person is a lot to ask, but if we coordinate among the ZScript veterans, gather what's already been done, organize it a bit and fill in what's missing, we could create an extremely helpful resource for the many quest authors with little or no C or ZScript experience.

[Imprisoned]

Yeah, only a few are good at here in scripting, I would also like to know how to script, we really need a tutorial.
Someone please make one!

[ShadowTiger]

This is a very interesting topic. Keep in mind that from a natural ZScripter's perspective, it's easy to phrase something and expect people to understand it because a line is being deciphered in terms of intended actions. Anyone can read x = 3y and understand that x equals 3 times y, but not everyone understands the difference between x = 3y and 3y = x. It's things like that which make learning to code difficult; people can take that difference for granted and forget to mention something so important.


A bit of advice for those trying to learn scripting.
1) EXAMPLES, EXAMPLES, EXAMPLES, EXAMPLES!!! The more examples you scrutinize over, the more you understand the way things are coded.
2) Look for other sources for code analysis. I'm currently trying to learn to script in Neverwinter Nights, and, having no real previous experience with C, I'm finding the two remarkably similar.
3) Get an example of code from somewhere and practice writing it in terms of intended effect. Write pseuducode for it, (I.e. "If(You have it) { (newline) give Link ten health every ten seconds;} else {remove ten health;} etc. Compare it to the real code snippet you found, and keep practicing.

It's not a tutorial, but it's how I'm learning. Sometimes you just have to do the work yourself. Catching a fish for someone vs showing them how to fish, ... vs handing them a fishing pole and a boat and saying "Good luck."

[Moresco]

Yah a tutorial would be excellent. I just discovered zquest altogether not two days ago and have already gotten very deep into my quest. Right away I felt kind of lonely without a scripting language...discovered there was a scripting language and of course I want to learn it. So far, I've gotten very little accomplished because I don't know what I can do with it (in the context of zquest - the zelda game itself...etc).

I have a small background in c++, AGS scripting, so I understand most of what I've seen so far. Now only to find out how I can apply things and get actually useful things happening.