ZC 2.55 has some interesting new features for scripting, but many non-scripting users do not know where to begin with these features. Some new scripted features have been included in the default quest.dat for 2.53, such as the Z2 Candle, Slash/Half Magic Scrolls, Magic Map/Compass/Boss Key, Sign FFC, Permanent Shutters, Permanent Block Puzzle, Boss Music, Boss Explosion, ItemSound, Multiple Heart Piece Messages, and Toggle 4/8-way Movement, but it's impractical to include every type of simple script in quest.dat, right?
So here is my proposed solution: a folder included with ZC 2.55 (one of the next alphas, or at least the full version) that has .txt files containing simple scripts that are easy for the end user to add in and compile. Not only will this reduce complaints about "non-existent features" that are easy enough to produce with scripts, but it will also give the user code examples that they can reverse-engineer to aid them in learning ZScript.
Please note that I only have a few of these code snippets on-hand - I am relying on the word of experienced scripters and/or the ZScript documentation that these should be short and easy for the ZC devs to write, and for the ZC users to import into a quest.
(Perhaps to sort them better in the folder, their names should have prefixes or they should be grouped in sub-folders by type.)
(More suggestions are welcome, as there are interesting slot types such as ItemData, ItemSprite, and Combo that I do not have many concepts for yet)
While this may sound like a lot of work to write and comment these scripts, it's actually far less than it would be to make all of these concepts editable in the ZQuest GUI, and it has the added bonus of (hopefully) ZERO ZQuest/Player recompiles needed to "add" all of these "new features". If this solution is added I am sure that the complaints of "ZC 2.55 could be offering more to the average user in terms of quality of life and to show what 2.55 is capable of outside the base engine." would disappear overnight, and people would be almost as excited to make new quests in 2.55 as they were for 2.50 when it came out (and 1.90/1.92). And just in case, I have included a poll just to make sure whether or not this is considered worthwhile before we do anything.
Edited by P-Tux7, 10 July 2021 - 05:15 PM.