2 replies to this topic

[justin]

It's been awhile since I played with ZC/ZQ. But with my son getting older (turning 9) and showing a continued interest in game making I thought I'd download the new version and start showing him some of the awesome quests and "what's possible." So I downloaded the latest 2.55 version. And it looks like so much has been added that I don't know where to begin.

Can 2.55 play older quests without issue, or should I also download 2.53 or other older versions for them?

Where does one start with learning all the new features of the editor and scripting language? There's lots of manuals and readmes packaged with it, but many are talking about the future of the program and things yet to be implemented? Are these docs up to date?

Am I likely to run into lots of conflicts using scripts written in previous versions? Tilesets made for older versions?

[Russ]

Can 2.55 play older quests without issue, or should I also download 2.53 or other older versions for them?

Yes and no. It SHOULD be able to, but there have been some bugs. As a notable example, Yuurand (a 2.53 quest) had some crashes in 2.55 until just last week, when the devs (hopefully) fixed the compatibility issues. Seems to be in a pretty good place now but you may still run into a compatibility bug, which would need to be reported.
 
 
 
 

Where does one start with learning all the new features of the editor and scripting language? There's lots of manuals and readmes packaged with it, but many are talking about the future of the program and things yet to be implemented? Are these docs up to date?

Eh... ZScript_Additions.txt is generally accurate, but also missing a lot of stuff. Emily, one of the devs, is working on updated documentation, but for now, a lot of it is scattered and there's not a good central location for new info. Emily and Dimi/Deedee (the other dev) are generally pretty helpful if you ask them about new features though.


 
 

Am I likely to run into lots of conflicts using scripts written in previous versions? Tilesets made for older versions?

Tilesets shouldn't have any issue. Scripts work fine, with the exception of having to either add a line at the top of the script file or changing the name of item scripts to itemdata scripts.

[Emily]

Can 2.55 play older quests without issue, or should I also download 2.53 or other older versions for them?

Yes and no. It SHOULD be able to, but there have been some bugs. As a notable example, Yuurand (a 2.53 quest) had some crashes in 2.55 until just last week, when the devs (hopefully) fixed the compatibility issues. Seems to be in a pretty good place now but you may still run into a compatibility bug, which would need to be reported.

Issues are constantly being fixed. If no one uses 2.55 to play old quests, then no one will report issues, so we can't fix them; the only way to get things fixed is for people to use the new version.
If there is ever a bug playing an older quest in 2.55, that is something that should be reported.
 

Where does one start with learning all the new features of the editor and scripting language? There's lots of manuals and readmes packaged with it, but many are talking about the future of the program and things yet to be implemented? Are these docs up to date?

Eh... ZScript_Additions.txt is generally accurate, but also missing a lot of stuff. Emily, one of the devs, is working on updated documentation, but for now, a lot of it is scattered and there's not a good central location for new info. Emily and Dimi/Deedee (the other dev) are generally pretty helpful if you ask them about new features though.

`zscript.txt` contains everything for zscript that existed in 2.50.2. `ZScript_Additions.txt` contains everything new. These docs *should all be accurate*. Do note that some parts of ZScript_Additions do list things that are not implemented, but these will usually list `Todo`, `unimplemented`, etc near them, and very few things are like this.
We are working on new script documentation, though this is a lot of work, and it will be under construction for a while.
 
As for non-scripting stuff, you'll find a lot more `?` buttons in ZQuest that pop up information boxes, which should help with most things non-scripting.
 

Am I likely to run into lots of conflicts using scripts written in previous versions? Tilesets made for older versions?

Tilesets shouldn't have any issue. Scripts work fine, with the exception of having to either add a line at the top of the script file or changing the name of item scripts to itemdata scripts.

Err? What? No? You shouldn't need to change any of that stuff! It is true that `item script` is now `itemdata script`, BUT std.zh has a `script typedef` which makes it so `item script` will still work, for old script purposes.

However, there are a few small things. Any new zscript keywords are now reserved when they were not before; so, if say, a script were to declare a variable `int switch;`, that would now fail to compile, as `switch` is a keyword for switch statements. In cases like this, the variable name needs to be changed; that is the ONLY thing that should need to be changed in any old script.