Hey I'm trying to figure this software out. I have no programming knowledge. I've tried to work with quest for a while in the past but it became daunting. I started to stick with gamebook creation instead of text adventure creation. It was easier to figure out. I have read the manual a few times but i still didn't have the skills to make the game my own.

I have a few questions that if answered might get me back into trying the software out again.

1. What is the difference between Objects and Rooms

2. How do I make a dialog menu between the player and npc's

3. can the final product be played on a ds? or is it just mobile devices and computers?

thank you for helping a newbie! XD

also any other tips would be appreciated

If you're going to pester these poor folk to the degree I do, Billie, then a 'noob' thread might be a good move, so that you don't end up creating three million different threads as I have.

I too struggle with Quest. Some of it is wonderfully intuitive, but other areas are absolutely mind boggling.

1. Difference between a room and an object? Well, I would say they're the same as they are in real life; Rooms are somewhere you can 'go' while objects can be interacted with. You can 'get' objects, 'use' them, 'examine' them, 'drop' them, 'look' at them.

So, you create 'rooms' to build the layout of your world, then create 'objects' to furnish it.

2. Pass, but I'll be interested to learn.

3. Don't know what a ds is?

1. Generally speaking, rooms are objects. The difference between generic objects and rooms in the Quest editor is what options you get for the various tabs when you click on a room (inherits from type "editor_room") and an object (inherits from type "editor_object"). If you look at the actual Quest source (the asl code under the covers), you'll see both rooms and objects have the "object" element tag.

2. If you want to use menus where the player selects from choices, then I would recommend using "ShowMenu". There is also a "ConvLib" (conversation library) available. Here is the most recent version: viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4261. There is also a response library that I developed and use in my games, which is set up for things like this, but it's data-driven and doesn't have a nice editor front end. It is quite flexible, though...

3. I have no idea, to be honest.

@OurJud:

I thought the same thing, OurJud, in making a single thread for my own noob questions when I first started with quest about 2-3 years ago ( viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3348 ), but I was told, that it is actually preferred that more threads are created instead, as otherwise, the numerous questions you have, get lost in that single thread (as the posts pile up for answering one question, the other questions in your posts get forgotten and pushed back to older pages), and other people looking for those same questions-answers, don't want to scour through a massive thread for those posts.

So, keep making specific threads for specific questions, as it's really better that way, and it really helps quest out, as quest doesn't get that many posts~discussions still to begin with (only a few of us post regularly here). Now, if we're talking about a super massive social website (with tons of threads already and massive amount of posts in each of those threads), then they might prefer their new people making a single thread for all of their questions.

@Billie:

you might want to take a look at my thread ( viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3348 ), as I was just as confused as you are about all the terms (ELEMENTS, Attribute Types, Object Types, and etc stuff in quest), asking in posts to have all these terms (that I found myself overwhelmed with) explained to me, so the help I got from others, may be of help to you too, in trying to understand all these terms of quest.

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I'm my own current knowledge (or lack of knowledge), this is how I understand quest's stuff currently:

ELEMENTS (the things in quest):

(in code: anything with the tag blocks)

Objects, Verbs, Commands, Functions, Exits, Object Types, Attributes, Timers, Turnscripts, Libraries, and etc.

Attributes (the data; Game Mechanics; maybe you can think of Attributes as connecting the ELEMENTS and Scripting together, though this might be wrong in concept):

Strings, Integers (int), Double (Floats; Floating Points), Boolean (true~false Flags), Scripts, Inherited, Lists, Dictionaries, and etc.

Scripting (actions~events):

Verbs, Functions, Script Attributes, Commands, Timers, Turnscripts, Object Types, and etc

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Objects:

an Object holds Attributes and~or other Objects too.

The Game Object: holds (aka: you're able to alter~set) the global game's settings

Player Objects: your 'playable characters~actors (PCs)', has unique features~settings

Room Objects: are the 'areas' in the quest world, Exits connects Room Objects for travel via the UI compass and the 'Go' Function, and have other various unique features~settings

Other-Object (non-room and non-player) Objects: everything else (non-playable characters:NPCs~actors ::: townspeople and monsters, game world objects like a 'table', game world items like a potion, and etc).

HegemonKhan wrote:@OurJud:

I thought the same thing, OurJud, in making a single thread for my own noob questions when I first started with quest about 2-3 years ago ( viewtopic.php?f=10&t=3348 ), but I was told, that it is actually preferred that more threads are created instead...

Fair enough, HK. That knowledge at least helps remove some of my guilt.

jaynabonne wrote: There is also a "ConvLib" (conversation library) available.

I installed this a few days ago, but haven't even played with it yet. I think I should start experimenting as I'm hoping to incorporate some conversations some time soon.

ok i have the .aslx file but i don't know what to do with it :/ I know i'm a noob. it's embarrassing! lol

thank you all for being patient with me

in the meantime i'll try to look some more online as to how to add libraries

EDIT:
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i figured out how to install. so simple it made me die a little inside lol

now i'm trying to figure out how to actually use it for my npc

Unfortunately I'm brand spankin' new here too so I'm afraid I can't help much with the questions, except to recommend you go through at least the first part of the tutorial before anything else, it handles all your basics like rooms and objects.

Mostly I'm just curious how on earth one would go about playing IF on a DS. Type with the stylus? I think I'd tear my hair out.

i've played if on my ds before with homebrew. you use the stylus to write out each letter in handwriting