Hello,

here is an incomplete "wish" list for Quest. I mean I can't call this a request, it's just I think it could help to improve Quest and make it more enjoyable, so people may be more interested in it.
I'm using Inform / Glulx, it's very powerfull but it's such a pain to program, especially when the game is growing very big that it's the reason why I'm looking for Quest now. I like the IDE, and the fact that, unlike Adrift for ex., it generates instead of binaries a script that can be edited by hand.
I've looked for some of those features in the help files, but so far I haven't found them, but forgive me if they are and I haven't managed to get them myself.

- like in most inform / tads interpreter, to be able to redo last command with up arrow on keyboard

- default game open / save / load etc. is "My documents". Last folder used could be better for those who store games and save games elsewhere.

- The inclusion of sound is good and perfect it seems. It's good also to have a display window. But to be able to add images inside the text window (like in inform / glux, Hugo or Tads) could be very great and opens new possibilities.

- possibility to start a game with only the text window (no inventory, places and objects, and compass windows). It could give a more "old IF game" looking / feeling. I used this for a game I'm designing with Inform, and the player can get the icons with a "Icons on" command, if he / she wishes.

- is it possible to easily create a text based menu only ? (instead of pop up)

- possibility to use in the script of a game the ldf definition so the game will load with the correct langage support.
ex : define game <>
langage <francais>

- hope new version of Quest won't require new translation of the ldf file, but will be add ons for the language.



Eric

like in most inform / tads interpreter, to be able to redo last command with up arrow on keyboard

You can do this already by pressing the F12 key.

default game open / save / load etc. is "My documents". Last folder used could be better for those who store games and save games elsewhere.

Go to Options, then Other, and then click the "Browse" button to choose the default folder.

But to be able to add images inside the text window (like in inform / glux, Hugo or Tads) could be very great and opens new possibilities.

This is one that's already on my list of things to add, and it might make the release version of Quest 3.5. You'll be able to split the Quest window up into two panes - one for text and the other for graphics.

Adding in-line graphics would be a bit harder and would require rewriting the text output code to use something other than the RichText control, which doesn't support in-line graphics. This is something I'm planning at some point but it will require a bit of work.

possibility to start a game with only the text window (no inventory, places and objects, and compass windows)

In the game startscript you can add "panes on" or "panes off" to toggle the view of panes. I don't seem to have remembered to add this to QDK though - woops! I'll add it into the release version of QDK 3.5. Until then you can add "panes off" by choosing "Other script command" and typing it in.

is it possible to easily create a text based menu only

No, but you could "fake" one, by using the "enter" command (in QDK, in the "Other" category, "Enter next command into a string variable") and getting the player to type in their choice.

possibility to use in the script of a game the ldf definition so the game will load with the correct langage support.

This will be added when the LDF format has been developed further. At the moment since it doesn't offer full support for translating in-game text, I haven't added this facility, but I will as develop the LDF translation interface.

hope new version of Quest won't require new translation of the ldf file, but will be add ons for the language.

New versions will of course need a few extra things to be translated, but they won't require a completely new LDF file to be created from scratch.

Thanks for your suggestions - keep them coming

I have a few suggetions alex;

---On the compass you should create an IN button (opposite to OUT button) instead of GO TO

---maybe you could add the facillity to put video clips into your quest game, so you could have sort of like a few FMV sequences (i know this totally defies the point of an IF game)

---Add in a few prebuilt ASL things for us who arent as good at programming (i.e-a life function that you can imprt into your game, or a container or something)

A life function? I don't know, I'm just guessing perhaps you could mean a simple NPC creating process, maybe you mean something that could add AI type actions to a mob. Please explain. Adding prebuilt objects(NPC's MOB's, or whatever, they would be objects in ASL syntax) doesn't really seem like a good idea, but the idea of libraries of objects, functions and procedures seems decent, even though it could be easily reproduced by anyone with some time coding ASL.

Other than that, as far QDK, it would be useful to have a built in option to create a (basically GOTO) exit that could be described as whatever you input. I'll go through some of my old code and paste it here to show how simple it is to make an exit in a room that you can simply describe in the "look".

Completely unrealated and no offense but it seems people are more interested in QDK games(not to say anything negative, it's a good program for creating simple IF games) while ASL is the easiest and most flexible program I've seen. Even if something is supposedly "impossible" with ASL, you can get around it through enough progressive thinking. If you read the help file and spend about ten minutes toying/tweaking with simple ASL games, you'll understand the language easily. If anything QDK is best used for a syntax error checking program(albeit a dislexic one).

I don't know... I just want more people to learn ASL.

Thank you for your reply, and sorry for some obvious questions (like the panes), where answers already were in the manual. I'm getting more used to Quest now and I hope I could find out answers by myself now

>>to be able to redo last command with up arrow on keyboard

You can do this already by pressing the F12 key.

I wanted to say "last commands". It's just if you wish to make people get more easy to play Quest games, it's better to give them the same kind of features they can expect with the more famous IF system. For ex. I'm used to redo the previous commands and edit them to avoid typping text, for ex :

>push chest to north
>take apple in chest
>give apple to starving peasant

>push chest to ne
>take apple in chest
>give apple to boy

etc...

In the usefull features, not for the player, but for designer, I like in some WYSIWYG html editors (like Dreamweaver) they can display also code by side of the IDE so you can edit quickly some scripts without using the different windows.
For editing with QDK I often use by side an external ascii editor, but I must reload the game in the QDK when I change things with the ascii editor.

Having side-by-side QDK with ASL code would certainly be nice, but it would require rewriting a substantial amount of code. Having the ASL open in Notepad or Textpad as you do, and then reloading it in QDK is really all that is possible at the moment and for the foreseeable future. Hopefully it's not too much of a problem!

do you mean like in visual studio 6 when you can place all the visual crap about the screen, then edit say... the option buttons like ok/cancel etc to pop-up a msg? if so, yes, that would be a nice impliment

Just for a note here I'm going to add an "Automatic Update" to my program!

So when the file is saved over by another program (probably QDK) then it will refresh the file....
After EZ-functions though!

Hopefully it's not too much of a problem!

yes, it's true, I thought to this just in case it was very easy to implement. Btw I saw also the comment from Computer Whizz, is he / she the creator of TextPad ?

Just for a note here I'm going to add an "Automatic Update" to my program!

I'm not using TextPad even if it looks great, but I'm using EditPlus that has this nice feature of proposing to refresh a file that has been modified in an other editor. Do you think it could be easy to propose such a thing in QDK too , just to avoid to forget to reload a file that has been modified ?

No - I'm not the creator of textpad....
But I do believe that has a refresh setting as well.