Hi everyone. I am attempting to learn Quest 5 as it seems to have all the tools I want to implement in my very own text-based RPG. My approach to learning Quest 5 is that I am going through all of the links on the main Quest 5 Documentation page starting with the tutorial section. I am only a few pages in on the tutorial, but I have a question:

I was drawn to Quest 5 because it requires no coding. I really do not have any experience with building scripts yet, but it seemed to me like you could build scripts in the GUI/IDE by pointing and clicking. However, when I read through some of the forums and I guess non-official tutorials many people suggest not even using the GUI/IDE and just writing your own code in Notepad++ (or something similar). Is this a common approach to Quest 5? Do many of the advanced users simply bypass the GUI/IDE and write code directly? Will I limit myself in anyway if I choose to solely build my game through the GUI/IDE?

Bonus question - This one is really a waste of time to ask, but there are no dumb questions, right, right?? Can Quest 5 be used for a multiplayer text adventure (aka MUD)? I am pretty sure this is a flat out no, but is there any background on multiplayer games and Quest 5? Was there ever an attempt to add this to Quest, or does Quest 5 support another tool/library to implement multiplayer?

I don't know if it's common, but I don't do the notepad thing.

The notepad thing is most useful if you're already familiar with the syntax Code View uses. If you're not, don't sweat it.

Obviously you'll be limiting yourself if you don't use something. That's kinda what 'limiting' means. But what you need to ask is 'Is what I want still within this limited-version anyway? If it is, there's no reason to change what I'm doing'.

Most of the stuff you can do in code view can also be done through the GUI. However, using the GUI can be a lot slower, and sometimes generates less efficient code.

However, you'll probably find that you end up writing some code anyway. A lot of commands have a drop-down list of different things they can do, and on that list is "expression". An expression is basically a tiny piece of code, and unfortunately there are quite a few features that require them.

By all means, start off using the GUI. You'll probably pick up bits and pieces of code anyway. And if you have a problem with something, you can go into code view just to copy+paste the problematic code for us to look at. (sharing code is a lot easier in text. People might offer code snippets as advice, and you can always paste them into code view and then see what they look like in the GUI if you prefer.

Certain functions cannot be used. A few from my memory:

show menu
removeobject (this)
destroyobject (this)

ShowMenu is a separate function from show menu, and can be used.

That's most of it. You might need to know how to use the code view if you break your game, like if someone forgot an if statement for a command.

Thanks everyone.