0.5.3+ Quest editor... [updated 01/06/2004 (perl support)] [Archive]

Muuss

11-30-2003, 03:20 AM

Hi guys.

I just finished a pre-version of a third party tool i wanted to create. This is an editor for quest designers. It helps in writing the qst files.
the software features shortcuts that write the skeleton of the quests and a few search tools.

This is a beta, shouldnt be to much bugged but isnt yet totally complete. If you guys estimate it deserves much work, i ll certainly invest the needed time in it ! :)

Quest Editor is available for download at
http://alexis.vilvert.free.fr/eqemu/questeditor.html

feel free to test, and report bugs or suggestions :)

Muuss

[updates]
01/06/2003 : updated to 1.5 -> added columns sorting on npc's list
12/18/2003 : Updated to 1.4 -> added perl support
12/10/2003 : Updated to 1.3 -> added syntax highlighting and reworked interface
12/07/2003 : Updated to 1.2 -> added 'not connected' mode (suggested by Dodger).
12/03/2003 : Updated to 1.1a -> added race support.
12/02/2003 : Updated to 1.1 -> added spells and skills.

Shadow-Wolf

11-30-2003, 02:02 PM

you just made my like soooooooooo easyer :D

LaZZer

11-30-2003, 10:44 PM

Love it Muuss! Easy to use and saves me a great deal of time when creating quests. Keep up the great work!

rockocool

12-02-2003, 07:56 PM

It looks great, except why the save and reload button are disabled? thus I can not save or load quest files. Did I miss something?
In any case, this looks like going to be a very decent tool!

Eglin

12-02-2003, 08:42 PM

Although I am interested in the concept, I am extremely wary of your program. Maybe you can post some large screenshots, so I cen get a feel of what it is like, since I am not going to run it (and advise others to avoid it, too).

1) it isn't provided with source, which throws a big warning flag right off the bat
2) it crashes if I try to execute it with the permissions of a non-priviledged user.
3) checking it out in dependency walker (or quickview or pedump or whatever floats your boat) shows that it exports all kinds of winsock methods, which makes me nervous, since I can't think of any reason a quest editor would need to be sending shit out over the internet.

I'm sorry if you feel like I'm attacking you or your efforts, but with so much malware/spyware/etc out there today, I don't think my concern is misplaced.

Muuss

12-02-2003, 08:42 PM

In fact the process is the following :

choose a zone
choose a npc
write something in the editor
save

the buttons become enable when u press a key in the editor and if a npc and a zone has been selected before.

the goal of this is to do for you the choice of the quest file where you save the script. so, people don't save quest files everywhere on their harddisk and wonder why it doesn't work in the emu :D

Edit : tho, i have nothing against adding an 'expert mode' with a file selector and permanently available save/reload buttons

Eglin

12-03-2003, 02:34 AM

Oops. Closer inspection showed that the non-priviledged account that I was attempting to run the program under did not have access to the directory that the program was stored in. The fact that it crashed without error message is probably a reflection of Windows, rather than your software.

After starting it up, it immediately became clear why you need tcp/ip stuff... mysql. Since there was no readme and the info on your site is pretty minimal, I had no idea that it used the DB to get names and stuff...

After having a chance to actually run your program, I must say that I agree with the other posters - it is supasweet! There are a lot of really handy tools, like the ability to run queries internally. I had the same problem with the reload/save buttons being greyed out, but I still have to congratulate you on what looks to be a promising new tool.

Muuss

12-03-2003, 02:42 AM

Thank you Eglin.
Im opened to suggestions. a 'Not connected' mode is planned (some people who want to write quests during their work time :lol: )

btw, i m not providing sources cause i m using a mysql library that isnt free for use. For the info on the site, its as minimal as my english speaking skills :/ If you or someone else want to write some, you're more than welcome !

Eglin

12-03-2003, 03:59 AM

Thank you Eglin.
Sorry for vilifying you, I'm just paranoid.

Im opened to suggestions. Support for Perl quests would obviously be important to me. Syntax highlighting would be nifty, too.

btw, i m not providing sources cause i m using a mysql library that isnt free for use. You could always just use ODBC. Besides, you don't have to distribute the lib to distribute your source.

For the info on the site, its as minimal as my english speaking skills :/ If you or someone else want to write some, you're more than welcome !A man after my own heart.

Muuss

12-03-2003, 09:09 AM

you don't have to distribute the lib to distribute your source.

The one i m using isn't available, we made it here at work. I could use another one tho, as u say.

I need to dive into perl quests, then i ll add it to the software of course :)

Kroeg

12-04-2003, 01:19 AM

Let me give you a little heads up then. On the following link, you'll find all the quests I had converted into perl (*.pl) format. I have tested all of these and they work mostly as is.

http://h37.bounceme.net/eqemu/perl_quests.zip

Hope this helps! :D

Edgar1898

12-04-2003, 01:33 AM

Next Release will have 3 packages, 1 for the source, another for Win32 Perl quests and the last for Win32 old quest format. If the perl stuff proves itself as a long term solution and is easy enough to use we should be able to phase the old parser.cpp stuff out by 5.5 or so.

Kroeg

12-04-2003, 01:38 AM

Awesome LE. Personally, so far perl quests have proven to hold more ability than the former. Also, if the quest is somehow borked, it doesn't screw with the emulator, it just doesn't work. I love that.

Three cheers for perl scripting :)

Muuss

12-04-2003, 03:30 AM

Thanks for the link Kroeg.
Tonight, i ll do a minor update to add support for races in the npc's list.
the "not connected mode" will be the next one to come, then i ll work on perl syntax. Dunno if i ll create 2 versions of the editor or go for an option that will let the user choose the language.

I may add a basic syntax checker too, at least to verify the matching for the opening and closing }.

Trumpcard

12-04-2003, 03:35 AM

The perl parser is not as unforgiving on its syntax, but its annoying if you get it wrong, it will repeatedly bark at you , so a 'syntax validitor' would be extremely useful for written perl scripts...

Kroeg

12-04-2003, 04:34 AM

Trumpcard

12-04-2003, 05:25 AM

I agree , the strength in perl is that its a known, and doesnt need to be supported, we just have to tweak our interface to it.

Hats off to Eglin for the contribution! Hope to see some more magic from you soon !

Eglin

12-04-2003, 05:31 AM

I noticed an example of this... I made an npc that summons a higher level weapon for newbies when you tell him what your class is. What I have noticed is that the quest works, but in the text portion (if you're not careful)... it smushes all the text in one line (without spaces) so, instead of

Adventureguide_grumblebrunt says, 'The warrior, strong and proud. Be well on your quest'

he says

Adventureguide_grumblebrunt says, 'thewarriorstrongandproud.bewellonyourquest'

The formatting is the picky colprate on this one. From what I can tell, the quests get screwy when you use commas (for some reason). Still, perl is the pwn :)
I haven't really looked into this yet, but I think it may be a misfeature of the function that sends messages to the client. Every major quest package I've seen uses periods instead of commas, so I presume that it the intended behavior. I'll add it to my list of things to look into.

Eglin

12-04-2003, 05:34 AM

a 'syntax validitor' would be extremely useful for written perl scripts... That would be awesome. Being able to emulate the firing of events (complete with exported vars and stuff) would be the shiznit.

Muuss

12-04-2003, 08:32 AM

Eglin, do you have written some kind of documentation somewhere (not that i m lazy to search it by myself...) i could use ?

I have a lots of spare time these days, since i can't play on Winter's Roar anymore because of my ##### 56 kbits modem.

Right now, i m modifying the core of the editor to make it more adaptable to future innovations. I could start to work on perl syntax very soon.

Deeiny

12-04-2003, 01:40 PM

Im gona feel realy stupid for asking... :roll: But does anyone know how to fix a corrupted file... :cry: When ever i trie to download the quest editor it says "Error corrupted file! cannot proced" even when i download it straight into my eqemu folder. was just wandering if someone could help me with this. :|

Deeiny

12-04-2003, 02:26 PM

Note:
When i said my eqemu folder i meant a sub folder (or sub directory depending on idea of computers) name Quest editor... (note: name shouldnt matter). It just simply says "error: file is corrupted cannot proced" (changes when computer is restarted...

Well if noone knows what to do thanks and i dont care just somthing extra.
:) [/u]

Muuss

12-04-2003, 07:39 PM

Download the file from that link :

http://cimdev.c2m.univ-st-etienne.fr/vilvert/qe.zip

Kroeg

12-05-2003, 02:29 AM

The periods were originally intended for the pre 5x quest parser... it couldn't parse commas inside functions or statements. This was when most of those 'quest sets' were constructed. Then the 5.0 quest parser allowed commas, so most quests got changed to use commas.

From what it seems this can be added to compensate in convert.pl , is this correct?

Shadow-Wolf

12-06-2003, 02:45 PM

any updates on a new version of the quest creator?

Muuss

12-07-2003, 07:30 AM

Currently uploading 1.2...
1.3 will require lots of work and will be available a little later, let's say in a big week, or perhaps 2 :)

Shadow-Wolf

12-07-2003, 03:16 PM

cool thanks for the updates =)

Muuss

12-09-2003, 12:45 AM

in fact, 1.3 will be 1.4, and another 1.3 will be released before :p
featuring : syntax highlighting, sizeable interface, reworked core, and perhaps perl support

Xandyr

12-09-2003, 03:30 AM

in fact, 1.3 will be 1.4, and another 1.3 will be released before :p
featuring : syntax highlighting, sizeable interface, reworked core, and perhaps perl support

How about a flashing or block cursor? For some reason the version I downloaded doesn't shown where the cursor is in the script and gets very anoying very fast.

Xandyr
/em sits down to plan universal domination.

Muuss

12-09-2003, 03:34 AM

The caret should be visible in the text editor... its not unvalidated, unless i made a mistake somewhere on that version you downloaded (which is ?). i ll check at it.

Kroeg

12-09-2003, 03:45 AM

Did i see 'maybe perl support'... ?

! :shock: :D

Muuss

12-09-2003, 10:11 AM

Well that's right. 1.2's editor has a bug, the cursor isnt visible. This is now fixed. I m currently uploading the zip file.

Did i see 'maybe perl support'... ?
I m implementing syntax highlighting, for perl mode, i need to collect all the keywords used in the syntax. After that, i ll add them to the highlighter.

LaZZer

12-09-2003, 12:39 PM

Thanks Muuss, was quite a challenge not having a mouse. Keep up the great work!

Xandyr

12-09-2003, 01:01 PM

Yay Muss you rock!

Xandyr

Muuss

12-18-2003, 10:25 AM

Well, I finnally found a few hours to add perl support to the Quest Editor (thx Eglin).
Please keep in mind that i NEED feedback. I ll fix whatever will need to be fixed. There's certainly lotsa commands/variables to add to the popups, don't hesitate to claim em :)

L8rs

Shadow-Wolf

12-18-2003, 12:35 PM

i just downloaded 1.3 and this comes out thanss for the update muuss.

Kroeg

12-19-2003, 11:58 AM

I've worked a few perl quests with this tool and no errors in syntax. Great job, I'm having fun with this so far. Thanks for making it available to us! :D

mollymillions

12-29-2003, 06:07 PM

Good app now that it supports Perl scripts, but i think i will never overcome my longterm Ultraedit dependency when working with any script language.

Lurker_005

12-29-2003, 09:55 PM

Good app now that it supports Perl scripts, but i think i will never overcome my longterm Ultraedit dependency when working with any script language.

People use something besides Ultraedit? :shock:
I love it too. I have also grown to love ExamDiff Pro. You just have to love character level diff/color highlighting.