chapter 31 "Overview of the Quick Creation System"
First, let me clarify that the QCS is not intended to replace
good coding habits. It is also not designed to handle every possible
need of a builder. The QCS is just a handy tool for making the
most tedious parts of building easier.
The amount of time it takes to hand-code an area of 100 rooms
(a small area, that is), with all the appropriate descriptions and
monsters and weapons and such is just mind-boggling. As a grown-up,
I just don't have time for building stuff line by excruciating line
in raw LPC, because I also need to work, maintain my house, say hello
to my family on occasion, etc.
At the same time, I would need a team of dedicated LPC code
fetishists to make a creation system that covers every last possible
thing you could do in LPC. The QCS is somewhere in between those
two extremes.
Therefore please view the QCS as a quick way to get bulk building
done, and not as a be-all end-all solution. You still need to learn
LPC to do really cool stuff. But to hammer out an area with a quest,
QCS lets you sail through the process of thingmaking with little hassle.
The design philosophy of the system itself involves object files
stored in /secure/modules. These files are inherited by an object which
you need to carry with you in order to use the QCS system. The code
for these creation modules is fairly messy and inelegant, but the
result is clean, indented code that compiles, so let's keep the
mockery to a minimum, shall we?
It is important to keep in mind the QCS isn't an editing system.
It's real live on-line modification, meaning that to modify a thing,
it actually has to be in the same room you are in, or it has to be that
room itself.
Once you modify something, it will typically update, so that if
you change the name of an npc, you're going to need to use the new name
to modify it further.
The next few chapters in this manual are nominally QCS specific,
but in reality this is pretty much my only chance to document some
of the changes in Dead Souls since version 1, so even if you never
intend to use QCS, it's worth poking through these chapters.
- Cratylus @ Frontiers
2 January 2006
