Quests | Application Guide

This section gives a rundown on using the Mavec Quest Designer Tool

Main Screen

The main screen contains three sections, the menu bar, the properties tab (left hand pane) and the work area (right hand pane). The 'File' menu allows 'New' quests to be created, clearing the current one, or open and save quests.
The 'Test' menu pops up a dialog allowing the current quest to be played through in a test screen. The 'Help' menu provides access to online help and the about dialog.

Creating Instances and Types

To create a 'Type' or 'Instance' right click on the work area. This will give a dropdown menu to create an 'Instance', 'Type' or 'Instance & Type' (as they are so often created together). The 'Instance' is represented by a small grey circle with a number in it (the instance id), in the diagram above the circle is blue as the currently selected item (which is always blue). The currently selected item also has it's properties displayed (in the left-hand pane). To select a different item left click on it with the mouse.

Creating Actions

To create an 'Action' you must move the mouse over a 'Type' then left click, then keeping the mouse button depressed, move over to another action and release the mouse button. This will bring up a drop-down menu from which 'Add Action' can be selected. To add the 'Action' to just one 'Type' the mouse must be moved on and off the 'Type' with the left mouse button depressed. The 'Action' is displayed as a little red box. The red arrow passing through the 'Action' represents the direction of transistion of 'Types' when the action is carried out. The red arror represent changes on the main object or 'Actor'. To involve a secondary object ('Target' object) drag mouse from another 'Type' to the action or from the 'Action' to a 'Type'. This show's up as orange lines on the diagram, the arrow again indicating the direction of transformation. the 'Actor' and 'Target' lines can be deleted and redrawn by right clicking on the action and choosing the relevant menu item.

Adding Action Attributes

To add an 'Attribute' to an 'Action' put the mouse on the 'Action' left click, then keeping the mouse help down move to another area and release, this will give the 'Attribute' menu which allows you to add an 'Attribute' to the action such as 'Move' or 'Show Instance' etc.

Deleteing Items

To delete an 'Instance', 'Type', 'Action' or 'Attribute' just right click on the item and choose to delete from the drop-dwon menu.

Moving Items

To move an item just drag it (using the left mouse button). To move a group of objects together you can select several together by first putting the mouse at the top-left of the selection, then dragging down to the bottom-right. All the objects within this area will turn blue allowing them all to be dragged to a new position.

Saving Quest

You can save a quest at any time. Choose 'File' 'Save' or 'Save As' and give the quest a name. Quests get saved into an xml file.

Test Screen

To test out the current quest hit the 'Test' menu option. This brings up the test screen as shown below. At the top of the screen is a drop-down list box. This lists all the map positions in the quests and is how you move between map positions. Next to this is the location within the square is shown followed by the current experience and cash. There's a $1000 as a starting point to allow things to be bought. Just below there is a Narrative text box which displays any narrative associated with actions.
Below the Narrative the screen is divided into four sections. The top section displays the objects you are currently carrying. The second section shows objects that are in your current location (within the map square). Thirdly are objects on the current square, and finally at the bottom are all the objects in the current quest. As you move around squares, locations and pick up and drop objects they will move between these sections.

Using Objects

This is pretty simple, just hover over the object ID and right click, this will display a drop-down menu of any actions allowed on the object. You can only carry out actions on objects you are carrying or are in your current location (i.e. the top two sections). When you select an action from the menu any narrative will be displayed aand the screen will update to indicate the new state of objects, cash, location, experience etc as a result of the action.