As my games become larger, the objects, attributes, turn scripts, etc. become messier and is very annoying to navigate. Any way to create "sections" dedicated to specific things such as what was just listed?

Well one method that's very basic is to use dummy objects as containers, say Public rooms, Private Rooms and exteriors.. Its far from a perfect solution, but at least it can be a layer of control

He's saying just use invisible rooms (not able to get to) to contain other rooms.

You just have to edit the parent/container options.

I try to alphabetize what I can, commands and exits. Not sure if that helps.

Hmm, better than nothing I suppose.

Yea, that's what I've done for my attempt at creating 10,000 rooms. I began by creating a surface map (drawn in octagons in MS pain) then assigning axis numbers from the bottom left 0,0 up to the top right 100,100.

I created an organized hierarchy naming convention using empty objects.

Problem is, it is really slow =(

I would not do 10000 rooms... 100 is hard enough as it is...

It's possible... If you have the time...

The website has a 20 MB data limit, by the way. Unlikely you'll ever hit it, but still. The offline editor has no such limits. It has something to do with either the parent program Visual Studio, or Alex Warren did it for some reason.

Yea, my file is at 2MB already. I guess I will just go with 100 rooms. Thanks jmnevil54.

Your welcome! My pleasure.

you can use scripting instead of manually creating the rooms in GUI/Editor or directly in-code...

if you use scripting... then you're going to have to wait for it to finish every time that you want to play the game, whereas, if you manually create (write/type/code in) everything, it takes a long time, but once its done, it's done, and quest doesn't have to do any scripting, beyond its normal auto compilation/initialization scripting (loading/building of your game code into a playable game).

this is basically the same general difference between the engines of C++ and Java programming languages

I just really wish there was a way to order the side column in the editor; manually would be great, but even alphabetical would be better than looking through a multi-screen-height list of functions to find the one I want.

I thought there was a way to change the order, and that it was too complicated for me to figure out how.

It would be nice to edit the order, though.

quest does auto re-order/re-sort stuff in the GUI/Editor (and as well as the right side panels during game play --- though I think we have found how to do the ordering/sorting of the right side panes --- I think but maybe not --- might jsut be confused with being able to add/create new right panes vs sorting/ordering them), (much to our annoyance/frustration), so there must be a way for us to program in how our Elements/OBJECTS/stuff get ordered/sorted around in the GUI/Editor... but this might be deep in the underlying quest code... and no one yet has learned how to yet, but as it should be possible, as I've already pointed out...

But, not even Pixie knows how to do it yet... so, it's likely really buried/intertwined in the underlying quest (source) code, which unforutnately uses many different programming languages/platforms and their interconnections, that Pixie is slowly trying to learn... Alex has been developing quest for 20 years... it's not going to be easy to learn all of this, as Pixie will likely tell you, lol.

in the meantime, while not much help for those who like (or must) using(use) the GUI/Editor, there is working directly in code, which allows you to organize everything on how you want it.

if you can learn to code and thus work directly in code... it does allow you to organize the code however you want it.

Other than reordering objects within a room (or other object) through the Objects tab, as well as exits through a room's Exit tab, you can cut and paste (ctrl-x and ctrl-v) pretty much whatever you want in full code view. This allows you to reorder rooms, functions, turn scripts, commands, etc. You just have to make sure that the indentations of what you cut are properly flush with adjacent elements when you paste (at the same nested level). You can also use this method to reorder individual cases within switch scripts, within the script's "local" code view.

In the GUI, you can also do a "quick and dirty" reordering of elements within a room (objects, exits, local turn scripts/commands, etc.) by dragging them to an adjacent room and then dragging them back to the same room. This will manually put them in order of first to last. I've used this method countless times, and to my knowledge, it does not mess up anything else.

the problem is that quest will automatically re-sort/re-order it within the GUI/Editor, making all of that work of yours, wasted effort , (if you're using the GUI/Editor), unfortunately.

It might require playing your game to cause this auto re-sorting/re-ordering... so, this wouldn't be noticed by those who don't play their own game. Aka: if you don't play your game, your ordering/sorting won't get messed up in the GUI/Editor.

(actual code, the in-code, doesn't get changed/re-ordered/re-sorted at all. We're just talking about within the GUI/Editor's organization of it)

HK, I'm not sure what you mean? (It has worked for me.) After you save the game and open it back up again, the new order is permanently in place in the left-side of the GUI.

err.. just edited my previous post... as I realized this might be the case... lol

(maybe the quest's auto re-organization doesn't happen any more... but I think it does... but it must just occur when you play your game)

(also, it could possible occur from, going between or back and forth between, the GUI/Editor mode and Code View mode)

Yes, as HK said, nothing in the Quest program is altered; only the organization within your own game is.

: )

Yeah... I use full Code View to cut and paste my rooms around in the order I'd like in my object tree all the time.

It works, and it sticks.

(I think this may have been fixed in 5.7.0?)

NOTE: Any HTML notes you add in full Code View WILL be deleted by Quest, though.

Other than reordering objects within a room (or other object) through the Objects tab

Just tried this. It only seems to work for some rooms (at least in the web editor).
the objects tab seems to list all child objects, not just direct children. So if the objects tab shows:

container A
container C
object in container C
container B

then I can't get them in the right order. Selecting container B and pressing 'move up', or selecting container C and pressing 'move down' displays "Working ..." for around 20 seconds, and then refreshes with the contents in the same order as before.
If none of a room's contents have their own children, I can re-order them fine. But it still ends up with child objects, exits, and turnscripts intermixed, and because they're not in the same list there doesn't seem to be any way to rearrange them.

Okay, so I watched this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEL6d4d5jqk

I tested a few things out. You can put a room into another room, but you can't move it, and I don't know how to take it out.

And from what I've tested, you can't do any of this on the web editor.

That's confusing.

@mrangel

then I can't get them in the right order.

Just had a look, and it works for me. Kind of. The left pane does not update, but if you come out of the editor, and go back in the changes are there.

@JMNE

And from what I've tested, you can't do any of this on the web editor.

You do it differently. You cannot drag-and-drop, but if you go to the object you want to move, you will find a Move button towards the top right.

@The Pixie Oh yeah. I forgot.