Can I pay someone for a tutorial on Zscripting?

On 7/14/2024 at 10:53 PM, pRoJect45yt said:

How did you guys get so good at this? I am not understanding anything. Is there anyway someone could teach me the basics of Zscripting? I am willing to pay for lessons. I'm desperate. PLEASE!

There are several Doomers who do tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=zscript

These might be useful:

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?style=19&t=55409

https://github.com/jekyllgrim/ZScript_Basics

15 minutes ago, Redneckerz said:

There are several Doomers who do tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=zscript

 

 

That second video is not GZDoom's ZScript, just an unrelated thing with same name.

ZScript is not easy. We've all learned it with a lot of trial and error and a fair amount of swearing at intractable error messages. I'm at the point now where I can figure out most of the easier stuff but I still struggle with things like scope. I can knock up a custom monster if it's not too complicated. Don't ask me about custom HUDs.

Your best bet is to take it slowly. Start with simple stuff and get the hang of that first - leave the HUDs and the new monsters from scratch until you've figured out how to amend and inherit existing classes. Creating a new custom monster is a headache, but making custom decorative objects is a lot simpler. You can learn a lot by downloading custom content from Realm667 and looking at the code for it. What happens if you change things? Can you make that monster faster, weaker, fire twice as often? (I ended up converting a custom weapon from projectile to hitscan at one point, and that was a challenge to figure out!)

ZScript is essentially the old Decorate stuff but with more power - event handlers, for instance. And semicolons. Don't forget the semicolons.

How do i start a script? Im trying to change doomguys height and I've seen people say scale is the way to do it, but it doesn't work. Am I not putting like "zcript.txt" at the beginning?

class DoomPlayer : PlayerPawn
{
    Default
    {
        Height 88;
        Scale 88;
    }
}

https://zdoom.org/wiki/Tutorials#ZScript-related

5 hours ago, pRoJect45yt said:

How do i start a script? Im trying to change doomguys height and I've seen people say scale is the way to do it, but it doesn't work. Am I not putting like "zcript.txt" at the beginning?

 

class DoomPlayer : PlayerPawn
{
    Default
    {
        Height 88;
        Scale 88;
    }
}

When you say "it doesn't work", do you mean it's throwing up an error or that it just doesn't do anything? (Check the console in-game as well; most ZScript errors will pop up on launch and stop it running, but minor warnings won't prevent it launching.)

Doomguy is a bit of a special case. Scale relates to sprites; a scale of 88 (as here) would say "make this sprite 88 times taller". I don't think it would work in the context of a player class, though you might notice the difference in any mirrors in the level.

Height affects how low a ceiling the actor can go under. I think Doomguy defaults to... 56? I'd need to look it up... and setting it to 88 as here would mean you could only go through passages of 88 height or more. This is entirely separate to the height of any sprites; a classic example here is the revenant, whose height is smaller than its sprite (which means their heads can often clip ceilings).

Height won't change the player's view height, however, or where their weapons fire from. Your eyes and guns would both be around waist level. I think you'd need to adjust viewheight as well (?) for the former, and I can't remember what the offset for firing is called - check on the wiki, and get used to searching it a lot. That's ZScript for you.

On 7/14/2024 at 11:34 PM, jaeden said:

 

That second video is not GZDoom's ZScript, just an unrelated thing with same name.

Darn it. Fixed.

10 hours ago, pRoJect45yt said:

How do i start a script? Im trying to change doomguys height and I've seen people say scale is the way to do it, but it doesn't work. Am I not putting like "zcript.txt" at the beginning?

 

class DoomPlayer : PlayerPawn
{
    Default
    {
        Height 88;
        Scale 88;
    }
}

Are you actually trying to follow the tutorial videos or are you just shot-put slamming it on and draw a blank on the first error you come across?

Follow the tutorials. Slowly. Trial and error.

1 hour ago, Redneckerz said:

Darn it. Fixed.

 

Are you actually trying to follow the tutorial videos or are you just shot-put slamming it on and draw a blank on the first error you come across?

 

Follow the tutorials. Slowly. Trial and error.

This. You can pay someone to teach you all you want, but you still need to take time to learn. There is no rushing understanding. I've seen more than a few threads by people who just want answers spoon-fed to them, even though the problems are easily seen by paying attention and taking time to understand how things work.

I know this because when I read those threads, I often don't know the answer either... but then I do a simple google search and spot the issue, so it's clear that the poster either hadn't bothered to search or hadn't taken time to try and understand.

9 hours ago, Redneckerz said:

Darn it. Fixed.

 

Are you actually trying to follow the tutorial videos or are you just shot-put slamming it on and draw a blank on the first error you come across?

 

Follow the tutorials. Slowly. Trial and error.

You're right. I just got frustrated cause its so much and so overwhelming to look at but like you said; slowly. I'll take you guys' tips and pointers and use them to better my knowledge at ZScripting. Thank you guys for the help, genuinely! :)

Trying to understand everything at once is overwhelming. Trying to make a big, total-conversion, "everything-mod" right from the start is overwhelming.

So the solution is to start slow, one piece at a time and get a grasp on that. For example, I decided to make tweaks to the Baron of Hell in ZScript to make it more threatening (faster movement, faster firing, more projectiles fired.) One mod, very simple. Now I can learn how to do another simple mod. Perhaps a chaingun which has a spin-up time, but faster firing. One step at a time.

52 minutes ago, Stabbey said:

Trying to understand everything at once is overwhelming. Trying to make a big, total-conversion, "everything-mod" right from the start is overwhelming.

 

So the solution is to start slow, one piece at a time and get a grasp on that. For example, I decided to make tweaks to the Baron of Hell in ZScript to make it more threatening (faster movement, faster firing, more projectiles fired.) One mod, very simple. Now I can learn how to do another simple mod. Perhaps a chaingun which has a spin-up time, but faster firing. One step at a time.

Thanks man. I just have big plans and little time. You know how it is lmao.