1. How can the game tell what level a character is?
I want to be able to say "you look in need of training.." etc. I'm sure it's V1-99 or something but I can't seem to find the instruction

[Um.. er..

IF V33, @HostIsLevel33orAbove

And you can use %L-1 to embed the number in a sentence, like:

1: I see you are level %L-1, young hero!

SET hisLevel, %L-1 <-- put it in a cookie

If you use %Lnn you get the 'rank name' of level nn, or %L0 gets the 'rank name' of the current host's current level. Pretty confusing no doubt.

From the Quest Dictionary: http://www.synthetic-reality.com/wosquest.htm#Dialog

%0 speaking character's name
%1 server player name (player hosting the scene)
%2 client name (each client sees his or her own name)
%3 a random insult name "stupid maggoty rat-face"
%4 name of the last person to type in chat
%5 name of last person who typed YOUR NAME at start of chat line
%C class name of scene host ("magic-user")
%Cn class name of class n (starting at 1) from world level tables.
%In name of ITEM n
%L level name of scene host ("emperor")
%Ln level name for level n of scene host's class
%L-1 level number of scene host ("99")
%Mn name of MONSTER n
%Sn name of SPELL n
%Tn token name n
%% inserts a single visible percent sign

Note all the flavors of %L -s]

2. I have some .bmp monster skins that are not showing in link edit's skins pop-up. They are in the monsters folder and they work perfectly fine within the game, just not in the pop-up.. ??

[um, err.. yeah. sorry. The A57 Generic Props editor shows files from both folders, but the /villagers dialog doesn't... -s]

Now the oddness. This is something I just HAD to share:

3. Sometimes I find that if I cut and paste scene scripts using wordpad or notepad, the game completely ignores it until I manually type it all out again :p

[use /funpak and look for error messages when loading the world. And be sure to leave a blank line at the end of any quest file. (probably a superstition by this point, but humour me)... Um, I assume you mean you type "/scene 47" and don't see that scene appear.

* make sure scene number is unique
* make sure to save changes and /reload before trying to run modified scene
* watch out for double quotes which are not real double quotes. Excel tends to use fancy quotes (the kind which look different on the left from the right, instead of this kind: "quotes the same on both sides" but I haven't seen wordpad (and certainly not notepad) do that.)

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you left out a save or /reload somewhere along the way... -s]

On one occaison I had a wolfboy who wouldn't exit stage left. He just "crawled up the wall". I tried all sorts of stuff to coax him off but nothing worked. Then something similar happened in another script and I found the thing to do was delete the commands and retype them.
It's not life threatening anyway. I'll update you with any more occurances.

[if you get a chance, paste in an example with a description of how it isn't working. "crawling up the wall" sounds like it was off by a comma somehow. So instead of picking up (x,y), it got (y, 0)

If you have any fields with spaces or commas in them, be sure to quote them... for example

"Sword, the necromancy", 0, 0, 0, 0 <- 5 args

versus

Sword, the necromancy, 0, 0, 0, 0 <- 6 args

-s]

IF V20 @higher
1: You look in need of training.
1: Blah blah blah..
END
@higher
1: Hmm. You seem reasonably well trained.
1: Blah blah blah..
END

BTW: I wasn't aware cookies were available until a57. There doesn't seem to be any info on them in my a56 quest.txt.
I guess I need to go by Dev Notes but I feel it would be wiser to steer clear until they are implemented properly.

[you are correct, cookies are an A57 thing, and you might well steer clear of them even then, if you are hoping for fully debugged behaviour -s]

[This message has been edited by Fred Spade (edited 07-09-2001).]

This is the end of the scene where actor 2 is supposed to exit stage left, but when he gets to the left edge of the window he simply goes up the screen to the top left corner:

1: *whistle*
1: Now, you're wolf meat..
FIGHT 60, 60, 60, 60
IF WON @fight
2: Dumb heroes.. they never learn!
MOVE 1, -15, 98
MOVE 2, -15, 100
END
@fight
2: Too strong..
1: Maybe they'll help..
2: NO!
MOVE 1, -15, 98
MOVE 2, - 25, 95
END

I think your wolfboy's problem is the extra space:

MOVE 2, - 25, 95

THis gets interpreted as

MOVE 2, "-", "25", "95"

Which gets interpreted as

MOVE 2, "-0", "25", "95"

which takes him to the left edge, instead of off-screen.

Spaces inside of arguments "- 25" require the use of double-quotes or I get all confusimicalated. Depending on the context, I am likely to either infer an invisible comma, or just go with everything up to the first space and ignore the rest.