IDK what that is and it's already obvious to me it won't work. I'm looking for something that can actually teach it ALL. The only stuff I can find is stuff that teaches you how to code like a percentile of a game.

thats the exact same thing he was talking about. How much can this show me for a game?

It's not going to show you how to make things for games like death and attacking. It will should you how to use the procs, verbs, and variables, which you will then use to create whatever you want.

is that Avatar thing from Futurama? um... whats his name... Seymour Asses!

Pyro_dragons wrote:

It's not going to show you how to make things for games like death and attacking. It will should you how to use the procs, verbs, and variables, which you will then use to create whatever you want.

well i can do the basic stuff like talking and a changing luminosity and opacity with numbers and stuff. What I'm looking for is stuff like... for example, say I want to like make a simple toggle on something, or like I want to make a skill system or leveling system, some kind of automatic event like night-time to day-time, how to make it so somebody can't go into some location, how to make it so like when somebody like opens a trunk they got like deposit and withdraw. Yeah I'm hoping to make some kind of RPG of some sort. Can the DM Guide help me with this kind of stuff?

PrimalSaiyan wrote:

Ownu It is me Mark from H.A.H. you can go to the DM guide wich helped me a lot you just need to be ready to read a lot XD

How did this help you? Doesn't seem to be teaching me much anything I didn't know? Just seems to teach you the details and extra stuff for a game. All I can find is EXTRA stuff, I want to find the BIG PICTURE.

OwnU wrote:

I have no clue how any of you people have figured out how to code.

In reality learning to program doesn't just magically click with you all at once. You learn one little thing at a time until you've built up a huge list of things you know how to do. The more things you know how to do, the better your chances of being able to make what you want how you want it. The people who make the really cool stuff have been here for years, learning all the way.

Personally, I started back in '01 with Zilal's Beginner Tutorial, or ZBT. After that point I just started experimenting with different implementations of what I learned in that tutorial, and afterwards I started asking questions on the forums and looking at other tutorials and demos, as well as reading through the guide.

The most important thing to learn, though, is the basics. Once you understand how the language itself works, you can look things up as you need them. That's when the DM Reference becomes really handy, and all those advanced tutorials start to make sense.

OwnU wrote:

1. How long did it take you to learn how code fluently?

Fluency is a hard thing to pinpoint. I wrote my first functional game within a week, and my second, much less buggy and more efficient game in about a month. I didn't really understand what I was doing until after about three months, but I learned how to use things like associative lists after about six months. So I guess you could say I was pretty decent after about a year.

But if you really want to get down to it, I didn't start actually writing good code until about eight months ago when I started commenting everything thoroughly.

2. May I see some of your creations?

I don't have any finished projects published under this key (and any projects published under another key are in sore need of updating), but you can look at my most recent works-in-progress. The Gauntlet is a simplistic puzzle/adventure game in desperate need of a plot, while Solar Conquest v0.93 was my first attempt at a space strategy game, but which is currently in need of a redesign that I don't have the time to give it right now.

(I should mention that both games were created within about 2-3 weeks.)

3. Have you ever not been able to code something the same way you wanted to code it so it ended up turning out worst?

Given that I'm a perfectionist and BYOND has limitations, almost always.

4. Are any of your creations anywhere as good as you thought they would be?

The Gauntlet and Solar Conquest, linked to above, came out almost exactly as I wanted them. In fact, Solar Conquest came out better. I also created a very, very cool single-player party-based Roguelike at one point, but never published it (deleted it, in fact) for personal reasons.

5. What are all the things you did EXACTLY to learn how to code?

That's impossible to say. Its been a long time and you learn a LOT of little tricks along the way. Mostly its just a matter of trial and error when you're just starting, though. The first month is definitely the most frustrating.

OwnU wrote:

Yeah it is frustrating, I want to create something that all can appreciate... I've looked at like half of the demo project files, that Zila Tutorial was the FIRST thing I ever looked at when I started. I think I have been getting ahead of myself and skipping a a few steps. I think I might be looking in the wrong places for help, but yeah I understand all the stuff in the DM Guide though. [not getting ahead of myself.] Now what?

Now what what? Decide what you want to build, build as much as you can until you can't figure out how to build anymore, and then search for demos or tutorials for what you want. If there isn't anything, make a post on the forums describing in detail what you're trying to accomplish and what exactly you're having trouble doing.

If you're having trouble with errors, its much easier for other people to help you if you post the piece of code that is causing the error.