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General syntax of events

An Event starts according to this general code pattern

{[[(marker), event1, event2, ...]] text and/or [[actions1]] [[action2]],...}.

The order of text and/or actions is not mandatory, it's possible to have only text, only actions, or text followed by actions, or actions followed by text, or an alternation between text and actions!

Examples:
{[[(G),ON_OPEN]] As soon as you open the secret door a strange force pushes you towards the fireplace [[MOVE_HERO(K12)]] } or {[[(G),ON_OPEN]] [[MOVE_HERO(K12)]] As soon as you open the secret door a strange force pushes you towards the fireplace }. or {[[(G),ON_OPEN]] As soon as you open the secret door.. [[MOVE_HERO(K12)]] …a strange force pushes you towards the fireplace }.

In the following line, the pattern is repeated, with different parts colored to clarify the correspondence of each part of the code.

{[[ (marker) , event1 ; event2 ; ...]] text and/or [[action21]] [[action2]] ... }

{[[ (G) , ON_OPEN ]] As soon as you open the secret door a strange force pushes you towards the fireplace   [[MOVE_HERO(K12)]] }.

The marker represents the position on the map to which the event is associated, all markers allowed by hQuestBuilder can be used, the letters from A to Z, a number from 1 to 20, or one of the arrows respectively called "FancyArrow", "Arrow", "inOut"

After the marker, one or more Events are listed, separated by commas.

  • In many cases, the exact position of the marker is not important. What matters is that it is in the room or corridor section where the event should occur.
  • However, there are some events (e.g., ON_STEP), which refer to the exact position of the marker, meaning that the associated actions occur only when something happens at the specific marker position.
  • Finally, there are cases where the marker's position is entirely irrelevant because the event affects the game in general (e.g., ON_NEW_TURN), or because it must be specified elsewhere where it will have an effect (e.g., ON_OPEN).

Attention: If a marker is not present on the map, the events associated with that marker will never be activated. When it is necessary to indicate a particular cell with an action or an event, it must be indicated by a pair of a Letter (from A to S) and a number from 1 to 26; you can see which is a cell coordinate directly from hQuestBuilder by holding down Q and D together, this will show in the bottom right corner of the browser a small box containing the coordinates of the selected cell.

Modifiers​

Some Events support Modifiers. The possible Modifiers are :REPEAT (or :R), :LAST. In the description of each event, it is specified whether and which Modifiers it supports.

  • :REPEAT or :R, the actions of an event are triggered only once (unless specific cases), with the use of this modifier instead the actions will be executed every time the event occurs.
  • :LAST, with the use of this modifier, the actions will be executed only when the last hero triggers the event. (currently the only event that supports it is ON_STEP)

Parameters​

Some Events support Parameters. Parameters are passed by indicating the values within round parentheses ( ). In the description of each Event, it is indicated whether it supports Parameters and what they are.

Style​

Texts can be written in HTML language, so it is possible to format the text as desired, with tags or with CSS to change color, or insert images using the <img> tag.

Style​

Texts can be written in HTML language, so it's possible to format the text as desired, with tags or with CSS to change color, or insert images through the <img> tag.

Example:
{[[(G),ON_OPEN]] <i>As soon as you open the secret door</i> a strange <b>force</b> pushes you towards the <b style=”color: red;”>fireplace</b> <img src=”http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LKmZrDXEiN8/Uj3AmK0xEZI/AAAAAAAAAf0/2hnNyILomOQ/s400/firecomp1.jpg” /> [[MOVE_HERO(K12)]] }.

For the same reason, it's necessary to use the HTML line break
inside the texts, where deemed necessary.

NOTE: Any other text outside the {} will be ignored, so you can leave the original notes of the maps, or add notes to the written QuestDown code.

Example:
The line of code below is used to define the starting square
{[[(A), ON_START]]}
the event below moves the heroes who try to open the secret door
{[[(G),ON_OPEN]] [[MOVE_HERO(K12)]] As soon as you open the secret door a strange force pushes you towards the fireplace }.

Formatting​

Events and Actions are case-insensitive, but it's recommended for better code readability to write them in uppercase. In QuestDown, line breaks are also ignored, so it's not necessary to write a whole event on a single line, this means that the following two examples are equivalent:

Example 1:
{[[(G),ON_OPEN]] [[MOVE_HERO(K12)]] As soon as you open the secret door a strange force pushes you towards the fireplace }.

Example 2:
{[[(G),ON_OPEN]]
[[MOVE_HERO(K12)]]
As soon as you open the secret door a strange force pushes you towards the fireplace
}