Lately I’ve been thinking about how non-scripters find it difficult, or more precisely they shy away from scripting in eterna. I know that most of the people here aren’t programmers, I don’t think you really need to be a progarmmer to help create tools. Just like Lee once said to me- You don’t need to be a baker in order to make a toast. So here are some things that I think will help make the scripting process more streamlined and accessible to new scripters:
- A scripting tutorial, just like the normal puzzle progression - The eterna api has a lot of useful specific functions that don’t require a deep knowledge of js to use, which can be taught as one of levels, after some basic js training. I once played with it for a bit, and I’ll might continue working on it if people will be interested.
- More standard libraries - Stuff like UI doesn’t really have any standard eterna libraries associated with it. It could be great to have a library for buttons and such, which will both make it easier to add UI elements in a more organized manner, and will also make a standard way of doing so. I made a prototype of one, but it seems that we will be going in a different direction with the UI. I know that we are still just fiddling with overlayed UI, so it’s not something that we can expect to see too soon, but it would be great in the long run.
- Project oriented guides - I think that having guides based on examples such as “remove all markers”, “change all bases to A”, or “Mutate the MS2 to all of its used alternatives” could help with finding more accessible info on specific functionality, and will also be easier for new scripters to bite into, at least in my opinion.
- In game script editor- I prototyped a while ago (but finished only today) an in game script editor, Which is useful in my opinion for 3 things: It allows for easier scripting for small boosters, as you don’t have to go to another page and save in order to test your booster; It allows trying out booster functions on a smaller format; And it offers an alternative to having to create your own copy for someone else’s booster, which was to make them have the code as their own and maybe try to play with it- This allows you to do it more compactly, and gives a slightly higher incentive to playing with the booster, as that line that changes this button’s terrible positioning is just a scroll away, and not buried in another page.
- More scripting chats or voice chats - I heard that once there was something called the “scripting chat”, which was a chat session dedicated to teaching players how to script in eterna. I tried to organize one a while ago, but it just became me talking to Astro in a one sided voice chat, as I thought streaming it was a good idea… I do however think that dedicated chat sessions will be a good idea, if enough players come. Also I think voice chat can be a great addition, as it is terribly hard to explain scripting in chat. It just needs to be a group voice chat, like Zoom or Google Hangouts, and not a stream like I thought
