chapter 31 "Overview of the Quick Creation System" First, let me clarify that the QCS is not intended to replace good coding habits. It is also not designed to handle every possible need of a builder. The QCS is just a handy tool for making the most tedious parts of building easier. The amount of time it takes to hand-code an area of 100 rooms (a small area, that is), with all the appropriate descriptions and monsters and weapons and such is just mind-boggling. As a grown-up, I just don't have time for building stuff line by excruciating line in raw LPC, because I also need to work, maintain my house, say hello to my family on occasion, etc. At the same time, I would need a team of dedicated LPC code fetishists to make a creation system that covers every last possible thing you could do in LPC. The QCS is somewhere in between those two extremes. Therefore please view the QCS as a quick way to get bulk building done, and not as a be-all end-all solution. You still need to learn LPC to do really cool stuff. But to hammer out an area with a quest, QCS lets you sail through the process of thingmaking with little hassle. The design philosophy of the system itself involves object files stored in /secure/modules. These files are inherited by an object which you need to carry with you in order to use the QCS system. The code for these creation modules is fairly messy and inelegant, but the result is clean, indented code that compiles, so let's keep the mockery to a minimum, shall we? It is important to keep in mind the QCS isn't an editing system. It's real live on-line modification, meaning that to modify a thing, it actually has to be in the same room you are in, or it has to be that room itself. Once you modify something, it will typically update, so that if you change the name of an npc, you're going to need to use the new name to modify it further. The next few chapters in this manual are nominally QCS specific, but in reality this is pretty much my only chance to document some of the changes in Dead Souls since version 1, so even if you never intend to use QCS, it's worth poking through these chapters. - Cratylus @ Frontiers 2 January 2006