Lurker said it best.
The two arguments you give for a redo are: (1) some functions aren't there you believe should be there, and you aren't happy with the what some variables are named, and (2) you believe it is too complicated for some server ops to use.
(1) It's unreasonable to expect to predict everything a server op might want to do in quests. If you find some quest functionality in EQlive quests/encounters that we don't have Perl functions for, then point them out. Perhaps write the hooks in yourself and submit them for CVS consideration. Wanting to flag GM rank via quest is the first time I've heard of that, and for obvious security reasons there is no quest to do that in EQlive. But since our goal is to emulate EQlive, I'm quite certain that objective carries over into the quest system -- if EQlive does it, then
eventually our quest system will do it too.
Nobody is going to want to overhaul the system based purely on semantics. You want $gmrank, I want it kept at $status. Either way, I don't think any variable names are worth overhauling. Too many quests have been written among the various servers to up and change variable names at this point and break all those quests.
(2) Perl was chosen because we wanted the flexibility and power of a scripting engine. We need to be able to evaluate complex conditions, take an indefinite number of actions, and be triggered from a variety of events. That's a pretty powerful scripting engine that would have to do that... and we have it, and best of all, we didn't have to mess around with the scripting engine itself, Larry Wall did that work for us
There are quest editors out there whose design is to present a more friendly interface to the user, and allow the user to design quests with said friendly interface, while the editor does the dirty work of making perl code behind the scenes. Having these editors is a great way to make quests easy enough for the perl-unsavvy, without compromising the power of the underlying quest engine. If you attempt to dumb down the quest engine itself, I guarantee what you're proposing will
not be accepted by the user base.
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