Use qbits and abits! The helpfile for them is here:
http://narutofor.us/help.php/?file=qbitSimply put, they are flags for setting things on players. We use them primarily for quests, but they can be used for tons of things. Any time you want a "true/false" like value to be shared across progs, use a qbit or abit. A special note, qbits are saved to a player's pfile, while an abit is not so when a player logs out, their abits that are set are removed. NPCs -can not- get qbits set on them, but they can get an abit set.
Below is a very basic example of a quest driven via qbits:
Before the below prog can fire, we have to first create a qbit. Simply put, the game needs to know some basic info about a qbit before it can use it. We do so as follow:
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setqbit 10 Sandwich quest
setqbit 11 Sandwich quest complete
setabit 10 Tomato
setabit 11 Lettuce
Don't be scared off by the numbers, they could be any number. The game simply uses a number to refer to them later, we typically only use numbers that are tied to the room. For example, if the NPC's VNUM was 123, you'd probably want to use qbit 123 just to make it obvious who that qbit is used by.
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speech prog I want to get you a sandwich!
say Thanks for wanting to make me a sandwich, fetch me a tomato and lettuce!
mpqset $n 3100
With the above code, all progs can see that this player has begun our sandwich quest. So, we'll assume the tomato and lettuce items have been created and you have to give each one to the NPC before this quest is done. The script to do that prog is below.
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give prog gives you a tomato.
if hasqbit($n) == 10
if hasabit($n) != 10
say This looks delicious! Thanks, I can't wait to eat my sandwich!
mpaset $n 10
else
say You already gave me a tomato, I don't need another.
endif
else
say Why are you giving me a tomato? I never asked you to make me a sandwich.
endif
To break down the above prog, we first check if we gave them a qbit, remember in this instance our qbit represents the quest has begun. Since some players might just give the tomato to him without starting the quest, we want to tell them they get nothing out that. However, if they have the qbit, which means they started our quest, we next need to see if they already gave the NPC the tomato. Now there are a lot of ways to handle this portion of the quest in scripting, but I choose this way to show off abits and qbits. I'll leave it up to the reader to research alternatives to this.
Next, I'm going to gloss over the script to do the lettuce, as it will be exactly the same with the say messages changed and the numbers for the abit changed. So, on to the part to finish the quest.
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speech prog You have all the ingredients.
if hasqbit($n) == 10
if hasabit($n) == 10
if hasabit($n) == 11
say Yum! You're the best!
smile $n
mpqset $n 11
else
say I need lettuce!
endif
else
say I still need my tomato!
endif
endif
That is basically it, now the player is marked with qbit 11, which says they are finished. What is missing is blocking them from doing this quest again, which all that would take is a check if they had qbit 11. Also, instead of setting the abit on the player, you could have set it on the NPC, this would have meant that 2 players could go out and 1 could get a tomato and the other lettuce. As long as they both had qbit 10, they could have given the NPC the respective items towards completing the quest and they could could have finished it.
With this simple example, I hope you can see how chaining this together can make it so you can have a very interesting quest, or provide any extra special information for NPCs. The other application I like is this:
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entry prog
if hasqbit($n) == 11
say Oh hey! My brother told me you made him a sandwich, I want one too!
else
say Hi, I haven't seen you around before.
endif
Disclaimer, the spaces added in the code blocks are not needed, but for displaying them on the forum I hoped it would aid in its visibility.