Well yeah, we desperately need some pictures for the Wiki tutorial. But since I tried to filter out the colloquial tone, including humor, of your tutorial*, your pictures wouldn't fit that well.
*Though this colloquial tone probably makes yours much less tedious to read, I figured it'd be inappropriate for a Wiki.
Wait, did I just hijack an unrelated topic for my on purpose? Well, to elaborate on the question what the difference between SOCs and coding is, the SOC format is just a way of modifying specific parts of the code without actually having to code. What the SOC system is make certain parts of the code accept input from text files, sort of like a quick-edit system for parts of the code that are often needed, for example for addon WADs. The problem is that only a few parts of the game can actually be modified this way. Look at the following examples:
* You might be curious why you can't SOC bots by editing the player Object. That's because the player, unlike all other Objects, isn't controlled by the game itself. The player Object is programmed to accept input from the keyboard to control its movement. To put it simply, JTE's bots are nothing more than an autopolit for the player Object.
*Though this colloquial tone probably makes yours much less tedious to read, I figured it'd be inappropriate for a Wiki.
Wait, did I just hijack an unrelated topic for my on purpose? Well, to elaborate on the question what the difference between SOCs and coding is, the SOC format is just a way of modifying specific parts of the code without actually having to code. What the SOC system is make certain parts of the code accept input from text files, sort of like a quick-edit system for parts of the code that are often needed, for example for addon WADs. The problem is that only a few parts of the game can actually be modified this way. Look at the following examples:
- Can be modified or added with a SOC: Level headers, character WADs, Objects and most everything that belongs to them, unlockables, the HUD, cutscenes, timers for power-ups, mod details
- Can not be modified with a SOC: The menus and most things that have to do with the appearance of the game, the way certain Object actions work, the way certain linedef specials behave, the rendering system etc.
- Can not be added with a SOC: New actions for Objects (which is why SRB2Morphed is an EXE mod), bots (which is why JTE coded them/Cinefast ported them*), new level editing features (which is why XSRB2 needed to code them), tons of other things that nobody even thought out
* You might be curious why you can't SOC bots by editing the player Object. That's because the player, unlike all other Objects, isn't controlled by the game itself. The player Object is programmed to accept input from the keyboard to control its movement. To put it simply, JTE's bots are nothing more than an autopolit for the player Object.
