Shattered Alliance

So I got an idea for a game for next years' HoTOHR, but the idea kinda requires a character creator. So... guess what I've got to work on?

Now, I have enough experience and knowledge in plotscripting to figure a lot of things out on my own, or with minimal prompting. This, however, has thrown me for a loop. I know for a fact that the palette changes ALONE are going to be massive, and I think I've got an idea on how to handle it.

1. Every time the player makes a choice/change to the character, a variable is set.

2. When the player clicks "done", a script reads the variables, and loads the correct walkabout, hero graphics, and palette.

Obvious problem with this being that that's a MASSIVE amount of variables, walkabouts, hero graphics, and palettes. I've got no problem making them, but I need to know if there's an easier way. For instance, is there a way to change certain colors on any given 16-color palette? Is there a way to cut and paste pieces of multiple walkabouts/heroes to create a minimal-buggy single walkabout/hero?

Related: thanks to help on CP, I've got the basic main menu done. Biggest problem is that I want the title to animate. The title runs across the entire top of the screen. Is there no way to solve this except by splitting each frame into pieces of frame, applying them to large enemy graphics, and setting the script to animate each one individually?

Thanks in advance, as I know this is a LOT to ask.

I want to know more about this, it sounds kind of overwhelming for an OHR game.
1) How open-ended is this character creator? How many potential options are we looking at, what's customizable? I assume every last possibility is going to need its own individual walkabout/hero match, you could even add a portrait to that list, but that's a heck of a lot of drawing for someone.
2) What does the UI look like? Can you post a mock-up, or can you get a picture of a similar creator from another game?
On a side note, I was kind of hoping script multitasking would be available by next year, which would render your animation problem moot.

Yeah, it's a helluva lotta drawing, but I'm up to the task if it's necessary. I hadn't even thought of portraits, but if I'm already doing a crapload of walkabouts and hero graphics

As for the UI, I assume you're talking about for the character creator UI. I have a version that I HAD planned on using, but changed the game style/format, so the look is now outmoded. I'll probably use the same general setup, though:



The black boxes on the right would show the walkabout and hero graphics, fully animated, and the check boxes on the right are just check boxes. It wasn't fully done, as you can see all the extra buttons, (back, continue, random, etc.) were undrawn, but that's as far as I got before I changed the look.

I realize this is a LOT to work on, but this is something I've been wanting for a while, and I've seen quite a few other requests for it, too. If I can figure it out and get it done, I'm sure it'd be a valuable resource for a lotta people (not to mention it'd make my game frickin' spiffy, too! )

There is no way to change just one color from a 16 color palette. You would have to make a bunch of palettes. There is no way to composite multiple sprites into one.

With the choices you have displayed there, you would need 2x6x3=36 different sprite sets, which does sound possible... A lot of work, but certainly possible.

36 different race/class/sex combinations shouldn't be too awfully hard to do. Definitely more hero walkabouts/battle sprites than most games would have (probably more than any other OHR game I've seen except Puckamon, actually...), so it'll be a lot of work to draw them all... but not so much that it'd be impossible.

I'd suggest drawing a male/female "template" of each race first, then copying and editing those to make each class. Maybe even use the same template for both the elves and dark elves, assuming that the main differences between them are hair and skin color like D&D's elves/dark elves.

---

FYS:AHS -- Swapping out some step-on NPCs for zones + each step script
Puckamon -- Not until the reserve party is expanded.[/size]

I figured that, as I tore through the plotscripting dictionary looking for that.



That's the good news. The bad news is that that's the first page. The second page is supposed to list a few simple visual choices, such as hair length and color, and the color of the outfits. Altogether, it should be other a couple hundred or more.



My thoughts.



Well... easier said than done. Like I said above. That's only page 1, so there'll be lot more choices.


The general idea I'm getting here is that there's no way simpler than the one I had before. If that's the case, then are there any suggestions on how to tackle this? I have as long as it takes, in between classes.

As long as this doesn't get way out of hand (in the ten-thousands or something), I'd be willing to do the portrait graphics. Maybe all of them, even. This is a project big/great enough to merit a multi-man collaboration.

That'd be great. I think I got walkabouts down, and I'm pretty okay with the hero graphics, but I end up with a pathetic NEED to have EVERY PORTRAIT PERFECT.

Hey, related: if we're talking about the hair color, and stuff about the clothes changing, then - if the portraits are drawn from the neck up - we may not need any variation between clothes. i.e., if there are 200 different combinations, not including clothes differences, then we may only need 200 portraits.

Even though you can't edit individual palette colors, you can still make use of palette changing to take care of hair color, skin color, and clothing color changes without needing to make separate sprites for each.

For sprites you need: Genders x Species x Classes x Hairstyles

But you designate certain colors of every palette for the same purposes. For example, maybe the first three colors are always skintones, shadow to highlight. Then the next three colors are always hair color, shadow to highlight, then the next three are clothing color, and three more for a contrasting clothing color. Then the last three could be black, grey, and white for shadows, outlines, metal stuff, and bright highlights. If you draw everything using the same palette scheme, then you can make a bunch of palettes and apply them to any of the sprites.

For palettes you would need: Skincolor x Haircolor x Clothing1 x Clothing2 ... or something like that.

So... 2 genders * 6 species * 3 Classes * 10 Hairstyles = 360 walkabouts

But... two of the hairstyles are specifically for dwarf males (hair+beard), three are for females, four are for males (including bald), and one just for orc and troll.

So there aren't actually 360.

2 2
|Troll Orc---|
4---Elf|---Male---|Human---4
|DElf Dwarf---|
4 6

2 2
|Troll Orc---|
3---Elf|---Female---|Human---3
|DElf Dwarf---|
3 3

Just drew that. Not sure how it helps, now...

I could draw this kind of thing in about a week. Actually, I've considered the same idea but have never really got a concrete plan of which classes and races I wanted (as of yet).

Most the work is just the drawing. Walkabouts aren't so hard, changing palettes isn't hard but you need to make the actual palette.

Actually, I agree that that's not gonna be the hart part. The hard part will be concretely designing all parts of the script. (i.e. what hairstyles, clothes, colors will go with which race, class, etc.) Then it'll be the actual writing fo the script that'll be massive.

If you'd like portraits for absolutely everyone, we could use different artists for different races.

Here's what I was thinking; one person doing all the portraits might be a bit much, but if multiple artists did different portraits, people would usually call shenanigans and spot the difference.
Now, if we had different RACES, the difference is already there, so it would barely be noticable if you got multiple artists' contributions.

Basically what I'm trying to say is I don't know how to draw orcs. Can we get someone else to do orcs?
EDIT: Also trolls. Unless you're doing Warcraftian Trolls, I've done them before.

Never done Warcraft, so I got my own view of trolls.

I can do whatever portraits. The original plan was for me to do everything, so if I end up doing only the orcs and trolls, that's perfectly fine by me.

I volunteer to drastically steal the orcs, trolls and dark elves. Cuz I can do evil pretty well, i think...

I figured as much.
I suppose I'll try to get some p-p-p-portrait practice in until you summon me.