OHRRPGCE feature requests/suggestions

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SwordPlay
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Post by SwordPlay »

-portrait position to textbox:
I can't see any co-ordinates when I'm placing a portrait with a textbox.
Are there any options to make a portrait snap to the textbox, or pre-set arrangements like left/right aligned?
I always manage to misalign them and they are all at different positions or something when I do it by hand (even when I use Shift key) :p and it's really tedious too.

-staggering selected entries?
In the database, could selected entries be indented, or "step forward"?


I can see problems with previewing a weapon, because currently you can set the hand position outside of the graphics box
Last edited by SwordPlay on Tue Apr 04, 2017 1:55 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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Bob the Hamster
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Post by Bob the Hamster »

Are you complaining about not seeing the info string? or complaining about the empty screen space?

I had been thinking about making the item editor browse screen show multiple columns.
Last edited by Bob the Hamster on Tue Apr 04, 2017 7:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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SwordPlay
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Post by SwordPlay »

Anything would be nice, to be honest.
Didn't mean to whinge at you guys.

I think columns sounds cool!

If I can support you guys in any way, I'd be honoured to help. Frankly, I'm amazed that anything exists at all!

edit: if i mentioned something, it's because I dream to see it improved, bettered and fixed.
Not because I have a vendetta or grudge. I really like CUSTOM and I find the community both friendly and knowledgeable.
Last edited by SwordPlay on Wed Apr 05, 2017 12:24 am, edited 1 time in total.
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TMC
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Post by TMC »

Haha, I saw how much you wrote about previewing weapons and attacks before deleting it all. Thanks for cutting it down. As I said, hand/handle position stuff ought to be done in the graphics editor, where we can put effort into having a good preview ability. The item editor should probably display an animation of the weapon rather than individual frames, since there won't be a limit on the number of frames.

I started adding portrait alignment/anchoring options, but then I realised that I would need to rewrite the way that the textbox editor draws the textbox (it's completely different to the way it's drawn in-game, as it's not slice-based. I'm not sure that the two even match up). That's a rewrite that we definitely need to do anyway. But I've put that off for later.
Displaying the portrait coordinates is trivial though, so I added that. This diff shows the added line (and its context):

Code: Select all

--- a/subs2.bas
+++ b/subs2.bas
@@ -1222,2 +1222,3 @@ SUB textbox_position_portrait (byref box as TextBox, byref st as TextboxEditStat
   edgeprint "Arrow keys to move, space to confirm", 0, 0, uilook(uiSelectedItem + tog), dpage
+  edgeprint "Offset " & box.portrait_pos, pLeft, pBottom, uilook(uiText), dpage
   SWAP vpage, dpage
Last edited by TMC on Wed Apr 05, 2017 3:51 am, edited 2 times in total.
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SwordPlay
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Post by SwordPlay »

I'd like to use slice collections instead of textboxes!
They can be aligned, anchored, stretched or compressed horizontally as well as vertically.
They can anchor any graphic anywhere, and as many graphics as you'd like
You can display more than 1 "textbox" at a time using slices
You can even display graphics inside the "textbox" and in varying states (behind/in-front) and with their own boxes or accompanying graphics.

One could have pre-set slice collections to represent different types of textboxes.
They would differ in their contents and accompanying graphics

AFAIK the way to do this is to have an invisible textbox that sets a tag, and when the tag is set, call the slice/collection.
Is that right?

Slices are really cool. Sorry I'm not more helpful. Thanks for replying!
Last edited by SwordPlay on Wed Apr 05, 2017 4:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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TMC
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Post by TMC »

You can read the text out of a textbox and stick it into a slice collection you've defined. Since you probably want to be able to use textbox conditions and so forth, either call a script from the textbox to do that, or use a script looping waiting for a textbox to be opened. Or you could manipulate the slices of the normal textbox directly.

A overhaul of textboxes: eventually. Then you would have a lot more control over size and position.
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Post by SwordPlay »

Could we have an attacker "vanish" animation, where the attacker vanishes whilst using an attack?
It could be used for summons, or as I am trying to do, use an attack animation in place of a hero sprite
I guess the attacker would reappear after the attack is completed.

EDIT: Just messing around with it, and it seems that there is some overlap between the attack graphic and the heroes attack, so it wouldn't quite work.

I'd be happy to hear some work around.
I want to use an attack graphic to display the heroes attacking.
Last edited by SwordPlay on Wed Apr 05, 2017 5:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by The Wobbler »

TMC wrote:Running low on ideas...
If you go into the Windows volume controller, game.exe isn't turned down, is it? I don't know if you can even adjust the volume permanently.
If you still have a copy of the last working nightly you had, does it still work? And what date was it?
Does it make any difference if you launch game.exe yourself instead of using Test Game?
Try toggling the new "Don't stop music when starting/loading game" general pref bitset. Aside from that, the last time which there were any changes to audio that I'm aware of was a bunch of stuff up to Feb 21.
You figured it out! I had no idea it even had a separate volume control within the control panel, so I've got no clue how I managed to mess this up. Thanks!
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TMC
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Post by TMC »

Did you turn the music volume down to zero while playing a game that was playing MIDI music? That sets the entire program's volume to zero in the Windows volume control, which is a terrible misfeature in Windows Vista and later (Microsoft decided to break the way that MIDI volume works, and there's not much we can do to fix it). But if it continues to take effect even after you quit and play a different game, then that's really bad.
Could we have an attacker "vanish" animation, where the attacker vanishes whilst using an attack?
I think there were a couple games which used attacks to fake hero animations, but maybe I'm imagining it. I've no idea which they would be.

But it's now (well, soon) completely redundant to the new animation system. However, someone did recently request Vanish and Sink Into Ground attacker animations which are permanent, along with animations to reappear, like Jump and Land. Hmm... maybe those would also be redundant.
Last edited by TMC on Wed Apr 05, 2017 11:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by The Wobbler »

TMC wrote:Did you turn the music volume down to zero while playing a game that was playing MIDI music? That sets the entire program's volume to zero in the Windows volume control, which is a terrible misfeature in Windows Vista and later (Microsoft decided to break the way that MIDI volume works, and there's not much we can do to fix it). But if it continues to take effect even after you quit and play a different game, then that's really bad.
I hadn't played anything else at all in between the volume being normal and being muted, weirdly enough. I'll chalk it up to "Windows is a weird beast" but I'll keep an eye on it and let you know if this happens again (and what I'm doing if it does.)
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Post by SwordPlay »

just noticed we can add tag-conditions to battle menu commands!
so excited right now! Thank you soooo much!
now we can modify the battle menu by using tags set via equipment, attacks etc.!
We can even make a status condition or restriction by taking away commands!
Really awesome.
Last edited by SwordPlay on Thu Apr 06, 2017 5:55 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Post by SwordPlay »

might be pushing it a little.... but can we have dash-in with things other than strike?
For example, I am using the cast frame to show a melee attack.
I also want to use the weak and/or hurt frame to do this!
But currently you can't show animations except for strike and cast (I think)

EDIT:
Is it possible to have tag conditions for battle commands encompassing items equipped to that specific hero?
Not sure how one would do this.. Maybe with a conditional, and an item selection thingy like in appearance? (Is that how it works?) (maybe that could be for later if heroes get individual inventories and all that stuff)
basically, a global tag when *any* hero equips something is too vague.
I am aware that it could be solved through plotscripting, but just something to think about perhaps?
Last edited by SwordPlay on Sun Apr 09, 2017 7:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by TMC »

might be pushing it a little.... but can we have dash-in with things other than strike?
Actually, I do want to separate attacker movement from attacker animation. It's not that big a task.

Regarding equipment tags, I agree, that's why equipment should be able to set local state/flags/whatever we'll call them.
Last edited by TMC on Sun Apr 09, 2017 11:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by Wendigo »

My proposal: A complete revamp of "Custom"s GUI:

When I was searching for an open source JRPG Engine that runs on Linux the OHRRPGCE was one of the first Engines I found. But unfortunately the screenshots on the wiki front page immediately drove me away because the engine looks like it was made 20 jears ago and it hasn't been developed on ever since.
To be honest I just came back because the alternatives EasyRPG, OpenRPG and RPGBoss were all in an unfinished state or even abandoned.
I think the old frumpy GUI cases a lot of potential users to move on before they can even find out that this engine holds a lot of the features not available in other engines. And that's a shame I think.

The OHRRPGCE is currently limited to a resolution of 320x200 Pixel which is very low nowadays but as all those pretty games made by the community show it IS possible to create good looking art with it.
Now that we have the slices system I think we should move all the beauty of our games into the engine itself (Custom) and build a more modern nice looking GUI.

The problem I see with the string based menus is that they consume a huge portion of the screen while holding only few information. A text base menu is helpful for people new to the engine but as soon as you actually start making games it is just:
I want to create a walkabout. So this is ENTER, DOWN, DOWN, ENTER from the main menu. I don't even recognize the text any more.
Some of the menu items take up more than 50% of the screen. An icon even in the size of a walkabout could hold the same information and leave space for more stuff on screen.
Slices hold a lot of potential for a more modern and good looking GUI.

While searching for games on itchio I stumbled upon the pixelvision Game Engine. The style of their GUI immediately caught my eye. It also has a very low resolution but it is very nice to look at.

TLDR:
So my proposal is to create a new slice based GUI for Custom that lies a bigger emphasis on icons. I thought of a GUI in pixel art style with a playful look and feel.

I created a rough draft:

What you see is the title screen that gets shown as soon as you start the engine.
You are presented with a list of recent projects from which you can choose one. Below are icons for creating a new project or opening an existing one.

Above the list (not shown in the picture) I would add 2 rows of icons for accessing the "Edit Graphics", "Edit Map Data", "Global Text Strings" and other base category menus. When you hover the mouse over an icon a tool tip is shown which tells what the icon is for and how to access it via keyboard short cut.

At the top I added an extendible quick menu which you can pull down anywhere you are to access important areas or to save / quit the engine. This should solve the feature request for jumping between menus.

I would add similar extendible menus in the sprite and tile editor. Put the whole colour palette into a side panel to the right so that only a small list of most used colours is constantly on screen (the row at the bottom). That would leave more space on the screen for previews, tools and stuff. We could even add another extendible menu to the left for more detailed tool settings.

What do you think?
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A quick draft of the GUI I have in mind
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Last edited by Wendigo on Sun Apr 09, 2017 5:06 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by SwordPlay »

Looks amazing!
Personally,. I really REALLY like it, and I think it looks and sounds good.
But I do have some issues.
For example, I would like persistent menu bar, and maybe reshuffle screen so that it can remain on-screen (possibly with a toggle such as a check box)

I think one would need to look at which icons should be permanent/fixed, and context sensitive icons.
Also the placement of icons matters a lot. We could have them on the side, rather than the top, for example. It would be nice if the user could configure it to appear in preset places perhaps.

I don't particularly like losing all the text, and it might be nice to have either a tooltip or a bar somewhere to display string instantly on mouse over.
In some places, one might prefer to have a string rather than an icon (bit of a rare case)

I really, really like it! If you want help on it, I have some ideas and stuff :p

ENGINE STYLE, SKIN
I would like to see the engine have different skins, light grey, dark grey, possibly with the ability to be changed by user. In the beginning it would be enough to just change the colour, perhaps using the palette/colour picker.
The reason for this is:

1. Depends on time of day, users lighting, and possibly causes eye strain! The skin should be able to be adapted to the user's physical setting and needs. (ergonomics)

2. Graphical reasons, such as working in greyscale, or using colours similar to the current skin could be annoying. It detracts from the eye. (contrast)

3. Effect on game development and ideas. Using your own colour theme influences one's ideas and practice, game development stuff. Lurid pink would be very distracting, but simply grey (one shade, no alternative) might be very boring and/or off putting.

Maybe later it could be expanded to accept patterns and tiling images.
It would be cool for a user to create their own icons in the engine, and use it for the engine itself!

EDIT
I don't particularly like the way it's laid out ATM, but it looks really neat!
Please consider form factor, and how icons will be grouped in an intuitive way to become presentable to a user. Having a pixel of shadow and higlight will help to create outlines. Icons could do with some nice-ifying.
EDIT
Good call on the comparison to other engines. I also tried some of those rpg makers, but none were as versatile or powerful as CUSTOM.
CUSTOM even competes with commercially available game makers reasonably well!
It is also extremely easy to jump in to and use! (well, maybe learning bitsets is difficult)
If you want, I can go through CUSTOM and make suggestions for the different menus, layouts, organisations, etc,.
I could do it all at once like a big list, or I can start where you guys want to start, in a specific menu or editor.
EDIT
I was also thinking about plotscripting. Could it be possible to do away with it by continuously running a main loop, and running subloops assigned at the appropriate places in the engine? (e.g. placing subloops on npcs, maps)
There would also need to be a centralised script menu for handling and managing all the other subloops and how they work together.
EDIT
It seems like a big change, and James is not around... but I really like it ATM!
EDIT
I would like to see a mockup of a more text heavy menu as well, depending on how this one is received
EDIT:
I would like to see icons made more distinct. One might also consider icons appearing in corners, on a wheel, like how some smartphones do.
One might have shrunk/miniaturised icons that expand on mouse over.
There are quite a lot of options for GUI design.
I would also like to see a button that dims the screen and possibly brings up a new menu. You could use it for submenus/pop up windows
Last edited by SwordPlay on Sun Apr 09, 2017 5:45 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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