Character Planner - New Interface Ideas

[EllisDee37]

Just please maintain support for 1024x768.

I'm using Windows 7, 1024x768, and in Windows 7 if you right click the desktop and choose Screen Resolution => Make text and other items larger or smaller => Medium (125%), that's the setting I use. So I humbly submit my entirely selfish request to support that screen size. heh.

[Stoner81]

I think the new planner will support a far bigger range or resolutions since it can use (afaik) much higher resolution images and various things, so with a bit of luck everybody should have support no matter what screen they run on.

Stoner81.

[Ron]

Right now we are coding the main screen at 1024x768 native, with the child screens being smaller.

In the old version, we put a great deal of effort into making the screens scalable, and it took some coding since we had to do it manually. I'm sure C# has some helper libraries that we could leverage, but I haven't yet looked into them to see what's involved.

[Ron]

Hey gang,

Question on spell icon graphics.

If two different classes use the same spell, is it ever the case where the spell has different icons for those two classes? And I don't really care about the little (I, II, III) thingy at the top left of the spell icon, but rather do they ever use completely different graphics for the same spell?

I ask because this will affect how we set up the database entries for spells (which I'm working on now).

[BOgre]

Right now we are coding the main screen at 1024x768 native, with the child screens being smaller.

In the old version, we put a great deal of effort into making the screens scalable, and it took some coding since we had to do it manually. I'm sure C# has some helper libraries that we could leverage, but I haven't yet looked into them to see what's involved.

Setting the vertical rez to 768 can be trouble for lappy users like me. My lappys native rez is 1366x768 and I don't set my Taskbar to autohide. That makes the planner's UI not fit quite right, which is usually a pain for hitting any buttons that are across the bottom of the window. Scalable would be great, or a height of 760 would be good too.

[Seikojin]

Hey gang,

Question on spell icon graphics.

If two different classes use the same spell, is it ever the case where the spell has different icons for those two classes? And I don't really care about the little (I, II, III) thingy at the top left of the spell icon, but rather do they ever use completely different graphics for the same spell?

I ask because this will affect how we set up the database entries for spells (which I'm working on now).

No, I have yet to see the same spell with two different icons in the game (sans the level part).

[Ron]

Setting the vertical rez to 768 can be trouble for lappy users like me. My lappys native rez is 1366x768 and I don't set my Taskbar to autohide. That makes the planner's UI not fit quite right, which is usually a pain for hitting any buttons that are across the bottom of the window. Scalable would be great, or a height of 760 would be good too.

We will do something for you I know we are planning on having an ini file, and likely we will save some scaling information in here, so you can customize your screen size. Like I said, I haven't yet looked into how we are going to scale the UI, but I'm sure we will have some sort of ability to do so.

No, I have yet to see the same spell with two different icons in the game (sans the level part).

Good, this is the answer I'm hoping for. I have it set up this way now. Changing it would not be overly difficult, but it would make the spell input screen more complicated

[Stoner81]

Hey gang,

Question on spell icon graphics.

If two different classes use the same spell, is it ever the case where the spell has different icons for those two classes? And I don't really care about the little (I, II, III) thingy at the top left of the spell icon, but rather do they ever use completely different graphics for the same spell?

I ask because this will affect how we set up the database entries for spells (which I'm working on now).

I don't know if this would qualify for what you are after but the FvS Leap of Faith and the version you can get from Exalted Angel have two different icons but one is from ED's and the other is a auto grant at lvl 17 for FvS. Other than that though I can't think of anything else.

Stoner81.

[EllisDee37]

Good, this is the answer I'm hoping for. I have it set up this way now. Changing it would not be overly difficult, but it would make the spell input screen more complicated

In that case, even if there are spells that use different icons, ignore them. Always err on the side of easier input. heh.



That non-auto-hide taskbar issue also touches on what I was getting at upthread, about how I use a lower DPI to make fonts bigger on my screen. So while I'm running 1024x768, I have fewer twips per pixel than a standard 1024x768 would. (There's normally 15; I have 12.) The current/old planner does not scale particularly well* on my screen, but it scales infinitely better than most things. (Most things do not scale at all.)

So kudos for taking variable screen size into account at all. I should also point out that the older versions of the planner were terrible; the 4-series is far better about scaling. It looks like the export screen didn't get the same scaling overhaul that almost the entire main screen got. Here's some screenshots:



uploading pictures


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* Actually, I'm really mainly talking about the forum export screen. The main screen scales very well. The crazy text description of tomes is a trivial issue, and that's really the only one I can find. The enhancement screen buttons don't scale well, similar to forum export, but the main screen proper is tight.

[Ron]

Hey gang,

We're still working on data input screens (although we may soon be coming to the end of that). Dragon, right now, is working on the enhancement input screen, which is pretty neat stuff. I did the spell input screen. And I think that's about it for the input screens, at least for now (there will be more when we get to equipment and other stuff, but for basic character building, we're wrapping up this phase). I will try and put up a couple of new shots this weekend maybe. And we are doing a fair bit of data input as well. BlackDae has been working on putting in feats. I've been putting in the wiz/sorc spells (there are ~200 of them! Uggg. Fortunately, there is quite a bit of overlap with other classes so I figured I'd do those first and then we'd have large chunks of spells in for all the other classes as well). Dragon has also done some of the cleric spells. And of course we have all the Character, Race, and Class stuff pretty much put in already. So things are coming along in terms of collecting data and getting it into a usable form. The database is really working out nicely for us, it's super easy to add and change stuff.

Speaking of spells; I'm getting the spell descriptions right out of the game (because they don't seem to exist anywhere else on the web with any accuracy). I have an iconic character that I can just reroll at will, but that only gets me to level 14 in the class I am trying to data mine (and I don't know off the top of my head how high up in wiz/sorc spells that will get me, probably level 7 spells I suspect). So we may need some help with the high level spells. I will let you guys know what spells we need descriptions for and how you can get them to us (screenshots, or if you want we can even have you input them directly using the planner itself). Everything else (targets, school, SP cost, duration, metamagic, etc etc) we're getting off of Wiki, which I'm hoping is fairly accurate.

So yeah, that's where things are at at the moment. I'll keep y'all updated.

[EllisDee37]

Hmmm, looking at iconics it appears you can go straight to 15 on cleric, or 14 on any other caster class. That means you can see up to level 8 cleric spells and level 7 wizard spells.

I'm happy to post screen captures and/or transcriptions of the in-game descriptions for every level 9 cleric spell and all the level 8 and 9 wizard spells today if you like.

(I'm ignoring the other caster classes because I don't have any high level characters of those. Just cleric and wizard.)

[EllisDee37]

Here's a "proof of concept" for the level 9 cleric spells:


how to do a screenshot on a pc

Let me know if you'd like the level 8 & 9 wizard spells as well.

[Ron]

Here's a "proof of concept" for the level 9 cleric spells:

Let me know if you'd like the level 8 & 9 wizard spells as well.

That's perfect, Ellis! Thanks. We will get those in. And yeah, when you get a chance, post the level 8 and 9 wiz/sorc spells so we can input those too.

[EllisDee37]

NOTE: I have the -10% spell point cost from magister active, as well as probably having some metas toggled on globally plus efficient meta enhancements. Be sure to use the "(Base: #)" number, not the "Spell Point Cost: #" number, for entering/checking the costs.

Here's the level 8 wizard spells. Trap the Soul is out of order because I had to jump through several hoops in order to remove the red "You do not have a required component" error message from the description:


image hosting site no sign up


Here's the level 9 wizard spells:


screenshot windows


Oddly, except for trap the soul, putting together the wizard 8 & 9 spells combined took less time than it did to put together the cleric 9.

With the cleric 9 spells I was mixing and matching to try and equalize the height of both rows. For the wizard ones I just went in order and flew through both lists.

[EllisDee37]

Checking wiki, here's what you still need (and which I cannot help with):

Artificer level 6 spells (15 artie levels)
Bard level 6 spells (16 bard levels)
Druid level 8 spells (15 druid levels)
Druid level 9 spells (17 druid levels)

All other spells can be acquired by rolling up a 14/1 iconic.

[Ron]

Awesome, thanks! I'll definitely work on putting those in over the next few days.

I have a level 16 bard, so I should be able to get those. As for the others, I'll check with the team and see what they have, we may need to ask for help from the community with the rest of them.

[blackdae]

Artificer level 6 spells (15 artie levels)

I'll do this Ron All of it if you want.. Sometimes......

[Ron]

I'll do this Ron All of it if you want.. Sometimes......

Awesome! So we just need the Druids.

[niehues]

Awesome! So we just need the Druids.

Not sure this can help.. butt lamma is up and over there u can make a toon and go to lv20 i a few min using the dojo... that could be used to save some data.. at least Screen shots..


BTW

Very nice work mate! keep up the good work!

[Ron]

Not sure this can help.. butt lamma is up and over there u can make a toon and go to lv20 i a few min using the dojo... that could be used to save some data.. at least Screen shots..

Cool, that might work. I'll see what we can do.

Ellis: I have the data input, if those shots are taking up space you want to reclaim, you can go ahead and delete them. Thanks for the assist!