General Discussion

[DarkTl]

If they have clearly unsuitable background, it becomes problematic.
For example you can clearly see a forest or a room, while the portrait is used at the beach.

But if background is unrecognizable (usually meaning monotonous), you don't have to remove it. I just remove them because transparent background is the most unrecognizable one.

[Xela]

On items front, we could add skill mods (instead of pro stats) in a similar way to how it is done with traits info. Maybe even for the beta.

I took a look at tiers for the first time in five or six days, they seem to be in decent shape. Looks like I've already moved to Jobs and setting that up, prolly should keep hacking at that and maybe even slowly move appropriate logic from jobs to SimPy. There is no way to do this in one go so I'll hack this till it can be pushed without crashing ND.

[DarkTl]

I've exhausted my abilities to make the release closer many days ago. I finished all simple things, and complex ones are too complex. So I just improve resources and work on another big random pack.

[Xela]

I've exhausted my abilities to make the release closer many days ago. I finished all simple things, and complex ones are too complex. So I just improve resources and work on another big random pack.

Oki. You'll have more work after Jobs are recoded. You can also convert rest of NPCs to proper NPC Chars. Maybe figure out JSON setup for SE. Items thing is done, I've also improved portrait which bugged the hell out of me.

[Xela]

Another thing to consider! Is "Areal" item effect a dumb concept now that Pico came up with equipping groups? Cause it was pretty hard to sell as it was (like dusk that somehow spread over the whole Palace as effective as over a small shack...).

[DarkTl]

True, that old concept of areal items is no longer useful.

I have an idea about npcs. A few years ago I found on g.e-hentai a pack of 200+ backgroundless npcs. They can easily replace random chars at the arena, not to mention they will be useful for events.

[Xela]

True, that old concept of areal items is no longer useful.

I have an idea about npcs. A few years ago I found on g.e-hentai a pack of 200+ backgroundless npcs. They can easily replace random chars at the arena, not to mention they will be useful for events.

Not bad... thing is I wanted to allow interacting with and hiring chars and sponsor your own teams to fight in the arena. That obviously doesn't mean that every character in the arena needs to be complete, we can just check which once are proper Chars and which are Arena Fighters (we had them for like 4 years ).

[DarkTl]

Can_equip function checks if it is legal for a character to use/equip the item. And may notify the player with a reason why an item cannot be equipped.

The problem is, it doesn't notify about anything during equipment. It just blocks the use/equip button silently. The reason of blocking might be obvious for us (like no armor for slaves), but can and will be confusing for players.
I propose to write the reason behind item's inaccessibility instead of item description on the equipment screen. Transfer screen doesn't need it, since you cannot use/equip items there.

[Xela]

Can_equip function checks if it is legal for a character to use/equip the item. And may notify the player with a reason why an item cannot be equipped.

The problem is, it doesn't notify about anything during equipment. It just blocks the use/equip button silently. The reason of blocking might be obvious for us (like no armor for slaves), but can and will be confusing for players.
I propose to write the reason behind item's inaccessibility instead of item description on the equipment screen. Transfer screen doesn't need it, since you cannot use/equip items there.

ghm... I'll take a look at that as well. Feels a bit messy but maybe there is a good way of doing this... We did throw a message up in the past, I think it was you who wanted to just disable the button instead?

#EDIT:
I don't think there is a simple way to do this. Screen needs to be adjusted, messages moved out of the function to global dict so they can be reused in func and for tooltip and etc. It's not a good idea to mess with this for beta. Restoring old way of just spamming message screen when player tries to equip illegal item is prolly changing one line of code...

[DarkTl]

Yes, this way you can immediately see that it's useless to try to use/equip the item. So you don't have to blindly use everything until something will work already.

But we kinda don't explain the reason behind it.

There are another ways. Instead of disabling the use/equip button for unusable items we could make it red, and when the red button is pressed, it shows the message. Or using a small popup somewhere.

[Xela]

There are another ways. Instead of disabling the use/equip button for unusable items we could make it red, and when the red button is pressed, it shows the message.

This feels like a very simple and reasonable solution. Gonna try doing it this way.

Edit:
Yeap, this was very easy to implement. Take a look at Equip

Edit2:
Gonna call it a night, too tired to mess with jobs at this hour.

[Lurker]

Alright, DarkIT, you slavedriver! I fixed all the transparent images. 


https://mega.nz/#!7QIijbIJ!LtRogU4T6QDvMfl9XpLFV9ZGHeqJ-EMfDrMlAY6kROs

[DarkTl]

Yeap, this was very easy to implement. Take a look at Equip

Great, now I have a place to show how many turns remained until consumable item will be usable again. I was wondering maybe it should be in item stats, but it looks much better as a part of the message.

Alright, DarkIT, you slavedriver! I fixed all the transparent images. 

Awesome! They do look flawlessly now 

One more thing, there is no need to add no_bg tag to portraits, battle sprites and sprites. Or clothes tags to portraits.
It won't hurt, but it won't help either, so it's just a waste of time.

[Lurker]

One more thing, there is no need to add no_bg tag to portraits, battle sprites and sprites. Or clothes tags to portraits.
It won't hurt, but it won't help either, so it's just a waste of time.

I kinda figured. But it became abit of a habit as i marked the other images xD.


Edit: Also here's Wendy.
https://mega.nz/#!eBAAiAjQ!XihQe8TFV3UyHFbqLeEeaeJec50LfAn3qARzDJBUXYM

Edit 2: And Levy McGarden.. No good battlesprite available so i winged it.
https://mega.nz/#!6ExEWbhJ!lh22MzIQnbSkz5Py8Gqil1o5yVMlrOaE0dMmxe0KGGU

[Xela]

Edit 2: And Levy McGarden.. No good battlesprite available so i winged it.

LoL! No kidding about winging it

She usually figures sh!t out in the sources but she can fight... this is her exploration outfit and better battle stance:



After beta, I am planning to script a story line for these chars. Prolly some rival exploration guild thing with a possibility for alliance/buying them out at some point.