Reviving Mini Adventure

[krypto]

NPC Builder integrated into IDE complete... Almost  

[krypto]

should the scren shown above actually draw the NPCs on the screen or would that be overkill?

[kevglass]

Putting the NPC might be pretty nice.. being able to press "play" and watch the NPC follow their script would be even cooler!

The path should definitely be made up of arrows also.

Still no project approval?

Kev

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Tzan]

I dont see it here, but you need to pick a graphic for the NPC. While you could just type it in like I think you have now, it would be good to pick it graphically, prevents typos too.

If each step (node) of the walking path were represented as a dot (with arrow pointing to it), you could then click on it and move the mouse to a new space, click again, to adjust the path without typing. Content creators hate to type

Its also good to be able to add nodes and delete them.

Click on node, hit delete key. (instead of moving)
Click on AddNode button, click on node to add after, click on space, new node is added between two existing nodes.

Toggle button to show/hide paths

[krypto]

Putting the NPC might be pretty nice.. being able to press "play" and watch the NPC follow their script would be even cooler!

The path should definitely be made up of arrows also.

Still no project approval?

Kev

Kev;... don't spoil all my surprises, I already wanted that feature myself. As for the Project I e-mailed Athomas but have heard nothing. I know there are a bunch of projects under proposal now. SO hopefully he will approve us soon.

[krypto]

I dont see it here, but you need to pick a graphic for the NPC. While you could just type it in like I think you have now, it would be good to pick it graphically, prevents typos too.

If each step (node) of the walking path were represented as a dot (with arrow pointing to it), you could then click on it and move the mouse to a new space, click again, to adjust the path without typing. Content creators hate to type

Its also good to be able to add nodes and delete them.

Click on node, hit delete key. (instead of moving)
Click on AddNode button, click on node to add after, click on space, new node is added between two existing nodes.

Toggle button to show/hide paths

The path is toggled when a NPC is selected from the list.  I will try to add dots and arrows for the path. You do not type in the path points you click in the map then click the add button. I am planning on also implementing a method to smooth the path( by calculating additional points automagically)

[kevglass]

Are there any sections/tools/modules/areas/stories/things that you could maybe mail to people seperately in advance to start work on? Or even the website?

Don't want to end up losseing momentum on this

Kev

[krypto]

Are there any sections/tools/modules/areas/stories/things that you could maybe mail to people seperately in advance to start work on? Or even the website?

Don't want to end up losseing momentum on this

Kev

I could probably do that, just want to spend a few more days on getting the ide cleaned up. Once I do could you test it and make sure things are working as they should?

Than we can add in the new features.

[kevglass]

Should probably just make it an open test but I'm happy to try it out

Kev

[krypto]

BTW Kev... You would be suprised how hard I found it to find an example of an Arrow2D < a class I coud just instantiate and draw. I'll keep trying though.

Games published by our own members! Check 'em out!

[Malohkan]

http://www.gamelizard.com/JavaGameProgrammingPresentation.htm

Check out my source link at the top of the page in there for FieldHockey.  In the run() method search for drawLine and you'll find me drawing arrows

[krypto]

http://www.gamelizard.com/JavaGameProgrammingPresentation.htm

Check out my source link at the top of the page in there for FieldHockey.  In the run() method search for drawLine and you'll find me drawing arrows

Malohkan You Rock  

[krypto]

Are there any sections/tools/modules/areas/stories/things that you could maybe mail to people seperately in advance to start work on? Or even the website?

Don't want to end up losseing momentum on this

Kev

Neither do I. I am actually really surprised  that the project hasn't been aproved yet. I Know that Athomas must be a very busy individual, but I am very anxious to see the community start to get involved.  I have already tried e-mailing him. Anyone know how to get a hold of him?

Anyways as for Kevin's comment I hope to get a forum set up for story lines. I have been developing one in my heas that steals from Kevin's own tiltle Lights of Laminos.

Basically it goes like this. At some time in the past a great evil that was threatening our world was defeated by Laminos the great and powerful wizard. All was well now, but eventually Laminos Aged, as we all do. He knew that he must pass on his power to the next generation for when the world would again be in need. However Laminos thought it best that his power be dispersed as no human could handle it alone. So Laminos Traveled to the four corners of the earth instilling his power into 4 newborn children (Unknown to them). When the Children are grown Laminos appears in a vision to the the Hero of our story and tells him of his fate. He must then quest to find the three that will complete the circle of power because there biggest battle lies ahead of them yet. These four are The Lights of Laminos


I know pretty lame huh?

[Matzon]

nah, it would work. Only problem is, what happens WHEN you find one of the other ? do they group with you (a la Phantasy Star) ?

[krypto]

nah, it would work. Only problem is, what happens WHEN you find one of the other ? do they group with you (a la Phantasy Star) ?

I was thinking So. Should the others be NPCs or Real Players?

[kevglass]

The story is cool! Not sure it would work as a global type story (massively mutliplayer) but as an individual quest it'd be great! The Lights should be NPCs, much like the epic quest at level 15 in camelot

Kev

[krypto]

Glad you think so Kevin.. While your here I have a question. I'm trying to decide what to do with the NPC editor for NPC types. My first guess is to create a GUI that will allow for creating the character.xml file you know...

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<Character name="Wiseman Thalmus" type="baldy" face="wiseman" profession="Wizard" level="0" exp="0" lastValidX="818" lastValidY="818" area="1" total-hp="0" total-mp="0" total-str="0" total-int="0" total-dex="0" total-con="0" current-hp="0" current-mp="0" current-str="0" current-int="0" current-dex="0" current-con="0" />

then these types are templates for character instances. The individual props could be tweeked after a character  is created. Only I don't see where the IMAGE Files for ths sprite are associated to the Character. DO You Remember?

[kevglass]

I believe the face and type image references arn't actually references directly to image but rather into the resources.xml file (store in ma-resources.jar)? Which in turn links to a classpath reference where you can find the image.

Kev

[krypto]

So should I include this other info in the character.xml file? I mean should the definition of an available sprite image be seperate from a sprite template and a sprite image? Seems like the images/face would be a part of the sprite template itself (as well as be editiable in the Sprite Instance)

[kevglass]

Really, its up to you!  However, the way I originally designed it was that the character.xml described the whole character. Don't make the mistake that sprite = character, it doesn't. Sprites are just a visualisation aspect of the character itself.

The character template is the template for a whole character. Say its a Warrior template. Sure it would define a default warrior sprite, but it would also define default characteristics and maybe even some default scripts eventually. The sprite references only make sense the client, not the server so they're seperated out into another file.

The NPC editor should load up the resources.xml file so it has a reference to every sprite and face available. Then it should allow creation of templates and characters based on selecting one of the faces/sprites and the defining of scripts and characteristics.

I have just noticed that the resources.xml tag for sprites is named very badly "Character", it should really be "Sprite". It also shouldn't include an indicator to whether the sprite is "playable" or not since thats really a completely seperate decision.

Make any sense whatsoever?

Kev

[kevglass]

Looks like I got sloppy in the items.xml aswell. The image references in there should also have been references in resources.xml.

Kev

[krypto]

Make any sense whatsoever?

O.K. I think I understand now. I will have the NPC template gui load all available faces/sprites. then the user picks one and edits the NPC characteristics. I will try to give a screenshot soon. I probably should change that tagname.

[krypto]

Kevin/All

Here is a shreenshot of hte NPC tool. The highlighted button will pull up an editor to edit/create the npc types shown in the combo to the left (ALA netbeans) does this seem like a good approach?

[krypto]

boo hoo... I Guess nobody has any opinions on the screenshot. BTW does anybody know of some good profilers ,
I sometimes get an outofmemory error with the ide.

[kevglass]

Personally, I like the button but I love the little circles on the Actor Path!

This project desperately needs approval or momentum will be lost. If it doesn't come along soon how about considering a SF project instead?

Kev

[krypto]

Personally, I like the button but I love the little circles on the Actor Path!

This project desperately needs approval or momentum will be lost. If it doesn't come along soon how about considering a SF project instead?

Kev

I agree I just wanted this project to represent the Javagaming community How sad will it be to have to be forced to sourceforge. But I guess we will have to if its not approved this week. Does anyone know how to contact Athomas or somebody who works w/ him. I know we will get approved, he just needs to flip the switch.

[krypto]

Also I intend to color code the circles i.e. selected point in path, pause location, action location, ect.

[krypto]

New NPC Screenshot with toolbar

[kevglass]

Ooooooo.. I wanna play. When can we have a release?

Kev

[krypto]

I'm getting out of memory errors I need to fix.
I'm sure its just extra object creation somewhere.