with all this talk of people waiting for the combat and magic systems to get done, i was wondering what kind of art work we're going to need to represent magical effects. i mean this in more of a technical manner than an artistic one.
what, if any, are the size limitations?
will animations, ala the frame method for small pics, be allowed?
is the plan for area effect graphics to display like in frua where each square in the area of effect has the sprite flash on briefly?

i guess i'd also be curious to see what people think we need represented as far as graphics per spell...i think with frua there are only a couple of spells represented- fireball, stinking cloud, lightning, ice storm and a couple more whose names elude me at the moment.

[img]graemlins/monster1.gif[/img]

manikus

[ 07-05-2002, 07:15 PM: Message edited by: manikus ]

I`ve been playing around with the Default magic art.The size will probably be the same,but I had to cut the 48x96 art in half.In other words use only one pic 48x48.Because the animation part isn`t in place yet.But Richard, and Paul, have been really quiet lately.Maybe a nice surprise awaits us.

the default magic art...sometimes the obvious escapes me. :D

now i've got something to do this evening. ;)

[img]graemlins/monster1.gif[/img]

-manikus

web for the web spell might be a start

What would be really cool is if one picture (eg a huge fireball) could cover the whole area of the spell, rather than an individual little ball for each character covered. Also, if transparency level could be set that would look cool (so you can see the characters behind the fireball). Also some sort of globe of invulnerability linger sprite and fire shield (hot and cold flames) would be cool additions. Sticks to snakes requires snakes to harrass the target so a writhing (can you make it writhe? I don't know) mass of small snakes would be good, and a similar vine or something for the entangle spell. Also, the ability to make the combat icons become semi-transparent to show the effect of an invisibility spell, and some sort of distortion of the icons to demonstrate displacement or mirror image would be cool. Also a pile of ash (instead of the character death icon) to show the effects of a disintegration spell.

Some of these things can be done and some not, I'm sure. Just ideas.

i've got a web done. got some various colored clouds. i'm putting the other ideas on my list. [img]smile.gif[/img]
i've been thinking about your other ideas, steve. i don't know of any way to make one picture cover the whole are, i.e. fireball. perhaps richard ro paul can better answer this one. the other two notions about semi-transparent and distorted are things that could probably be done with the logic block...but to varying degrees of 'general' effectiveness. for the semi-transparent, it could be a matter of switching to a different icon, which would mean fairly easy to implement if you were working with a pre-made party. for the distorted it could be as easy as an overlay that simulates the distortion effect. again, richard or paul may be able to tell us a way to use the logic block or the engine to do this that would be better for a 'general' application.

[img]graemlins/monster4.gif[/img]

-manikus

Here is what it supposed to be true, which not match reality...

All spell animations should work. Each spell animation can be larger than 48x48. The spell animations use the same rules as small pics, but they can be larger. The time that the animation is displayed on screen can be adjusted by how long the animation loop takes, and how many loops you specify.

The coverage animation will be displayed centered of the target. That would be the place for the Fireball animation. The Hit animation displays centered over each target that is hit by the Fireball.

DC has the ability to display images using alpha-blending, which means the overlaying graphic is kind of translucent and allows the underlying image to show through. The combat cursor is displayed this way I think. I'm not sure how easy it will be to enable this for spell graphics, or what speed penalty there would be. I'll add this to the to-do list.

The linger animation isn't working yet. I have some of the code in place for it but the button is disabled in the spell editor.

The LogicBlock can be used to alter a character's combat icon to a different set of frames. Like Manikus mentioned, it only works when you know in advance which combat icon will be used by the player (pre-gen chars). It looks like we need a way to make the spells alter a combat icon. Also a way to alter the death icon. I'll think up something.

I have been away from this list for over a month now. Not intentional though. Work has needed more of my time lately. I still work on DC almost daily though.

this is great news! [img]smile.gif[/img] i've had some ideas for spell animations that i'm going to try out.

when you say that the spell graphix can be larger than 48x48, it makes me wonder what the maximum 'practical' size is, i.e. i'd want it all show on the screen.

thanks for all the great work, richard!

[img]graemlins/monster1.gif[/img]

-manikus

Seems to me that I remember the newer Gold box games having a big fireball pic cover the area that it hits, then each icon had a brief flash of fire and the damage register. Could be that I'm thinking something else, tho.

SilentThief

I don't recall exactly, but the combat screen is around 18-20 squares wide/tall. With each square being 48x48, that works out to an image approaching 864x864 pixels. The screen size might be a little smaller than that though. I'm fairly certain it's at least 15x15 squares.

DC allows this too. There is the Coverage animation, which would be the big screen-filling fireball blast. Then there is the Hit animation, which is displayed over each target that was successfully affected by the spell.