GM Roster Utility

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fuzzy70

Data would probably be stored in an array of types, so should hopefully be a simple case of dumping the array to a file. It's a little bit more involved than that but will spare you the details until we get closer to that phase.

With regards to character sheets practically every one of them can be downloaded, either from the game creators site or a fan site. Obviously they are free (only the rule books etc have a fee), gone are the days of disgusting photocopies & hand drawn ones lol.

Storing stats is going to be interesting as different game systems use different stats, plus it would be impossible for us to cover every game so a level of user customization will have to be implemented & I have an idea of how that can work.

Lee

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2

"Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?"
- "These go to eleven."

This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

CW

#46
RE: Array of types. Sounds good. I'll consider a character sheet design with the assumption that we can customize equipment.

RE: Stats. Because the utility doesn't actually do anything with the stats (other than 'hit points'), it doesn't matter what they mean. All we need is a list, however long, of Label$, Value#, allow the GM to name them and set them however he likes, and allow the GM to modify the value as he pleases in game. They just won't have a health bar unless they are destructible. Anything  not fitting that format can be placed in the unit text. We can do some pre-configured character sheets for specific and popular games, but there will always be other games to be set up by the user any way he likes.

Icons are great, so we definitely want to incorporate them, but we need to allow the user to import their own creations, or use none at all. Maybe we should also include a library of icons drawn from that public collection of yours. They look great.

I don't see a problem with game compatibility for most RPG's. Our challenge is style and accessibility.

Ok! I'll start looking at Char. Sheets tomorrow and start playing with layouts.
Maybe we can do a couple of Char sheet types. A generic 'paper sheet' type, and one with a body-outline showing the location of equipment? Hmm.. that could get involved and it wouldn't work with non-humans. Still, we could manage even that if we treat labels and equipment as objects, allow the user to import his own screen-sized figure, and place the the objects anywhere on it. Oh my imagination is running away with me.  Ah well. Let's not worry about that for now. We can save it for version 2.0. lol

-CW

BTW: I LOVE  <3 the neon look of the color pinstriped tabs and your use of color gradients on the health bars. They look imbedded in the frame. Very nice! You have an eye for this sort of thing. I noticed that you ghosted the background page under the unit popup stat screen. It looks fantastic, but how difficult is that to do graphically? Can that be done with a sprite-grab of the frame and a tweak to Alph?

erico

#47
This conversation is really nice! :good:
I don´t have much to add really, for lack of experience, but my 2nd next project will be a little roguelike just to get the hangs, very simple one.

Keep it up! Let´s see the outcomes! :)

EdIT: this all have been very instructive to me :)

Edit2: without intruding so much on a topic I don´t know much, sometime ago glb guys posted this:
http://donjon.bin.sh/
There could be stuff there useful to you guys or maybe not, but it is on the subject I guess.

CW

Thanks Erico! It's fun to put together a dream project and then see how far you can go to make it a reality.

Hey Fuzzy: I've been reading different types of character sheets and I am finding that this is going to be more of a challenge than I expected. RPG's have become more complex over the years from when I used to scrawl a few stats on a blank sheet of paper and called it a character. I blame the growing sophistication of computer games raising the expectations of table game players.

Some of today's sheets have dozens of stats and modifiers and go one for two or more pages; while we have, at best, a half-sheet size to work with. Still, I think we can do a utilitarian character sheet of two or three pages, with the first sheet being major stats, the second being secondary stats and the third being notes. I'll have a look at more sheets, play around with some sketches, and see what I can come up with.

We may need an array of arrays to hold it all and allow customization. There are base stats, and then four or five modifiers in some cases. Oh boy..  :whistle:

-CW

fuzzy70

#49
Sorry, have been a bit sidetracked with other projects & getting Linux on my laptop to see my file server  :rant:

Don't forget that this is a GM program & not a player program. Players will have their own sheets with all the stats/equipment etc written down, a GM may make some notes on the players in the campaign (like who's alive, their health, where they are if not in the group & so on). I have never played a campaign where the GM has a full copy of every players stats etc as that is not really the GM's role. The main details a GM keeps in any sort of detail would be NPC's & even then it is rarely as detailed as a player character otherwise the GM would be severely bogged down in paperwork & such & the game would crawl along.

The GM's role is (put very simply) referee & story teller, they have enough on their plate doing that & referring to the rulebook for combat/equipment etc without having to know the players full stats & specs :D.

Like I said a customisable sheet where the GM picks what stats, class, equipment etc they want to keep note of (& if the player is still alive lol) is more than good enough I think. Something along the lines of my 1st mockup with a big icon with any notes appearing if they click on it might be more than sufficient.

BTW the ghosted look would be done with a simple DRAWRECT with the alpha changed so as to darken the output, makes seeing the overlay details easier as brings it into focus & dumbing down the details below it. The tabs on top I think may change to being all white with only the current active tab coloured, I done all of them coloured in the mock up mainly just to show the range of colours than anything else. The health bar "Inner Shadows" should be straight forward & done with lines & alpha otherwise a serious amount of sprites would be needed  :D

An array of types should be more than good enough if the types are planned properly to store the info & allow flexibility in what is stored. As you have discovered there is a huge range available from different games & one of the reasons why there are quite a few programs for a particular game but very few (if any) generic ones due to the differences in data. Any one can write one for a specific game as the data is a known quantity, but most shy away from a generic one as they are unsure about how to implement it. If you can make the data storage flexible then a generic one is not that much more difficult than a specific one, basically it goes back to what I said about databases & planning of which I'm pretty confident I can emulate that with types.


@Erico: Glad you like it & if you learn something from it then alls good  =D

Lee
"Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?"
- "These go to eleven."

This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

CW

QuoteDon't forget that this is a GM program & not a player program. ...a GM may make some notes on the players in the campaign (like who's alive, their health, where they are if not in the group & so on). I have never played a campaign where the GM has a full copy of every players stats etc as that is not really the GM's role.

Good point, good point. Then I think if we give the GM an ability to choose an icon, keep track of health, record some basic stats, and allow him to easily make notes to himself about a character; then the character sheet is doable and a nice feature to have. Regarding stats, looking at the sheets today showed me that we need to keep track of the original stat and the modified stat. Such as IQ: [current]/[original]. With creatures and units drawn from the library, the units are disposable and more can be called up from the library. But with a character, stats get modified as effects are imposed and are restored as the effects wear off or the character heals up.

I was thinking of a two page format for each character unit sheet, one sheet containing a stats and brief notes at the bottom, and the other for extensive notes should they be needed. (Could help the GM maintain continuity for characters across a campaign.

I'll mock something up in the morning so you can see what you think. Tonight, I have a DVD to watch. Mad Men Season 2. = )

Talk to you soon.
-CW

CW

#51
Hey Lee,

Given that our utility is intended for use by the GM who only needs to keep track of key bits of Character information directly related to the game, what do you think of the following idea for a Character screen? We use the entire frame for the Character sheet, allow the GM to choose which stats he wants, and let him take a lot of notes. We may not even need a second page.

Related to the color frames around the tabs, what if we only light up the active tab(s) with color, and do the rest of the tabs in the style from your first screen, but with a line using a very dark shade of the tab color drawn along the bottom of the inactive tab? Just a thought. 

Welp! I'm off to a late lunch. Cheers!

-CW

fuzzy70

Yep that seems to work well  =D.

I will have a look at different "Unselected" tab options, i.e plain white, coloured text & your suggestion & you can pick what you think looks best.

Am doing some stuff in linux at the moment so no access to Fireworks, the thought of installing a VM & the Adobe software (with all those lovely updates  :puke:) sends shivers down my spine lol.

Lee
"Why don't you just make ten louder and make ten be the top number and make that a little louder?"
- "These go to eleven."

This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

CW

Sounds like a plan!
No hurry on your various projects. I'm going to take another crack at my user input routines. That should keep me busy for a while.
Cheers!
-CW

CW

Still working on my set-field K=Key() input routine with cursor, which has turned into a project in its own right. This is giving me some trouble. The problem seems to be that I was thinking too small, so I'm going to scrap it and take a fresh run at it. I will post when I have something to show or have given up on the effort. Another week should tell. -CW