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Topics - Venalan

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31
General Discussion / Planeshift Team Details and Recruitment Status
« on: July 19, 2015, 04:57:34 pm »
Hello everyone,

Some of the team details are posted on the main site but I thought they could also do with being posted here along side some details with applying to different departments.

Please be aware that despite the larger numbers of people in some departments as this game is made in people's free time, none of the people in this list work on PS as much as they work on things in their real life. Therefore progress in one department be it rules, settings or engine, entirely depends on how available people are from those departments to do things. This can also vary massively over time as departments become more or less active.

At the moment the two departments in most need of contributors are code (engine/server) and 2D/3D art.



Please find below links to some threads detailing some of the Planeshift teams and information about their current recruiting status:

For the application process for the GM Team please see -  http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=32697.0

For an idea for whats involved with contributing to the Settings Department please see - http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=41280.0

For an idea for whats involved with contributing to the Art please see - http://www.hydlaaplaza.com/smf/index.php?topic=41370.0

Thanks for your consideration in applying to our teams to help us make the best game we possibly can.



The current official members for all departments are listed below.

Graphics Leader:
  • N/A
Responsibilities:
  • Find/Evaluate new 2D and 3D artists.
  • Concept Art, Web page look, coordination of all 2D graphics.
  • Coordination of all 3D models, 3D renderings, animations.
Members:
  • Clovenhoof
Associate Developers:
  • None.
Background / Setting Leader
  • Mordaan, Venalan (joint)
Responsibilities:
  • Find/Evaluate new world builders.
  • Coordination of development of quests, legends, npcs, monsters, etc...
Background/Setting Members:
  • Taya
Background/Setting Associate Developers:
  • None.
Rules Leader
  • Eonwind
Responsibilities:
  • Find/Evaluate new rule contributors.
  • Create, test, debug all rules related to character creation, combat, magic, etc...
Rules Members:
  • None.
Rules Associate Developers:
  • Tuathanach
  • Zunna
Engine Leader - Client
  • To be found!
Responsibilities:
  • Find/Evaluate new programmers.
  • Coordination of client development, interface with server.
Engine Programmers:
  • Weltall
  • Lucubro
  • Jilare
  • Jorrit
  • Magodra
Engine Associate Developers:
Engine Leader - Server
  • To be found!
Responsibilities:
  • Find/Evaluate new programmers.
  • Coordination of server development, interface with client and db.
Server Programmers:
  • Weltall
  • Lucubro
  • Jilare
  • Acraig
  • Magodra
Music / Sound Leader
  • Tuux
Music Members:
  • Bruno Lagarde
  • Lucubro
  • Dana Hawkes
Music Associate Developers:
  • None.
Public Relation / Recruit Manager
  • Coordination assigned to Luca Pancallo
Responsibilities:
  • Find new recruiters, recruit, bring net-surfers to the PlaneShift page.
PR Associate Developers:
  • None currently

32
Unreal Engine / New terrain.
« on: May 16, 2015, 05:05:47 pm »
Hey all,

So, with the move to UE4 an artist who has made things for PS for a long time, Clovenhoof, has been playing about with some of the terrain modeling features.

Below is a little preview of some of the changes you can expect in Hydlaa.


Direct link
http://s8.postimg.org/6vv0imztv/new_terain.png

33
Unreal Engine / Lavvar V2.0
« on: April 26, 2015, 09:14:46 am »
UE4 allows you to attach effects to static meshes, as well as 'bones' and 'bone sockets' on skeletons. Take a look..

Lavvar V2.0



34
Unreal Engine / Water reflections, particles, smoke/fire, and light example.
« on: April 23, 2015, 06:05:55 pm »
So I recently posted a screenie of the plaza with real water for the first time. Well I've been adding to Hydlaa and have this to share.

A small video showing the effects I've added into the map so far.

Enjoy..

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g0eevvy5r8km7py/Water_particle_fire_example.avi?dl=0

35
PlaneShift Mods / How to have at least 600 shortcuts in your shortcut window.
« on: December 29, 2014, 06:21:08 pm »
I don't know if any of you have reached a position when the number of shortcuts you have is not enough for you so you have multiple copies you switch between.

BUT...

For those of you willing to manually edit your shortcut...xml file you can manually add as many new shortcuts as you want. I currently have my client running with 600, so I -think- this number is safe to have.

WARNING!!!!
This is unsupported and could very well crash your client so be warned.

To use it is very simple.

  • Open your shortcutcommands_NAME.xml file
  • Go to the bottom and if you have all your shortcuts full you can add <shortcut257 name="some name here">/some command here</shortcut257>
  • Then add <shortcut258 name="some name here">/some command here</shortcut258>
  • Then <shortcut259 name="some name here">/some command here</shortcut259>
  • etc....

Enjoy.

Venalan.

36
Development Team Blog / How to add images to BOOKS or MAPS.
« on: December 24, 2014, 06:50:04 pm »
Hello all.

For a while PS has had the ability to display images in a book which have been bundled with the client. You could use any image you have, but if you show someone else the book they wont see the image unless you send them the image and tell them how to add it to their client. What I am doing to do here is explain how you can display an image included with the client in a book.

First, you could do this from in game but the the way to do it it will be much easier to write the text outside of PS and then load it into a book in game.


1 - Where are the images I can use?

The names you need to use are the tool tips which appear from icons you see when adding images to shortcuts, so the easiest way is to browse there to find images you want to use and then copy the names of the are from there. The name you get here is the name that icon/image has been defined in the image data.

For example if you mouse over one of the bracer icons you see "/planeshift/materials/bracer_greater_azure_icon.dds" you should use that whole name when using that icon in a book or map.

You can however also directly open up the image list files. The image files are found in two (or more) place(s), both in the directory where you installed PlaneShift. You are looking for a file called "imagelist.xml". You need to navigate to "PlaneShift\art\skins" and then open one of the zip files there, or open the folder called base, and then the client_base.zip file. All of these will contain an "imagelist.xml" file. Each will contain a slightly different set of images, the client_base folder will contain images used by every client so these are safe to use so everyone who reads the book can see the images. The imagelist.xml from the skin files defines images used when that skin is used. Now if you are using custom skins the the names of images in that imagelist will very likely not be present in other peoples games so they will see nothing. I would suggest using images which are clearly used by everyone.

Once you have opened the imagelist.xml you will see massive long lists of things more or less like these examples.

This is taken from a imagelist from a skin file.
<image file="/paws/real_skin/icons.png" resource="ButtonAttackDefensiveActive" >
    <texturerect x="512" y="448" width="64" height="64" />
</image>

These two are taken from the client_base imagelist.xml
<image file="/planeshift/materials/broadsword01a_icon.dds" resource="/planeshift/materials/broadsword01a_icon.dds" />
<image file="/planeshift/materials/broadsword01b_icon.dds" resource="/planeshift/materials/broadsword01b_icon.dds" />
<image file="/planeshift/materials/broadsword01c_icon.dds" resource="/planeshift/materials/broadsword01c_icon.dds" />

The important thing from all three of these are the resource="SomeRandomName" bits. You will need these later, so either

ButtonAttackDefensiveActive
or
/planeshift/materials/broadsword01a_icon.dds
or
/planeshift/materials/broadsword01b_icon.dds


2 - How to write the book to show an image.

This is where the way you write the books will have to totally change. You can not just write like you have and add <image="bla"> as the text you have used to try and make the book show an image will just show as text.

What I will do below is explain how to write a simple book which will contain a paragraph of text, one image, and then a second paragraph of text.

Because you are trying to mix text with images you need to tell the game which bits of the book are text, and which bits are images. So the first bit you add is

<Contents><Content type="text">

Then after this you add the text you want to write.

<Contents><content type="text">Come and see a wonder of the Hydlaa. Weapons made by the great smith HARNQUIST!!!! See blow for images of his amazing skill.

Once you have written the text you need to tell the game that the area that is just text had ended. To do this you add '</Content>'

<Contents><Content type="text">Come and see a wonder of the Hydlaa. Weapons made by the great smith HARNQUIST!!!! See blow for images of his amazing skill.</Content>

Next I want to add an image, so I need to tell the game that I want it to show one. I will use an example from above to show you.

<Contents><Content type="text">Come and see a wonder of the Hydlaa. Weapons made by the great smith HARNQUIST!!!! See blow for images of his amazing skill.</Content><Content type="pic" align="0" padding="5 10 15 20" width="32" height="32" src="/planeshift/materials/broadsword01a_icon.dds;">

Let me now explain what each bit does [ type="pic" ] tells the game it is a picture [ align="0" ] means the image is left aligned, if you use 1 you get center aligned, and 2 for right aligned. [ padding="5 10 15 20" ] adds a border around the image on the left(5) top(10) right(15) and bottom(20). Width and height tell the game how big to make the picture. Finally [ src="/planeshift/materials/broadsword01a_icon.dds;" ] tells the game which image you want to display. The ; symbol is important to add as it marks the end of the image name, this does mean you can show a row of images. Like below

<Contents><Content type="text">Come and see a wonder of the Hydlaa. Weapons made by the great smith HARNQUIST!!!! See blow for images of his amazing skill.</Content><Content type="pic" align="0" padding="5 10 15 20" width="32" height="32" src="/planeshift/materials/broadsword01b_icon.dds;/planeshift/materials/broadsword01a_icon.dds;/planeshift/materials/broadsword01c_icon.dds;">

Once again you need to tell the game that the area which will show an image is finished by adding a </Content> section again

<Contents><Content type="text">Come and see a wonder of the Hydlaa. Weapons made by the great smith HARNQUIST!!!! See blow for images of his amazing skill.</Content><Content type="pic" align="0" padding="5 10 15 20" width="32" height="32" src="/planeshift/materials/broadsword01b_icon.dds;/planeshift/materials/broadsword01a_icon.dds;/planeshift/materials/broadsword01c_icon.dds;"></Content>

Now finally we will be adding one final paragraph of text. As before you need to use both <Content type="text"> to start it and </Content> to end it.

<Contents><Content type="text">Come and see a wonder of the Hydlaa. Weapons made by the great smith HARNQUIST!!!! See blow for images of his amazing skill.</Content><Content type="pic" align="0" padding="5 10 15 20" width="32" height="32" src="/planeshift/materials/broadsword01b_icon.dds;/planeshift/materials/broadsword01a_icon.dds;/planeshift/materials/broadsword01c_icon.dds;"></Content><Content type="text">Come and see him on the 87 of Frizzday for the greatest selection of blades you will ever cut you own hand off with.</Content>

Once you have done this you need to tell it that the content of the book has finished, to do this you add </Contents>

<Contents><Content type="text">Come and see a wonder of the Hydlaa. Weapons made by the great smith HARNQUIST!!!! See blow for images of his amazing skill.</Content><Content type="pic" align="0" padding="5 10 15 20" width="32" height="32" src="/planeshift/materials/broadsword01b_icon.dds;/planeshift/materials/broadsword01a_icon.dds;/planeshift/materials/broadsword01c_icon.dds;"></Content><Content type="text">Come and see him on the 87 of Frizzday for the greatest selection of blades you will ever cut you own hand off with.</Content></Contents>

Now what you do is save the text file you have made the books in, you can just copy the book I have shown above to test it. Then go in game and load that text into a book and save it. Now when you read the book you will see the text and images you told the game to display.


3 - I tried making one and it wont work!

Well, from what I've done most of the time it hasn't worked all I get a book full of text with commands in where you should get images. There are also times when some images show and some don't

There are a few things to be aware of. First, it is all case sensitive. <Contents> is correct, <contents> is not. Also make sure you do not have other spelling mistakes. You must also make sure that you have all the matching <Contents></Contents> and <Content></Content> set correctly in pairs. These mistakes will result in you just getting lots of text.

You should make sure that each of the following piece of information are present when adding images.
<Content type="pic" align="0" padding="" width="" height="" src="">
If you don't the images may well show, but will very likely show incorrectly.

There are limitations to what you can do, I hope it will get looked at at some point.

You can download this file and load it in game as an example of what it will look like when you make a book with images.


4 - How add a new icon to a map.

Now, when adding images to maps it is a little easier to do.

For a simple example, buy a map, drop an icon in the middle. If you save it you get something like this..

<pages><page l="37" t="167" w="684" h="484"><ic x="342" y="242" i="city_01"/></page></pages>


All you need to do is change the i="" bit to the resource name for the piece of art you want to use, using the names I explained at the start. Like this.

<pages><page l="37" t="167" w="684" h="484"><ic x="342" y="242" i="/planeshift/materials/combat_infantry02_icon.dds"/></page></pages>

Then load this in game and you will have a brand new image shown in your map

------

And with that....

Good luck, and enjoy.

37
Development Team Blog / Update - Book images!!?
« on: December 09, 2014, 08:24:04 pm »
Hey everyone.

I was going to wait until after the update to post this, but as its been so long and we are still stuck without a new Mac client I decided to post now.

With a recent code change we now have the ability to to display images in books, and, have the books turn pages. Before this the last bit wouldn't work. I'll be posting a "how to" explanation on how this works after the update once the client works correctly with book images so anybody can put any image included with the client in any book they make. Things like weapon icons or ore icons in merchant books for example.



So, if there are any people who have an interest in drawing some concept art similar to that shown above I would love to hear from you.

There are lots of creature books which could do with images, consumers, trepors, and ulbernauts have been done.

These books are ones which jump to mind which could have nice illustrations:

Clacker ecology.
Monsters: Gobble.
This sounds Familiar.

The idea is that the drawing is not just a screen capture. But is a hand drawn picture of the artists impression of what the creature looks likes not necessarily a strict copy of what they look like in game, like the ublernaut. The drawings do not have to be of creatures but could be of anything from any book, or something which would look nice in a book you have an idea for.

A couple of things to think about.

Any drawing would need to look good when put in a book in game. The one above works as the whole image is slightly purple so it seems a light shading has been done over the whole area. If you hand draw something once its scanned and cropped and added to a book it should ideally work "as is" if it doesn't look good in a book it will be hard to use it. The process of making it suitable for a book I can do, or help you with. But its just a process of making everything but the creature transparent and in a *.png file which is easily done in GIMP or Photoshop. If the image is drawn using a program then you can just keep the background transparent.

Of course, the images submitted would need to be checked by Talad before release, and the artist would need to agree to the contributors agreement. But any images which are done before the upcoming update is released would very likely be in the upcoming update.

Hopefully some of you might be interested. I look forward to hearing from you.

Venalan.

38
General Discussion / Forum failure
« on: December 06, 2014, 05:51:13 pm »
Hey guys,

It seems last night there was a long downtime for the forum and bug tracker. During that down time it appears that all posts in the last 4-5 days have been lost. There may also be threads missing from boards they were posted in. If you go to your profile, then look at posts you have made, you may find the thread there if you make another post it -might- reappear on the board it was initially created on. But any posts in the last 4-5 days will not be recoverable.

It seems the forums are now behaving correctly.

V

39
Development Team Blog / Team Update: User Interface (UI).
« on: October 15, 2014, 06:40:46 pm »

We wanted to let you know some of (we hope) the improvements which will be available in the next update in relation to the UI.

  • The active effects window has been updated to now contain information on the duration of timed effects (eredin).
  • All HP and MANA bars have been updated to be more informative in regards to the amount of HP/MANA remaining (eredin).
  • As part of the combat enhancements there will now be an "attack book" to go along side the "spell book" accessible via the tool bar. This will be used when 'special attacks' are released for players to use.
  • Fixes to the NPC interaction menu so that you can correctly access the storage and personal banking windows via buttons. Currently only the personal banking icon is visible and is in the same spot as storage, but the storage button is on top so you can never use the banking window button.
  • The art for the "quest bubble" window has been improved for all skins apart from 'elves' so they more closely match the theme of the skin being used.
  • All the "quest bubble" windows have been improved, moving the arrows for page changes to centre screen so they are much easier to see. A text description to describe the free text input to make its function clearer has been added. A new "give" button so if you need to give items to an NPC during a quest you can just click it and it will open the trade window, no more closing the window to trade or typing commands manually (thanks to Natoka). There is now also support for clicking quest dialogue bubbles to show the next dialogue line, as well as an ability to customise the time each bubble (line of dialogue) will display on screen for in the options (thanks to Natoka).
  • There are still times that the method to find spells is confusing so a 'help' window has been added to the glyph window. An '?' icon can be clicked at any time causing a small pop up window to appear which describes the method to purify glyphs and research spells. We hope this will make the method easier for new players.
  • The loot window has been update (thanks to Neeno) and now contains "loot all" and "group loot all" buttons to allow use of these commands for new players who will not know about the options of "/loot....". The group loot buttons will also only show when you are grouped.
  • The container window now has a rename function to allow players to rename sacks.
  • The 'craft window' (you get by using the /study command) now has a filter added, thanks to Aiwendil.
  • The 'merchant' and 'storage' windows have the ability to sort columns by amount and price, not just name (thanks to Neeno).
  • There are 3 new art themes, one is based on the "Classic" UI theme PlaneShift had back when it was in V0.3.X but was removed after that and is now updated for the current client. For the two new ones you'll have to wait for the update to play with, one of these is my new favourite to use.
  • New icons have been made where needed and a number of old icons have been used in new place, like a chest for all 'storage' icons.
Additional Skins only (not elves or classic).

  • Quest Note book. This is now resizable to allow you to adjust the vertical height to show more/less quests and quest notes.
  • Guild window now has a small text box which allows a brief description of the permission options to appear when you click on the option name (these might need improving to be clearer later).
  • The buddy window now has a button to allow easy opening of the 'ignore' window.
  • The small inventory now contains icons for "mind" "left hand" "right hand" so you can move items/books/tools for crafting without needing to have the full inventory open.

Enjoy!

40
Development Team Blog / Settings Blog: Pterosaur Travel updates.
« on: October 03, 2014, 06:08:05 pm »
So, the work mentioned here has been discussed publicly a few times in game but I'm adding it here so everyone can see.

For the longest time people have been asking "Why isn't there a pterosaur we can use to fast travel to the bronze door fortress?" Originally I think it was felt the area was a "High level" area so you shouldn't fast travel there, though I'm not really sure what the reason was.

This view is no longer the case and we have added a pterosaur in the fortress, the idea here is increased playability. Using this fast travel will be a little different to other pterosaurs as access is by quest only. That quest will originate in the fortress, and once you complete it you be rewarded by being allowed to travel to and from the fortress by pterosaur.

It was also brought to my attention that the travel time for the pterosaur was too long, so we have looked at that and reduced the time taken for many of the travel routes. This is again in an attempt to improve playability, by reducing the amount of time you literally can't do anything.

We have also added options to allow travel from any city to any city. The Hydlaa<->Amdeneir path is still the only free one as it's the only way to get there. So once you have completed the new quest you will also be able to travel to and from any city and the fortress.

This work is all completed and is set to be fully released in the next update.

Enjoy.

41
Development Team Blog / [COMMUNITY] Frequently reported/commented quest 'bugs' [edit:26/07/2015]
« on: July 31, 2014, 01:13:29 pm »
So, to make life easier on players I've decided to keep an up to date list of 'the most common bugs' which get reported so you lot can all see what's going on when you come across one of them.

Let me start by saying that we are very proud with how bug free the quests are now, so the total list is rather small, of not empty.

An important point before you read what is below.

If at ANY POINT you are not sure the things below match what you are finding in game, tell us by filing a petition. We will quickly (once someone sees your question) tell you what is wrong. But remember that you might be the 5% of cases that find a tiny bug that no one else has found/reported and mean that it is fixed for everyone else in the future.

Common questions which are not caused by bugs
  • "The NPC has nothing to say to me but they told me to take X to Y" - In this situation almost all of the time the player has skipped a quest menu they needed to click with the previous npc. For example, in "Lorri's little delivery" players sometimes run off from Lori with the item she gives you before they finish talking to her. So the next NPC has nothing to say until you go back.
  • "I can't get quest X" - There are a few responses to this. 1 - the next quest in the chain requires a skill level or the completion of a quest you do not have yet. If you are doing Blue way quests try improving Blue Way, alchemy quests try improving alchemy etc..., 2 - You are following an out of date list from a spoiler site that is now wrong. Please be careful when following lists on the internet as we frequently get people saying they can't get something they want and often it's due to this, 3 - What you were told you needed by another player was wrong. Much like the previous point, quests are adjusted from time to time and an older player may not have done the quests since they where changed, 4 - you are trying to get a quest again after it was wiped and the requirements for it have changed so you can no longer get it. This should be all the situations you might find yourself in as I am unaware of any cases of a quest you can not get.
  • "I tried doing X but they say they can't help me until they have finished working on the plague." - This is a response you get from certain NPCs when you have "Liera's Cure" active, you need to finish that quest before continuing the other one. One of a few cases when internal steps rely on external quests.
  • "I need item X to do a quest which was reset" - To get an item you need to be on-line at the same time as a GM, which can mean waiting a long time before you can get it due to missing one another. The quickest way to get a replacement item is to find a GM on IRC and ask them.
  • "It's been ages, but the skill quest won't show for me to do again!" - The skill quests we have in PS are not exactly the same as 'dailys' other games have. They do no reset once every day/week/month. They are accessible again once you spend a certain amount of time in game. This is somewhere between a few hours for the short locks, to a few months for the longer locks. The skill quests are at the lower end of the time frame, 4-6 hours.



Currently reported bugs with unreleased fixes.
  • NONE!!


That's it for now. As always, if you come across even a tiny bug like a typo I want to know about it so I can fix it.

42
PlaneShift Mods / Unofficial PS art update, V1.1 [updated July 27, 2014]
« on: July 20, 2014, 07:34:23 pm »
Hey everyone.

So for a long time I have tried to 'fix' long standing art bugs, and had good success for a while. Recently this progress has slowed so I decided to release all the fixes I've been able to do using the released art independent of an art update. I hope at some point I can get the master copies to fix the same art in the released client.

So please download the changes and use them. They are generally quite small 'fixes' but some have a big impact on the art, this is one of the bigger examples.



Most of the changes I've made are involved with the 'mipmaps' which are the versions of textures which show when you are further away from an image. With these fences when you are very close they look fine, but as you move away they look worse, this is what I've tried fixing.

Unfortunately I don't have the skill to make this an automated install process so you will have to modify the materials.zip file manually.




how to do it:
1a - Download this zip unofficial texture updates 1K V1.1
1b - Download this zip unofficial texture updates 2K V1.1
2 - extract it somewhere.
3 - locate C:\Program Files (x86)\PlaneShift\art\materials.zip
4 - Copy the materials.zip file to somewhere like the desktop (you could then rename the original file to maintain a default copy).
5 - Copy the files from the extracted download file into materials.zip.
6 - Copy and replace the original materials.zip file (unless you renamed it when it will just copy it).
****You should now have changed the official art for my unofficial edits.
7 - load PlaneShift and play as normal.

I hope this was clear, I've had some testers and they were able to do this and enjoy the adjustments I've made.

43
PlaneShift Mods / Request for testers for ingame window changes.
« on: June 23, 2014, 06:36:30 pm »
:beta:

I very much like getting feed back form players on stuff I make, so I'm asking again.

I've made a number of changes to the flames/bones/scholar skins on the buddy/ignor/npc dialogue windows. Before I add them to the SVN for the next update I'd like to make sure people like them.

scholar_beta.zip
flames_beta.zip
bones_beta.zip

INSTALLATION

1 - Download the UI skins you want to try.
2 - Place them in the "C:\Program Files (x86)\PlaneShift\art\skins" folder.
3 - Load PSlaunch.exe and chose the skin name from the options.
4 - Run the game and try out the new changes.
5 - Comment and let me know if you like the changes.

44
General Discussion / New style of quest window.
« on: June 16, 2014, 06:32:23 pm »
Hey all.

I've been adjusting the style of the quest menus which are included with the skins I've made. Below is my latest attempt to clean them up and make them generally just better.

I'd like to know what you lot think?


45
PlaneShift Mods / New in game window design - Bone V1.1.3H released.
« on: February 16, 2014, 09:06:38 pm »
So this is my second set of art. This has all new art, but exactly the same window layout as in the FlameON_V1.1.3H skin.

So first things first. Release licenses.

Code

The *.xml files and all associated changes are released under the standard PS code license so anyone is free to take anything I've done to take and use in their own skin. Just give me a shout out if you use some of my changes, and ideally post a link to the skin here for others to use.

Art

The art is now covered by the Atomic Blue license.

Changes

Please read this thread for all of them, put simply, lots.




INSTALLATION

Now you just need to wait for the next release 0.6.1 and it will be part of the client.

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