So my first skin is done. I've spent today with a few testers and have removed a number of minor bugs. If you decide to use this skin and you spot any mistakes let me know and ill try and tidy them up. Or, if you use this skin and have any personal suggestions, or would like some minor changes to the skin as its something you might like post here and as long at it is not too complex I will look at doing it.

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 on their own skin. Just give me a shout out if you use some of my changes, and ideally post the skin here for others to use.

Art

The art is covered by the Atomic Blue license.

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Now for the important stuff.

Changes made to the UI
These fall in to four categories, art, xml file changes which are specific to my skin, changes which I have had committed to the SVN to be included in the next client update but i have in my skin already, and files where i have had some of the changes committed to SVN but not all. I'm separating them here for ease for those who want to take pieces I have changed.

Changed specific to my skin(s).

components01.png - remade all art, some is similar to default style, some is very different.
icons.png - made new tool bar icons.

craft.xml (study window) - made rezisable by request
craftcanclewindow.xml (crafting progress bar) - reformatted to make function clearer.
deatilwindow.xml (when you examine a character) - edited tab sizes to read better and edited tool tips to make descriptions clearer.
imagelist.xml (not need by players, just modders) - Edited to re-assign art assets and create some new ones.
loadwindow.xml (window you see when you are in a loading zone) - reorganised text boxes and made them larger so even the largest tool tip will appear without the need to scroll
shortcutwindow.xml (the shortcut window) - removed the HP/mana bars, change minimum window height to use window space better, changed default button high for better space use for text only SCs. These changes will be defunct at the next client when you can set these options yourself in real time as we are adding new in game options for this window.
spellcanclewindow.xml (spell progress and spell casting cancel window) - made function clearer and window use obvious.
spellwindow.xml (the window with the list of your spells in) - reformatted spell window layout to be more condense.
styles.xml (only needed by modders) - font colour changes were defined here.
configautoexec.xml, configchat.xml, configchatlogs.xml, configchattabcompletion.xml, configentityinter.xml (these are all sub windows of the 'options window') - text boxes backgrounds were changed to match colour style, this also involved additions to imagelist.xml
configsound.xml, configentityinter.xml (these are all sub windows of the 'options window') - added black background to drop down menus instead of a transparent default background which can make it harder to read options and also made drop down windows larger so scrolling to see all options is not necessary.
guildwindow.xml (the guild window) - change font sizes in guild permissions screen to make them easier to read.


Files with changes specific to my skin(s) and some commitied to svn
chat.xml (the chat window) - changed the typed font colour to white as it is over written by font changes in styles.xml and same changes made in r9016
skillwindow.xml (the stats and skill window) - I reorgainsed the HP/mana/stamina bars so they align better (in svn) and i removed the 'buy skill' button so there is only the 'buy skill rank' (my skin specific).


Changed commited to SVN
buddy.xml (your buddy list) - adjusted buttons so they no longer over lap
configchattabs.xml, configentitylabels.xml, configkeys.xml, configmouse.xml (these are all sub windows of the 'options window')- all cleaned up so options should now be fully visible which were partial hidden before.
merchant.xml, and storage.xml  (merchant and storage windows) - were altered to make it much easier to tell the difference
widgetconfigwindow.xml (the window which appears when you right click a window) - tided up the layout slightly.

I think these are all the windows I have edited but I might be missing some minor points.

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INSTALLATION

This is actually very easy.

You can now wait for the 0.6.1 client and it will be included as default.

I've had a lot of fun making this and I really hope that you players who use this like what I've done as much as I have. I will have the other skin I've made ready soon once I've had some feed back from this skin.

Enjoy.

Venalan

Now I know there are much better more elaborate custom skins people have made. What I've got here is a very simple one which edits the shortcutwindow to make the shortcuts smaller.



To use it all you need to do is download the zip file I've linked to below.

Then find the location you installed PlaneShift to, for me it is

C:\Program Files (x86)\PlaneShift

then once you find that open the art and then skins folder

C:\Program Files (x86)\PlaneShift\art\skins

And in there place the zip folder along with all the other skins. Then you launch pslaunch and pick the skin name in the options.

File location

We have made some serious changes to the way the user interface works for the next release (which will be coming in the next week or two, I hope). With changes to the Short Cut window, Active Magic window, main tool bar, and removal of the quick spell bar.

This will mean that once the new client is released there is almost a 100% chance that all old custom skins will no longer work and the client will crash if you try to use them.

Can people spread word to the players who use custom skins that this is going to happen, and spread the word to the players responsible for creating these custom skins that they will need to adapt the xml changes they have made to the new requirements.

If an author of a skin can not be reached can you post here and include links to the skin you are using and I hope the 1 - another player might help you out by adapting it, or 2 - if we have time we might try adapting it for you, we have done this with one custom skin already (I believe it is a version of the wanderers skin).

Thanks for all your help.

It came to my attention that this might be getting lost with all the newer players. You see something funny add it, lets get more funnies documented for all to lol at.

http://qdb.alphasys.nl/

Hey guys, I've spent the last few days asking in game about peoples willingness to help create content for the game. There seems to be enough interest to warrant me writing this post.

First off, wanting to create a piece of writing or quest for PS -IN NO WAY- means you have to join the team (but we could love it if you wanted to try and make a longer term contribution to PS by joining us.) you can do anything you want at any speed you want and take as much as you want to do it. The settings team will be here the whole way to help you from start to finish with creating your idea.

If you are unsure what the Settings Department does let me sum it up. We are responsible for... All the history in game (ancient lore and more recent NPC specific history), all the details to do with any NPC character, the quality and content of all the quests, the quality and content of all the books. Pretty much anything written down in game or anything a player reads in game.

So let me explain what is needed from you if you want to help create a part of the game.

1 - The contributors agreement.

http://www.atomicblue.org/prospects_docs/AB_Contribution_License_2006.11.06.pdf

This is the document which all art/rules/books/quests/lore etc are submitted to PS under. It simply gives over the ownership of the piece of work to PS. So you should make sure you don't mind handing it over to PS before you start because if you don't agree we can't use it as official content.

This document also doubles as a NDA, basically if you do end up writing quests we don't want you telling everyone everything about what you write. So please recognize the trust in our part by letting anyone write quests.

2 - What are we looking for?

This is easy, anything really.

Books.
Stories, folk lore, history (take a point from the history pages of the main web site and flesh it out), poems, religious texts (prayers or explanations of daily life and rituals), cultural books (like the nothrir 'botany of the lower levels' which is referenced in a nolthrir specific quest). There are lots of possible things you could write about.

Quests.
Now, this is a little trickier than just writing a book as not only does an idea for a quest need to be created, the dialog for all the steps needs to be created, a flow chart showing how all the steps interact with one another needs to be made, a list of all new items (names, descriptions, weight, size, 3d image, 2d icon) needs to be made. And then all of this needs to be written in a format that the server can understand using the quest specific syntax.

3 - What do you do if you have an idea for something you would like to create for PS.

BOOKS
If you would like to try and write a book simply write an overview of the idea down and explain what the content of the book(s) would be and show it to one of the settings Devs (Mordaan or I). We will then look over the idea and give comments as to how it would best fit into the PlaneShift world.

There are certain topics that we suggest you avoid. These include anything that gives spoilers such as books explaining where to find plants or where mines are, books listing spells or what weapon name modifiers do, or things which give away information you can/could/should find out yourself or by talking to people IC in game.

Once the book has been looked at and we (you the author and us the devs) agree that its something that should be added to the game (and as long as someone else isn't already working on the same topic) we will let you go ahead and start writing it. We will likely give you pointers covering things to add and give you or point you to any relevant settings information that you might need to write the book to make sure its content match what is currently 'official settings'.

At this point we will also ask you to sign the contributors agreement. Then once you have finished writing a first draft you give it back to us and we read it and comment on it and send it back to you, this continues for as long as is needed until the book is 'done' at which point it is passed to Taled and once h approves it it will be 'released'. Then we load it onto the server and at the next settings update the book will be 'officially released'. And at this point we all cheer!

Because it can take some time between the book being finished, and the book being released. We have recently added a 'per-release' section to Jayose library where copies of all books which will be released will be placed once finished so that other players can read them. This is so that books can be read by players as soon as possible, and enjoyed by them as well.

QUESTS
The process for quests will be a little different and much longer than writing books, so please only start the process if you have the motivation to see it through.

First, like a book, you need to come up with an idea for a quest. Again there are some topics that we suggest you avoid, like simple carry and run quests we don't really want to add anymore unless there is a good reason for adding one.

I personally love nice settings driven quests that help to explain an aspect of a race, or a religion, or a faction, or part of history, or an NPC (ones that explain an aspect of the IC world in a way not currently done don't necessarily need to be that long, take the nolthrir cultural ones as an example). Some players have written quests like these which I love.

Quests can be as long and as complex as you wish, and you can imagine. They can be filled with lots of exciting elaborate stories and IC options and twists and turns. The more engrossing the story the better.

Once you have an idea, as with the books, you should write up an overview and give it to a settings dev to look over to make sure the story is sensible and that it will work well and that anything you want to do is possible. There is lots possible in quests so please be as imaginative as possible, if you go too far we will let you know, but its very rare that a suggested idea isn't possible. It's unlikely that a quest will be turned down unless the topic has been covered before. But what is very likely to happen though is that we will spend a good amount of time giving you ideas for what is possible and where the story could/should go.

After this you will then be tasked with designing the quest properly this will take you the most time and there are three parts you need to consider.

1 - A flow chart showing all the steps and the branches they lead down and how they all interact and where all the possible endings are. This is as much for us later when we make the quest work on the server as it is for you to make sure you don't end up making any dead ends.

2 - You will need to give us all the dialog for each step, for this you need to give us a two things for each step
A - What the players sees and chooses from "Menu: This is what you see in the click quest button and is what the character doing the quest says IC" "Menu: In this step the player gives NPC_Name X item" or "Menu: In this step the player tells NPC the answer to a question". These are the three choices that you generally get as player and this format is simple so that you don't need to learn the sytnax to write it correctly.
B - What the NPC says in response. This should be in a simple "NPC_Full_Name: Then the text which the NPC says goes here." format.

3 - If any specific quest item is given in a step you should add a note to tell us to give it.

Once you have given us all the information for each step we will read it though and give you comments on it and you edit it and give it back, this will continue until we have a final best version.

THEN!

This is where the Devs get busy, you give us everything; the flow chart showing how all the steps interact with one another, a list of all the new items which need to be created, the dialog for every step, and any other information you think we might need to know. With this we will create the 'quest script' and step up all the steps and design all the locks for you and then we will get it loaded on to the server. We might also tweak the quest or adjust things before loading that we think will improve it. When it comes to rewards that will be up to us and we wont let you know what there is or how to get what there is before we load it, surprises for all.

For the most part you can find us in the #PlaneShift-prospects channel on IRC if you want to talk to someone about something you want to write.

If from this we get a few new books and a few new quests then it will have been worth it as the settings team is very small and we need all the extra help we can to keep new content flowing into the game.

Thanks a lot in advance

Venalan, Mordaan and the Team.

Hello again PS community. I have another request.

We have started playing about with KAs again. What are KAs you say? well they are 'Knowledge Areas' these are what NPCs respond to when you ask them something like '/tell npc about you' or '/tell npc about hydlaa'.

Since the introduction of the quest menu system it appears that the free text communication method with NPCs to learn about things is somewhat becoming a lost art or just out right unknown. Judged by the number of times I have to explain what a KA is to newer players.

So I want to raise the profile of KAs by asking you this: What should an NPC know that they don't?

Go off to your favorite NPC(s) and ask them questions you want to know the answer too, then come back here. If you give me responses that are good to have in game I will see about them getting added or I will personally add them.

Some guild lines:
An NPC cant answer questions about themselves (I recently learned this), a problem with the game engine.
We wont give specific spoilers about levels of trainers, but about who trains what, sure we could give pointers.

How do KAs work. There are two main parts.

One: The trigger.
This has to be very simple so that what the player says matches what is in the database. The server also changes some text, so if you said 'can you tell me about harnquist' it would change it to 'about harnquist' and then look for a KA that matches. We can have things like wild cards only direct text matches, and some text changes.

Two: The response.
Each KA has upto five different responses which can be said by the NPC.

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Player Requests that will be added:

Everyone in a city with a shop/stall should known by people in that city (hydlaa done).

All guards should know all the other guards in a city.

NPCs in the same chain should know each other, if expanded any NPC that knows another should be able to answer questions on them (added 02/05/2012).

NPCs are able to answer about those who are located or work near them.

NPCs in an association should know they are and be able to answer when asked about it.

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Player Requests that have been added or will be in the next release:

NPCs in Hydlaa will be able to tell you about any NPC who has a stall. All Hydlaa guards will know all other Hydlaa guards.

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OOC stuff now;

As with the last fair it will be run in the same place at the same time, on December 15th.

I was a bit disappointed that no one submitted any books/stories/poems or anything to the team to be included officially in PS last time round.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help us make PS better by writing some texts for us.

So again, Eonwind has said he will be popping along with some sort of alchemist or alchemical fun. I hope Mordaan will have time this time round to come and help on the cooking stage.

Sarva will be running the book stall.

I will be wandering about talking to all those I get a chance too.

And I hope the Knowledge Seekers or others can take a lead in running the readings/music/cooking competitions.

We are going to be expanding a number of different aspects of the fair to try and boost attendance and participation.

1 - KA triggers so that NPCs will be advertising the fair in the about 10 days leading up to the fair.

2 - Octarch sponsored travel tokens for all those taking part in aspects of the fair, good for one free trip on any Pterosaur.

3 - Expanding the cooking competition. This is what you will do.. Design a recipe, pick your ingredients how you make them and the final item (using ingredients that we have in game already would be best). Come up with a description and final dish name. Me or another GM will make a specially named item for you to use at the fair. You RP making it using the cooking stuff and once you are done you get the item, you place the item on the table and the players (to be decided who) pick the winner. The winning recipe will be made into a real craftable item and included in a special cook book that will be sold once made (disclaimer: we might modify the recipe to fit better, and if you make something stupid and it wins we wont be using it.) Some more details about this will likely follow.

I would like some things from you as well,

comments/ideas: I always like constructive ideas. Slight adjustments, additions, removals... whatever you want to say. They might not get used this time, maybe next time.

Welcome to the ‘We're Remaking the tutorial so it’s fun and interesting thread’.

So something we will be doing over the next few months in between the other things we're working on is remaking the tutorial quests, if you haven’t done it you can see what you do here Tutorial_Walk_Through.

The reason for this is that it is the first taste that players get of the game and it is boring and uninteresting.

So what’s my overall plan?

Remove as much of the mechanics as I can from quests. You don’t need to tell players how to move, or how to interact with things in so much detail in the quests. It’s obvious and players aren’t that stupid. This means i will make the  quests me an introduction to the settings of PlaneShift and a real introduction to the game and where you have found yourself. Mechanics will be mixed in where fitting and the rest of it will be in on screen pop up messages triggered either by the end of the quest, or my walking certain points on the ground and then of course by a new and I hope better help file.

I will be including race specific and maybe gender specific responses.

I will be adding many more items to the tutorial, full sets of baking equipment, full sets of crafting equipment and other stalls with items on.. this is just to make the place more ‘alive’ and to give players more to go and click on.

I will be using proximity triggers so, for example, if you are sent to fight rats a popup will tell you about all the combat options.

We have discussed making the tutorial freely accessible so you can come and go and means we can link things the NPCs tell you to quests you do outside of the tutorial and you can be sent back in future quests (THIS IS TENTATIVE at best but an idea).

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So the new overview...

Quest 1: Abelia, the baker is paid to welcome people to Hydlaa, either visitors or those feeling stone labyrinth invasions with a welcome gift of a selection of food stuffs.

What do you learn;
Where you are? – Ylakium, the 7 levels, the dome, Hydlaa.
Where you came from, the fact your race entered though a portal or was made by the gods and how long ago it was.
Who’s in control, the Octarchy and basic government set up rules and laws.

Other: some spattering of skills you can do and gives you a selection of food stuffs to get started.

Ends with her giving you a small snack for Neave, and off you go to her.

Onscreen popup – information about the basic windows and what they are, and text to point you to the help file for more detailed info.


Quest 2: Neave, the black smith makes weapons for the local garrison and teaches you about the crafting side of PS.

You give her the lunch and get talking
You learn about the skills, the trainers, who does what, about the other cites and trade routes.
You find out she is a crafter and gives you a repaired weapon that Ibhaar asks for.

Onscreen popup – Information about using containers and crafting mechanics and points you to the help file.



Quest 3: Ibhaar, the annoyed warrior sent to look after the hydlaa welcome post, teaches you about all the combat in PS.

You give the blade to Ibhaar and you learn about who he is.
You learn about combat and weapon and armor types, good places to train and what you should start killing
That he use to be station the bronze doors and that they protect from what is found in the stone lybrinth.
He offers you one of his old blades and you get to pick one, he then says there have been some rats about that really annoy him and sends you off to kill one if you want with your new weapon.
He also tells you about the different styles of combat Weapons Vs Magic and mutters some not very flattering things about Orphia which then means off you go to her.
If you kill a rat and return to him you will have the option of giving him the items you have looted for a  small reward.

Onscreen popup – information about the combat sections and stances and send you to the help file for more detailed info.


Quest 4: Orphia, the mage sent to help the injured new comers to Hydlaa and teaches you about magic and the ways.

You start by saying what Ibhaar said about her, and she laughs and just says it’s because he is stuck here and he would like to be off at the bronze doors.

She teaches you the basics about magic and the different Ways and Circles and asks what you think sounds most interesting. You answer and she then gives you a glyph for that way. She will also mention that you should start off by seeing Levrus if you are interested in following magic.

Onscreen popup – details about using glyphs and research spells and sends you to the help file for more details.

Quest 5: Xargon, the government official who looks after the welcome post.

He will officially welcome you to Hydlaa, and tell you in more details about what you can find and do, temple, tavern, smithy, arena, plaza, library etc...

Maybe give you a few items. ‘Letter from a friend’ or something equivalent.

You then get sent to Xenak,

Quest 6 a/b.

A, will be the ‘I wana skip the tutorial option’ but will say something alongs the lines of ‘Are you sure you want to enter Hydlaa without talking the the welcome staff, they have many things to give you and lots to tell you about living in Hydlaa that will make you start here much easier.’

B, Will be the ‘I have completed the tutorial option’ when he welcomes you to Hydlaa and off you go to play.

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What you should bear in mind is that once I’m done writing all this up and as I've tried to indicate is that there will be a story of sorts that guides you from one NPC to the next, like it is now but will be settings heavy and not so much mechanic info. It will be made very clear many many times that the help file is where you need to go for details on the mechanics. These quests will also be covered in basic settings info, everything that I think the player should know and that I can get in and makes sense to say by the NPC.

Finally this is just a draft of what I am planning, what I would like to hear about is suggestions about how to make the tutorial more fun/better/interesting.

Do you like you the suggested path between npcs?
Would you do it differently?
Would you add more and make it really complex?
Would you like to see a simple intro to the game that pulls players in to they make it though the gate?
Do you love it the way it is and hope I don’t touch it at all?
Are there settings you think are vital to cover that I have explicitly mentioned?
Are there some items that a player should be given to make the first few hours of game player easier (they will get a weapon and glyph and lots of items of food)?
How long do you think it should take to complete all five quests?
Would more stalls and 'shops' make it looks more alive and interesting?
What about adding a mount so players can see we have them?
What props would help draw someone into the game?