Coming Soon...

[Lordbug]

I agree with Karyuu... But I like it very much! ^^

(oh and nice siggy karyuu xD)

[zorbels]

I personally like it a lot. The Hp, mana, stamina and experiance bar being seperate from the rest really appeals to me. I also like the sword with the camera angle...nice touch......

However I do agree with ArcaneFalcon, there is to much wasted space between the target information and the spell power.

/me looks forward to using it when it is ready to download

[Induane]

Great work! There is of course plenty that needs worked on as Karyuu said, but looking good.  

when you get it finished and packaged into a zip for general use as a skin, let me know. If PS won\'t host it, we will on our guild site.

[BaurakSered]

Originally posted by Karyuu
I really don\'t like how the HP, Mana, Stamina, etc. text falls outside of the graphics. It doesn\'t look integrated enough.

I like it that way, so at least for now I don?t plan on changing it. Maybe if enough people don?t like it I could make a change.

You also have some \"%\" signs going outside the border. I wouldn\'t call this finished just yet, though you have indeed done a good job

Karyuu,
Unfortunately the % signs go all the way to the edge of the useable space, and even then they get cut off, so it\'s not possible to make them fit. You would need to change the font size used by the game, which I?m not interested in doing for a couple of reasons:

Primarily because it cannot be done as a part of the skin file, meaning that everyone who wanted to use the skin would have to make the font size changes themselves, unless I distribute the modified XML file with the skin file, even then you would have to put the XML file in the correct place which would be overwritten the next time you update anyway. The real solution to this is to have the dev team change the size of the percentage numbers(they get cut-off on all skins) Maybe they could make it display only whole numbers (i.e. 100% instead of 100.0%)

Originally posted by zorbels
However I do agree with ArcaneFalcon, there is to much wasted space between the target information and the spell power.

I agree. I think it does look like a lot of empty space, and as I see it there are three solutions:

1. Move the spell power bar closer to the monster bar and cut out the extra space. This of course would mean modifying the inner-workings of the game. Maybe as simple as modifying some XML files, maybe more difficult? In any case, I am not prepared to do this. If somebody(maybe a dev) can do it and send me the files then I would be more than willing to fit the skin to the new layout. Until then I can only work with what I have.

2. Put something in the empty space. This would be the simplest way to get rid of the space, but I have two concerns about it first, I?m afraid it could end up making things too cluttered, and second, I\'m not sure what to put there. If you have any ideas, I?d be happy to hear them

3. Do nothing Not really a solution, but it works



Thanks for all your feedback. I appreciate all of it.

Thanks Induane. I\'ve been wondering where I could host it, and I will certainly accept your offer. (unless it gets distributed with the game *nudge* *nudge* )

[ArcaneFalcon]

It is in my humble opinion that a gui skin without a complete re-edit of all of the xml is hardly a new gui skin at all.  The default gui has *SO* much wasted space I can hardly stand to use it (no offense Djagg, it looks nice, I just don\'t like the layout).  If I were to make a new gui skin... *cough* ...I (or someone...) would completely redo *all* of the xml files so that I can design my ui how *I* want it.  Don\'t submit to the current xml cage.  Once you decide to do it, it really opens up tons of possibilities.

Bottom line, I think it\'s in your best interest to edit the xml.  Anyone who has gotten through grade school and has half a brain should be able to follow a well written readme.

Edit: If you don\'t know xml then just take 4 seconds to look at one of the files.  It\'s fairly easy (and very similar to html).  Moving the target info, and everything beneath it, up is simply a matter of changing the y pixel location for each element.  If you can highlight a number and type a new one, you can move anything anywhere you want it (or wherever we tell you we want it X().

:emerald:

[BaurakSered]

ArcaneFalcon,

You\'re starting to convince me......


/me tries to fight it

I guess I have to confess that I do know HTML and I could edit the XML files, it\'s just such a daunting task to re-skin everything when its already in place, not to mention re-skinning and re-arranging everything.

/me thinks about it....

Ok, I\'ve decided to give it a shot. After all, if something\'s worth doing, its worth doing right... right?

BTW: My wife is going to hate you

[Lolitra, Celorrim Purrty Twins]

Ok, I\'ve decided to give it a shot. After all, if something\'s worth doing, its worth doing right... right?

It\'s so so true...

but

BTW: My wife is going to hate you

is even more true... unless she is into the game also )

Look forward to the skin... it looks very promising so far.

[BaurakSered]

/me returns from a succesful attempt and editing the XML files


Wow, that was too easy, looks very nice too
I never imagined that you could change ALL of the settings.



/me goes back to work


Ok, so here\'s what it looks like after XML changes.



I fixed the percentages so they should fit now, I got rid of the empty space, and I turned the camera mode text black so that I dont have to darken the blade of the sword in able to see it.

You may notice that I have removed the gold outlines. This is only temporary, because I decided to completely rework them from scratch. Other that that this is the final revision.

[odd2k]

If I were you I would not settle with the way the hp/stamina labels are conflicting with the crystal background. The part that says \"hp\" is barely visible.

Other than that, it\'s quite nice. Although I don\'t see very much difference from the original xml layout, which could probably be altered and tweaked to perfection in itself.

[BaurakSered]

oh, right, if you notice in the earlier ones there was a shadow behind the text. I must have forgotten to put it back in after moving things around.

The XML changes were not drastic ones, mostly just tweaking the size and positions of everything to make things fit into less space, and give the skin a cleaner look.

Here\'s a list of what was changed:

Window shorter by 32 pixels

All gray text made white

text size changed from 8 to 6 for the percentages of: HP, Mana, Exp, Spell Power, and Target HP

Width of the \"stamina\" label was extended 8 pixels (the \"a :\" at the end of the word used to get cut off)

Physical stamina % moved up 3 pixels

mental stamina % moved down 1 pixel

Progression points counter moved to the left 10 pixels

Spell power percent moved 3 pixels to the left

Target name label moved left 1 pixel and up 22 pixels

Target hp bar and percentage moved up 22 pixels

Camera label, Camera mode, FPS label, FPS, and Clock moved up 32 pixels

Camera mode text changed from white to black

BTW, if anybody knows of an easier way to make the XML changes Id love to hear it. Right now I am using the trial and error method. make an adjustment , load planeshift, close planeshift, make an adjustment , load planeshift, close planeshift, repeat, repeat, repeat. Its very tedious.

[ArcaneFalcon]

I\'m so glad you decided to edit the xml.

If I were you I would not settle with the way the hp/stamina labels are conflicting with the crystal background. The part that says \"hp\" is barely visible.

I\'d agree.  The drop shadow may help considerably, but I\'d try a few things to see if I couldn\'t fix it even better.

BTW, if anybody knows of an easier way to make the XML changes Id love to hear it. Right now I am using the trial and error method. make an adjustment , load planeshift, close planeshift, make an adjustment , load planeshift, close planeshift, repeat, repeat, repeat. Its very tedious.

Which is why I have asked for ages for a way to refresh the gui in-game.  Alas, this is the only way for now.

:emerald:

[BaurakSered]

Heres a new shot with the text box, which im almost finished with:

[Gluonite]

Great revisions on your chatbox BaurakSered. I commend you! But I think you are shooting yourself in the foot in certain ways. Your scroll image has both light areas and dark areas within it and you can only use one color for your text. That means whatever color you decide to make it, the text will be always be hard to read on a portion of the scroll. Even by making the text green you have not solved the problem. Because the green has a certain value (a lightness or darkness) and that value is close to the value of the background scroll, it makes it hard to read. The only solution is to either make the whole scroll darker and use light colored text, or make the whole scroll lighter and use dark text. You don\'t want to be struggling reading this stuff IG. Your eyes will hate you for it after a long stint of PS.

That said, I do love the scroll edges and the general shape. Very detailed and believable. I think it\'s a good idea and fits with the theme quite well too.

Keep up the good work.

Consensus

[Lindrae]

I agree with most to say you did a pretty good job ^^

Now that you edited the XML file, you can probably easily fix the issue pointed by Karyuu : \"text falls outside the graphics\"

Here is my idea : Why not moving Hp, Mana, Stamina, and Exp to the middle of their bar ?

Or maybe you could move the xx% to the middle and the words to the right of the bar.

And I am just wondering why there is a % where there is a bar that says pretty much the same thing. I would say the human mind is smart enough to understand the meaning of the bar, isn\'t it? ^^

[BaurakSered]

Originally posted by Consensus
Great revisions on your chatbox BaurakSered. I commend you! But I think you are shooting yourself in the foot in certain ways. Your scroll image has both light areas and dark areas within it and you can only use one color for your text. That means whatever color you decide to make it, the text will be always be hard to read on a portion of the scroll. Even by making the text green you have not solved the problem. Because the green has a certain value (a lightness or darkness) and that value is close to the value of the background scroll, it makes it hard to read. The only solution is to either make the whole scroll darker and use light colored text, or make the whole scroll lighter and use dark text. You don\'t want to be struggling reading this stuff IG. Your eyes will hate you for it after a long stint of PS.

That said, I do love the scroll edges and the general shape. Very detailed and believable. I think it\'s a good idea and fits with the theme quite well too.

Keep up the good work.

Consensus

I know *exactly* what you mean. YOu can imagine how dissapointed I was when I finished the scroll and placed it in-game. The scroll looked beautifull, but you couldnt see any of the text :0 so i tried darkening it(as seen above) but to no avail....

Anyway, right now the plan is to go back to the photoshop source and make the lighting less dramatic so that the overall picture will be less \"contrasty\" that should solve the problem. The other option would be to put a gray box behind the text(like all game makers do) but I dont like that solution, so its a last resort.