I have several different questions for stuff like the animation editor and a couple of questions about the turn-based battle.

First, I've read the manual and I just can't seem to understand how to use the animation editor. I don't get what the blue lines are there for and how to use them and whenever I try and create an animation it always ends up red. Is there a way to fix this? Is there a guide that helps learn how to use the animation editor?

Second, In a battle, when using spells, can you choose who you want it to attack? How will that work? And if you choose directly hit target will the spell animation just go on right on the target.

And with turn-based battle, what is white face (i think that's what it's called, or maybe it's white frame)?

------------------

Quote

Originally posted by ZeldaMaster:
**I have several different questions for stuff like the animation editor and a couple of questions about the turn-based battle.

First, I've read the manual and I just can't seem to understand how to use the animation editor. I don't get what the blue lines are there for and how to use them and whenever I try and create an animation it always ends up red. Is there a way to fix this? Is there a guide that helps learn how to use the animation editor?

Second, In a battle, when using spells, can you choose who you want it to attack? How will that work? And if you choose directly hit target will the spell animation just go on right on the target.

And with turn-based battle, what is white face (i think that's what it's called, or maybe it's white frame)?

**

What blue lines? What do you mean your animation is red? do you mean the pictures you use in the animation turn red?

Yes you can have the player chose what enemy he wants to cast a spell at with a missle like action. In the spell window change the type of spell to single character.

------------------
Thanks,
GrahamVH
graham@warcraftcentral.com
Coldstone Developer (url="http://"http://www.warcraftcentral.net/legends/main.html")http://www.warcraftc...gends/main.html(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by ZeldaMaster:
**I have several different questions for stuff like the animation editor and a couple of questions about the turn-based battle.

First, I've read the manual and I just can't seem to understand how to use the animation editor. I don't get what the blue lines are there for and how to use them and whenever I try and create an animation it always ends up red. Is there a way to fix this? Is there a guide that helps learn how to use the animation editor?

Second, In a battle, when using spells, can you choose who you want it to attack? How will that work? And if you choose directly hit target will the spell animation just go on right on the target.

And with turn-based battle, what is white face (i think that's what it's called, or maybe it's white frame)?

**

there are four buttons at the top below the title bar, the last 3 help you make curving path animations, bezier path.

try this,
select any image, load it into an animation file.
Hit the dupliate button til you have aabout 10 frames,
click the checkbox for the 1st and last frame.

select the first frame

click the third or fourth from the left button ( the ones at the top, they're the interpolation buttons )
drag the blue handle way to the right.
see the curve form.

To make this completely clear, the 'turnbaseP' method you keep referring to was made by me, someone who is completely separate from Ambrosia,
ie it is a 3rd party product that isn't supported by Ambrosia, and most people won't knoow what you're talking about when you just talk about it as if it were included in the normal distribution of the engine, so just email me if you have a question.

webmaster@ellrx.com

whiteframe
now after rereading my definition it wasn't too blunt. Essentially any pict file composed completely of white,

its actually more complicated (which is why i don't just say white pict file, which also gets annoying to keep retyping over and over ) due to some engine quirks which will hopefully be eradicated in the near future.

Its a white frame of animation, that appears invisible when the engine draws it, perfect for behind the scenes manipulations.

------------------

• (url="http://"http://showcase.ellrx.com")CGE Showcase. 6 entrants and thriving(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/index.html")eLL' Rx...Last Updated 09.02.03(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/articles/vault/index.html")CGE Vault(/url)

... ** Big O..ACTION!**

Are you using the tool that makes all the animations as small as possible and re-arranges them. If you are then it adds alpha channels to your pics and Coldstone doesn't like alpha channels that much (there is a way of adding them that I have done once but not again). You will have to remove the alpha channels

------------------
Pilky
(url="http://"http://www.mcubedsw.com")M cubed homepage(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.mcubedsw.com/network.html")M cubed Network(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by Pilky:
**Are you using the tool that makes all the animations as small as possible and re-arranges them. If you are then it adds alpha channels to your pics and Coldstone doesn't like alpha channels that much (there is a way of adding them that I have done once but not again). You will have to remove the alpha channels

**

I don't think I'm doing that. I just take a couple of pictures, eight to be exact (two for each of the standard 4 directions) set the flags and return stuff, and then I save. I make the animation my default character animation, and when I test the game, the animation is red. It kinda looks like what the Block Access tile above the ground in the map editor looks like. Do I need another default picture to stop this?

------------------

Ah oh. What software are you using to make your graphics, and what OS are you using? I know a person who has tried to use Fireworks MX on an OS Panther system and once in the game, the graphics are red.

------------------
-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions
(url="http://"http://www.danillitphil.com/graphics/index.html")www.danillitphil.com(/url)

whoops, well at least you know how to use the interpolation buttons to get those slick smooth animations haaa chah

but yes if an alpha channel is added to a pict file ( photoshop generally refuses to let you, graphic convertor and some others however...) you will get a color involution

i ran into this when i found out graphic convertor would let me ( treacherous software )
white( the area which would normally be knocked out) showed up light blue
red was yellow

------------------

• (url="http://"http://showcase.ellrx.com")CGE Showcase. 6 entrants and thriving(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/index.html")eLL' Rx...Last Updated 09.02.03(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/articles/vault/index.html")CGE Vault(/url)

... ** Big O..ACTION!**

I was just testing out how to make graphics so I took the character sprites thing on the add-ons and I took out one set of animations using cropping in Photoshop I think. If Photoshop won't work, what should I use to make graphics?

------------------

to clarify,

I was speaking well of Photoshop, you shoudn't be allowed to add alpha channels to pict files, if you do the color will get messed up.

If you could post/upload one of the files you've processed someone could download it and fid the problem.

------------------

• (url="http://"http://showcase.ellrx.com")CGE Showcase. 6 entrants and thriving(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/index.html")eLL' Rx...Last Updated 09.02.03(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/articles/vault/index.html")CGE Vault(/url)

... ** Big O..ACTION!**

I hope I did this right. (url="http://"http://home.comcast.net/~jonathansternberg/NPC_OldMan")http://home.comcast....berg/NPC_OldMan(/url) just ctrl click on the link and say download to disc I think. Thanks for helping me.

------------------

Quote

Originally posted by ZeldaMaster:
**I hope I did this right.http://home.comcast....berg/NPC_OldMan just ctrl click on the link and say download to disc I think. Thanks for helping me.

**

We can't use the animation file without the graphics that go along with it.

------------------
Thanks,
GrahamVH
graham@warcraftcentral.com
Coldstone Developer (url="http://"http://www.warcraftcentral.net/legends/main.html")http://www.warcraftc...gends/main.html(/url)

I still haven't uploaded the other images yet but I have one question about Save Location command. Can I use it twice, like when a random battle starts, use Save Location, then if I want to make a close up of one character attacking another, I use Save Location again. Then I use Restore Location to end the close-up. Then when the battle ends I use Restore Location again. Is this possible?

------------------

Quote

Originally posted by ZeldaMaster:
**I still haven't uploaded the other images yet but I have one question about Save Location command. Can I use it twice, like when a random battle starts, use Save Location, then if I want to make a close up of one character attacking another, I use Save Location again. Then I use Restore Location to end the close-up. Then when the battle ends I use Restore Location again. Is this possible?

**

Sadly no, the save location will only save 1 location at a time.

------------------
Thanks,
GrahamVH
graham@warcraftcentral.com
Coldstone Developer (url="http://"http://www.warcraftcentral.net/legends/main.html")http://www.warcraftc...gends/main.html(/url)

Wha? I thought it stacked... Or was supposed to stack...

------------------
Cha0s
(url="http://"http://www.world-of-cha0s.hostrocket.com")The Homepage of Cha0s(/url)

Quote

Originally posted by CI-Ia0s:
**Wha? I thought it stacked... Or was supposed to stack...

**

Like GrahamVH says, it only saves the last location. Sorry! It would be great if it did, but alas...

------------------
-Albadar-
- - - - - - - - - -
Just trying...

What does the save location do, anyway? I mean, what good is it? (Sounds like an events/pics question asked not too long ago!)

------------------
-- Debra
Danillitphil Productions
(url="http://"http://www.danillitphil.com/graphics/index.html")www.danillitphil.com(/url)

it does stack, the stack's only one location deep.

its use is for dynamically returning the player to a location( more like an instant ).

lets say you've created a game with a location that can be reached at any time from any map/main location.

it s a big pain to record the location, set a variable to represent tha tlocation, then run through a series of conditionals to evaluate the variable, then execute a teleport action.

As your location list grows, this becomes an unrealistic process to go through, and from my experience 20 or so conditionals runs about 3-5 seconds long.

Now take into account tha tit saves the music that's playing and the coords of the player.
the music would require the same conditional array+variable+play music actions, but the map coords would require 2 variables and map position&teleport.;

:: gesturing to the 3 chalkboards filled with the concepts of stack memory, push & pop, dynamic teleportation, variables, passing variables by reference.. ::

or
:: then points to the single statement ::
Use save location to save current coords and music, use restore location to restore that data.

Such a thing could be used in an unconventional way to achieve strange things :p...

------------------

• (url="http://"http://showcase.ellrx.com")CGE Showcase. 6 entrants and thriving(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/index.html")eLL' Rx...Last Updated 09.02.03(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/articles/vault/index.html")CGE Vault(/url)

... ** Big O..ACTION!**

So I can't stack them. But can I use stamps to do something like, can I create a stamp control to put down two platforms, then put different larger NPC's (such as for battle, you on the right, and the enemy you're attacking on the left), then have you do an attack animation, kill both NPC's, and remove the two stamps. Then repeat for every other attack/spell.

My original idea was to use Save Location again and then go to a different screen like the one above that I mentioned using stamps, then have the attack/spell animation, then Restore Location, but I can't do that so will the way with stamps work? And I haven't really used stamps that much, what are the different things they can do? Are they just to put stuff on the screen to alter the appearence of the map when something happens in-game?

------------------

stamps can be placed and modified using the stamp control action,
...no need to destroy the npc or the stamp until the npc actually dies in battle, at which point you'd need to clean up the remaining stamp, the npc death event would be a logical place to do this.

now that i read your original post, using save location restore location would be slow and weird. A location needs to load, and i think in the long run your users would find this unnacceptable.

aside from that doing that is the wrong method. NPC stats are not maintained when moving between locations, so you'd essentially have an invincible npc, your player would eventually die, from both load times and frustration and digital attrition.

Alternatives, just use large animation files for the battle versions of the npcs.

Make the map much larger than visible, then when you do the large animations/attacks move the camera to the out of view area. Then when its over move the camera back.

stamps aare just non-tile graphics that can be at any pixel coord. when they're placed in the map editor you can't do as much wit it, but if you place them with an event you can dynamically create and destroy them based on names given to them.
If you use the initialization event of a map its just as good as using the map editor in the sense that they appear before the map loads.

------------------

• (url="http://"http://showcase.ellrx.com")CGE Showcase. 6 entrants and thriving(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/index.html")eLL' Rx...Last Updated 09.02.03(/url)

• (url="http://"http://www.ellrx.com/articles/vault/index.html")CGE Vault(/url)

... ** Big O..ACTION!**

Okay. How do I move an NPC. In NPC Control it will only let me Kill, Add, or Delete, and as you just mentioned I don't want to do that. And how do I make it so that in the animation I can use the numbers that come after 3 for extra animations?

Thanks for all the help.

------------------