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Messages - CraigStern

#3436
Telepath Tactics (2015) / Re: Developer's Log
June 28, 2013, 11:08:50 PM
I've added three new (optional) parameters to AddPortrait: palette, Y and X. These swap the violet for whatever army color you designate, and offset the portrait's starting position by however many pixels you specify.

Also, I fixed some bugs last night, and we have new portraits: bowmen! :D
#3437
Nope: however, while in college, I did minor in International Relations. I also wrote a political column all four years; I ended up as my university's senior political columnist. ;)
#3438
Politics / Re: Outdated Voting Rights Act
June 27, 2013, 11:12:39 PM
Quote from: SmartyPants on June 27, 2013, 10:15:48 PMThe South is no longer run by the racist Democrats that supported Jim Crow back in the 1960s.

Nope; now it's run by racists with different political affiliations. Numerous states that the DOJ was blocking from moving ahead with racially discriminatory voting laws under Sections 4 and 5 of the Voting Rights Act have now pushed ahead with those laws anyway in the aftermath of the decision, knowing full well that these laws will disenfranchise minority voters. For instance:

http://projects.nytimes.com/live-dashboard/2013-06-25-supreme-court#sha=88a62b0c2
http://www.scag.gov/archives/9396
http://blog.al.com/wire/2013/06/alabama_photo_voter_id_law_to.html
http://blog.gulflive.com/mississippi-press-news/2013/06/voting_rights_act_ruling_clear.html

From the Brennan Center for Justice:

"Studies show that as many as 11 percent of eligible voters do not have government-issued photo ID. That percentage is even higher for seniors, people of color, people with disabilities, low-income voters, and students. Many citizens find it hard to get government photo IDs, because the underlying documentation like birth certificates (the ID one needs to get ID) is often difficult or expensive to come by."
#3439
David Hammond is doing a hell of a job on the character portraits. :)
#3440
Telepath Tactics (2015) / Re: Developer's Log
June 26, 2013, 02:42:05 PM
New portraits: the Cavaliers! ;)
#3441
Yes and yes. ;)
#3442
Telepath Tactics (2015) / Re: Developer's Log
June 25, 2013, 01:36:09 PM
New portrait actions!

ClearPortraits -- clears every portrait on the screen.

PlacePortrait -- places the portrait at a new spot on the screen relative to its current position. This action takes three parameters: Portrait Name, X Pixels and Y Pixels. The Portrait name refers to whatever name you picked for the portrait when you added it; and the latter two tell the game how many pixels to move the portrait. A positive X Pixels will move it to the right; a negative X Pixels will move it to the left. A positive Y Pixels will move it down; a negative Y Pixels will move it up.

New art! We've finished up the lizardman and shadowling animations now, and I think they look really terrific. I've attached a couple of them: the "generic special ability" animation for the lizardman, and the Shadowport animation for the shadowling.
#3443
Telepath Tactics (2015) / Re: Developer's Log
June 24, 2013, 11:47:17 AM
Okay! Displaying character portraits in dialog is now a thing. There are two new dialog script actions that govern this at the moment: AddPortrait and RemovePortrait.


  • AddPortrait -- adds a character portrait to the screen. Takes 3 parameters: Portrait Name (can be literally anything you want, but don't use the same name as another portrait onscreen); Portrait Filename (the name of the image file, minus the .png file extension); and Facing (left or right).

    This will load whatever portrait you specified with the filename, it'll make it face the correct direction and position it on the left or right side of the screen so the facing makes sense. The first parameter, Portrait Name, provides a name that you'll use to reference this portrait from this moment onward for purposes of moving or removing the portrait.
  • RemovePortrait -- removes the named character portrait. It takes just one parameter: Portrait Name (see above).

This system still needs some work--in particular, I want to support custom positioning (e.g. setting x coordinates down to the pixel, or allowing you to layer the portraits as desired if there are more than two people in a conversation) and portrait movement (e.g. having characters smoothly "step forward" or "step back"). I also need to reposition the dialog screen so  portraits can spawn along the bottom edge of the screen, a la Fire Emblem.

Speaking of portraits: here are a couple of new ones from artist David Hammond, the male and female Lissit!
#3444
Telepath Tactics (2015) / Re: Ship Tiles
June 22, 2013, 11:53:24 AM
And if you want something to model railings after, check this out.
#3445
Depends on the kind of game. If it's focused on role-playing, loose rules are better. If it's more focused on tactics and strategy, you need consistent, clearly delineated rules. (If that makes sense.)
#3446
Telepath Tactics (2015) / Re: Ship Tiles
June 21, 2013, 05:05:00 PM
Good start! You'll probably end up needing a fifth and sixth tile so you can do railings. ;)
#3447
Telepath Tactics (2015) / Re: Developer's Log
June 21, 2013, 01:59:10 PM
Yesterday, I reformatted CharClasses.xml and ObjClasses.xml with a new portrait attribute. (This tells the game what the character's default portrait is, to be used on the character info screen.) I've coded this feature into the character info screen as well: it now loads the correct portrait, scales it and positions it when looking at the detailed info screen for a character.

I've made it so persistent dialog loads before custom dialog in any given battle.

Next, I'd like to add new dialog actions that let you load custom character portraits during conversations. That'll be my next task. ;)
#3448
Basically, the game will generate a file at the end of your turn, which you'll email to the next player. They'll take their turn, then send their turn file to the next player; and so on.
#3449
There will be online multiplayer via play-by-email. Other than that, the current focus is on single player.

(The community has been pretty loud about its preference for single player--and being only one guy, I unfortunately have to set some limits on the scope of the project to ensure that Telepath Tactics releases in a reasonable time frame.)
#3450
Telepath Tactics (2015) / Re: Developer's Log
June 18, 2013, 09:50:56 AM
I've now integrated all of the new item graphics into the game!

I also fixed a couple of bugs, including the super-annoying one where "null 0" popped up every time you use an item. The installers have been updated online. ;)

(NOTE: there are a lot of new Cave tiles in this version, but they are not useable just yet; I still have to test them all for any needed revisions, and I need to finish updating the set's TileData. Just FYI!)