Miscellaneous Cleanup (Savage) - Revision history

Rob: /* Overview */

2009-02-09T14:46:12Z

Overview

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:46, 9 February 2009
Line 3:		Line 3:
	===Overview===		===Overview===

	Based on our status assessment, we've got a lot of little things to tweak, so we might as well get them ~~all~~ handled and removed from our list.		Our data files are finally nearing completion. This would be an excellent opportunity for us to stop and perform an assessment of what's been completed within our data files and what we still need to do. While doing this, it's also prudent to go through how everything works and identify any facets that we want to refine further. The goal is to assemble an updated "to do" list that will guide us through the final stages of getting our data files ready for release.

			After a bit of testing and experimentation, we can put together a pretty good list. Based on our status assessment, we've got a lot of little things to tweak, so we might as well get most of them handled and removed from our list.

	===Showing Attribute Points===		===Showing Attribute Points===

Rob at 23:43, 29 January 2009

2009-01-29T23:43:09Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:43, 29 January 2009
Line 4:		Line 4:

	Based on our status assessment, we've got a lot of little things to tweak, so we might as well get them all handled and removed from our list.		Based on our status assessment, we've got a lot of little things to tweak, so we might as well get them all handled and removed from our list.

			===Showing Attribute Points===

			Within the title above most of our tables, we show the number of points that have been used and any that are left or overspent. However, there is one place where we don't do this and should. The table of attributes on the "Basics" tab don't provide this helpful feedback to the user. Adding it is a simple matter of changing the contents of the HeaderTitle script to work like the other tables. So we modify the HeaderTitle script within the "baAttrib" table portal to look like the following.

			<pre>
			<headertitle><![CDATA[
			@text = "Attributes - " & hero.child[resAttrib].field[resSummary].text
			]]></headertitle>
			</pre>

	===Power Points Tracker===		===Power Points Tracker===

Rob at 00:08, 28 January 2009

2009-01-28T00:08:32Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 00:08, 28 January 2009
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	Switching to the "shortname" field is quick and easy within the summary panels. There are four templates that can be switched. These templates show abilities, traits, weapons, and defensive equipment. Since all of these different items support "short names", we can safely change each of the templates to reference the "shortname" field instead of the "name" field. After that, the shorter name will be shown whenever one exists.		Switching to the "shortname" field is quick and easy within the summary panels. There are four templates that can be switched. These templates show abilities, traits, weapons, and defensive equipment. Since all of these different items support "short names", we can safely change each of the templates to reference the "shortname" field instead of the "name" field. After that, the shorter name will be shown whenever one exists.

	~~===Knowledge Skills in Summary Panels===~~

	Within the "Abilities" summary panel, skills are shown with the appropriate name. However, skills that require a domain, such as "Knowledge", do not include the actual domain. It's important that the domain be included.

	The first consideration we face is that the name of the "Knowledge" skill virtually fills the width of the summary panel when at its narrowest. Even if we appended the domain, it would be of no practical value to the user. We need to shorten the name that is displayed. Fortunately, this can be achieved if we utilize the "short names" mechanism that is already specified for traits. If we specify a "shortname" of "Knw", then we can readily include the domain within the name displayed.

	The second issue is actually handling the domain properly. The "smTrait" template is used for attributes, derived traits, and skills. So we can't just assume that a domain may be present. We have to test for both the presence of a skill and the use of a domain. Only if both criteria are satisfied should we append the domain to the name. We need to use a Label script to synthesize the proper results, so we'll change the "name" portal within the template to the following.

	~~<pre>~~
	~~<portal~~
	~~id="name"~~
	~~style="lblSummary">~~
	~~<label>~~
	~~<labeltext><![CDATA[~~
	~~@text &= field[shortname].text~~
	~~if (tagis[component.Skill] + tagis[User.NeedDomain] >= 2) then~~
	~~@text &= ": " & field[domDomain].text~~
	~~endif~~
	~~]]></labeltext>~~
	~~</label>~~
	~~<mouseinfo/>~~
	~~</portal>~~
	~~</pre>~~

	===Arcane Power Names===		===Arcane Power Names===

Rob at 02:39, 24 January 2009

2009-01-24T02:39:36Z

@@ Line 435: / Line 435: @@
 perform portal[name].sizetofit[30]
 perform portal[name].centervert
 </pre>

Rob: /* Revise Arcane Power Display */

2009-01-23T23:02:24Z

Revise Arcane Power Display

← Older revision		Revision as of 23:02, 23 January 2009
Line 416:		Line 416:

	That's all there is to it. We've now got arcane powers working very smoothly.		That's all there is to it. We've now got arcane powers working very smoothly.

			===Show Gear in Two Columns===

			The table on gear on the "Gear" tab uses a single column. The vast majority of gear have names that are relatively short, which results in a large gaps of empty space for each item in the table. This requires users to scroll through the list to see and access all their gear. Switching to a two-column table would work much better.

			The first step is to change the "grGear" table portal to show only two columns. Now we need to revise the "grGrPick" template to get everything to fit better with the new design. We'll start by shrinking the horizontal margin down to two. Next, we'll shrink the gap between the buttons on the right from eight to two pixels. This is a big help, but some names are still too long. So the final step is to add code to shrink the name if it is too big, after which we must re-center the name vertically. The various effected lines of the Position script are shown below.

			<pre>
			~position the info portal to the left of the delete button
			perform portal[info].alignrel[rtol,delete,-2]

			~position the gear portal to the left of the info button
			perform portal[gearmanage].alignrel[rtol,info,-2]

			....

			~shrink the name to fit the available space if it's too big, then re-center
			perform portal[name].sizetofit[30]
			perform portal[name].centervert
			</pre>

Rob: /* Revise Arcane Power Display */

2009-01-22T21:07:37Z

Revise Arcane Power Display

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:07, 22 January 2009
Line 383:		Line 383:
	endif		endif
	</pre>		</pre>

			This is looking pretty good, but the various details portals look a bit too large and cramped. It would look better if we shrank the font size a little bit. This will require that we define a new style. Looking at the style and font that are currently used, we can create a new style that has similar characteristics but with a smaller font. The new style should look like the one below.

			<pre>
			<style
			id="lblSmPower">
			<style_label
			textcolor="f0f0f0"
			font="fntsmpower"
			alignment="left">
			</style_label>
			<resource
			id="fntsmpower">
			<font
			face="Arial"
			size="34">
			</font>
			</resource>
			</style>
			</pre>

			After we switch our three portals over to using this new style, the display looks significantly better. The one thing that looks poor is that the default trappings almost always run off the end. Since those trappings are just to provide suggestions to a player, we really shouldn't even be showing them here. What we should ideally be showing is a message that tells the user to specify the appropriate trappings by clicking on the button at the right. We already treat unchanged trappings as a validation error, so we would be consistent if we displayed the message in red. This change can be easily made within the Label script for the "trappings" portal, which will end up looking like the code below.

			<pre>
			@text = "{/b}Trappings:{b} "
			if (field[powTraps].ischanged = 0) then
			@text &= "{text ff0000}Use button at right to specify"
			else
			@text &= field[powTraps].text
			endif
			</pre>

			That's all there is to it. We've now got arcane powers working very smoothly.

Rob: /* Revise Arcane Power Display */

2009-01-22T20:57:28Z

Revise Arcane Power Display

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:57, 22 January 2009
Line 265:		Line 265:
	===Revise Arcane Power Display===		===Revise Arcane Power Display===

	The trappings for an arcane power are noticeably missing from the display for each power on the "Arcane" tab. The original reason for this was that we didn't have the space, which was true at the time. However, ~~now that~~ we've added the smarts to shrink the name when necessary, we ~~can reduce~~ the space for the name a little bit. If we do that ~~and~~ also reduce the font size slightly for the various facets of each power, we should ~~have plenty of~~ room to fit both the point cost and range on the top line. This will free up the space to add a third line at the bottom that shows the trappings for the power.		The trappings for an arcane power are noticeably missing from the display for each power on the "Arcane" tab. The original reason for this was that we didn't have the space, which was true at the time. However, we've now added the smarts to shrink the name when necessary, plus we've reduced the space for the name a little bit. If needed, we can reduce that space a bit further. We can also reduce the font size slightly for the various facets of each power, which should give us adequate room to fit both the point cost and range on the top line. This will free up the space to add a third line at the bottom that shows the trappings for the power.

			The most obvious solution would be to revise the Label script for the "details" portal to put the range on the same line as the cost. This works great, except that we have no way of handling the situation where the range extends past the right edge. Since we are using a multi-line label portal, if the text extends past the edge on one line, that line is simply wrapped to the new one. What we need is for the right edge to simply be clipped if it is too long. The only way to handle that is by using a single-line label.

			This means that we need to carve up our current "details" portal into two separate portals - one for the cost and range, plus another for the duration. We're also going to need to add a third portal for the trappings. Once we add another portal for the trappings, we'll have two portals conveying the same information, so we really should distinguish them clearly. It makes more sense to rename the current "trappings" portal to "trapedit" to indicate its use for editing the trappings, so we'll do that first.

			After completing the rename operation, we can then add our two new portals. We can clone the current "details" portal to create a "duration" portal and a "trappings" portal. The Label script for each can be modified easily to output the appropriate information. We also need to modify the "details" portal to eliminate the duration and move the range up to the same line, leaving a horizontal gap between the two. Don't forget that all of these portals must be changed to be single-line portals, so remove the "ismultiline" attribute from each. This results in the three portals shown below.

			<pre>
			<portal
			id="details"
			style="lblSmlLeft">
			<label>
			<labeltext><![CDATA[
			@text = "{/b}Points:{b} " & field[powPoints].text
			@text &= "{horz 20}{/b}Range:{b} " & field[powRange].text
			]]></labeltext>
			</label>
			</portal>

			<portal
			id="duration"
			style="lblSmlLeft">
			<label>
			<labeltext><![CDATA[
			@text = "{/b}Duration:{b} " & field[powLength].text
			if (field[powMaint].isempty = 0) then
			@text &= " (" & field[powMaint].text & ")"
			endif
			]]></labeltext>
			</label>
			</portal>

			<portal
			id="trappings"
			style="lblSmlLeft">
			<label>
			<labeltext><![CDATA[
			@text = "{/b}Trappings:{b} " & field[powTraps].text
			]]></labeltext>
			</label>
			</portal>
			</pre>

			We now need to integrate these portals into the positioning logic for the template. Our total height of the template is now the combined height of the three portals. We need to position these portals beneath each other along the vertical axis, and they need to span the same region horizontally. Making these changes yields a revised Position script that looks like the following.

			<pre>
			~set up our height based on our tallest vertical span, which is the three
			~portals for the power details
			height = portal[details].height + portal[duration].height + portal[trappings].height

			~if this is a "sizing" calculation, we're done
			if (issizing <> 0) then
			done
			endif

			~determine whether the original name needs to be shown (only if renamed)
			portal[original].visible = !field[username].isempty

			~center the info and delete portals within the upper half of the template
			var half as number
			half = height / 2
			portal[info].top = (half - portal[info].height) / 2
			portal[delete].top = (half - portal[delete].height) / 2

			~center the trappings edit portal within the lower half of the template
			~Note: The info portal is big, so shift it down a little extra for better spacing.
			portal[trapedit].top = half + (half - portal[trapedit].height) / 2 + 1

			~center the name vertically if we don't need the original name; otherwise,
			~position the two names above and below each other
			if (portal[original].visible = 0) then
			perform portal[name].centervert
			else
			portal[name].top = (half - portal[name].height) / 2 + 3
			perform portal[original].alignrel[ttob,name,2]
			endif

			~position the power details portals vertically
			portal[details].top = 0
			perform portal[duration].alignrel[ttob,details,0]
			perform portal[trappings].alignrel[ttob,duration,0]

			~position the delete portal on the far right
			perform portal[delete].alignedge[right,0]

			~position the info portal to the left of the delete button
			perform portal[info].alignrel[rtol,delete,-6]

			~center the trappings edit portal between the info and delete buttons
			var span as number
			span = portal[delete].right - portal[info].left
			portal[trapedit].left = portal[info].left + (span - portal[trapedit].width) / 2

			~position the name portals on the left and use a suitable amount of space
			portal[name].left = 0
			portal[name].width = 175
			portal[original].left = 15
			portal[original].width = portal[name].width - portal[original].left

			~position the details portals next to the name and use the remaining space
			perform portal[details].alignrel[ltor,name,10]
			portal[details].width = portal[info].left - portal[details].left - 10
			portal[duration].left = portal[details].left
			portal[duration].width = portal[details].width
			portal[trappings].left = portal[details].left
			portal[trappings].width = portal[details].width

			~shrink the name portals if they don't fit, then re-align after the shrink
			perform portal[name].sizetofit[32]
			if (portal[original].visible = 0) then
			perform portal[name].centervert
			else
			perform portal[original].sizetofit[32]
			portal[name].top = (half - portal[name].height) / 2 + 3
			perform portal[original].alignrel[ttob,name,2]
			endif
			</pre>

Rob: /* Arcane Power Names */

2009-01-22T20:18:59Z

Arcane Power Names

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:18, 22 January 2009
Line 192:		Line 192:
	</pre>		</pre>

	The final task is to revised the Position script to properly position the two portals. With the script, we also need to utilize the "sizetofit" target reference on both portals. This will ensure that long names, whether the original power name or the user-assigned name, will fit appropriately into the space available. The updated script is presented below.		The final task is to revised the Position script to properly position the two portals. With the script, we also need to utilize the "sizetofit" target reference on both portals. This will ensure that long names, whether the original power name or the user-assigned name, will fit appropriately into the space available. Since the majority of power names are shorter than the space we've currently allocated, we'll also shrink that space a little bit (from 200 to 175). The updated script is presented below.

	<pre>		<pre>
Line 244:		Line 244:
	~position the name portals on the left and use a suitable amount of space		~position the name portals on the left and use a suitable amount of space
	portal[name].left = 0		portal[name].left = 0
	portal[name].width = ~~150~~		portal[name].width = 175
	portal[original].left = 15		portal[original].left = 15
	portal[original].width = portal[name].width - portal[original].left		portal[original].width = portal[name].width - portal[original].left

Rob: /* Revising Arcane Power Display */

2009-01-22T20:16:02Z

Revising Arcane Power Display

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:16, 22 January 2009
Line 263:		Line 263:
	</pre>		</pre>

	===~~Revising~~ Arcane Power Display===		===Revise Arcane Power Display===

			The trappings for an arcane power are noticeably missing from the display for each power on the "Arcane" tab. The original reason for this was that we didn't have the space, which was true at the time. However, now that we've added the smarts to shrink the name when necessary, we can reduce the space for the name a little bit. If we do that and also reduce the font size slightly for the various facets of each power, we should have plenty of room to fit both the point cost and range on the top line. This will free up the space to add a third line at the bottom that shows the trappings for the power.

Rob: /* Arcane Power Names */

2009-01-22T11:21:33Z

Arcane Power Names

← Older revision		Revision as of 11:21, 22 January 2009
Line 262:		Line 262:
	endif		endif
	</pre>		</pre>

			===Revising Arcane Power Display===