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Saturday, November 03, 2007

Custom Character Builder Coming Soon!

If you've been watching the bug database, you've probably noticed that I've not been touching too many bugs lately. The reason for this, is that I've been working on a new tool for building new characters for RealmSpeak. The tool will let you customize everything: names, chits, relationships, starting dwellings, armor, etc. It will even let you create a weapon unique to your character (a shuriken for a Ninja, for example). It even has a fairly complex tool for adding special advantages to your character.

When you are done, you save an rschar file, and when version 0.56 of RealmSpeak is released, all you do is drop this file into a folder called "custom", and you are off and running. The character will be available in the chooser, and everything about it (weapon, advantages, etc) will be ready to go! Pretty cool, eh?

Check this out: the builder will even let you choose a picture for your character, and then generate a character card. Here is one I generated for my Dark Elf character:


That's how it comes out - no tweaking in photoshop or anything. The picture that you select is even automatically cropped into the typical oval. Pretty sweet!

Anyway, I should have this thing wrapped up in a week or two, and then you guys can go nuts making characters. I'll probably provide a few of my own on my website, and then add to it when people send me their own.

UPDATE - Here's a couple more, just for fun:




UPDATE 2 - I realized I should probably give you screenshot of the builder, so you can see what it looks like. Here ya go:

9 comments:

Tarotmoon Press said...

Niiiice :) Hope we can quickly add the ones that are out there now. It would be really fun to have more than the base set to choose from - especially with pictures!! - Teresa

DewKid said...

That's the idea. You should be able to create any of those that are out there, and more. The interface (I just added a screenshot to the post) is fairly easy, in my opinion. To give you an idea, the Dark Elf took me about 2 minutes to put together, copying from the one I have posted on my website. The hardest part, is gathering the symbol icons, and finding a decent picture. Note that you don't HAVE to have a picture (it will default to a gray oval), but it sure adds personality to your design!

MWrynn said...

Wow very nice! How do you handle the special advantages? Obviously there must be limits to what you can do...

DewKid said...

Definitely limits, but I'm trying to make it as open as possible. For example, there is an advantage panel that describes all the die mods. You can select either "one die" or "minus one". You choose which tables are affected (there's like 20 tables!), and then you select the conditions under which the effect takes place. For example, my Dark Elf gets to roll one die on the Read Runes table in caves clearings.

Here are some other possibilities for die mods:
- Minus one on search tables in tiles with a Smoke chit.
- One die on the fumble table, but only if you are in the mountains.

Anyway, you get the picture. It will make a lot more sense when you see the interface.

I also have a "free actions" panel, and a "misc" panel. The "misc" panel will have all of the oddball possibilities (ie., familiar, choose when to take your turn, extra phase in dwellings), as well as a few new ones (ie., -1 MOVE cost in mountains, source of WHITE magic, play FIGHT chits without a weapon) I may have to put up a page on the wiki, so that people can post requests for new advantage possibilities. Obviously, its not going to support EVERYTHING you can think of, but I'm hoping you'll get close to what you are after.

MWrynn said...

Awesome - can't get much better than that! (except maybe custom scripting...kidding :))

Yxklyx said...

This looks great! You may want to increase the number of weapons and armor in the game based on the new characters selected.

DewKid said...

Way ahead of ya there my friend. :-)

When you add weapons/armor to your custom character, they are created new, instead of coming from the limited pool supplied by the original game.

Also, if you create a special weapon for a particular character level, and then don't start on that level, you can specify where (which dwelling) the weapon will be available for sale. That way the Ninja (for example), can still get a hold of the Shuriken when he can afford it.

This thing is almost ready. I'm running through the last tests now.

Yxklyx said...

How about a Lockpick advantage (same as Lost Keys) and a Guiding Spirit advantage (optional Magic Sight ability).

DewKid said...

Both good ideas. I need to get a page on the wiki started that will be a good place for people to add stuff like this. Once I get a bunch of suggestions, I'll start adding them in.

For now, I'd ask you to wait until you see what I'm providing in the first release, because you may discover I've already got something to cover you.