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dr_venture
July 3rd, 2011, 04:37
I've currently got this as my Sidewinder: Recoiled theme, but at some point I got wise to the fact that Sidewinder: Recoiled is about 95% just d20 Modern... I knew it was *based* on D20 Modern, but I didn't realize just how very close (almost identical) they are. I'd like to make this into an installable theme for D20 Modern, but I'm not sure how much work would be required. Perhaps I will bite the bullet (so to speak) if there is interest.

phantomwhale
July 3rd, 2011, 04:56
*appluads*

Really good work. Love the idea of the bullet indicator on the combat tracker - might "borrow" that concept for the next release of Deadlands: Reloaded, if you don't mind.

dr_venture
July 3rd, 2011, 05:29
Thank you for the kind words! I have the whole ruleset downloadable somewhere or another - I'll figure out where if you want, then you're welcome to just borrow the graphic file itself. As you can see, it's a very stubby bullet - took a little trial & error to shrink it to fit the allowed space.

I don't know if you noticed, but my favorite little bit of candy are the white hats/black hats for the combat tracker. Silly & cliche, but they actually work pretty well graphically as well as to theme. I make me laugh.

[EDIT: Oh yeah, we can share files on this thing. Here, have a free bullet. Hopefully you can just copy it, if nothing else, for size reference.]

dr_venture
July 3rd, 2011, 05:34
Ooops - forgot the radial menu & loading icon.

Blue Haven
July 6th, 2011, 01:07
Just one word...AWESOME!!! can you share the ruleset...?
An amazing job you got here :)

dr_venture
July 6th, 2011, 01:27
I'm happy to, but it's just D20 Modern for the most part... there are a hand full of different skills. All I did was change the graphics on the D20/D20Jpg ruleset (don't remember which) and add the Wealth, Reputation, and Action Points to the char sheet... but those are standard D20 Modern I believe. The only other thing I added was Bravery, which is good for converting the old Boot Hill modules & really a sorely missing element of Sidewinder, I think.

I don't think there is any Sidewinder-specific content, so I suppose I wouldn't be violating any IP or copyright laws. It's already up at:

https://castlecorps.com/Sidewinder Recoiled.zip

...is there a proper way to share it? In reality, though, I think it should be made into a Theme for D20 Modern, but my previous brief attempts to kludge together a Theme have been unsuccessful.

Blue Haven
July 6th, 2011, 14:02
Thank you so much :)

Doswelk
July 6th, 2011, 14:17
Already building an add-on extension for Deadlands using your bullet, loading icon and you menu hub :D

Zeus
July 6th, 2011, 14:40
That's a sweet looking rulest you have there doc. I'd love to have something like this for an old game of Boot Hill.

Whilst its not d20_Modern, you're welcome to take a look at my 4E Theme extension, Metal Pro, for some guidance on re-skinning a ruleset.

dr_venture
July 6th, 2011, 16:43
My friends, you are very welcome! I'm just very glad that folks will get some use out of it other than myself & my son.

Señior Zeuss: I shall take a look at your Metal Pro for getting this converted to a Theme for both D20 Modern (for use with Sidewinder: Recoiled, a pretty good game IMHO) and Castles & Crusades (I'm in love with Sorcerer's ruleset, which looks to be getting even better in the coming months - and I'm more interested in pursuing the use of the Siege Engine for skills rather than the D20-based skillset).

dr_venture
July 11th, 2011, 08:33
With thanks to Doswelk for the inspiration to do something creative with the chat window. I wanted something less place-specific than a newspaper, so since it's used for communicating I settled on a telegram. Of course, in the 1800s they were all hand written... oh well. Also updated (or maybe backdated?) the chat icon to a typewriter keyboard. Toss in a few pics from our Hardin City campaign, and here ya go!

I'm playing with changing the radial menu items into typewriter keys (tried poker chips & coins - too much bling). We'll see - when the icons are working well, they're very quick and intuitive to use... but when they're not, they might as well just be text. It's fun so far, but we'll see how far I get through that loooong list of icons.

dr_venture
July 12th, 2011, 01:52
And well, since I'm sitting around here getting over the flu, I'm working on teh typewriter keys for the radial menus. There are many :|

Casimir
July 12th, 2011, 19:16
I've got to say that - as a fan of Western RPG's - that work is amazing. It would be great if it were possible for you to export that as a generic theme extension somehow.

Awesome work!

dr_venture
July 12th, 2011, 20:55
It would be great if it were possible for you to export that as a generic theme extension somehow.

When you say "generic theme extension," what ruleset would you want to make the theme apply to? I'm assuming there isn't a way to make a truly generic theme, due to the customization in themes.

I might be willing to take the time to make a theme out of it, but I'm not sure which ruleset to do it for, other than D20 Modern (which is basically Sidewinder: Recoiled with a few minor alterations).

EDIT: Also, BTW, if anyone else wants to make a theme out of it, be my guest. My only suggestion would be to wait a bit until I get the graphics settled. I'm a big C&C fan, and as I just found Go Fer Yer Gun! for free up on DriveThruRPG (simple old west rules overlay for C&C), then I think I may commit to making a real installable theme for the C&C ruleset.

dr_venture
July 15th, 2011, 08:45
Finished up changing all of the radial menu buttons to typewriter keys. There are many... I'll think twice about doing that again!

My only other little mini brain storm was the typing activity indicator - it's got a telegraph theme... why not show something to kinda tie into the idea than a new telegraph message is being sent? Attached in the simple answer.

Not sure what to mess around with next - perhaps updating the window frames. If there's one thing the old west has got, it's lots of choices for putting a frame around something.

phantomwhale
July 15th, 2011, 08:55
This forums needs thumbs (and I've already given max. karma) - but let me pollute the thread with a "yey, this is awesome".

dr_venture
July 17th, 2011, 20:50
Perhaps it's just me, but one thing that has always bugged me about most of the FG themes is that when windows are collapsed, they turn into little round buttons that are not very intuitive to me. So here's my attempt at making those collapsed windows a bit more intuitive. I find that for me these work well.

Left to right, we have 'collapsed' icons for story documents, images, personalities, items, combats, and notes.

I was truly surprised at how hard it is to find a portrait-oriented picture for the images icon that doesn't feature a realistic person and that is distinguishable at tiny size! Human eyes are very adept at recognizing people's figures and faces at tiny size, but it's too easy to associate such icons with 'personalities' and not 'images'. It seems like most Victorian images & postcards are of people, with architecture & complicated adverts as runner-ups... none of which was what I was looking for. I settled on the Cadbury ad because even though it features a person on it, I don't look at it and think "people," I think "artwork."

The lantern... well, it's hard to pick an old west item to generically represent all old west items. I settled on the lantern because I stumbled on a good image... and well, other than the image and story icons, I hardly ever even see these other icons, so I say good enough :D

Blue Haven
July 18th, 2011, 15:23
Don´t forget to share those wonderful changes ;)
+rep :)

dr_venture
July 18th, 2011, 19:08
Ooooo... sharing. Dang. I suffer from a condition known as Lame Internet Connection Dysfunction (LICD) because I have a satellite Internet connection, so it's kind-of a pain to upload large stuff. Let me get a little bit more done on this theme. I think I'm nearing the end of what I can justify spending time on for the time being. Then I'll re-upload the whole thing & post a message here.

Thank you for the kind messages all - it really helps with motivation to know that somebody's getting a kick out of the artwork. I'll see if I can get version 1 wrapped up here pretty soon.

dr_venture
October 4th, 2011, 01:28
Well, it took long enough, but I finally a) got a decent Net connection, and b) have gotten around to posting the latest Sidewinder: Recoiled ruleset, which contains all teh latest scripts & graphics. I updated the download at the previous link, but here it is again, just for grins:

https://castlecorps.com/Sidewinder Recoiled.zip (https://castlecorps.com/Sidewinder%20Recoiled.zip)

The main addition is a ton of typewriter keys to replace the radial benu buttons. Also I believe the artwork & functionality for the telegraph chat box is new. My only observations is that the ruleset has gotten larger by about 5mb since the previosu version. I assume it's mostly the typewrite buttons - I haven't really looked into it. Anyway, I'd love to hear if you guys think the typewriter buttons were worth it. I'm of mixed opinion about it.

A couple of random previews:

1) A new bell icon for ringing the players (oh, if only I could attach it to a sample of an old school handbell... *sigh*)

2) A new Kick icon. Does the d20 ruleset even support this?

3) The key on those old typewriters that everyone was afraid to use, and was soon removed without comment.

Hope you guys enjoy it :)

dr_venture
December 17th, 2011, 18:20
Well I'm most of the way done making this a theme for Castles & Crusades (you can use it to play Go Fer Yer Gun!, which is a free/very cheap downloadable old west game that basically uses all of the C&C game mechanics). I suppose I should add a 2nd column of check boxes for "Secondary" attributes, but I'm not sure if my extension will collide with the latest C&C 2.08 rules extension.

Anyway, here's an updated version of the character sheet - just have to eliminate the rounded white background used for the 'Experience needed for next level' field. Also have to create a few buttons and edit one more, then I'm done! I assume the proper place to upload it is the wiki?

Happy - and unstressful - holidays to you all!

Doswelk
December 18th, 2011, 23:51
I am SO Stealing most of your graphics for my theme (the one I use to further tweak the Deadlands extension!)

Keep up the good work!

dr_venture
December 27th, 2011, 23:02
Alrighty, the theme is mostly done - I have set it up as an extension for Castles & Crusades for use with the Go Fer Yer Gun! rules - it's a old west spin on the C&C rules and is currently $1 at DriveThruRPG. I added a post in the C&C forum and, getting little response there, have also put it in a thread in the Armory forum. Please take a look there for the link to the extension file and a list of known issues.

Doswelk: all the current graphics are in there - enjoy! And thanks for the kind words :)