Working on a new C&C Theme [Archive] - Fantasy Grounds Message Boards

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Urieal

January 22nd, 2012, 05:56

Working on a new C&C Theme...I've got the desktop working as well as the hotbar...and I'm working on customizing the modifier stack to NOT be a standard "6 dots"

Hoping to fix a bunch of little problems with the LUA scripts along with this as well...

Here's a link to a pic for a teaser image.
https://sns.jeffandeden.com/fg2teaser.jpg

I've got the hotbar working with a custom font...just need to iron out a bit more details. I'm not 100% sure about the Modifier Stack location and look/feel. What do you guys think?

Feedback welcome :)

damned

January 22nd, 2012, 06:30

cool - i love the gargoyles.

dr_venture

January 22nd, 2012, 07:05

Looking sweet! I assume the top margin where the gargoyle wings are is where the player portraits would show up? As to the modifier placement, I have two players with small-screened laptops right now that have the Modifier box interfering with the bottom of the chat panel, so I'd love to have that out of the vertical space that the chat panel occupies... FWIW.

dr_venture

January 22nd, 2012, 07:09

You've inspired me to cobble together my C&C interface into a theme. It's not nearly as custom as yours - it's mostly just pieces from other Themes that I liked, but I would like to support the C&C community by at least offering another option for folks. Don't know when I'll get to it (my Old West theme for the Go Fer Yer Gun! C&C variant rules got a resounding zero interest :P) but... what the heck: more options are probably better than fewer. Thanks for the good work, bud!

damned

January 22nd, 2012, 07:27

my Old West theme for the Go Fer Yer Gun! C&C variant rules got a resounding zero interest

i thought your theme was pretty cool but i think Old West is a pretty small niche and its inside another small niche being c&c... i really like the telegraph chat window - i thought it was very clever.

dr_venture

January 22nd, 2012, 07:42

You're too kind :D Yeah, I know, it's very true about the niche-within-a-niche. I was going to use the theme myself, but I also hoped I might tempt some folks into trying out GFYG! if they had a good Theme for it. I hope somebody does give it a try - if you know C&C, GFYG! is a breeze to run. Or better yet, pull a Gygax and unexpectedly transport your C&C players into the old west for a while... complete with FG Theme!

Blue Haven

January 24th, 2012, 16:02

Urieal

January 26th, 2012, 22:05

Looks like I am going to have to put this on hold. The <panel> (and I'm guessing any other component) cannot be overridden in an extension.

What that means is that I can't create a custom modifier stack because when I do, the old one is still there. I can't alter the old one without going directly into the C&C .pak file. That's not a problem, indeed, it is easy...but I can't distribute the changes.

I wonder why SmiteWorks isn't allowing components within an extension to override components within a ruleset. They allow the overriding of graphics and elements...but not components :(

Until this gets fixed, I can't create a nice custom skin and also distribute it for use. I COULD create it for local use though. I can create one for the free rulesets as well...but C&C doesn't fall into that category. :(

I could also create a ruleset that used the same locations for panels as the default ruleset, but then I am constrained by locations of components as defined in the ruleset...and that stinks :(

damned

January 26th, 2012, 22:19

The <panel> (and I'm guessing any other component) cannot be overridden in an extension.

I wonder why SmiteWorks isn't allowing components within an extension to override components within a ruleset. They allow the overriding of graphics and elements...but not components :(

i doubt very much it was deliberate. i think a lot of the extensibility of the app is being written back into the base almost retro-actively. the current guys bought the existing product and are working very hard at improving many things. put it in as a request for new versions. there is a similar thread - people are coding some components in extensions and these components are being displayed twice - once from base and once from extension...

dr_venture

January 26th, 2012, 22:58

As a semi-aside, my understanding/guess is that they are also wrestling with the distribution of functionality between the core app and the scripted rulesets.

On one hand, having a robust script environment has lead to very customized and varied rulesets and a robust development community.

On the other hand, a fair amount of the product's functionality is now outside of the core application code base and is dependent on mostly volunteer community members to maintain. Shared scripting functionality degrade over time into a further of permutations as each ruleset evolves. It's much harder to maintain product quality and consistency with such a distributed code base, and it's potentially harder to introduce new functionality that coincides/overlaps scripted functionality in existing rulesets.

I'm not a programming guru, so I don't have much of an opinion on what should be done, but I believe it's something they're thinking about as the product continues development. Off hand, my biggest hope is that Dr Z's layer functionality (or something along those lines) and well as enhanced drawing tools would be rolled into the app, as it seems extremely useful for pretty much all rulesets.

Don't know if I illuminated or derailed the topic here - sorry.