SF Theme nearly done, but ...

[Lynnx333]

Hi, I'm currently working on an SF theme for my wife's campaign. She wants to play with the Traveller rules.She doesn't want to use the original theme but something more NASA / science like.
So I embarked on the mad quest to create a theme. I first created the stuff for CoreRPG and then tried to customize the rest so that it would work in the Traveller ruleset (which is locked/vaulted and I couldn't investigate it unfortunately). It was a very exhausting story and often ended up in a guessing game. As a graphic designer I have no problems with creating the images but when it comes to coding, oh dear. Somehow I managed to come to an agreement with the XML and Lua monsters.
I use the Ruleset Wizard, without this program I would be completely lost.
So far I'm satisfied, I've also adapted the appearance of two extensions (Clock Adjuster and Player Agency) to the theme.

Unfortunately I still have a few small problems.

1. since the tabs are no longer graphics, I don't understand/can't find where I can change them. I have to move the texts in the tabs further to the right somehow, but I don't know how.

2. i have no idea what the icons are called that are used in CT. I think there are a few more special icons that are not in other systems. Unfortunately debug does not help me here. Is it possible to get access to the folder with the icons and buttons in the Traveller ruleset?

3. in the character sheet there is a rather large empty area on the main page, is this as intended?

4. also in the character sheet on the action page, the numbers (probably modified values of the normal attributes) have hard to read colors, which strangely are also sometimes different from character sheet to character sheet. Where can I change these color values and are the colors possibly linked to the damage?

5. I would like to move the icon for the speaker in the chat from the center position to the top of the speech bubble. How can i do that?

6. And finally, a question for damien about the Player Agency. I would like to adjust the distance (marked in red) so that it matches the other windows. It is the mc-world window. Unfortunately I can't find out where it is defined.

So that was a lot to read, thanks for your time and help. :)

Regards
Lynnx

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[Lynnx333]

I got an answer to 5. Seems that it can not be moved, because it is in the engine and not editable.

[Moon Wizard]

#1: It's best to create your tabs graphic to exactly match the positioning and spacing in the existing tabs graphic. Otherwise, you will need to override the buttongroup_tabs template to define the new sizes; and makes the theme less prone to looking incorrect due to future changes.

#2: Those use the active/defense CT section button templates (button_ct_section_*). Those respectively use the button_sword/button_sword_down, and button_shield/button_shield_down icons.

#3: That's up to the ruleset developer; so not sure why that is there.

#4: Those colors look like they are based on the wound coloring. Since your theme is similar to a dark theme, you can try code like this in your extension.xml.


<script name="DesktopTheme2024">
function onInit()
ColorManager.resetUIColors();

ColorManager.setStandardDarkUIHealthColors();

ColorManager.setSidebarCategoryIconColor("A3A29D");
ColorManager.setSidebarCategoryTextColor("DEC790");
ColorManager.setSidebarRecordIconColor("DEC790");
ColorManager.setSidebarRecordTextColor("FFFFFF");
ColorManager.setButtonContentColor("FFFFFF");
ColorManager.setWindowMenuIconColor("000000");
end
</script>


Regards,
JPG

[superteddy57]

#3: That's empty due to the additional attributes that the system can add to be tracked. The options can enable them.

[Lynnx333]

Thanks Moon Wizard, Superteddy57. That was helpfull information. I have some things to try out now. :)

[Lynnx333]

Hi Moon Wizard

#1 The tabs are working in Core RPG and all look good there. In Traveller it looks to me as if the text already got moved somehow and altered (different size). I just thought there is a setting in the scripts where the button generation is done, where the positioning of the text inside the button is defined, but I can't find it. I also thought I could make an inside offset of 2 pixels but I don't know where or how I should get this working.

#2 Ok thanks

#3 Thanks to superteddy57 (has been clarified)

#4 Thanks, works like a charm! :)

Regards,
Lynnx

[Moon Wizard]

Just pushed a small update for the Traveller ruleset to make the tabs match the CoreRPG standard; which should address the issue you are having with #1. Please run a new Check for Updates, and try again.

Regards,
JPG

[Lynnx333]

Thank you, now it matches over themes.
At first I feared that change would impact the original theme of Traveller but that does not seem to be the case. So thank you Moon Wizard for your help, as always.

Regards,
Lynnx

[Lynnx333]

#2: Those use the active/defense CT section button templates (button_ct_section_*). Those respectively use the button_sword/button_sword_down, and button_shield/button_shield_down icons.

I tried to change them, but that are not the labels they use... there is a gun, a shield and a flag, just before the link to the charsheet or npc sheet in the combat ttracker entry. But the icons where changed for Traveller and with them the naming.

I tried button_gun and button_armor, but did not help. Its to bad that the ruleset is locked, else I could look into myself.

Perhaps someone knows how the files are referenced in the xml.


Regards,
Lynnx

[Moon Wizard]

#2: I've attached a screenshot; I see them defined in Traveller ruleset in graphics/graphics_icons.xml. So, you just need to redefine the icon asset using your own graphic.

Regards,
JPG

[Lynnx333]

Thank you very much. Then I think I know what the problem is. Because I use the Ruleset Wizard its a file name issue. Have found it.

Thank you so much for your ongoing help and all the time you spend helping on these board.

Regards,
Lynnx

[Lynnx333]

@Moon Wizard. Making big steps forward! :D

[Moon Wizard]

I'm thinking that ruleset wizard will hinder more than help for theme development.

I would just crack open an existing theme (like Core Dark); and just do replacements without needing all the extra stuff that RSW is doing.

You can always quickly see what it looks like by using /reload command on the chat entry bar.

Regards,
JPG

[anstett]

As a quick aside, please put this on the Forge when done. I will gladly pay to have more Themes and especially ones that work well with Traveller and Sci Fi overall.

[Lynnx333]

I'm thinking that ruleset wizard will hinder more than help for theme development.

Hmm, maybe next time I will try it without RW. At the moment the structure of RW is helpful for my brain to see and understand what I am doing. ;)

Regards,
Lynnx

[Lynnx333]

As a quick aside, please put this on the Forge when done. I will gladly pay to have more Themes and especially ones that work well with Traveller and Sci Fi overall.

I plan to. Still needs fine-tuning and I want it to work with Savage Worlds as well.

[Lynnx333]

Hello,
I have another question. I can't find which font was used for these labels. I think it's a newly created one, especially for Traveller at this point. Or they are image files. In both cases I would need the name of the font (in graphics_fonts.xml) or the images so that I can adjust the colors.
The corresponding place is the player ship datasheet.

Regards,
Lynnx

[Moon Wizard]

Try the "sheetlabelinline" font definition to adjust the color of these labels.

Regards,
JPG

[Lynnx333]

Thanks Moon Wizard,

I have already found a workaround. So that problem is solved, but I stumbled into the next one.

I rearranged the spacing of all the sub-windows of the character sheet and the ship sheet so that the outer edges have the same position. The only one I cannot get to work is the ship tab on the character sheet. I can figure out the subwindow names that get a call from the tab (using /debug on), and the one sheet I cannot get to work is named charsheet_actions_spacecraft. But I cannot guess the name of the window.
So far every other window has used the name shown on the tabs of the charsheet. I feel like I have tried every iteration of ship, spaceship, craft, vehicle, whatever. None of them worked.
The thing is I need the name to get RW to override the spacing.

e.g. "Class Name: charsheet_skills" and "Name: skills" lets me create a subwindow on charsheet that I can rearange and join with the original ruleset to adjust its position.

If anyone knows the parameters of the ship tab on the charsheet that would be a big help.

Regards,
Lynnx

p.s. its not sheetlabelinline, I tried already, I think I've gone through all fonts in graphics_fonts.xml, from CoreRPG. My guess, its a custom font created for this labels in Traveller.

[Moon Wizard]

Looks like the font might be: charspacecraft-sheetinline
Still not sure why the original developer added so many custom fonts like that; but at least that should get you going. Will look at poking that change in, just to keep moving files closer to CoreRPG.

For the PC sheet Ships tab,
"sub_charsheet" is the template that controls the spacing of the individual tab content within the PC sheet;
while "charsheet_actions_spacecraft" controls the way the content is laid out within that space.

Regards,
JPG

[Lynnx333]

Looks like the font might be: charspacecraft-sheetinline
Still not sure why the original developer added so many custom fonts like that; but at least that should get you going. Will look at poking that change in, just to keep moving files closer to CoreRPG.


“Layout space". A smaller font was needed for the text to fit in the box. I am afraid if you remove the font or change its size from 12 to 14, you will break the layout. It will not look good.
I wouldn't do it, not everything should be as minimalistic as CoreRPG. ;)

btw. that was the text font I was looking for. It worked like a charm. It would be so much easier if the ruleset wasn't in the vault, but I'm sure the developer had something in mind. I'm just sorry to take up so much of your time.



As for the story with the subwindow, the solution I found works for all other subwindows, e.g. skills, equipment and also all subwindows on the starship character sheet with the ship data.

I created a charsheet in RW and told it to join with the charsheet in the rules. Then the debug feature showed me the subsheet classes (marked in yellow) and for each one I can use the name (marked in green) on the tabs to access it. Only the one for ships refuses (marked in red) and yes, I know that there is not ships in there atm ;)
So what I need is the name for the subwindow, which should normally match the name of the window. (in the campaign folder?). I made the subwindow for charsheet_actions_spacecraft smaller for testing purposes and added a red backdrop to make a change clearer to see. In case you are wondering what the big red box is.

I hope that does make any sense.

Regards,
Lynnx

[Moon Wizard]

I wouldn't recommend using RSW for theming in general. It's written by a third party developer and not supported by us; we provide a lot of templating to allow more to be done with less code. When making themes; I highly recommend looking at all the standard themes as examples, and tracking down the edge cases by asking questions.

Regards,
JPG

[Lynnx333]

Thanks for the help so far. I've learned a lot and my wife is very happy with the design so far. At least for Traveller the theme is ready. It will now be tested first. I can't do much more without looking at the ruleset anyway. :)