Guild color chat testing

From my testing, the following colors work best on light and dark backgrounds, have minimal interruption on the screen, and do not significantly conflict with existing used colors. I have ordered them by my preference.

• Blue1: bold but not too intrusive (same as "-----Welcome to the Awnage Rivan Warriors Client-----" and the blue guild text of the console picture)
• Green2: a tad bit too strong of a contrast (same color as the OpenGL "GL_ARB... using it" when first starting EL)
• Purple1: slightly wimpy looking (same as "This is your X minute warning for the coming hour")
• Red1: pink. enough said. (same as "Connecting to Server...")
  

The dark colors (like yellow4) are almost too dark on a dark background, and they display too much black gunk around their text on a light background (as can be seen in the first to panels of the image block). We will have to face the fact that until we have better scaling fonts like truetype, it will be very difficult to have an ideal font on both backgrounds.

Mana bar

Working on the mana bar. Here is a first screenshot. I am having trouble getting things to line up properly right now.

Coloring guild chat better

Smurf had a comment in a rivan thread I decided to have a look at. Sometimes it is hard to separate guild chatter from the din of local or other channels you are on. So I made a patch to put guild chat headers in light blue.

Edit 20071231 (12:23am): I added a picture showing all the available colors on a light and dark background. I have also managed to get the whole line to be in the same color finally. All four blocks are the same text on different backgrounds. If there is a color that you think is better than the rest, go ahead and post a comment of which one. They are in groups of four: Red 1-4, Orange 1-4, Yellow 1-4, Green 1-4, Blue 1-4, Purple 1-4, and Grey 1-4. Of note, Grey1 is the normal white text color. Grey 4 is Black (shown improperly on the third block)

A New Client for Windows: Passed the Stick

First off, thank you Awn for all your hard work. Your additions to the client make EL even more fun!

Ryddler was kind enough to send me all the source code for the new client with Awn's patches applied. I compiled it for Windows using Dev-Cpp, with one minor adjustment: The "Load" information in the Inventory window was overlapping the "Store All" button, so I moved it down a little.

Here is a link to the latest custom client for Windows: http://www.apmagnan.net/bin/elriva20071203.exe

This is an uncompressed copy of the exe file, so you won't need any fancy skillz to get it. :-) Simply download it into your EL folder (default install location is "c:\Program Files\Eternal Lands") and run it from there.

edit: the related patch file is here

New contributors

I would like to welcome and thank Ryddler and Hex for picking up where I left off on the client. My sabbatical was a good rest and I hope to start adding more fun stuff soon, with their help.

Name in Lights Again

Looks like 0ctane and I get our names in lights again. We are mentioned in the 1.5.0 Client Update list for our "hard work and dedication".

Back and a Reset bug

Yes, amazingly I have showed up in game again. That you all my friends for your warm welcome. Just another idea to post here. Since I just reset for the first time in Awn's career, I noticed how all the bars go wacko. That is a bug. I should make a patch for it. Similarly the "Session" shows my Overall Experience Gain at -43milion.

Addictions and Tech Trees

I just uninstalled Crack-Attack from my machine. I was playing it a little too often. Also some of you will notice that I have not been on EL all that much lately. I just installed a new harddrive in my laptop and had to port things over and recompile. For some reason the EL client plays fine but my Awnage one dies on loading. Not sure. At any rate, I am busy and have things to do. Plus a new official client is supposed to come out in November, possibly with archery and tailoring support.

I was browsing The Linux Game Tome and came across FreeOrion which is a turn-based space game. One of the screen shots for it had a tech tree. Dang what a sweet interface! I remember a while ago that some brave person made a knowledge tree for all the books in EL. Not that I have the time, but it would be so sweet to have a graphical knowledge browser in the EL client as opposed to the current list. I was working for a little bit on making the existing list sortable, but got bored.

PSA On Questions

This is a Public Service Announcement.

Let's say that someone starts bugging you about using this client. Please tell them to contact me. Do not attempt to answer their questions. Why? Because (even though it sounds very snotty) I am the authority on this client. I am the most capable of answering the questions.

There have been situations in the past where people have made egregious claims as to what this client can do in an attempt to sew discord among the EL community. Why? I have no clue. Maybe they do not like a Rivan.

At any rate, I reiterate once again, the features for this client are either in CVS, have been submitted to the dev team, or are a concept design. All have been explicitly approved by Entropy.

Maps and Space

I managed to get the mapmaker to compile on my Gentoo system. Woohoo! Perhaps I'll make an awnsome Awnage map. I remember back when I was in grade school how I would go to the school library during recess and make maps of imaginary worlds, complete with cities, roads, and polar caps. I think those early skills may come in handy. I just wish that we could rewrite the entire EL engine because it is seriously inefficient right now and limits what can be designed. I mean, look what can be done in 19MB of space, or even 96kB!!

Essentially it would be awesome to do procedural generation in EL, if only for the coolness factor.

People Ready Business

This is not a post about a new version. Just a note to bother someone. As it was noted in a Slashdot article, ill things are afoot. So I want to let people know about a true People Ready Business. If I was not using Gentoo, I'd probably use Ubuntu.

Awnage Client: YoHoHo and a Bottle of Ale

Changes since last version

• New version 1.4.0 compatible
  
• CVS updates
• Clickable Continent Map
• Spell rearranging now in CVS (Shift R/L to move up/down)
• All the normal awnage goodness
• No more ugly nag message, but some features are only available to guild friends and supporters.
• No need for extra Cal3D libraries.
• Slightly smaller filesize
  

Download Awnage 20070613 for Windows
Just place it in your EL folder and run it.

Known issues:

• Some people are having problems seeing the exp hovers at the top of the screen. I cannot reproduce it.
• Screenshot taking is disabled as this is not an official client
  

1.4.0 almost ready

I am very close to getting a working version for windows released. After some futzing around I got it to compile late last night. Apparently it does not need the extra cal3d libraries that the older awnage clients needed, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, I have not been able to get the icon to bind right, and the file size is huge (7MB as opposed to the release client's 2MB). Once I fix those I think it is good for release.

In the meantime, enjoy this smeg that I found while on my vacation. The fridge on the right is in the colors of the FC Barcelona team. I wonder if there is a FCB guild that we can taunt with it...

Rested

I am back from my vacation. I did not bring a laptop with me, so I missed the 1.4.0 update. Oh well. I should have a awnage client for it by this weekend if all goes according to plan. It only took 45 seconds from when I logged in until I got the first request.

There is now a 1.5.0 roadmap thread up in the EL forums. Interesting read at this point, and I am sure it will get more interesting as time goes on. At any rate, when I got back from my vacation and parsed my 100+ gmails I found that ttlanhil accepted several of my patches for the official client which will then appear in the 1.5.0 release. They are now in CVS for you self-sufficient people. Patches Toggle Analog Clock 806, Visual attack/spell highlight 809, Reorder Quickspells 814, QuickSpell Hover Highlights 833 (though Berlios says it was rejected). All you awnage users have enjoyed these for a while now. In my roadmap (as I mention in that thread) I hope to have some more HUD related updates.

I thought of another one while lying in bed last night wide awake because of jetlag. Some of you know I was a major StarCraft player. I am not sure what is going to happen once SCII is released. Anyway, I really like how in SC you can alt and ctrl click to perform various functions, in addition to using more than one mouse button. So I was thinking of making ctrl-click do a force move. I find it frustrating that I have to find the exact walkable tile by a harvest resource (especially in caves). The ctrl-click would work backward to find the nearest walkable tile and move to it instead. A similar situation is when you want to stand next to someone/thing and you click on them instead. You get the green target on the ground but you do not start moving. Thoughts?

EL Stickers and Art

As you will see to the right (and larger in the page footer) you can now get some awnsome© EL art made by yours truly. Ent and Roja have given approval for me to make EL themed bumperstickers and such. I have a lot more in already made and just need to post them. The prices are very modest so you can rest assured that I am not making this a full time job. I hope you enjoy (and buy tons of) the stickers.

Magic Switch

I totally need to add a magic switch to the EL client.

Trade All

Elandor(RIVA) suggested a "TradeAll" button similar to the "DropAll" and "StoreAll". It is an interesting idea. There is no room in the interface right now to support it, but, I suppose I could have either of the other 2 buttons switch to a TradeAll while in trade. The buttons are useless as you cannot drop or store while in trade mode anyway. I think that i would be better to toggle the DropAll in this case. Thoughts?

Quick8 Resolution

So, a while back, Gampa posted a screenshot in the EL forums which clearly showed the additional 2 quick-use and quick-spell slots. Ent saw it and, having forgotten that he gave permission for it, got rather upset. But, he said we could keep it as long as that was added to the official client.

The problem is that I moved all the slots up, covering the old EL logo. The new EL logo is, IMNHSO, very cool now. Nice work Roja. Anyway, Ent wanted things so that the logo would show up. Well, with the side stats bar (the colored stats bars were my patch BTW) activated there is not enough room. Even in the official client if you play at 640x480 you lose the stats bar.

Now we will have a new skill, engineering, which makes the stats bar a wee bit larger, and covers the 6 quick slots when at 800x600. Rather ugly. So, 0ctane submitted the patch to make the stats go away if you are at 800x600 or less. If things stay that way, there will be plenty of room for 8 instead of 6 slots. Unfortunately I play at 800x600 on my laptop, so I can code and do other things at the same time (I afk harvest a lot, the useful stuff though). Just using math:

logo+clock+compass: (64x64)*3y = 192
10 stats + 1 OA = 11 stats bars * 15y per bar = 165
default quickbar_y_len = 6 * 30 + 1 => 181
room for digital clock: 18
which totals 556 pixels.
quick8 quickbar_y_len = 8 * 30 + 1 => 241
which totals 616 pixels

To figure out why the original 6 slots has issues at 800x600 with the new skill, one needs to look at gl_init.c. 800x600 is actually 780x550. In fact, all the resolutions (EXCEPT 640x480 and 1600x1200) take a little off the top and sides. I need to tweak that gl_init.c to test if 800x600 will work...

Maybe I should add a toggle for the logo to make more room...

On an aside, it would be really slick if the client used SDL_ListModes to get available resolutions instead of hard coding it...

Edit: lol. ttlanhil just provided this patch

elc hud.c,1.166,1.167
Modified Files: hud.c
Log Message: allow statsbars in hud at 800x600 if there's no digital clock

Update soon

An update to EL will be occurring soon. Entropy already added the engineering books. The CVS client already has the new skill slot in it. I have started reworking my patches so that they will work on the new version.

Unfortunately, my main windows machine is down, so I will have to dual boot my linux laptop and hopefully get it to compile correctly for windows. Then I need to convince 0ctane to make a patched Mac client...

Future Possibilities

Under the "future" tag I will be storing suggestions for improvements to the client. Under the "nowayjose" I will put items that are not going to make it into the client.

Here are some of the pending ideas:

• Copy email address to buffer (like the copy web address)
• Have a mana bar right below health bar on your character
• Toggle viewing guild tags
• Toggle show ONLY guild tags
• harvest/attack range ring/visual indicator
• mute just local chat toggle button. Still see ig,gm,pm,channel chat
• exp countdown to see how much exp is needed to level more than just one skill (Cassius)
• coordinates on compass hover (Cassius)
  
• visual toggles for autoopen and other features
• visual indicator for afk/harvesting in case you miss a harv event
• Windows installer: I used to have one but it was a pain to maintain.
• Alt-F12 for quick #beam me
• F4 for quick #storage
• move toward target if out of range (Kedan)
• move toward a location if it is blocked (a patch exists for this in berlios right now)
• sortable knowledge window
• Window docking to the sides
• better fonts when they are teenytiny
• make the autobag open not work if you are mapwalking
• autoreconnect [on grue,...] (apparently Piper had a feature like this)
  

No Way Jose:

• death locator. "that's one of the reasons EF got shacked" - Entropy
• autopickup: we had it for a while, but a combo of old el and server code made Ent hate me for it.
• %gotoxy: too easy to macro (which is illegal)
• quick-manu: the formulas change too often and the info is in the encyclopedia anyway
• built-in calculator: use /Trader calc 1+1
• drop counter: too complicated, though I could hook it with the kill counters I suppose...
  

The Feature List

I added the current feature list to the side bar. "Awnage only" features are ones that are approved for the client but not general release. "Features Submitted" refer to items that are in the Awnage client and I have sent in to developer.berlios.de for inclusion in the official client. Not all of them have been accepted into it though.

For archive purposes, here is the list:

Features (Awnage Only)
* Auto Open Bag (CTRL- to toggle)
* Auto Open Storage (just click on a storage NPC, closes dialogue)
* Coords to Channel (CTRL-click on compass)
* Hover side stats for exp left
* Max pitch: to lower your viewing angle
* Max zoom: to get a bigger picture
* Min pitch: to raise your viewing angle
* Quick 8 use/cast
* Repeat Last Action (for NPC interaction)
* Rivan only lock
* Small inventory window
* Store All
* Guild channel chat a slightly different color
* Custom armor pack

Features (Submitted)
* Attack, magic highlights
* Icons row scaling
* Rearrange spells (Shift-R/L click)
* Toggle analog clock
* True SitLock
* Chatlog rotation

And the features that I submitted as patches that are now in the official client:

* Side Stats progess bars
* Keeping Manu/Buddy/Inv/Storage window open while on map or in console
* F6 transparency of clock and compass

Pure Awnage

I will endeavor to post changes to the Rivan Warriors EL client here, so as not to clog up our forums, but also so that other guilds can see the progress.

Old Names

There is a long tradition of naming software releases bizarre names. I think it is fun. Here is a list of the historical names of past Awnage Clients:

Version 0.20070216 Back to the Basics
Version 0.2007011x Taxing the Ghrae CELs
Version 0.20070112 Grubbing for Change
Version 0.20070104 TheCowsCameHome
Version 0.20061214 X3 Flare
Version 0.20061025 Misty Morning
Version 0.20060720 World Jump Day
Version 0.20060703 Independence
Version 0.20060505 A New Garden
Version 0.20060502 Anne's Birthday
- version numbering scheme change -
Version 0.95 The New Hotness
Version 0.90 Lonely Soldier Boy

Obviously each title is carefully chosen from the recesses of my brain.