I don't like the idea of it being a weapon. This would force you to be logged in as client to use RC would it not? So you have to be given the RC weapon by a staff member and to use it iyou must fire it with the D key right? I think a better option is to just have a choice between different modes when you load Graal.

Or even better... an exe parameter. Then it would seem even more like the real thing. ...I don't think "exe parameter" was what I was looking for. Maybe... runtime parameter or something? Like an argument you add in the shortcut to the program.

I'm thinking it'd be cool if there were a way to compile a collection of scripts, images etc into a pack that tells Graal how to run. You'd be able to tell it not to make a game window and login a character, for example, and instead create a window based on your own specifications. Then Jagen's RC thingy could be a standalone window, being manipulated by Graal's inbuilt script engine. Further to that, one could make a chat client for any player to use - similar to a powerless RC, it logs into a server and pops up a chat room, also letting players PM one another.

Extend it a little and servers would be able to make their own Graal frontends, replacing the default menu. It'd only appear when the player uses that particular pack, of course, but those who only ever play one server could use it to replace their normal Graal shortcut.

Push it even further and maybe you'd be able to tell Graal not to contact any servers at all? Instead of distributing levels to show off their creations, scripters and level makers could hand out these special compiled packs so that Graal can use them in a pseudo-offline mode (pseudo because the only difference would be that it never sends anything to the server - all the security stuff would be the same). Then they wouldn't need to bother making zips full of graphics etc.

Add more ideas of your own, then bug Stefan into implementing it ;)

would be neat.. but still, wouldn't you still have to wait a loading time similar to one as if you were loading the whole client, even it were RC or something, no? O_o (fear 6 am type)

Depends. I imagine much of that time is spent:

1) Indexing files, which wouldn't be necessary if all the requisite resources are included in a single relatively small pack.
2) Preparing other game-related stuff like tile arrays or whatever, which would also be unnecessary if the client doesn't log in as a player.

Sidenote: Obviously only the clientside parts of the scripts would be included in the pack, and the rest would be stored on the server. The client would tell the server what mod it's running (if any), and that value would be checked against a list in server options to see if it's supported. If not, the connection closes.

I guess actionplayeronline (or some equivalent) would probably carry a parameter telling the CNPC what type of logon it is, too.

I still want a standalone RC.. so I guess kai's idea is the closest we're going to get XD

It's a good idea. :)

The RC will be in-game, as it's meant to be a tool for development, and putting it in-game gives a lot of possibilites because each playerworld can make their own version, add new features, can customize the look. The good thing in Graal is that it's an online game, and that you can create your own online worlds, taking a step backward to offling things wouldn't really help in improving it. The Graal client takes some more resources than the RC, but we can probably add some things to make it still possible to use it similar to the old RC, like you can minimize the window and see a blinking bubble in the taskbar when you get a PM.

Ahh.. this will make staff tools and hacker detection soooo much easier on Era.. :D.. I want to make my own already :(.. I wish I had the new scripting engine. *sniff*

ditto,

Some Ideas
 

I'm just going to list some stuff off.

I sat and read through all nine pages of this stuff lol.... i dont know if this will still even be useful when the new RC is made but i would love to have some kind of sound notifcation when being PMed on RC. i have had people on RC get pissed at me for not answering for 20 minutes or so because i am working on a gani and i dont see that little blue bubble in systray.

make the file size cap bigger. not much but better than 64k please.

A list of NPC commands

I love the customization ideas going into it, but is it going to be stricly scripted, or will it be kind of like a image map where we make images and RC would pull from it?.

Re: Some Ideas
 

It will be completely scripted, Like everyother weapon NPC, at least from what I gathered.

Anybody talented enough to script one, can make thier own. Or at least modify the generally available one to play sounds.

that answered one of my questions, thanks :D

any new improvements, any thing cool? give us more sreen shots o.@

sorry for lack of updates :) we've had some problems the past few days

this is showing a screenshot using some html commands, currently
<img src=imagename>
and
<a href=www.link.com>text</a> are working,
<br> is too I believe
here's a screeshot showing some of them in action

note: you can not use a website for img src

What about when the image is greater then the line height?

right now it sort of wraps the text to the right (as you saw on the 'hmm' text), I need to test on images larger than the chat can handle though, if it's 'buggy' I can ask stefan to edit it or just insert blank lines for when the image is too big so you can scroll down still

How much of that needs script. and how much is built into the new engine?

I'm rather curious about how that would work...

:( I suppose I'll have to wait for a release and get another server job to find out.

(Didn't wanna read 14 pages of stuff so I dunno if these ideas came up yet or not)

When you go into the graphic folders, instead of having to download the graphic, have a preview box, so you don't have to go through it downloading and taking a bit to open.

When you double click a gani, make it auto load into the gani maker

I have many other ideas, but I gotta go now, homework, bye ^_^//

It will open gani's in graalshop if you make it.

rightclick>openwith>browse>graalshop

Images and hyperlinks will come in very handy, I like it.

in response to showing large images:
stefan has coded it so it wont show the text under the image, if the image is large, the next text line will appear under the image

and rogue -> how much of what needs script? the current RC chat here is just using a clientside equivilent to sendtorc to send it to RC chat, he also made it divide players into 2 types, client-rcs and clients, client-rcs are clients with local rights, these kind of players get an event whenever something is spoken in rc chat, and when it recieves that event it just adds the text to the multi line text gui

How about things like the scroll bar and such?

This brings out possibilities like blocking it so some may only read the RC chat, and not respond. Also I like the image idea.

What about it? It's just...a scrollbar o_O

Well, we all know Graal doesn't support that right now, unless you script it.

I was wondering if it was something new Graal has in v3, where you can just add scrollbars and such, or does it still have to be scripted manually?

none of the backround was created using the old manual way, it uses special functions / commands to create a gui, the backround on the RC consists of 18 GUIs I believe, right now I dont feel like counting but this is my estimate:

the main window
bitmap backround
13 buttons
scroll control
multi text field
chat edit

so practically 90% of the script so far are things completely new

Graalv3 won't run on computers with low RAM, I don't have that problem anymore, but what about the other 800 players? :( Not all of them have top-of-the-line computers. Mabey you should just keep it sorta simpler.

Yeah how much will I really need. This pc has 256 right now, 512 is coming soon. But my old comp in my room which I use to make levels only has 64. This could be a problem. :/

Keep what simpler? A GUI isn't going to break any computer less than a decade old.

Ok, I think I get what's going on here.


Once I wrote my own multi-line text area with a scrollbar.. I was just curious.

My computer is ~3 years old, I have 196 mb of RAM, and a Riva TNT 2 video card, stefan has a riva tnt 1, both of us can run the client flawlessly

what if... *dun dun dun* you don't have a video card, will the client still work, and if so, how will you know? you can't see!

Stop acting stupid, if you didn't have a video card your moniter wouldn't function, since the moniter plugs into the video card (I think at least)

That it does. Although there may be some REALLY old way that doesn't require what we would consider a video card.

I think everything needs a video card unless you got one of those origional Macs.

sheesh jag, I was just kidding =\

Some people use the onboard videocard, woooo 16 colors. I don't know anyone who does, but, some people may if they dont have a video card. You dont *need* one, but yeah, the monitor plugs into some.. thing that the videocard can go into. (I have no clue what its called :P)

Digital line out? there's another funny looking serial on the back, but I wasn't interested enough too look, and there's always a TV out card...

Chrisz, an onboard video card is just that, a video card. Whether or not it's detachable from the motherboard makes no difference. There are newer motherboards that have video cards with much higher resolutions and color depths than what you're thinking of as well.

and...

marcoR, a TV out wouldn't allow you to view what's on your PC screen on another display device. It would allow you to view the current TV channel, as you would imagine.
DVI is used for LCD monitors, assuming that's what you're referring to. That is located on the video card.

o.o TV out lets you look at your


____________
|----------------- |
|----------------- |
|----Monitor-----|
|----------------- |
|----------------- |
____________

on your

____________
|----------------- |
|----------------- |
|-------T.V.------|
|----------------- |
|----------------- |
____________


My friend does this, so I know for certain it does, =p
:p XP |:P


[EDIT]
You're thinking of a T.V. in :P
[/EDIT]