change gani sprite color

[jake13jake]

I'm having trouble figuring out a way of how I should determine whether another player is paused or not rewriting the nick display system. The idea that makes the most sense to me would be graying out the player, or making him/her partially transparent. However, we can't change image part on a gani so I'm a little bit stuck. Another idea would be to have different sprites in the gani fade in/out at unique trig-based intervals. However, we don't have that power either.
That's why I'm suggesting it :P. I'm pretty sure that a changeimgcolors for a showani is already being worked on, but a change sprite color would be even more impressive.

[G_yoshi]

erm, you can already change the colors of sprites in a gani with the exception of what's defined as SWORD, HEAD, BODY, and SHIELD. Have you ever bothered to look inside ganis with a text editor? If you're asking to be able to change that from the outside, however, that's another story.

As for a solution to your dilemma, have you ever thought about using one of the many gani attributes and putting in a small icon that would represent the player being paused and having it float about their head?

[jake13jake]

Originally Posted by G_yoshi

erm, you can already change the colors of sprites in a gani with the exception of what's defined as SWORD, HEAD, BODY, and SHIELD. Have you ever bothered to look inside ganis with a text editor? If you're asking to be able to change that from the outside, however, that's another story.

Yes, I generally do all of my gani editing in a text editor because Graal Shop sucks. And Yes, I'm asking for the ability to change it externally.

As for a solution to your dilemma, have you ever thought about using one of the many gani attributes and putting in a small icon that would represent the player being paused and having it float about their head?

I have thought of this, but I can't see it as being quite as practical.

[G_yoshi]

as I recall reading, ganis can read external variables by way of attributes...

An icon would be more practical through simple recognition. For example, when you see golden arches your brain automattically thinks McDonalds without any effort. This same principle can be applied here. Things that are flashy or have some kind of activity are more used to draw a person's attention rather than cause their mind to link what they see with a brand or whatever. Another example would be the minimap message icons. The different colors used already trigger a response in your brain to tell you just what kind of message it is before you even click on it or stop to really look at it. You know that when you see a red bubble, its a staff message or a yellow/cream bubble is for a PM. Also, its one less script you need running in a loop.

[jake13jake]

Originally Posted by G_yoshi

as I recall reading, ganis can read external variables by way of attributes...

An icon would be more practical through simple recognition. For example, when you see golden arches your brain automattically thinks McDonalds without any effort. This same principle can be applied here. Things that are flashy or have some kind of activity are more used to draw a person's attention rather than cause their mind to link what they see with a brand or whatever. Another example would be the minimap message icons. The different colors used already trigger a response in your brain to tell you just what kind of message it is before you even click on it or stop to really look at it. You know that when you see a red bubble, its a staff message or a yellow/cream bubble is for a PM. Also, its one less script you need running in a loop.

Icons would work, but could be annoying. Changing sprite colors externally would still be a good idea conceptually, however. Scripting inside the gani would not be practical unless it was part of the idea behind the gani.

Just don't limit the reason for the suggestions to the entire range of the suggestion. I'll probably be handling this other ways.

[G_yoshi]

I'm just trying to give an alternative solution to what you're trying to accomplish. I still think an icon is more appropriate because its easily and usually instantly recognizable. I've never seen dimmed players in online games if they are paused/idle/AFK/whatever. Usually an icon or text is used to describe state because its quick and efficient as well as practical What also comes to mind when seeing a transparent player is that they are possibly dead or a ghost (in the case of a certain MMO).

This doesn't mean I disagree with being able to set the transparency level of the player (that could provide a nice range of effects). I just disagree with your application of such a potential feature.