Refactored the Spellbooks and Containers

Published October 30, 2013
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So, I went ahead and refactored the spellbooks and containers/workbenches UI. I initially had made it possible to have more than one workbench open, but I kind of just don't see the point. The containers as they were weren't very useful, without descriptions, so I modified the player UI so that only one workbench can be open at a time, and workbenches will supercede one another, sharing the same spellbook widget. I also refactored the quickbar spell selection book to use the same widget. Having the text descriptions makes a huge difference. At some point, I'll need to work more on those descriptions, though, to make them more comprehensive.

Next up, I need to build a widget to show the player's resource inventory. This one might take some thought. I'll certainly want to use smaller icons and captions than the action buttons use, since a 64x64 icon for a stack of wood is just wasteful of space. Probably make them 16x16 or 32x32, maybe split the difference at 24x24; I'll have to see. This widget will probably just be a simple scrolling list of passive icons+captions showing name and quantity for now, but I could see it being a pain in the ass once the number of resource types gets large enough, at least without any sort of organization or categorization.

Speaking of categorization, right now I'm just dumping testing skills into the quickbar spell library, and on a unit's first turn manually populating quickbar buttons with them as I use them. I'll likely split things out a bit more, though; you know, add a Build icon to the bottom action bar next to Move, Loot, etc... this would pop up a spellbook with all of the player's building skills, for erecting workbenches and stuff. Also should do a Spells button, to show all combat spells. I'll need to think about this, too. I really need to ensure that finding the desired skills and spells in the various spellbooks is not a pain in the ass.

It's still a tedious job, this UI stuff, but I'm actually kind of having some fun with it now.
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JTippetts
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Chillin' and grillin'
October 31, 2013 04:01 AM
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