Okay, I think I've figured out a way to do what I want without even needing spoiler tags.
Look below my post here - This is the basic layout of what I'm going to do. It's gonna have a mini-bio in that first big box, and that second one will be basically an image rotation between the various classes I'd have - right now, it's a base, dummy data one so you can see how it'd look. I'm probably gonna add Iovi Omnis Gloria to the top in this same format.
Total, the combined images should not reach 500x250, thus keeping to signature rules.
Anywho, now that I've figured out how I'm gonna do this... I just have one more question. How does it look? I'm trying to make sure it looks good as well, so I'd like y'alls opinion on the setup.
Edit: I've also come up with some top-plate ideas, for the Iovi Omnis Gloria slogan. Let me know which one you like the most.
Edit 2: Realized some people may have signatures turned off. I'll just go ahead and post the bases then.
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/TopPlateA.png)
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/TopPlateB.png)
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/TopPlateC.png)
Edit: Decided to use Plate B.
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/TopPlateB2.png)
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/InfoTop.png)
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/RotationBase.png)
So far it looks nice.
How about you choose a different color for each of the status strengths? E would be orange, D will be yellow for example ...
What are you gonna do with the squares bellow your character's Hp and Atk strengths?
F (Awful) is Indigo
E (Poor) is Blue
D (Below Average) is Teal
C (Average)is green
B (Above Average) is Yellow
A (Great) is Orange
S (Excellent) is Bright Red
SS (Superior) is Deep Red
Green squares are Statistical references. Typical fantasy fare, done in stat ranks rather than actual numerical values.
Yellow squares are Inventory, just as in DD. I did have Noctiluca's Jewel (the staff in the image Misery did), but it didn't look right so I got rid of it. Slowly, yet surely, as I make the pics for my inventory items, you'll see them put in there.
Blue is Psynergy.
The four squares below my portrait are: Elemental Affinity, Fundamental Affinity, Clan Rank, and Innate Psynergy. I'm probably gonna tweak clan rank so it looks better.
The four djinn represent the djinn needed for the class. There will be a number (akin to the psy cost on psynergy in-game) next to them, ranging from 0 to 9 based on the class.
Honestly, I'd rather have it done so that it's all one row rather than taking up two rows, but the image would be way too long then (I'd have to adjust the text boxes and other things, and in the end it'd probably be well over 900 pixels long. That's just plain too long for a forum.
I'll probably be tweaking this as I go along as well - I'm currently looking up the various Character portraits right now. Crossing my fingers on size.
QuoteF (Awful) is Indigo
E (Poor) is Blue
D (Below Average) is Teal
C (Average)is green
B (Above Average) is Yellow
A (Great) is Orange
S (Excellent) is Bright Red
SS (Superior) is Deep Red
I see, though I cannot seem to notice the difference in color between E and D ... maybe change it a little, make it either darker or lighter depends on what you think.
Also the Red used for the HP, PP and such is really close to that for SS ...
Dunno maybe the colors are messed up in the office computer lol.
Black won't show up well on Dark Green, Jiten. That's why I chose to do a deep red instead.
I'll work on tweaking the stat values a bit. I'll let y'all know in the cbox when I'm done and uploaded.
Anywho, the new portrait is up - and YES! Portraits are 64x64!
You'd be surprised, Jiten. This discussion has already made me go in and improve the stat ranks - they look much better now.
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/RankSample.png)
See?
Edit: Something I really need to figure out is what font Dark Dawn uses, or at least what font is close to it. Anyone know?
Not really. What are you asking about, exactly? Are you wanting a rank above SS or something?
That's what SS is supposed to be. The absolute highest ranking is either SS or X, depending on where you go. Problem is, more people are familiar with SS instead of X, which is why I used it. I personally prefer X myself, but SS will have to do.
If you want an X rank, use the same color as SS, just don't use SS. After, SS is X.
Also, the font I used for the Ranks is Engravers MT, Bolded, at size 14.
...That's eight ranks already. If you put one above SS, you're more or less forcing B to become average, when traditionally that role belongs to C. After all, with 9 ranks, B becomes the mid-rank point. With 8 you have C as a mid-rank, three on either side, and SS/X as the pinnacle value.
Actually, when I first saw this, I assumed B was the midpoint, rather than some intermediary between C and B. But it doesn't really matter if B is slightly above average or exactly average; B is typically the lowest a stat can be and still be expected to be "decent." C is "barely usable," D is "you better have a better offensive option than this if you don't want to be laughed at" and E is "good luck doing double digits, you poor deprived child." I've never actually seen F used, so when I saw your stat spread, I assumed you were using ranks from E-SS.
Anyway, you should put in some kind of background for your character portrait instead of leaving it completely transparent. It looks pretty awful when everything else has such a small amount of background space visible.
Just wondering what the psy with the gold ring icon is supposed to be. And wondering why your highest class has only 14 psys. Put Paralyze or something on there, maybe? Wait... is that what the gold ring psy is?
That would be Paralyze. It's not a gold ring so much as yellow lightning.
And why does my highest class have 14? Because that's how it works. There's room for 16. Rarely does a class fill it out completely. Usually it's 14, sometimes 15. Typically, only tri-element classes fill it out completely.
@Leaf: Must have been something you grew up differently in. I always grew up with "C is average", even Letterman has the "average man scholarship" where you can get it only if you had nothing but Cs in all your classes your whole school career. I think it's SS throwing you off - SS just refers to the max, it's not a range like the other values.
One question: what is the purpose of those two big light brown rectangles at the center, if any? Wil you put something on them?
Have you played Dark Dawn? Those are the squares items show up on. Basically, that's my inventory. I'm still working on getting my items to look right.
I played like a year ago... don't remember those graphical stuuf too well...
So you're saying you'll be putting items on both big rectangles AND on those dark brown square things. That's... a lot of items.
Or you're saying you'll put the same items from the squares into the upper rectangle, like in DD? Then what's the purpose of the lower one?
The big rectangles? Those are text. I'm currently looking for the Dark Dawn font for it. I found out that the title font is Valhalla, which I'm using for the top plate, but for the bottom one I need what's used in game. The closest I've found is Georgia at size 8, but it's a serif font, and I need a sans-serif font.
Yeah, I thought it would be something like that. Well, good luck with that font stuff I guess.
Aye... it's a sans serif font with a distinctive G and y. If you wanna help look for it, here's a pic with a sample:
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a314/acidadept/GraniteEntry.png)
So far, the closest thing is Georgia, but it's a serif font, and I need sans-serif.
I though they were most often filled to 15, especially for mages. Doesn't make sense to give a mage-type fewer abilities than a fighter-type, does it?
Slayer: 14
Hero: 14
Sorcerer: 15
Angel: 15
Justice: 14
Admiral: 14
Average: 14.33
Role, whats that thing above your reveal psyenergy?
It's supposed to be my fundamental affinity. I know, it looks crappy. I'm working on making a better one. If y'all have your own ideas for the Luna emblem, feel free to let me know. While you're at it, look into Sol as well.
Quote from: Role on 03, January, 2012, 09:00:15 PM
Slayer: 14
Hero: 14
Sorcerer: 15
Angel: 15
Justice: 14
Admiral: 14
Average: 14.33
Then... jamie is right. The only mage with 14 skills instead of 15 is jenna, who happens to be the most warrior-like mage in the game in all other respects, as well. Ivan, sheba, and mia all have 15.
Quote@Leaf: Must have been something you grew up differently in. I always grew up with "C is average", even Letterman has the "average man scholarship" where you can get it only if you had nothing but Cs in all your classes your whole school career. I think it's SS throwing you off - SS just refers to the max, it's not a range like the other values.
I treat EDCBAS as a different ranking system than ABCDF (to the point I even list the rankings in opposite orders!), so I don't take school grades into consideration for it.
And my guess as to why Jenna only has 14 spells is because of her Fume line - but that is just a small idea.
Something seems a bit off with the portrait in your signature, but it looks nice enough overall... Aren't there supposed to be 30 inventory slots though?
And to think S was the highest in Advance Wars... I didn't know there was an SS! I guess you learn something everyday.
Salanewt: I agree that something does seem a bit off with that... Could be the transparency? Or maybe that there is a larger gap above it than below it? Or maybe it's just my eyes?
I've actually seen as high as SSS, but it's very rare.
In GS1+2 you could have up to 15 items. DD let you have up to 20.
@Teawater: DDR goes up to SSS, I think. Stepmania to SSSSS... but that's overkill. In Dragon Quest Monsters, the rank above S is X, which is for the ultimate rank, which is something I've personally come to prefer, but thanks to games like DDR people are more familiar with SS.
@Leaf: DD let you have 16, two rows of eight. Count again.
Oh, right, I kept mixing the total up with the max stack size, which is 30. Thanks for the clarification!
As for these ranks, I guess it really depends on preference. I personally like the E-S ranking system, but adding SS or X to go after that seems fair too.
Quote from: Role on 04, January, 2012, 01:11:15 AM@Leaf: DD let you have 16, two rows of eight. Count again.
Misremembered. Not miscounted. But k.
@Sala: Well, E-S is roughly the same as F-SS/X, just with slightly larger ranges. But yeah, ranking systems like this most people are pretty familiar with, and I don't have to get into details like stat percentiles.
I think the stat ratings look a little... not messy, but for a chart it's kind of hard to make the connection between stat and rating. It's probably too compact, and would need a bit of space to separate the stats so you get a clearer reading. There's a lot of empty space there, so you should be able figure something out, right? The rest of it is a nice concept though. But whoever drew that display picture should be shot
The one were you had the stats on top and the value on bottom was nice and easier to read.
Glory to Jupiter hih?
@Misery: What is wrong with her display picture?
Alright, I guess I better explain myself about that...
[spoiler=what's wrong]I should've made it better.[/spoiler]
If you want to do more work on it, you're more than welcome to do so. ^-^
In the mean time, my quest for the font continues... at this rate, I may have to make it myself. Anyone know any good sites with tutorials on how to make a font?
Seen that. The problem is that the software I've been told to use doesn't allow me to save the font unless I pay sixty bucks to buy the non-freeware version, thus totally defeating the point.
...In case anyone was interested, I've finished Beta Testing, and have got the full thing started. If y'all really want to, I can create a thread for it.
If it would not bee too much trouble, you might as well. While I personally am too uncreative to think of any character for myself other than an Inept Engineer (Which would sort of defeat the purpose, as there would be no multiple classes to cycle though), I am sure that others would like to use it, as it looks awesome.
Well, i dont know about making my own character, but if anyone who is planning to get their own dd sig, needs custom weapon and/or psyenergy icons for their sig, i'm more than happy to help.
Here are a few examples
(http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee361/ReploidGodX-KnightOfPurgatory/GsSprites%20and%20Icons/Proxianinfernover2cbg_zps3e678b15.png)
(http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee361/ReploidGodX-KnightOfPurgatory/GsSprites%20and%20Icons/OntachiVer2CBG_zps7b618fd2.png)
(http://i1224.photobucket.com/albums/ee361/ReploidGodX-KnightOfPurgatory/GsSprites%20and%20Icons/Jupitersstavecbg_zpsa21b536d.png)
Actually, being an inept is perfectly valid if that is your desire - they even benefit from djinn and classes, though only statistically (after all, inepts cannot cast spells).
Now, with Ni No Kuni looming, I'm not likely to get this all up by this week, because there is a LOT of threads I've gotta set up first so as to make the process a heck of a lot easier on everyone (and oh joy, the formatting fixes I'll have to do), but by the time I'm done, you guys should be able to not only have your own signature icon, but also create yourselves as characters, and have everything all set up and ready to go for an RP should one start up.
I'll start getting the prerequisite threads done, but don't expect me to finish for a bit - I'll let you know when all of this is up and ready to go.