FUMBBL :: Online Blood Bowl League

Joined: Dec 19, 2004

Posted: Dec 17, 2005 - 21:35

Hi Ski, i need to bug you to make a minor change with big impact for those of us who love to add their own graphics to Java Bowl!

I came across this issue:

I want to list an Amazon Player on the Amazon Team.
Her name shall be "Zara the Slayer" and her Position "Amazon Blitzer" (not "Star Player").
This Player shall use a unique Portrait named "Zara the Slayer.GIF", and unique Icons named "Zara the Slayer.GIF, Zara the SlayerAN.GIF, Zara the SlayerB.GIF, Zara the SlayerBAN.GIF". The Players Position should be a "Z", representing the "Blitzer" Position.

Here's the .INI Files for the Team:

Code:

Icons.INI

[AMAZON]
Amazon Lineman=Amazon Lineman.GIF
Amazon Catcher=Amazon Catcher.GIF
Amazon Thrower=Amazon Thrower.GIF
Amazon Blitzer=Amazon Blitzer.GIF
Zara the Slayer=Zara the Slayer.GIF

Code:

Portraits.INI

[AMAZON]
Amazon Lineman=Amazon Lineman.GIF
Amazon Catcher=Amazon Catcher.GIF
Amazon Thrower=Amazon Thrower.GIF
Amazon Blitzer=Amazon Blitzer.GIF
Zara the Slayer=Zara the Slayer.GIF

Code:

Positions.INI

[AMAZON]
Amazon Lineman=L
Amazon Catcher=C
Amazon Thrower=T
Amazon Blitzer=Z
Zara the Slayer=Z

As you know, to make these .INI Files work, the Player requires "Star Player" to be her Position in the HTML Team Roster. As far as i know, Java Bowl looks up the Player's Position to find out what Icon, Letter, and Portrait to use. If Java Bowl find's the Position "Star Player", it uses the Player's name instead to find out whitch graphics to use. Would you please change that sequence and make it work approximately like this: Java Bowl looks up the Players Name first to determine witch graphics to use. If Java Bowl cannot find the Players name in the respective .INI files, it continues to look up his Position and uses the graphics related to that information.

@All, because i know there will be flames and off topic comments so just in case you didn't understand whats this really about:

This simple change in the player detection sequence would allow all of us to add unique icons and portraits for special players on our teams. For your Team, Blitzer 4 named "Tom Doolittle" could have a diffrent Icon, Portrait, and Position Letter (press and hold the "i" key on your keyboard to view the position letters) than all of your other Blitzers. All you had to do is look up your race in the INI files and add a line that specifies your special players names and graphics to use.

Ski, thanks for looking into it and have a great holliday season!

HollowOne

Joined: Sep 23, 2004

Posted: Dec 19, 2005 - 12:34

There's a small consequence of your suggestion: if coaches amuse themselves by naming their players after Star Players, the program will load up Star Player graphics for them. That's potentially misleading, especially if you know what's going on and your opponent does not.

Moreso, it needn't even be deliberate: if a zombie is raised from a Star Player (e.g. Ramtut III), that Zombie will always appear with the Star Player icon.

Whether this is a bug or a feature will depend on one's perspective, but it's probably best to be aware of it.

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Optihut

Joined: Dec 16, 2004

Posted: Dec 19, 2005 - 12:43

HollowOne wrote:

There's a small consequence of your suggestion: if coaches amuse themselves by naming their players after Star Players, the program will load up Star Player graphics for them. That's potentially misleading, especially if you know what's going on and your opponent does not.

That reminds me of my old bloodbowl tabletop league: We were playing with our own miniatures. Back in those days Morg N'Thorg was still playing for any team and starplayers didn't leave after just one match. So the guy used one of his super tiny dwarf miniatures for Morg N'Thorg, claiming it was just a tough dwarf and not an ogre on his team...

I was running the league and let that slide, but of course there was always the question "Ok, wait a second, where's your str. 6 guy?" when playing against his team. Heh.

BigMac

Joined: Dec 19, 2004

Posted: Dec 19, 2005 - 13:43

HollowOne wrote:

There's a small consequence of your suggestion: if coaches amuse themselves by naming their players after Star Players, the program will load up Star Player graphics for them. That's potentially misleading, especially if you know what's going on and your opponent does not.

Moreso, it needn't even be deliberate: if a zombie is raised from a Star Player (e.g. Ramtut III), that Zombie will always appear with the Star Player icon.

Whether this is a bug or a feature will depend on one's perspective, but it's probably best to be aware of it.

Star Players are defined under the [BIG GUYS] tag in the Icons, Portraits, Position.INI Files. (btw Ski, please introduce a [STAR PLAYERS] tag when you find the time). The Special Players i am talking about need to be defined under the [TEAM] tag.

So, your Special Character Icons, Portraits, Letters will only show on YOUR computer, since you need to manually edit your .INI files on your computer, locally.

In the Future, there could be a reference to what icon to use in the HTML Team Roster, and a "download opponent's icons" OPTION in Java Blood Bowl. To clarify, this suggestion as it stands does only affect the graphics shown on your computer, not your opponents.

To avoid the issue raised by you, FUMBBL would simply need to disallow naming players EXACTLY like official Star Players (the list of names would be needed to be syncronised between the LRB, JBB, and FUMBBL, because there are some existing typos).

For example, "Ripper Bolgrot" would be an allowed name, but "'Ripper' Bolgrot" (notice the ' ' ) would not be.

Aside from my suggestion, i would recommend FUMBBL not to allow coaches to name their Amazon Linemen "Count Luthor van Drakenborg". Its lame. Think of your own COOL names damit.

Colin

Joined: Aug 02, 2003

Posted: Dec 19, 2005 - 13:52

I think the easiest method is to allow portrait linkage to squad number, if you do want to customise this way. To go along with this, you'd need the ability to edit custom lists for certain teams, as well as for each race.

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DaemonicLazoth

Joined: Jul 18, 2004

Posted: Dec 19, 2005 - 13:54

Given my understanding of the client setup whatever changes you make to your own copy of the client does NOT affect your opponents. For example if Ski was to implement this and BigMac were to do this own his screen it would look like Zara and all that but on my screen that player would look like just a normal zon blitzer its only if i was to make those changes to the INI files would everything look the same as his.

What im trying to say what he does to the graphical look of his client does not alter the players roster. Its just like the fields most people have a different field to the default but it still plays the same.

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BigMac

Joined: Dec 19, 2004

Posted: Dec 19, 2005 - 14:00

You see right now, this works, try it in Standalone Mode.
Problem is, the players position needs to be "Star Player".

As I explained, flip the sequence of detection, first name, if no name is present in the .INI files, then use position.
This should be fixed in half an hour by SkiJunkie.

To prevent possible abuse, the precise names of all official Star Players need to be made unavailiable on FUMBBL.

Please note, the beauty of editing the .INI files is that you do not force your opponets to look at your crapy portraits and icons. This only affects your team, on your PC.