Changes to Classification and Name Display in the Creator

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Zelknolf
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Posts: 6139
Joined: Tue Jul 05, 2005 7:04 pm

Changes to Classification and Name Display in the Creator

Post by Zelknolf »

Currently, the default NWN2 DM Creator only displays classifications that are one level deep, which has not been reflected in the toolset. For example, given five creatures with classifications
"Goblin" -- Humanoid|Goblinoid
"Goblin Chief" -- Humanoid|Goblinoid
"Orc" -- Humanoid|Orc
"Orc Chief" -- Humanoid|Orc
"Orc Shaman" -- Humanoid|Orc

This would appear in the DM Creator as

Code: Select all

+ Humanoid
    - Goblin
    - Goblin Chief
    - Orc
    - Orc Chief
    - Orc Shaman
It is my understanding that this is the cause for our current pattern of having many one-level-deep classifications that rely on being in alphabetical order to keep organization (e.g. a 0_Humanoid_Goblinoid as distinct from a 0_Humanoid_Orc)

With the release of the new creator next week, this limitation will be gone. In the above example, the creator would show as...

Code: Select all

+ Humanoid
    + Goblinoid
        - Goblin
        - Goblin Chief
    + Orc
        - Orc
        - Orc Chief
        - Orc Shaman
However, one of the requests for the DM Creator that I'd heard a few times was to increase the font size. We have some older members, and not everyone has the best color perception. The smaller font on the creator, which let us have longer names that would write entirely, let us have those long names and see them all-- but the available space has gotten a bit smaller with this change, and underscores take up a particularly-large quantity of space, so we might want to change these.

Fortunately, classifications can be altered en masse in the toolset, by expanding the classification, clicking the first one in a classification, then holding shift and clicking the last. Right click, properties (the resulting properties view will be mostly blank-- this is normal-- but the classification would be populated, and any changes made to this screen [especially the classifications we're talking about] would apply to every creature that was selected before).


// Edit-- of note that this would be a convenience change, not a required change. For an example of the handling of too-long names, have a look at the ACR Creator documentation and open up the screenshot there. The last several items on the placeables tab have names which are too long to write, and they simply write as much as they can fit and indicate that there's more with an ellipsis.

I still urge people to consider naming and organization. Improving the ease with which you get at the stuff in your module will reduce overall grumpiness.
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Castano
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Joined: Wed May 26, 2004 5:42 pm
Location: USA

Re: Changes to Classification and Name Display in the Creato

Post by Castano »

OMMFG we love you!

You have no idea what single level classifications caused....they were such a HUGE pain in the ass.
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