Do you need some new textboxes?

[Trevor_Clim]

hi!
The through the option-menu available color-text-backgrounds are really ugly...
Perhaps some cool textboxes would we be nice.
The character portrait of the NPCs shows always some things arround the person (Iolos portait shows some trees left and right, at the avatars there are antique walls or something...)

I can make textboxes for every NPC, that are in the same style of his portrait!

shall i?

sorry for my bad english...

ciao

trevor

[Trevor_Clim]

ok i made one!

but i have no webspace or an ability to upload it...

is someone so nice and upload it for me? i send it to an email adress!
please help me...

[wjp]

Feel free to send it to me; I'll put it online somewhere.

[wjp]

http://www.math.leidenuniv.nl/~wpalenst/TC_textbox.jpg

[Trevor_Clim]

thank you very much, wjp!

now, people, tell me what do you think about it? is it cool or not?
@team: what do you think about implementing it?

[Dominus]

I like it!

[gruck]

pretty nifty

[gruck]

hmm.. one thing I never noticed about Black Gate before. The decoration around the person's character portrait is directly related to what town they're from. So Iolo has trees.
People from Minoc have a neat brass plaque with a dragon
Trinsic has a golden metal ring
Yew has trees
Paws has a chipped stone motif
Britain has a stone wall with some skull on the top
Cove citizens have what looks like carpet embroidery
Buccaneer's den has a neat plaque

Wow, just one more thing I've never noticed about a game I've played so many times

[Trevor_Clim]

@ gruck

yes, you are right!
the timelord i think has the same decoration as the Avatar...
which one has batlin?

The textboxes would of course be at the NPC's text, too, in there town-related portrait-decoration

[RazorBlade]

I like it very much! Reminds me on Final Fantasy VI. Though it is a new element, it looks at if it was always meant to be that way.

How much different graphics are we speaking of? Would be nice to have this implemented as an option!(though I dont agree with you, that the coloured boxes were ugly, i like them. Only yours is much more black gate-like)

[gruck]

Clim,

Batlin has the same decoration as the rest of Britian, because he's a citizen

In Serpent Island, theres no border around people's pictures, but it would look good if you designed a box that one could use.

[Trevor_Clim]

"How much different graphics are we speaking of? "

At all it would be about 10 graphics.
One for the Avatar (someone has to check out, in which part of the game the available answers of the avatar are the most, so that we make a maximum big one)
and for the NPCs i think there are all about 8 different decorations and the text isnt bigger as 4 lines so the box is always the same size.

i hope you understand it ^^ (my english... )

[SB-X]

"someone has to check out, in which part of the game the available answers of the avatar are the most, so that we make a maximum big one"

It is possible for your answers to cover the entire screen below the NPC text.

[wjp]

You could make the textboxes variable size, too. You would have to create the corners and 'repeating elements' of all the sides. That way we could glue together the right shapes to get a textbox that's exactly the right size.

[Trevor_Clim]

"You could make the textboxes variable size, too. You would have to create the corners and 'repeating elements' of all the sides. That way we could glue together the right shapes to get a textbox that's exactly the right size."

yes, that would be the best solution!
but I think such a variable-border-textbox should only be used with the Avatar's answers. A minimum size is also required because, imagine a textbox so small to fit a YES/NO answer possibilty...

For the NPCs i suggest a not-sizing one, the text is often full 4 lines long and if it's not a always changing textbox would look ugly

[SB-X]

Your text box also looks like a nice frame for a text-input box, which I thought might be a nice idea to have if an older Ultima is ever to be played in Exult.

[OgreBattle]

Like it alot - well done Trevor

[drcode]

Yes, I like it (as an option, of course). Also, wjp's idea of making it variable size is a good idea.

[Trevor_Clim]

thanks for the good response

now, what should be done?

@team:
is there a way to implement it, as an option of course ?

[nadir]

It must be implemented as variable size. So you need to break up the graphics into the various bits and pieces so that they can be "tiled" together.

I believe the width of the text box is constant so the top and bottom can be fixed. The left and right instead should be as tall as a single row of text.

So for each style you need 4 graphic shapes. Full top, full bottom, left row, right row.