I guess I didn't have another question really, just brainstorming out loud since I don't really have anyone to bounce ideas around with.

But for the hotbar menu on bottom (not yet put in) I intend on having the skill list as it is, but adding little blue bubbles next to active skills, ones you can drag to the hot bar (like peace making or hide, etc). I will get rid of "hit A to attack" in favor of a button that refreshes based on your swing speed algorithm.

I remember one thing I wanted to ask. What did you mean a button to pop it out? I'm trying to minimize the interface as much as possible so I'd hate to have too much on screen. That's my problem with most MMO games is there are too many things to look at, and most of that comes from the developers trying to balance a game so they keep adding stuff. Look at WOW vs UO: WoW and UO are the same, but to make a class system, WOW had to offer a traditional leveling system (which we do not see in UO). So though you have skills that can be leveled, you are limited to weapon skills based on class, which my game won't be doing. Mine will be a sandbox, build your character how you want it, change it later by doing something else, that sort of thing.

If you guys haven't played Ultima Online, then you probably won't understand how my game will be working or how the menus should work/display for a modern approach to this game play style. Because of this, I recommend anyone interested in my game go play Ultima Online. There is a server called ABCUO and another classic server called T2A (The Second Age) and they are both free so you don't have to spend money to catch up with my mind.

I'm saying I don't intend on having a pausable menu (like Final Fantasy or Zelda) but instead a place to see what all is happening without interrupting gameplay. The transparent skills menu is transparent because it's a quick menu, not meant to be kept out. But when it's out, it's transparent so the player can see what's happening in the game while the menu is out. (It was more transparent, so trust me when I say it's better at 75 opacity instead of 50 lol). It's just I've seen so many menu types out there and all of the examples I found here would have helped me out 10 years ago when I aspired to make zelda clones and stuff, but today innovation is lacking with menu's.

See, in my system, there will be another menu on the right for your equipment/inventory, and another at the bottom where the text currently is for a hotbar, etc. (the text will eventually be going away, but not for a long while. Misses, hits, crits will all be visual/audible and any typed text will be chat bubbles above player heads eventually.)

Because I'm working on a MMO style game and hope to make it multiplayer, my menus cannot be pausing the game. They should be quickly accessible and more of a glance and see sort of system.

Check out my site to get an example of what I'm doing:

http://roracle.x10.mx

Not many skills programmed yet, and a few things I've changed, so don't take the game as anywhere near finished. To access the menu system, drag the scroll to the right, or drag your stats down.

Creating menus and the likes is always going to be daunting, but I remember reading a CC forum post regarding using inherited layouts and sheets to design the menu system in, that way you can design it then call on it where ever in the game. Does C2 also do this, or is there another practice for it?

I was looking for the old CC posting regarding this topic, but I was reading it almost 24 hours ago and now I can't seem to find it.

Bumping if anyone knows the answer to the "color" questions?

I really like what they are doing. However I still have a question. Because inventory will be expandable in my game, and items aren't associated with colors, because users will be able to color anything (within reason of still being appealing in the game world) any color they want.

GeometriX you mentioned a grey-scale image without colors to work with. What if I had one animation in a grey-scale sprite set aside as a 16x16 image holding the 256 colors I need? Would that be able to trigger the HSL feature, and would that method work with Spriter imports as well?

I get to level 5 and can't level up any more. I was able to beat the game, but the problem was with the experience bar always going up. If 5 is the max level (for now) then I suggest you have it stop the experience gain.

BUT! Great job, it was fun playing. I love rouge likes, and would love to see this gem grow some more.

Zero is the absence of a number, like darkness is the absence of light. We give the word "darkness" to describe the absence, and in the same way we (and computers) must have a way of demonstrating the absence of a number. Because of this, zero is counted with or without going into negatives.

The RPG I'm designing will have various items the user can equip. The player will be able to see the changes on his physical person in game, be it clothing or armor or weaponry.

I have an idea about how to do this, but I want to make as quick work of it as possible, so I was playing around and noticed "Adjust HSL". Would this allow me to, for example, create a glove animation using a black and white color, then depending on the properties of the item being made, give it a value to change the hue of the player's character's physical equipment? I know already I'll have to use various layers or z-order it properly because I'll have a number of equipable things.

Now my other option would be Spriter. Is it possible to individually change a sprite being used by the Spriter plugin during runtime in C2? That would make things much easier I think.

I'm about to get my hands dirty with an inventory system. That is where you should start if you want to do shops. I have to read all the tutorials on arrays and check out demonstrations from others. I have to dig in the forums to figure out how to do what I want to do, grabbing people's examples and the likes. I suggest you do the same, it's the best practice.

Reverse engineer it. It can't be THAT hard, but I'm sure it's complicated. Plenty of variables and stuff. Go play DW, write down how everything happens, then have fun.

Functions are your friend.

Also, these "systems using keyboard hotkeys" should be plenty to get going. Just replace "pressed L" with whatever game event will trigger it.

Everyone _wants_ a partner to make games. I can't do graphics, but I'm learning, and I suck at programming but I'm learning. Let me put it this way: if I can't convince my hard core gamer friends to help me design an MMORPG, then you likely won't find people in here to help you as a partner. Unless you're paying them.