Dye for Armours

[caterpillar]

Hello, I would like to ask, if it'd be possible to make some item what could change the current colour of your armour or shield or helmet or even the gloves. I have in mind something like a dye, which you could use in the same way as the scroll aimed directly at the item in your inventory (like the light spell) and after implying the dye the armour would change the colour pernamently.

I give an example. I could buy a black dye, use it at my red armour and it would change the colour immediately, no possible return step. I think it could be good substitution for the missing armour appearance changer. If it is not possibly exploitable in the same way.

[Doubtful]

We're working on a new crafting system that includes appearance changing.

Taking DEV time away from that to implement what is essentially a stop-gap measure would be counter productive.

[caterpillar]

We're working on a new crafting system that includes appearance changing.

Taking DEV time away from that to implement what is essentially a stop-gap measure would be counter productive.

Thanks for answer, I was not at home, that's why's my reaction so late. Great news by the way. My I have just a question? Just out of curiosity? How would the appearance changing work? Through NPC or PC?

[Root]

We're working on a new crafting system that includes appearance changing.

Taking DEV time away from that to implement what is essentially a stop-gap measure would be counter productive.

Well... What's the progress on this system?

I remember hearing something along the lines of 'Yeah, the crafting system sucks, but it'll be replaced soon.... But it's been ages since they said it would be changed.' when I first turned up here, over a year back. ( I didn't make a forum account until about three months on the server)

If the new dye stuff would take, say, an hour to produce, it might be a good stop-gap if the brand-spanking-shiny-new-awesome-cool system is still stuck in development hell.

[Doubtful]

An hour to produce? I lolled.

The trouble with these systems (at least, by my understanding of them) is that they're very complex, bug-prone and fiddly. The nature of NWN2s engine and item system is also a piddling nightmare (not to mention the annoying habit of the different colour channels to do different things on different models/parts - Full Plate 2 for example , the main colour tint on the male model is the detail tint on the female model)

They're also the kind of systems that tend to not function when incomplete, so releasing part of a system wouldn't work, or would lead to issues further down the road. The previous system that we had in place for custom appearances seemed great, until it became apparent that it was hugely exploitable and consumed vast amounts of server system resources.

Let's also not forget that the new crafting system is the work of (as I understand it) one person, who's also working on other projects, bug fixes, running events, having a family, a life and holding down a full time job.

[DM_Acorn]

Agreed, give our DEVs a little love and understanding.

Also note, this there is a system for customizing looks as is - the current craft system. It is really not THAT bad. It takes a bit of work and so on. But I see a ton of cool looks coming from the folks that take the time to get to know the crafting sytem. Don't want to invest the effort to learn it post up and ask there are still a few folks around crafting.

We have a Black Wizard from FF1 walking around. How's that for a custom look :P

[Root]

Yeah, the 'hour' thing was a guess, but in all fairness it wouldn't be the first time I'd seen an easy, temporary solution put off in following of a long-term goal that's in-the-making (certain NWN1 servers being terrible at doing this. I played on a NWN1 server that said it would fix item-crafting costs three years back. 4-man dev team there still hasn't.)

Sometimes a good temporary solution can be slapped together very quickly, sometimes not. I know in NWN1 armour dyes was a matter of adding a certain hak to the server that would create the dyes, and then plopping an NPC merchant selling them into the world, and this would theoretically be far easier in NWN2 due to the auto-updater rather than requiring everyone to download the new hak. Still, that's based on NWN1 knowledge, and the NWN2 toolset is infamous for being worse than the first one.

I mean heck, we all know what happens when we try to make the perfect thing, right? *jerks a thumb at Duke Nukem Forever*

[Kaeldorn]

The NWN2 toolset is actually better than the first, because it gives a lot more freedom. Unfortunately, that means just about everything is more work to get it just right as well.

[Root]

Yah, from what I've seen, the best part of NWN2 toolsetting over 1 is that you can add a new hak, and everyone in the server will get it. Means you can add a new hak every day if you really want (though that'd get kind of messy).

Is there any estimate as to when the new crafting system could be working? I know it's been in hibernation for a while, but there's been an awesome spurt of developer activity recently.

[Kaeldorn]

I can't really answer that question, although I'm quite certain that the changes that were recently announced will have to be tackled first. Fortunately, we're well underway with that.