SPELLBINDER'S PROFILE

Coder and RPG2k3 Developer from Germany

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Item naming conventions

@Dyhalto:
Yep, for my saga project there will be the classic short names, but the list above was not from this project. BTW: good point with the "imagination at work"!

@Neverm0re:
Thanks for the feedback! I take your ideas "Practice Bow" and "Woodmans Bow" right away. Im also thinking about switching the places of Composite and Storm bow.

Bare Knuckle stays! Saw it in a JRPG fan translation and laughed so hard i just had to use it in one of my projects

@InfectionFiles:
Quake Knuckle stays too!

Item naming conventions

I guess its stupid when i post the first tier of a few weapon types in my database here, but i really like to see this thread evolve some more. so please: hate it, flame it, tear it apart - but please tell me what you think! all items feature unique exfont icons, items are sorted according to their strength by type - and by the way - the * marks items that have (notable) special abilities (increasing proportional over the next few tiers):

PS: I am thinking about outfitting one or two items of the lower levels (1-6) with special abilities as well, right now it takes quite long until the players encounter a weapon with magical features.

SWORDS
- 01 Gladius (Starting Item)
- 02 Middle Sword
- 03 Bronze Scimitar
- 04 Long Sword
- 05 Steel Sword
- 06 Combat Blade
- 07 Noble Sword*
- 08 Broad Sword
- 09 Sacred Blade*
- 10 Great Sword

BOWS
- 01 Small Bow (Starting Item)
- 02 Short Bow
- 03 Middle Bow
- 04 Longbow
- 05 Light Crossbow
- 06 Heavy Crossbow
- 07 Hunter's Bow*
- 08 Battle Bow
- 09 Storm Bow*
- 10 Composite Bow

KNUCKLES
- 01 Bare Knuckle (Starting Item)
- 02 Leather Knuckle
- 03 Bronze Claw
- 04 Iron Claw
- 05 Steel Claw
- 06 War Knuckle
- 07 Blitz Claw*
- 08 Battle Claw
- 09 Quake Knuckle*
- 10 Mighty Knuckle

Come on - flame the names! Flame them!!

Item naming conventions

@emmych @Neverm0re: But "fit the whole thing in there" and "my preference is longer" is also really immature. Sorry, but my immature self just made me post this - don't blame it on me!

Well, what about

"Greater Fan of Dispel Flatulence" ? (A tier 10 weapon - for sure!)

Item naming conventions

@OmegaHunter: Oh i forgot the good old "+X" naming style. pretty oldschool.

@LockeZ: Some good points there, its always refreshing to have someone with another perspective. d'accord with your last statement "shitty progression = shitty naming" - but making items unique often leads to the "every item features special abilities" syndrome. I tried this a while ago and realized that you just need some basic, boring, filler stuff. But, i have to admit - i like "Greater Orcish Crossbow of the Whale"!

Hey, we could make a forum game out of brainstorming silly item names!

"Witchcane of the jinxed Deceiver" HA!

off to work
-Spell

Item naming conventions

I have been thinking about the item names for my project and thought this would be worth a thread. So, there are so many different styles of how to name your weapons and armor, i was wondering what kind you prefer?

First of all I am using a modified exfont for my 2k3 project that adds an icon to every major item type in the game (future makers feature icons as well). This makes it much easier to distinguish the different item types. Lets assume we prefix every "Sword" type weapon with a % (that represents a sword icon in the maker).

Example: %Short Sword

Now, the next question is - do you prefer short names or detailled names? When using short names, the icon already explains the item type and makes the names look much more like in old gameboy games (final fantasy legend/saga etc.). Examples:

%Short
%Long
%Knight
%Battle

While the detailled version adds the weapon type also to the name, wich is redundant as it can already be seen by looking at the icon. Maybe its a bit easier to read (and allows you to divide the items further into subtypes):

%Short Blade
%Curved Scimitar
%Knight Sword
%Battle Blade

Furthermore, when trying to describe the items properities we have the choice to choose between a single keyword naming convention (like seen in most traditional console games) and multiply keywords (like seen in many modern computer games, especially those with random item generators). Example: We create a series of ice based swords, some of them do elemental damage while others inflict secondary effects like slow or freezing as well.

Using a single keyword, we are forced to come up with a new name for every item (wich can be somewhat cryptic):

%Frost Sword
%Yeti Sword

While using multiply keywords, its easier to describe how the weapon is working:

%Ice Sword of Stopping
%Ice Sword of Slowing

Personal Conclusion
For myself I prefer the short/single keyword version - because its clean and simple. I dont have a problem brainstorming simple but unique names for all of the weapons in my game - even if there are large numbers (there are just so many possibilities ranging from %XCalibr over %Seven to %Glass). The only downside is, that this ultra short names always carry this "we have only 8 ascii chars available" aftertaste (wich isn't a bad thing).

Well I haven't even touched the possibilities of adding quality and/or material tags to the weapons. This enables us to describe weapons much more precice and adds more variety and color to the game world itself. The downside is that inventories tend to turn into wall of texts. But a %Splendid Mithril Sword of Perpetual Slaying just has charme on its own - or not? :-)

Finally, finally - what are your thoughts? What other techniques to create item names do you know? What kind of names, length and style do you prefer?

Thanks for reading
-Spell

Whatchu Workin' On? Tell us!

@supremewarrior looks great! long live custom menus!

Still working on the custom shop menus for my little side project (that grows bigger every single day!)

The Screenshot Topic Returns

@Avee: Ah yes, i knew i forgot something *adds shadows now*

@Neverm0re: The tileset is just great, perfect for an "steampunk london in alternative future setting". just divide the city into districts and get a few more tilesets like this one and you are set. this just screams to be stuffed with sidequests of all sorts.

The Screenshot Topic Returns

@Demicru

Thanks for the quick reply! The text is still buggy (im german not english, maybe thats the cause) - but i gladly accept any corrections.

to answer the first part of your post: it IS hard work, so hard that it is painful. Im now also working with the PicPointerPatch (by cherry as well), it makes things even more flexible. but, you just have to be somewhat masochistic to try something like this :-)

profile open in a few weeks, when the game is more mature

The Screenshot Topic Returns

Here we have three more (simple) screenshots from my side-project that finally has a name "BattleQuest" (simple stupid name).

The game profile is still on private, except for the two lucky individuals who managed to subscribe while i was doing some maintenance work
:-)

you can see the custom shop menu, the custom inn menu as well as the custom hiring menu.

yep, thats all custom in this game - graphics and scripts are taken from my previous projects and the obsolete project of a friend. all graphics are from the shining force series.

recruiment and shops are randomly pre-generated, re-generated after x battles fought, also scale with party level and include epic-sales/epic-bargain at low %-chance.

tech:
* rpgmaker 2k3
* BetterAEP
* DynRPG by Cherry
* DynTextPlugin by Kaze
* Animated Monsters Plugin by dragonheartman

PS: the icons underneath the inns text box have already been moved to a better place in a newer version, not obstructing the text box anymore.



[RM2k3 - DynRPG] - DynVarStorage (by-name variables, arrays and more).

hey,
just downloaded it - good work!

Question: How do you save the variables? Where/Wich file/format?

Because i had the (crazy) idea a while ago to provide a plugin that allows to communicate with a remote server and a SQL database. your variable management would be the first step for something like this.
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