Setting up an interface for a hero with numerous (20) skills

OK, before I get questions about why a hero would ever have 20 skills, I'll make it clear.

I r teh newb.

There, now no one else can say it.

I've been looking into diiferent methods for how to configure a good interface for anyone dumb enough to choose this hero to learn their skills. I like how the normal casting interface is set up, there are three spellbooks that have six different spells inside them (max level 1) that become available for casting once I run a trigger. He has two ultimate abilities to choose from, and (6 x 3) + 2 = 20 (Yay! 20 skills!).

The problem I'm having is coming up with a good method to show all the spells that are available for learning. From what I've gathered, there is now way to put more than 5 "spells" in the learning area for a hero. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I don't think I am. I've looked a lot into the Engineering Upgrade based systems, and though I don't like basing the learning system off of a bug, I could deal with it if I had to. Basically, I could have 5 "pages" that the user could scroll through, with 4 spell button per page and a "Next Page" button.

That seems unnecessarily tedious, but it may be the way I have to do things. I am hoping for some suggestions (I am thick-skinned, feel free to call me an idiot and berate my method as long as you can supply a better one). I've also considered a Dialog popup where they could select their spell from a list, but that seems very unpolished and...ugly. Also, they wouldn't have tooltips to tell them what the spells did (they are mostly custom, so the info would almost be required).

A quick note on my methods: Every non-ultimate spell is a unit spell with only 1 level. They all require a custom upgrade, ie the spell "Convert" requires the Convert upgrade. The hero simply learns a dummy ability that I immediately remove, but at the same time I give him the necessary upgrade so that he is able to cast the unit spell.

Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas for how I could set up a good leveling interface for this hero? Thank you for any help you can give =)

-Aaero

In my SST:ZA map I hijack the learn skill system with an ability. When that abiltiy is used, it causes the player to select a hidden "shop" unit. This shop unit sells dummy units that trigger off the triggers that give the hero the chosen spell.

A shop has space for 11 spells, you coudl put 10 spells and 1 metamorph spell that changes the shop into the 2nd form with the other 10 spells.

Well, I've spent the better part of the night working with that, and I think I'll be able to work with it.

I took a lot at .27 of your map, it looks like it will be awesome. Thanks a lot for your help!

-Aaero

Welcome to the forum, aaero. If your posts continue to be as detailed and well-spoken, I think we'll appreciate having you around here.

You could also try an implementation of my spellbook. It is part of my Drag and Drop Project. The spellbook allows you to add spells to it, though it currently doesn't allow upgrading spells at the moment. (I've yet to introduce the final two types to the system).

Thanks - I'm always try to "sound" well-spoken. Heh but seriously, thank you for the welcome.

This hero is for a map that's almost complete (it has, sadly, been in development off and on since fall 2002). The name of the map is Gladiator Survival, though it was called Emperor's Arena for most of it's life. I wouldn't be all that surprised if there were a few people that had played it on the forum, as v 0.99g saw quite a bit of playtime (mostly by me, but still). This multi-skilled hero will take the place of a shapeshifting hero who we just had to throw out. He wasn't fun, he was difficult to balance, and he caused issues for us by being the only flying hero.

Anyway, yeah, that's a lot of details. My development partner and I will be playtesting tonight, to balance out the new hero. Other than that, just a couple of modified abilities and rounds to test and I'll be releasing the map to all the people that care! Yay!

Weaddar - I will take a look at your drag and drop spellbook,though when I was searching the forums earlier it didn't quite seem to be what I wanted. I'm trying to make it so the hero appears to level just like any other unit...but anyway, maybe I misunderstood the drag/drop spellbook when I read about it. It would not really matter that you can't upgrade spells, since every spell only has 1 level. Thanks.

-Aaero

I have a confession...I had trouble using a trigger to select a shop. For whatever reason, when I selected a building through a trigger it did not show the player anything for sale in that building (the same appearance you get when you click on a building you don't own). I searched and could not find anyone else who had this problem, so I looked away and did something to be ashamed of...I changed my design. Instead of choosing your spells, a player is rewarded the spells from each school of magic in a certain order. For example, if you level up your enfeebling magic, instead of choosing one of the six spells the hero has available, you learn two that have been "pre-chosen" for you.

I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this method or not. On the bright side, he's a little bit less complicated to play. On the not so bright side, he's less complicated to play.

Anyway, this isn't a map development forum. That's what I've done for now on the interface side, because it keeps things very simple for the player.

-Aaero

The main usage you'd want is from the spell book is to allow the hero to obtain the 20 spells and (be able to switch around through them) and then create your own interface where they could purchase scrolls from a shop or you would trigger it to pop up when you level a paging inventory of items like almost every other interface in my map.

I opened up your Drag & Drop spellbook and took a look a quick look at how things work. I honestly really like the system and the power it has, but I don't want to use it. I feel like it would be more useful if I was making an RPG type map, and not a melee "Arena" type map. Here's why I say that:

If you're working with players that are playing your RPG, they have a lot of time to adjust to whatever interface you give them. They can get used to buying spells from a shop or picking them from their inventory, and it can quickly become second-nature. Due to the amount of time the player spends playing it, you have more flexibility than in an environment like mine, where it's very likely players aren't extremely familiar with the game, and may only play for 20-30 minutes total. I want to give players an interface they recognize immediately, so that it's one less "new" thing they have to deal with (custom abilities would be another).

This is just my feelings on the subject. I'm not an expert by any means, but this seems to make sense to me.

This, on the other hand, does not.

Umm you need the shop to belong to the player. And it should sell units, not items.

Just in case you want to go back to that interface...

Yeah, I made sure the shop belonged to the player. I had a really hard time figuring out why it wasn't working, because when the player clicked on the "building" it worked perfectly, but when I use the "Select Unit for Player" (or something similar) trigger, nothing showed up.

If I can get it working, I do plan to use that interface. I don't want to post a bunch of questions about why that was happening before I try to figure it out myself though, as it could be something very simple that I'm just missing. I will try putting units in the building, though it doesn't sound like that's the problem.

Thx for getting back to me on it.