Item Description Format

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Remixer
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Item Description Format

Postby Remixer » Wed Aug 24, 2016 9:45 pm

Hello boys and grills!

I've been doing some heavy thinking on the item descriptions in the game and been figuring out a way to redo/revamp/change the item descriptions - now I've mostly thought it on Titan's perspective since he's the one using items mostly.

Things I've planned so far... let me give you an example:

Shadow Catcher allows you to walk with the winds, but also grant additional bonuses such as attack damage and bonus mana points.
Shadow Catcher attributes:
+ 20 attack damage
+ 350 mana points
+ 50% bonus mana regeneration

Active - Wind Walking - [ 90.00 ]
Turns you invisible, allowing you to move through units for 30.00 seconds, also increasing your movement speed by [color=#FFFFFF]25%.

Requires:
1 × Magic Coral
1 × Moon Crystal
1 × Wind Catcher
1 × Shadow Catcher Recipe


Now as this is on entgaming the colour-coding isn't exactly the same as what I've used on Warcraft but it mimics it enough to use it as an example. Note though, that in Warcraft the text background will be dark, not bright as on entgaming.

The first line of the item description is some loric background - however I'm starting to think it should give the player a quick insight of what the item does, instead of something completely useless - we simple don't need that. In-game this will coloured light-yellowish khaki colour (it cannot be golden nor grey). Every single titan item will have this line, because it creates more format to the descriptions as each item has it.

Each item also has the white line "Item xXxXx attributes". it is followed by light/greyish blue lines that tell what specific stats the item provides, such as + 10 Strenght, + 25 attack damage and so on.

Raw stats, such as attack damage, movement speed bonuses etc. are followed by abilities the item grant - first passive abilities, then active abilities. Both highlighted by bright, strong blue colour. For example "Active - Wind Walking - [ 90.00 ]" Word Active/Passive clearly indicated whether the ability is active or not >,<' That is followed by the ability name in this case "Wind Walking". It determinate which abilities it collides with cooldown-wise, meaning if another item has the same ability, they have same cooldown group together. Same with passive abilities - but instead of sharing cooldown, they do not stack, this is the case with for example Evasions. The ability name is followed by [ XX.XX ]. This is the cooldown of the active ability in seconds. All the time units are shown as "XX.XX", be that duration, of poison, reveal or casting time or what ever - as long as it is time. Compared to for example distances, that are shown without decimals, "within range of 1000".

In addition all the number values, inside ability descriptions are coloured white, where as rest of the ability description is greyish blue (same as raw stats colour). This is to help the reader pick up important things quickly from the descriptions

The item info section is then followed by Note:"xxxxxxx" if that is needed. Note texts are always shown in crimson red, indicating that it is important, purely informative text. This for example includes "Movement Speed bonuses do not stack", which is included in all items that give you movement speed - or Fog Generator not working while the holder is invisible.

The Note is then followed by "Requires" in case the item is a recipe - as above. "Requires:" is always written in gold, and followed by lighter red colour than crimson red used in Note (notable difference) - the items are shown in "Z × Item" (notice the difference between × and x ). The items are always listen in alphabetical order, with the item recipe always listed at the bottom.


Thanks for your time - make sure to share your insights and opinions. Also, give additional ideas if you have any.


EDIT:

Also, Titan items are reading

"Titan Only" (in crimson red)
"Artifact" (in golden)

to indicate that the item is only for titan, not able to be picked up by builders.

The "Purchase This Item" is now written [ Y ] Purchase This Item, with everything in white, except Y, which is in bright blue colour
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Lynx (Fri Aug 26, 2016 12:25 am)

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Re: Item Description Format

Postby Burn » Thu Aug 25, 2016 6:18 am

Fuckin' perfect, mate.

-Burn

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Re: Item Description Format

Postby pep » Thu Aug 25, 2016 10:21 pm

tbh should have lowest of low priority but looks neat
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Re: Item Description Format

Postby Remixer » Fri Aug 26, 2016 12:57 pm

pep wrote:tbh should have lowest of low priority but looks neat


Yes, of course there are bigger priorities, but sadly they aren't as simply edited as Item descriptions, which are rather easy. This was also something I could do solely myself - without extreme deeper knowledge of the systems included in Island Defense core systems.

Generic On Topic:
I made some changes to the format mentioned above.

Firstly, the loric description on the top has been removed from items' base form, this is because some Warcraft hard-coded limitations that cannot be breached. Why exactly that part was removed is clear - it was the only part that offered no valuable information to the player.
Note however, that some classic items, such as Ankh of Reincarnation, or other widely-known items on Island Defense might still have loric description, to high-light these items and add honorable mentions of persons/things that have been valuable for Island Defense. Also, recipes will have their loric description, however in this case, the description is a quick summary of the item, telling the player what the item in general does without going into much further detail.

Secondly, some colors were adjusted: the "Note" color has been changed to bright-red, further highlighting the wanted things. Note -text type is used for mentioning special restrictions and functionalities on certain items, such as Fog Generator; notify player of non-stacking effects, such as movement speed bonus; notify player if the item is stackable and guide the player in certain, rare situations (buying tomes for example).

Thirdly, because of the Warcraft limitations, the information on items with many functions, such as Armor of Fate or Mystic Staff of Gods, is pretty compact, with as little usage of unnecessary words as possible. This, in some cases might cause some obscure text lines and descriptions - in these cases make sure to mention it here on the forums so that I can take a look what could be done in order to improve the situation with certain items.

Fourthly, unlike the format mentioned earlier, the new format also includes the Cast Type of active abilities. Cast type is either Instant, Point Target or Unit Target, depending on what kind of functionalities the ability has - for example Healing Ward is a Point Targeted ability. In some cases, where an ability has a certain targeting type, albeit having other, additional functions as well, the more detailed behavior can be read below the active ability headline.

Additional Notes:
Some certain types of saying is used in the new descriptions, example of such definitive ways of saying are "non-allied", "enemy", "allied" and "is passable". These word (combinations) have strict definitions and should always inform the player correctly. If this is not the case in certain items, make sure to point it out and it'll be fixed.

Also, every active and passive abilities should have their information mentioned somewhere in the item's description. Active abilities always have a cooldown marked, if it has no cooldown, it is shown as "[ 0.00 ]". In addition, following numeric values should be highlighted: cast range, channeling time, effect damage, effect duration, area of effect size and summon life time. In case they are shown as words (for example, "for one minute" and "thirty seconds") they aren't highlighted - latter is because of the same Warcraft hard-coded limits. Previously mentioned numeric values, even if in written format, should be available on every single item if it uses those values. For example, Healing Ward's description includes: cast range, area of effect size and summon life time.

Summon's (such as Floating Eye or Healing Ward) stats are not included in the item descriptions for they would take too much space, breaching the Warcraft limits. For this matter, the summons stats will, most likely, be included in the unit's own description, available from the unit control panel as in normal Warcraft III. These descriptions should include base stats, such as health, mana and other important stats, and in addition their abilities and possibly a short description of the unit's purpose.
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Lynx (Fri Aug 26, 2016 4:26 pm)


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