Color change discussion thread.

[Nathvaan]

Black: lacking hue and brightness; absorbing light without reflecting any of the rays composing it.
Friday: Today!

What better day to celebrate the color that lacks hue than to put all manner of color into Armageddon!?

Yes, it has finally happened.  Armageddon's look and feel has started to be updated with the first run at adding
color as an optional setting.

This thread if for discussing these changes so by all means discuss.

Here are some highlights:
-Using color it 100% optional. You can either disable VT100/ANSI at the main menu or type 'change color none' to disable.
-You don't see colors?  It's not enabled by default though I may do so for new accounts in the near future.
-If you aren't using a client that supports 256 color you may think of moving to one.  All clients support 16 colors though so you may get some use but results may vary.
-All color setting are character customizable.  You can set them to look any way you like with a little setup.
-If you want to use the current 'default' simply type 'change color default'.  I am totally open to changing this default but we needed to start somewhere.
-If you are a colorblind player do me a huge solid and set up colors that show you the right contrast.  Send me the export and what type of colorblind you are.  I'll add it as an option.
-There is a command to spit out the commands for your current color settings, 'change color export'.  You can use this to save off your settings, share them on the GDB etc.
-There are 19 player/staff categories and 7 staff only categories (for logging, staff comm channels and player monitoring etc).
-This isn't all the color that will be added.  This is just one major pass at the implementation.
-The plans going forward will include other aspects of the game where more contrast is needed but as always I don't typically talk about future features because the timing and actual implementation features are fluid until it's ready for release.  Plus this was a lot of work and I need a break from all the colors!

Please look at 'help change color' to see the usage and valid options.

Please throw questions at me and I will be glad to answer questions/concerns as I have time.

[azuriolinist]

Ohmigod. This. Sounds. Amazing.

Are NPC/PC colors different from one another? That'd be pretty handy.

Otherwise, thanks for the amount of work you must have put into this!

[Lizzie]

Just checked in game, my colors are still what I set them to. I use customized setting on MUSH Client. Experimented and turned ANSI off, and didn't see any change. This is good, for me. Maybe not so for anyone else but it's how I want it.

Question: If I wanted to experiment and look at the game-side color configuration, and then decided I like my own better and want to switch back, what are the steps for that? I had someone help me figure out the MUSH Client thing 15 years ago, so I haven't had to "do" anything to it since then and wouldn't be able to replicated it without someone reminding me.

[Nathvaan]

Are NPC/PC colors different from one another? That'd be pretty handy.

Otherwise, thanks for the amount of work you must have put into this!

PCs and NPCs are colored with the same category.  This is to not encourage the habit of people ignoring NPCs.

Thanks!  I don't even want to admit to myself how much time I have spent on this particular change!

[azuriolinist]

It's off by default, apparently, for now. You'd have to type in 'change color default' to load in the default palette.

By the way, the customizability is awesome.

[Nathvaan]

Question: If I wanted to experiment and look at the game-side color configuration, and then decided I like my own better and want to switch back, what are the steps for that? I had someone help me figure out the MUSH Client thing 15 years ago, so I haven't had to "do" anything to it since then and wouldn't be able to replicated it without someone reminding me.

Triggers/setting on your client will always supersede settings issued from the game. I think the best way to test out the changes would be to create a new world file in MUSHclient.  You will also lose all your aliases and the likes when testing but you can easily switch back by opening the old world file.

[Lizzie]

Ah I'll do that, I think I have an old one from when I was staffing another game, I could probably just use that and re-route it to Arm.

[bardlyone]

xterm (256 color) color...

I feel like christmas came early this year.

I want to weep for the joy of this. >.> Thank you, Nathvaan.

[John]

Question: If I wanted to experiment and look at the game-side color configuration, and then decided I like my own better and want to switch back, what are the steps for that? I had someone help me figure out the MUSH Client thing 15 years ago, so I haven't had to "do" anything to it since then and wouldn't be able to replicated it without someone reminding me.

File > World Properties > Triggers
Untick "Enable Triggers"

(this will break any other triggers you have, but I'm guessing you probably don't have many and can do without while you experiment with game-side colors).

[azuriolinist]

That's odd. Anyone else having their room titles swallowed up by the room exits on TinTin++? Tried disabling the colors and such. Hrmph.

Probably on my end. I'll see if it's my config or something.

[Nathvaan]

That's odd. Anyone else having their room titles swallowed up by the room exits on TinTin++? Tried disabling the colors and such. Hrmph.

Probably on my end. I'll see if it's my config or something.

I tested tintin++ with default settings and it looks alright with no truncation of room titles.  Please let me know what it ends up being if it is something on your side.  Thanks.

[John]

I'm looking to replace the default colours with those I've been using in my client for years now. How do I know which colour responds to which category? I've so far gotten up to category 8 when I figured there had to be an easier way.

[EDIT]: Read more of the release notes. Helpfile could stand to have some of this information.

[Nathvaan]

I'm looking to replace the default colours with those I've been using in my client for years now. How do I know which colour responds to which category? I've so far gotten up to category 8 when I figured there had to be an easier way.

[EDIT]: Read more of the release notes. Helpfile could stand to have some of this information.

Are you asking to have all the categories included in the helpfile?  I don't have a problem adding that if it would be more, well, helpful!

[John]

I'm looking to replace the default colours with those I've been using in my client for years now. How do I know which colour responds to which category? I've so far gotten up to category 8 when I figured there had to be an easier way.

[EDIT]: Read more of the release notes. Helpfile could stand to have some of this information.

Are you asking to have all the categories included in the helpfile?  I don't have a problem adding that if it would be more, well, helpful!

For my query specifically the syntax of "change color palette" would have been helpful. I don't know if listing all the categories is necessary given they're accessible via change color.

[Nathvaan]

I don't know if listing all the categories is necessary given they're accessible via change color.

I added a few more syntax examples to hopefully make it a little more clear.  Thanks.

[John]

I'm torn on this change. I've always felt Armageddon's lack of colour sent a pretty strong signal to new players about the feel of the game. However I also expect most of us use clientside colouring for the game anyway. I've started playing on an iPad (which hasn't let me transfer over my clientside triggers) so I'll be interested to see how this works on the iPad.

All in all it's probably a change for the better. I just don't like change. I have tweaked the colours so that emotes, objects and chars are all the default text to cut down on how colourful it is. I expect the colours for communication will help during peak time in busy bars.

[Zenith]

I, like Lizzie, already have color set on my client. But just because I don't personally need this doesn't mean I don't think it's an amazing change!! I particularly like the combat options. I'm tempted to rework all my settings so that I can use those.

The work that must have gone into this is exceptional. Congratulations and thank you for undertaking such a large project!

[Feco]

Awesome!!!

I'm so god damned stoked about this.

[Patuk]

HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT NO WAY DUDE NO WAY NO HOW WOAH MAN THIS IS AWESOME

[azuriolinist]

I tested tintin++ with default settings and it looks alright with no truncation of room titles.  Please let me know what it ends up being if it is something on your side.  Thanks.

Damn. Looks like it's the client's #split option that's causing it to mess up. Totally not related to the color changes, sorry about that!

edit: In case anyone wants to know, '#config {packet patch} {0.5}' seems to fix #split's tendency to cut some lines from the buffer.

[John]

Here's some coloured echoes I'm unsure of what category they fall into:
put object into object
list
You stand up from a table.

Think and feel are coming up coloured (I'm assuming they belong to the psionics group of colours).

[Nathvaan]

I'm torn on this change. I've always felt Armageddon's lack of colour sent a pretty strong signal to new players about the feel of the game. However I also expect most of us use clientside colouring for the game anyway. I've started playing on an iPad (which hasn't let me transfer over my clientside triggers) so I'll be interested to see how this works on the iPad.

All in all it's probably a change for the better. I just don't like change. I have tweaked the colours so that emotes, objects and chars are all the default text to cut down on how colourful it is. I expect the colours for communication will help during peak time in busy bars.

I totally understand how some people would see the lack of color as setting a tone for the game.  This is why I designed the system for color to be an optional setting.  The real drive toward this update is to allow for higher contrast for ease of reading and to make it so new players that are used to games having colors aren't turned off to the game because of the lack of the feature.

[WithSprinkles]

Thank you so much for this change. My screen already kinda looked like a spilled bag of skittles sometimes, but this is much better done than most of my triggers. And if I want to change them a bit, I just tweak them on my end, so it's nice.

[Delirium]

[Lizzie]

Question: If I wanted to experiment and look at the game-side color configuration, and then decided I like my own better and want to switch back, what are the steps for that? I had someone help me figure out the MUSH Client thing 15 years ago, so I haven't had to "do" anything to it since then and wouldn't be able to replicated it without someone reminding me.

File > World Properties > Triggers
Untick "Enable Triggers"

(this will break any other triggers you have, but I'm guessing you probably don't have many and can do without while you experiment with game-side colors).

I have no triggers set at all. My client view is rather primal: almost-black text on almost-white background. No highlights, no colors, no bold or underline, no nuttin. Just like reading a book.