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Life Gauge Pieces


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#1 Chakaa

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Posted 13 July 2011 - 02:27 AM

I've made a thread in the past about helping me set them up, but what I need help with this time is understanding how they work. Can someone explain what "Not Last," "Last," "Cap," and "After Cap" mean, and what is the effect to checking "Mod" on each of those tiles?

#2 ShadowTiger

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Posted 13 July 2011 - 07:35 AM

Life Gauge pieces were programmed very cleverly, I think. So cleverly, perhaps, that words tend to fail me whilst describing their intricacies. icon_razz.gif You can't think of them in terms of individual gauge pieces, but in terms of their placement in the Life Gauge row. If you used the same images for all of the gauge pieces, yet still planned on having a cap for visual interest, you'd have some pretty funky effects.

Basically, each individual piece needs to be considered for what its visuals will be.

Not Last: This particular heart has a functional Heart container next to it (In any particular direction) that will be emptied before this one. Yes, that is the definition I choose to use for this. Kindly take it to heart. (No pun intended.)

Last: This particular Heart container may be overshadowed by a "Cap" piece shortly. As in, if your Hearts bar was a "tube" of red fluid, for example, this would look like the rounded or cylindrical end of the tube, albeit still with vital life fluid running through it. It does count as an active Heart container.

Cap: This is a placeholder for an eventual Heart Container that will occupy this slot, but there is a Heart container next to it as of recently, so the next one you get will very likely fill this slot.

After Cap: This particular spot has yet to even come close to being an active Heart container. Eventually it very well may contain a Heart container, but not yet. You can keep it blank, or grayed out.

Ultimately, it's a very clever way to designing an extremely intricate and visually flair-filled Health meter. You just need to use the elements that you have to your advantage.

Important note: The "mod" check-box beneath teach entity above signifies that the particular entity will change appearance at some point. At all. Meaning, a life bar cap won't change, but the actual hearts will. So, naturally, if it's something that will change visually as you take damage, you will undoubtedly want to check the box.

Take a look at this screenshot of the tiles page for the setup of these. Note how near the bottom of that column of setups for the life gauge pieces near the right side of the screenshot you have pieces which resemble the "cap" of the life bar. Those 8x8 pixel configurations change as you take damage! The cap isn't on the end of the bar; it's part of the bar. In fact, the actual purpose of that cap is to act as a "cap" piece to the piece next to it, I believe. Or at least that's how I drew it to act as such. When you have a full life bar, that cap piece is full. But the moment you take damage, it (almost) empties out to signify that the life bar is beginning to empty. Such is the advantage of a life gauge piece configuration. It's very fulfilling in terms of freedom.

Remember, you can have multiple Life Gauge Pieces having the same Container Number!!! (Just don't skip one, i.e. skipping 4, having only 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, etc...)

This means that you can have a tiny frame box holding only a single row of Heart containers, which will actually expand once you acquire a Heart container that warrants a new row above or below the current one.

I should make a test quest involving this. It's pretty neat stuff actually.


Additionally, the "Show" pulldown determines whether or not this particular gauge piece (Assuming that you've lumped them all together in a row.) will be shown if you have the "Half Magic" upgrade set. Naturally, it's only for the Magic Gauge pieces. I doubt the Life Gauge pieces has anything to do with this, though I'm looking at it right now from the Life Gauge piece screen. Strangeness.

I'm not really sure what the "Unique Last" button does, considering that each piece is already unique.

#3 Chakaa

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Posted 13 July 2011 - 08:44 AM

Thanks, this really clears things up. I forgot to ask earlier, but are magic gauge pieces the same?

#4 ShadowTiger

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Posted 13 July 2011 - 09:15 AM

Yep, they operate pretty much the same way, other than the "1/2 magic" thing working for it.

#5 Mero

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Posted 13 July 2011 - 02:25 PM

QUOTE(ShadowTiger @ Jul 13 2011, 06:35 AM) View Post

Life Gauge pieces were programmed very cleverly, I think. So cleverly, perhaps, that words tend to fail me whilst describing their intricacies. icon_razz.gif You can't think of them in terms of individual gauge pieces, but in terms of their placement in the Life Gauge row. If you used the same images for all of the gauge pieces, yet still planned on having a cap for visual interest, you'd have some pretty funky effects.

Basically, each individual piece needs to be considered for what its visuals will be.

Not Last: This particular heart has a functional Heart container next to it (In any particular direction) that will be emptied before this one. Yes, that is the definition I choose to use for this. Kindly take it to heart. (No pun intended.)

Last: This particular Heart container may be overshadowed by a "Cap" piece shortly. As in, if your Hearts bar was a "tube" of red fluid, for example, this would look like the rounded or cylindrical end of the tube, albeit still with vital life fluid running through it. It does count as an active Heart container.

Cap: This is a placeholder for an eventual Heart Container that will occupy this slot, but there is a Heart container next to it as of recently, so the next one you get will very likely fill this slot.

After Cap: This particular spot has yet to even come close to being an active Heart container. Eventually it very well may contain a Heart container, but not yet. You can keep it blank, or grayed out.

Ultimately, it's a very clever way to designing an extremely intricate and visually flair-filled Health meter. You just need to use the elements that you have to your advantage.

Remember, you can have multiple Life Gauge Pieces having the same Container Number!!! (Just don't skip one, i.e. skipping 4, having only 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, etc...)

This means that you can have a tiny frame box holding only a single row of Heart containers, which will actually expand once you acquire a Heart container that warrants a new row above or below the current one.

I should make a test quest involving this. It's pretty neat stuff actually.
Additionally, the "Show" pulldown determines whether or not this particular gauge piece (Assuming that you've lumped them all together in a row.) will be shown if you have the "Half Magic" upgrade set. Naturally, it's only for the Magic Gauge pieces. I doubt the Life Gauge pieces has anything to do with this, though I'm looking at it right now from the Life Gauge piece screen. Strangeness.

I'm not really sure what the "Unique Last" button does, considering that each piece is already unique.

Same thing for the "Mod" button. I'm sure it's affected by something to offset its visual appearance, perhaps, but if what, I'm not sure.
This is more useful thing I've seen on these forums since I joined. Thanks for sharing this with us Shadowtiger.


#6 Jared

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Posted 14 July 2011 - 04:28 PM

I still don't get it icon_frown.gif

IPB Image

I want to use these. The "mini" heart in the middle is the half heart, like ALttP.
Can anyone please help?

Edited by Lynker, 14 July 2011 - 04:29 PM.


#7 Mero

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Posted 14 July 2011 - 04:42 PM

QUOTE(Lynker @ Jul 14 2011, 03:28 PM) View Post

I still don't get it icon_frown.gif

IPB Image

I want to use these. The "mini" heart in the middle is the half heart, like ALttP.
Can anyone please help?


What don't you get?

#8 Jared

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Posted 14 July 2011 - 04:46 PM

All of it.
It shows the little boxes around a quarter of the tile. I thought this was meant for whole tile hearts?

#9 Master Maniac

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Posted 14 July 2011 - 04:54 PM

The life gauge is made of minitiles. Minitiles are 1/4 of a whole tile.

#10 Jared

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Posted 14 July 2011 - 05:06 PM

Oh that helps a bit. But I still don't understand the guide.

Edited by Lynker, 14 July 2011 - 05:06 PM.


#11 Mitchfork

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Posted 14 July 2011 - 05:26 PM

Since you're only using hearts, you don't have to worry about "Not Last," "Last," etc. Just put the same set of tiles for each heart piece.

Since you're using 16x16 hearts, you'll have to actually set four life gauge pieces for each heart. Section the heart into 4 8x8 sections and arrange them like Radien has in this picture:
http://www.purezc.co...ge=tiles&id=747

Then when you put the hearts on the subscreen, give the four life gauge pieces that form each heart the same "Container" number. This way they'll "deplete" at the same time.

#12 Mero

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Posted 06 May 2013 - 02:05 PM

How do I make animated life gauge pieces?

#13 MoscowModder

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Posted 06 May 2013 - 03:01 PM

I don't think that's possible without scripting.

#14 Balian

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Posted 20 February 2018 - 05:32 AM

I've been looking around but can't find anything on Health Bars.

I'm wanting the player to have a regular Health bar instead of hearts, however if have no idea how to do that, I mean I know but don't understand at all how to do it. If someone could help that would be great, please try to explain it as if your explaining to a child. Otherwise it will go over my head. Thanks


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