[js71]

I'm just curious- How does everyone out there do their spells, if any? Like, do you do them in a 64*64 frame which you place over the enemy(like me)? or do you do them full screen like CT? or do you do them full screen but made up of different smaller tiles which you place all over the screen? Or just hardcode all the F/X?
Hmm...

EDIT: AAAH! Wha- But- Gah! Egg-sucking troll-humper?! AAH! No. No. no no no.

[grenideer]

I have a .txt file that is basically a dll for all my spells. It holds a flag specifying whether the animation is fullscreen or not. If fullscreen (tidal wave) then I obviously blit an animation over the entire screen. If not (heal) then I blit a monster sized animation over the monster. Most area-effect spells use fullscreen, but I do have some blit the smaller, single animation over each player/enemy.
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Diver Down

[Ninkazu]

Well, Frog, you can give a good description of what you want in a spell, then command James to program it for you :P

[js71]

Well I've already done all the spells, I'm just curious as to how other people do theirs.
All my spells are 64*64, so I have a lot of room if I need it. Most weak spells are about 8-12 frames, and the most powerful are 16.

[ThousandKnives]

Well, I load what I call "effect" data from a text file specifying a graphic file to load, number of frames, speed of animation, and the number of times to cycle through the animation.

When a spell is cast, it is divided into three moments of display: "use" "target" and "receive". The "target" point is repeated for each enemy or player that is targeted by the spell. "use and "receive" are both focused on the user (or the whole screen) and come before and after the "target" display(s).

At each of these points, an "effect" animation can be played (focused on the target, user, or the full screen), a sound effect can be played, a screen effect (sin wave, shake) can be initialized, the screen or the target can be tinted a color, and the target can have an effect (such as shaking, shrinking, a "jelly bounce" effect or others I specified).

On a side note, every kind of attack in my game is considered a spell (I call them skills). Each item has both an "equip skill" (if it can be equipped as a weapon) and a "use skill". So there is a skill called "slash" for a generic sword attack. I can have special skills for a weapon that drains HP, has elemental damage, or causes status effects. I can also customize the visualization for weapon attacks/ restorative items in the same way as I described above.

So yeah thats my whole spell system in a nutshell.

[Sirocco]

Fenix Blade's spells are all controlled by scripts. The scripts are fed a caster and identity of targets, and clone themselves as necessary to affect all targets. So, when you split your Alpha Lance spell to hit five targets, you're actually seeing five identical scripts executing concurrently, just offset by a tenth of a second or so.

Sprites, polygons, palettes, and sounds can be manipulated in a very low level fashion through the scripts, so I have an extreme level of control over how the final effect turns out. Probably overkill, but I've never been one for simplicity ;)

Most spells rely on textured 2D polygons as opposed to sprites, which are slightly less elegant when scaled, rotated, and faded in/out.

.

[ThousandKnives]

Obviously, how you program your battle effects will have a great deal of impact on the overall look and feel of the battles in your game. So its important, but it also means that your method is part of the "flavor" of your game, so you can (and should) do it however you want.

[mandrake*monkeygod]

heh, scripts are how I do mine. From simple to complex, it's basiclly how Sirocco does his, it's fed the cordinates for caster and target, and then bends things accordingy. I also do the same for items, since in my engine all items are spelled, just handeled diffrently in how they are used up...spells subtract from magic points, items from the # of items available.

[akOOma]

You could do them by using particles or premade graphic animations
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Keep on codin'
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Just another post to increase my rank...

[js71]

Yeah, I do them by graphic animations- Which I make in Character Mucker 1999.

[Mobius]

don;t know yet but I know that they will be at least 3d and include particles (as my game is 3D unlike most here)
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It is best not to meddel in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and taste good with a varity of condoments.

[Ninkazu]

I love particle systems, but I still don't know how people make such great fire in PS2 games. I just started learning about particle systems, so it'll be a while before I do anything remarkably cool with them.

[js71]

Yeah, my bro's still learning how to do smoke in 3DSmax so he can the FMVs for my rpg.

Hey, mobius, didn't ninkazu have that sig at one point?

[Ninkazu]

[Guest]

After taking that huge course on 3DSmax, I doubt he'd want to learn Maya. :-P