Help with a cool Valentine's Day Idea

[dubradditz]

Hey all,

I am new to these forums, though I have enjoyed DCSS now for a few years. My girlfriend loves the game as well. In fact, it was one thing we would do together when we first started going out! I think it is safe to say crawl holds a special place in our relationship.

That said, I thought it would be a cool/cute idea to edit DCSS to make a little mod for my girlfriend for Valentine's day. Something like make a custom class/race/god based off of her, and maybe some items or something. My problem is I am not sure how feasible this would be, and if it was if I could even pull it off. I was wondering if anyone here knows if what I am asking is possible, and might be able to guide me or send me in the right direction?

[Grimm]

spriggan healer?

[danr]

A fixedart ring perhaps?

[Grimm]

You found the Ring of Engagement! {MARR, rLonely++, Sex +3}

[galehar]

Well crawl is open source, so anything is possible! It really depends on your coding skills and your available time. Backgrounds/races/gods can be quite easy if you keep it simple. The hardest is coming up with interesting ideas and balancing them. For you, balance isn't a big problem.But we can help with the implementation.
An unrandart ring definitely seems like a good idea. Maybe put it in a special vault with high WEIGHT (for guaranteed generation). You can also add a property so that it is only generated once. I don't remember which one (I don't really know anything about vaults).

[dubradditz]

Sweet. I don't know anything about coding. If people could point me to what software/guides I could look at figure it out on my own, which could be impossible, I would appreciate it

[galehar]

Sweet. I don't know anything about coding. If people could point me to what software/guides I could look at figure it out on my own, which could be impossible, I would appreciate it

Well, then I suggest you don't code. Crawl is written in C++, which is not for the faint of heart, and the code base can be quite messy. If you know nothing about programming, I doubt you can learn the necessary skills in 3 weeks. You should probably look into making an unrandart (look in art-data.txt), and/or a vault (look at docs/develop/levels/introduction.txt).

[danr]

Here's another idea: how about a splash screen? "Me + You: crawling together since 2005" or whatever.

That will personalize the game more than anything, will show up every time / frequently, and requires minimal coding.

In addition to that, just change a bunch of the names of things. Change the names for randart generation so every randart she finds is personalized for her, or change food items to her favourite foods (so e.g. meat rations become T-Bone Steaks or bread rations become bagels.)

Or maybe plants become rose bushes.

This thread could be a general guide for anyone who wants help "theming" a special edition of the game without coding skills, just editing some text files and creating some special graphics perhaps.

[dubradditz]

Hey all,

I actually downloaded the source and LUA and have been having fun messing with files. I think I am going to simply try to make a new race with a few custom mutations. IE super cute or something ridiculous. That seems pretty easy simply done from what I have seen of the files. The splash screen is an AWESOME idea, though I not know where to begin with that. Also if you guys think this thread belongs on another sub-forum, let me know!

[Zicher]

Here's another idea: how about a splash screen? "Me + You: crawling together since 2005" or whatever.

That will personalize the game more than anything, will show up every time / frequently, and requires minimal coding.

In fact, assuming you're playing tiles (console version has no initial splash screen, IIRC), you can simply change the initial picture [your DCSS folder]\dat\tiles\title.png file to any picture in PNG format. This requires no coding at all .

In order to avoid potential size problems and to make the "Loading databases"etc. title messages well visible, you may want to keep the picture's size at 416*416 pixels and keep the uppermost approx. 20 pixels margin black (or dark).

[co]

You could also change monster speech, make Sigmund whisper some words of love, before he turns invis and proceed to slaughter you and your girlfriend.
A heart shaped entry vault would be easy to make and hard to miss.

Good luck!

[Grimm]

You see Sigmund.
Sigmund says "Michelle I love you very much! Happy Valentine's Day!"
Sigmund opens you up like a tin of beans!
You die...

[dubradditz]

Good ideas people! Let's keep it up!

She likes to play without tiles, but editing speech is a good idea. I think I will just change lots of the low-level uniques (since she doesn't get very far) to cute / valentines things. Would be easy to edit as well. Potion of healing to potion to love, silly things like that. But yeah if anyone knows how to change the normal title screen, that would be awesome.

[jpeg]

If she's playing the console version, you could write her name with monsters, like the "crawl" entry vault does: http://crawl.develz.org/wordpress/screenshots

And yeah, totally agree with changing names, speech or descriptions: you can do a lot with it and it doesn't require any coding at all.

[Grimm]

you could write her name with monsters, like the "crawl" entry vault does

I just realised that we tiles players completely miss this.

[joellercoaster]

Haha, yes!

I love the DCSS tiles but I must confess I am starting to feel the pull back to ASCII...

[szanth]

you could write her name with monsters, like the "crawl" entry vault does

I just realised that we tiles players completely miss this.

Nah, we don't. You could have tiles in the shape of letters. Odd growths of bushes in the Lair or something.

[Grimm]

I meant we miss that specific bit of chrome. It could of course be done in a way visible in tiles.

Oddly enough the "crawl" entry vault is the one I got in the game I just started. At least, I think it's that one. I see a brown bear, a viper, a wyvern, a gila monster, and a worm, all behind translucent rock.

Sounds like the beginning of a joke...

[MrMisterMonkey]

USDlw, the funniest joke

[Curio]

I meant we miss that specific bit of chrome. It could of course be done in a way visible in tiles.

Oddly enough the "crawl" entry vault is the one I got in the game I just started. At least, I think it's that one. I see a brown bear, a viper, a wyvern, a gila monster, and a worm, all behind translucent rock.

Sounds like the beginning of a joke...

So, a bear, a viper, a wyvern, a gila monster and a worm crawls into a bar.
- huh? what a bunch! - says barmen, - but one of you is standing out and must leave.
- not this again... - says wyvern spreading wings and hissing maniacally
- You! No serving drinks for invertebrates after midnight! - shouts bouncer and kicks worm out of the bar.

[Grimm]

That's what Crawl needs. A store type that is a bar - you go in and there are drinks and patrons you can talk to. "Stay away from DL 17" says one grizzled kobold. "Aizul's about."