ThreeNippledWanda

The system I'm creating forgoes the use of referencing the names of Items, Abilities etc. in favor of a string variable used to store what will be considered their name for UI purposes. An ability, for instance, would be named something like, "Trait_Flatulent," rather than simply, "Flatulent," to help with organization and such, but a variable assigned to the ability as a string holds the actual name that I'll wish displayed, and so it is for most everything in my game.

*Sidenote- if anybody knows of a place to download some free-to-use farting sounds on the quick and dirty, please let me know. Otherwise I'll just have to pull something out of my proverbial hat.

I see where dialogue gives an option to print variables, but how do I ensure it will print the correct variable assigned to whichever item/ability I need to reference. I'll only need it to display a name variable when I mouse over whichever slot it's assigned to, but I also mean to create a more in-depth screen which can selected to open upon inspection, and this will include not only the name variable and description assigned to an item, but many other descriptive points which will need to be automatically modified based on certain variable values. A good example for this would be the 'ItemWeight' variable assigned to every item independently. It needs to print in order to convey the weight assigned an item, but the value will be in grams, whereas I need for it to calculate, round-off and print two separate values directly beside each other listed as 'xLbs' and 'xOz'. That means I'll need create a step that divides the total number by how many grams are in a pound, then do the same to the remainder to calculate ounces and drop whatever the remainder is following that step before printing.

Finally, I wish to modify my description based upon certain variables that an item *might* possess. If it has a 'Wpn_GuardType' string variable assigned,for instance, I want to print that string somewhere in the item's description. If it has a curved or straight blade; if it's single or double edged; if it's got a shaft that's made of Ash wood, or whittled out of a giant's pinky finger, I mean to assign those features through variables and work them somewhere into the descriptive text. Can ORK do this?

gamingislove

Hm. No, not really - you'd have to do that with some custom scripting.

Where would those custom texts be shown, e.g. only in dialogues or also in menus, HUDs (e.g. tooltip HUD), etc.?

ThreeNippledWanda

I haven't delved deeply enough into the UI to know which route/workaround might best suit my needs, but for Items I was basically envisioning your standard block-layout inventory screen with icons that would display an item's name when you mouse over. So, yes, a tooltip. I also want to be able to bring up a second menu, however, showing a more in-depth list of features. I've basically circumvented most of the built in functionality for items in favor of an alternate custom system, using variables. Damage is calculated through dice rolls using two variables. Damage type is a variable. The name, and parts of the description are also variables, and I've attached variables to deal with many other custom features as well. All of that (and more) will need to be displayed within a menu screen.

My abilities, depending on their type, will generally need to display less custom info. Even for something like a spell, which incorporates many of the same features as items, I should be able to fudge it easily enough by simply listing everything manually through a standardized format in the descriptions, similar to how it was done in those old D&D games made by Black Isle Studios.

The names will still need to be displayed differently than how I've chosen to list them in--I suppose you'd call it their "Key"--that numbered slot assigning a name beside the particular data instance. I don't want my traits listed as something like 'Trait_Stigma_Boob+1', I'd rather show it as 'Witch's Teat', or something similar. Naming things formulaically helps me to better keep track of everything without needing to constantly parse my lists using types, and since I'm given to understand that we can't include any spaces in our names anyway (correct me if I'm wrong) the Name feature doesn't seem of much particular use to me in most cases, apart from logging and referencing on a program level. So, I need it to display the string assigned to a variable rather than what you'd see by inputting '%n', and if I can do that for the name then it should work for most anything else as well, with the right amount of cowbell.

I could list the weight, for instance, as two separate variables--'Weight_Lbs' and 'Weight_Oz'--and maybe create a formula to assign their correct values based on the assigned gram weight, which will actually effect stats. I imagine I could do something comparable with the 'Height' assigned to a combatant in CM units, by attaching a couple of object variables and running a similar formula. Theoretically, anyway, that's somewhere along the lines of how I'd imagined dealing with this problem moving ahead. If that's not a feasible approach, please correct me now so that I can adjust my layouts accordingly... or, maybe that's sort of what you just did, in your initial response.

gamingislove

The Tooltip HUD allows displaying variables of the displayed item/equipment/ability using text codes, so that'd allow you displaying their custom variable values.
However, for anything more, you'd need to do some custom scripting.