Mannequin? I Hope I Can.

Work continues on the mannequin script.  I had it working earlier without errors, but I changed something – I can't remember what it was that I changed – and now I am getting color errors that do not make sense.  The server is logging "these colors are bad," but the colors are perfect and exact.  Why would the server tell me that the colors are bad when they are good?

I also noticed that some mannequins have weird colors in specific areas.  Closer examination revealed that some of the mannequin colors are actually transparent (just like Skirwan's cloak, or Slarty's head), and what we're really seeing are the colors of the ground.  I tried changing the colors of the mannequin but the colors were not taking correctly.

Huh.  I wonder if my changing the default  colors of the mannequin is somehow related to the color errors that are currently logged on the server?  This is a case where the color of the mannequin should be completely separate and unrelated from that of the colors of the displayed clothing, but I have learned that data within Clan Lord are often linked to each other in unexpected ways.

So work continues, as does the debugging.  Once I recover from my small gaffe, I can move on and give some thought on how I am going to display belt colors on the mannequin.

Bugs, Features and Opinions

A portion of my day was spent reading the bug logs and fixing bugs.

I find it gratifying to close out bug cases: fixing a bug means that there is one less thing wrong with Clan Lord.  One of the bugs that I fixed wasn't even in the bug log: a Sentinel reader had lamented over the hues used for white shoes and white hair, and I was pleased to address both of his concerns.  I even expanded the shoe store and threw in some new shoes colors for V642.

Many of the bugs that I fixed today were the simple "two minute" fixes.  Some of the bugs were masking problems, some bugs reported misaligned images, and some bugs were fixed in previous updates but the cases were never closed (I like those fixes).  And some bugs were labeled as suggestions which required a little more scripting work.  For example: the hunting preserve to the south of town is accessible only by newer exiles.  What happens when a new exile falls in there and there are no other new exiles to rescue the fallen in this area?  The fallen either waits for a rescue from someone able to enter these areas, or departs.  I have added a new option for V642: time.  Beginning next update, after a certain amount of time, fallens will teleport from the hunting preserve to a location where they may be rescued by non-newbie characters.

One of the things that I want to address is making Clan Lord more fun.  Falling in a hard-to-access area is, in my opinion, not fun.  As only young exiles can access this area, I feel that the overall new exile experience should be better than being trapped and fallen behind a locked gate.  I am moving forward with my project of improving the experience for new players, and this is one small improvement.  I would like to think that many small improvements make for a better game.