Generators

[Dray]

The more gens, the better! XD

[StarFyre]

So, I got fed up today while trying to think up abilities for random things, from whorlings to my own characters, and I couldn't find a random abilities generator anywhere, sooo...

http://www.silveredmagic.com/gens/abilitiesgen.html

Yes, it's just the generator at the moment. I don't have the full list of abilities and descriptions up yet, and... yeah, don't expect that to be up any time this week, simply because I've been slacking off too much and now have two days to write, from scratch, a virtual compiler of assembly.

In any case, hope that comes in handy for anyone else, though it was mostly a personal gripe that I wanted solved =P

[Dray]

Ooooh, cool! :D This one has some really good ones in it!

I know that Myrror has one.... somewhere, but I couldn't remember the URL to save my life.

:3 It would be really nice to have the descriptions of what they do along with the ability, wow, yeah! :D

edit: Starfyre, how the heck did you hide the meat of your generator like that? :O That's a really fancy trick!

[StarFyre]

It's called external javascript files, and it works just like external css files.

Instead of going

Code: Select all

script language="JAVASCRIPT">
!--
(enter javascript here)
//-->
/script>

Or whatever your favorite variant of that call is. You just drop this line of code in the header and go. It keeps the page clean and means I can actively use this generator on other pages if I want to

Code: Select all

script type="text/javascript" src="./js/abilitiesgen.js"> /script>

As a note, if you want to see the meat of the generator, just drop /js/abilitiesgen.js into the url in place of abilitiesgen.html, just life if you were looking for a css file.

edit: Made another quick change, because I realized I wasn't being as efficient as I could with the code. If you look at the source, you'll now see two lines of

Code: Select all

script type="text/javascript" src="./js/abilitiesgen.js"> /script>

instead of one. One points at abilitiesgen.js, which is where my array of info is, and the other points at gencall.js, which is where the actual generator code is, all the functions and so on. This way, I don't have to make sure to keep copying those functions from file to file, I just include the gencall.js file now, include my new array file, and I'm all good.

[Dray]

I think what you just mentioned might be what Yakima was looking for in the General forum. XD Woot!

[StarFyre]

Almost, actually.

What she was asking for was the ability to cross reference multiple different arrays, as opposed to creating a single aVocab array and loading arrays in that.

Now that I typed that out, I think I know the proper way to do that...

[Dray]

Ohh, so if she wants to use the same eye colour array in multiple generators, then? X3 I misunderstood her question.

Oh man, that would be exciting to figure out. :D I can imagine that it would get pretty complicated.

[StarFyre]

Yeah. I'm going to try and hammer something together, it would totally make generators 'easier' because they'd now be modularized down into useful parts that can be spit out in other generators if necessary. It would also limit the size of each file, so that it's easier to read and understand what's going on.

Unfortunately, I think it's going to require a complete redesign of the function code, but I'm a programming major, I can deal with this.

[Dray]

Could I trade you a dragon template for the source code, if you get something done? @.@ That sort of source-ability would be pure gold for my lineages generator. The thought of having something from several generations back show up without having to load all of the variables into one monster file makes me drool. XD

[StarFyre]

Sure thing =P The concept is extremely useful for me, too, so it's worth spending the time on it to redesign the whole concept.

I can't promise anything quick, of course - especially not this week since it's the week right before spring break - but I'll see what can be done over break itself, when I've got all my time to myself.

[Yakima]

*reads* Unfortunately, that all went over my head though it did kinda sound like what I wanted...*blinks* Mind explaining to much more simpler minded people in really simple words or somethin'? Heehee 'cause I know once I figure it all out, i'll get it and it'll all work really nicely.

[Dray]

I think she's saying that we can take chunks of one generator to use in another.

Say you have a bunch of generators for different kinds of humanoids... but they all have the same array of eye colours. Instead of copying and pasting this into every generator, you can make one, and hook it up to all of them!

:D

[DragonFlight]

Mmm, I need to see about working on my Kynnese character generator again....I put it on hold for awhile due to 'the busy' but maybe I should pick it up again.... It's in PHP and it'll end up with all these racial-specific external files. ^^;;; A little plug-in set of my own.

[Dray]

http://artdragon.mine.nu/~kalyturn/adop ... lesGen.htm

Still in progress!

This generator cobbles together a Purebred Traditional (aka Pernese, Alskyrian, Hathian -- any of the dragon breeds that have been around from fairly early on in the Nexus), a Traditional Hybrid (any hybrid with mostly traditional breeds in its heritage), a Purebred Contemporary (any breed that has been more recently introduced to the Nexus, like the Avengaeans or xenodragons), or a Contemporary Hybrid (any hybrid with more 'new' blood in it than 'old'.)

All traits are taken from The Breedables Database submissions. Included are traits that we'd have to draw, those that we'd have to colour in, and those that we'd have to add while paging (like abilities, etc.)... as well as how many eggs and stuff the generated dragon would have.

XD I don't know what code we need to use for indentation in javascript, or else it would make a little more sense.

I'll keep adding to it! It only contains about 10 dragons-worth of 'genetic data' right now!

[Shard]

For indents, just use spaces. Just make sure that when you're testing, you count the number you first use, and keep it consistant.

And wow... I've had a sketchy hand-written version of something like this down for years, but never actually DONE it Grats!!

[StarFyre]

Necro-thread go!

Just made this because reasons. It's a personality generator that can produce some... truly odd results, considering that there are over 1900 words split into four lists that it draws from at (pseudo-)random.

http://www.silveredmagic.com/gens/personalitygen.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Back to work on that Central Casting gen.

[Yakima]

*giggles as she reads the posts from 2008* I was so clueless back then...I hadn't gone back to school yet because I figured it out *now has multiple css files AND javascript files linked in such manner* *goes back to her own excel version of a character generator* Or bed...I'm sooooo sleepy...

[Dray]

Necro-thread go!

Just made this because reasons. It's a personality generator that can produce some... truly odd results, considering that there are over 1900 words split into four lists that it draws from at (pseudo-)random.

http://www.silveredmagic.com/gens/personalitygen.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Back to work on that Central Casting gen.

I adore using these kinds of mixers. They give some really fascinating personality seeds. Kudos on whipping this one up!

[StarFyre]

Oh dear lord, I've had that for two years at this point? Wow. Okay then. Also I still don't have that central casting char gen done, whoops.

[Dray]

I missed a step: what's the central casting supposed to do? Create a basic stats sheet that you can tweak to make a character?

[Shard]

Yeah it's a very, VERY complex random guide, with a pretty sound bunch of information. A lot of it involves history and personality or events. But it's easily fiddled with to create stats where needed, abilities and powers if they exist, and the like.

[StarFyre]

Lulz hello Shard, you beat me to it <3

Yes, I wanted to essentially automate that process because I love the concept and results but it takes like half an hour at best to get a complete character and just. sigh. But the coding ended up being pretty complex because there's a lot more table interactions that I initially thought there was. These days I could probably complete it without much more trouble, especially after the coding I've been doing these past few weeks, but two years ago it was pretty complex for my tastes and I got distracted by other things.

[Dray]

I'm glad you've grown so much, Starfyre. ;u; I was only just now realizing how shit it is to code all these tables by hand, let alone get them searchable or sortable. That sounds like a fun project! Was it for completely random characters, or could you plug a few traits in and have it work around those?

[StarFyre]

Luckily, there are a lot of nice frameworks that work better these days for tables and automate a lot of the difficult bits. It was initially for completely random characters, but I was considering how to make it less random by picking options, but never got around to coding that stuff in since I wanted the full system running first.

[Dray]

That makes sense! I'm working in a place where I'm tangentially connected to Stibo STEP for database stuff as well as a web ops team who likes to think ahead. They're all VERY good about staying focused and setting deadlines for 'must have's and 'that's nice but later' and 'we've done user testing and this feature we thought was cool isn't actually driving sales, so though we like it we won't go ahead with it'. It's really cool! On the other hand, I'm really glad that we were never about driving sales so much as generating interest to write and draw and collect shinies. >.>;

[StarFyre]

Yeah, that's essentially agile development in a nutshell. The place I work for right now is trying to put that into practice, but we're a bit too scattered to really have it work just yet. We're still learning how to work with each other without stepping on toes. It doesn't help that our priorities keep changing because we're in beta and we keep getting feedback about the system.

To be honest, I don't think most of us understood the concept of "driving sales" in any meaningful fashion back when the Nexus was at its peak. But yeah, there's no way that would have added anything of value to this place. in fact, it probably would have cheapened it, in a way.

[Dray]

I completely agree... I'm trying to find some shred of desire to join in on the deviantart stuff right now and I keep walking away in frustration. Applying points and legit dollars to adoptables is fine, and I get it, but the mad scramble and the re-selling of old characters feels so alien to me. When I go into groups that do adopt-and-breed I feel like I'm going into a flea market. There's no story or desire to create beyond what gets the $$$. I suppose I'm just looking in the wrong places. (All of the groups I could find had nothing to do with dragons in any case! It's all humanoids and cats/dogs/horses/my little ponies!)

As for working together... hah! Yeah, our place is quite old and had developed some serious communication silo's where different teams didn't confer with one another. The opposite problem of stepping on toes. Learning to work cross-team again is really satisfying but also kind of frustrating, because you realize that different teams don't really understand and sometimes devalue the work that others they don't know much about are doing.

[Calypso]

Perchance generators i made:

https://perchance.org/4c8c092l0i (generates a random dragon species, with picture)

https://perchance.org/phlr5tpgul (also does that)

https://perchance.org/dragon-egg-gen (dragon egg gen)

[Shard]

oh i love those!