Theme Names

[Jaedayr]

Should there be a naming convention/guideline for naming themes so that you have a bit of info about the theme? Maybe something like a one or two word theme and the colors? Themes are alphabetized in the selection list so I don't know if it would be better to have the colors first or the theme first. Just bringing this up in case it would be easier to agree on something now rather than making changes later. Also possible, having a short text description that would appear in a window similar to the opponent notes.

[Rob Cashwalker]

I didn't bother with fancy names and descriptions at first. I will look into adding those types of things as meta data in the them file. For use in the random encounters mode, the theme will also have to have some sort of trait that links it to the particular creature you encounter.

[DennisBergkamp]

Yeah, exactly. I haven't thought about this a great deal yet, but we should have some kind of structure.
Perhaps at first it will try to find a theme with a filename that contains the creature name (lowercased + underscored). If nothing is found, check for something more general, like creature type(s).
Say, you encounter a Llanowar Elves, these steps could happen:

1. Try to find a theme named "G_llanowar_elves"
2. Try to find any theme containing the string "llanowar_elves"
3. Try to find a theme based on creature type(s) : "G_elf" in this case
4. Still no luck? Then just use the monogreen theme called "G"

How does that sound? Of course, this would only be relevant for "quest" themes.

[DennisBergkamp]

By the way Rob, I just noticed we joined this forum on the same day?! Strange coincidence indeed!

[Sloth]

How does that sound? Of course, this would only be relevant for "quest" themes.

How about looking through all themes if the creature shows up? And maybe at which probability.

[Rob Cashwalker]

Problem with that is there will be potentially a lot of data to search through... We'd be better off making the theme class global, read through all the themes on start-up, building hashmaps and other data structures that can be used for both searching and generation at any time during the game.