X Minus 2 Customs Card Creator - VERSION 1.1 IS OUT

[Xorlof]

Originally Posted by Leaf_It

You mentioned that for each general, you would be changing the hue of different parts of the card. This wouldn't work for Valkrill. I'm working on a Valkrill blank using your mask image, and various Valkrill blanks I was able to find on the forums, as well as the Horned Skull Brutes scan that @TREX did for me. This is the outer edge, and the figure stats area, with everything else removed. It's not finished, but maybe it will be useful to you.

Yeah, Valkrill's "kitchen counter top" texture is different than the others. The above, with modifications, may prove helpful indeed. Thank you!

Initially, v1.0, will probably be be "faking it" for Valkrill, just choosing an outside border with the right color tone as Valkrill's, but the same texture as the others (i.e., just recoloring like the other generals). I haven't looked yet to see if that would look too weird, though.

[Drewman-chu]

Wow awesome looking card tool. This will be a big help to newcomers and want to create cards. I have been using the Magic set editor for several years but it has it's drawbacks. Thanks for working on this.

[Xorlof]

VERSION 1.0 IS OUT! The biggest change is that you can now switch templates and create cards for any of the classic 'scape generals. See OP for details. Have a look and let me know what you think!

I hope to have another release out in the next couple of weeks with some small enhancements/features.

The release after that (sometime late December?) will probably be one allowing you to load miniature and hitzone graphics on to the card, finally making this a reasonably full-featured solution for making Valhalla-scape cards.

After that, Marvel-scape, (with some big help from @A3n )!

[GaryLASQ]

Nice! I see lots of tasty spaghetti code in there.

[Xorlof]

Originally Posted by GaryLASQ

Nice! I see lots of tasty spaghetti code in there.

Hehe. I didn't think anybody would actually peek and see that comment calling myself out on spaghetti code, but I guess I was wrong! As also mentioned in the comment, yeah it'll be redone properly when I make it template friendly (Marvel timeframe).

This version was a proof of concept that I ended up enhancing, experimenting with, and releasing since it was already useful. I learned about a lot of crazy corner cases in precision cross-browser/OS font rendering. I also learned why more people don't attempt it, but I have found a solution for everything that applies to this project (not all are 100% implemented), so it is a GREAT thing to use here because the convenience of using it once workarounds have been found can't be beat.

If you look at that earlier roadmap (in the third post), you will see lots of extra time between graphics being added next month and Marvel being added in Feb/Mar. That pause in cadence is the time I built into the schedule to rewrite things to be correct / maintainable.

Thanks for confirming that I'm not just talking to myself when I write off-topic code comments!

[A3n]

Originally Posted by Xorlof

VERSION 1.0 IS OUT! The biggest change is that you can now switch templates and create cards for any of the classic 'scape generals. See OP for details. Have a look and let me know what you think!

I hope to have another release out in the next couple of weeks with some small enhancements/features.

The release after that (sometime late December?) will probably be one allowing you to load miniature and hitzone graphics on to the card, finally making this a reasonably full-featured solution for making Valhalla-scape cards.

After that, Marvel-scape, (with some big help from @A3n )!

Looking sweet. I also noticed that when I added a lot of text to the power area that it's reducing the text size but not taking full advantage of the whole text area still:text_area.PNG

[Xorlof]

Originally Posted by A3n

Looking sweet. I also noticed that when I added a lot of text to the power area that it's reducing the text size but not taking full advantage of the whole text area still:Attachment 55

Thanks. The text in that area gets bigger and smaller in steps and doesn't try to fill the available space completely. IIRC, there are 9 steps. It also does other things beyond shrinking the font, to try and keep readability up as much as possible as the amount of text increases. (It plays with line spacing, margins, and spacing between the letters). Do you think it should try to 100% use available space to keep the font absolutely as big as possible? That's certainly doable, but I worried about the cards starting to look samey, with all of them always being full, or nearly so, with text.

And to answer your implied question in the screenshot, yes it will use the pointy area. Just keep adding more text and it will use that area, but don't add too much because it will then switch to the next smaller font size and you will have to add even more to get down to the pointy part.

(If you have a very short amount of text, the first set of text specs will just flow text in a rectangle, not using the bowed out area on the right or the pointy area on the bottom. This was to mimic the look of similar Hasbro cards. All other text settings will use the bowed area and pointy area).

[Xorlof]

Quick example from my phone, which is why it is not cropped. If I type more text, it will shift to a smaller font and the pointy area won't be used unless I type quite a bit more to re-fill the space thus made available.

[Xorlof]

Second example where I deleted a bit of text to get the font to shift larger, instead of adding more.

[Drewman-chu]

Do you think it should try to 100% use available space to keep the font absolutely as big as possible? That's certainly doable, but I worried about the cards starting to look samey, with all of them always being full, or nearly so, with text.

Yes I think having more space is definitely preferable, especially for when you add Marvel templates. Some of their powers are very wordy. I don't think it negatively affects appearance.

[A3n]

Originally Posted by Xorlof

Thanks. The text in that area gets bigger and smaller in steps and doesn't try to fill the available space completely. IIRC, there are 9 steps. It also does other things beyond shrinking the font, to try and keep readability up as much as possible as the amount of text increases. (It plays with line spacing, margins, and spacing between the letters). Do you think it should try to 100% use available space to keep the font absolutely as big as possible? That's certainly doable, but I worried about the cards starting to look samey, with all of them always being full, or nearly so, with text.

And to answer your implied question in the screenshot, yes it will use the pointy area. Just keep adding more text and it will use that area, but don't add too much because it will then switch to the next smaller font size and you will have to add even more to get down to the pointy part.

(If you have a very short amount of text, the first set of text specs will just flow text in a rectangle, not using the bowed out area on the right or the pointy area on the bottom. This was to mimic the look of similar Hasbro cards. All other text settings will use the bowed area and pointy area).

If you have a max text setting then you should get some that have space at the bottom so they aren't all samey.

For C3G we use 7pt text size, 8pt leading except on the separating line where the leading is 5pt. We reduce only needed and when we do we attempt to have the text go the full length of the text box to ensure the text is the largest possible. The smallest text (Dr Doom) we have ruled as the limit is 5.85pt size, 6.2pt leading & 3.5pt leading for separating line.

[Xorlof]

Originally Posted by A3n

If you have a max text setting then you should get some that have space at the bottom so they aren't all samey.

But if I auto-sized to have the font as large as possible (with a max size), wouldn't every card with at least as much text as fills the max font size start to look samey, with the special powers area being basically full? That's what my worry was.

Originally Posted by A3n

For C3G we use 7pt text size, 8pt leading except on the separating line where the leading is 5pt. We reduce only needed and when we do we attempt to have the text go the full length of the text box to ensure the text is the largest possible. The smallest text (Dr Doom) we have ruled as the limit is 5.85pt size, 6.2pt leading & 3.5pt leading for separating line.

Thank you for the C3G specs. I will have another look at the C3G cards. I certainly never considered them to look samey, so maybe my concern mentioned above is unfounded! I will probably follow these provided C3G specs for the Marvel side.

Hasbro sizes, as used in Wave 9, was my starting point for what's in the system now. It auto-selects the biggest pre-built bundle of specs that lets the text fit in the available space. The biggest possible text used in x2cc is the same as Wave 9 which appears to be the same as in other waves: 7.3pt, (8.4pt leading). The system then uses a couple of intermediate smaller text sizes if needed before it gets to a size which is the same as was used on the Mohicans card, 6.75pt/7.9pt leading. A couple more sizes before again honing in on an official card--the Repulsors, which was 5.55pt, smaller than Dr. Doom!, but with a very generous 7pt leading. After that it never will do any smaller text, but will shrink leading, tracking ("kerning"), and margins to create a couple of more steps for card creators that simply need more space.

Headings are always 0.7pt bigger than power text, again following Hasbro. All of the above also have tracking values that duplicate the card text style I'm copying.

If you want to see this in action, I really recommend you check out the very first (October) preview which had the slicker special powers edit mode. (Remember that this release only supported Chrome or Firefox). Start typing in text to fill up the card and see it change between the available sizes. You'll see that there are enough steps built in that generally it is using at least all the way to the bottom of the blue defense box. The current system uses the same specs but you have to edit the special powers on that other screen so you don't see the resizing happen before your eyes. (I will eventually get back to this nicer system).

Originally Posted by Drewman-chu

Yes I think having more space is definitely preferable, especially for when you add Marvel templates. Some of their powers are very wordy. I don't think it negatively affects appearance.

OK, I will investigate always trying to maximize text size for a given set of special powers, with a max of 7.3pt, since C3G seems to disprove my "samey-ness" worry.