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Forge of the Multiverse! SOTM card creation software

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faust
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Forge of the Multiverse! SOTM card creation software

 

Hi. Not sure this is the correct forum but Ax0r at BGG suggested I post on this forum in relation to the Villain contest.

I've been working on some software, Forge of the Multiverse (FOTM), which is available at v0.1 and should be suitable for creating Hero and Villain decks. I'm working on other templates for v1.0 but dunno when I'll get them finished.

It's a java application packaged as an exe file and app for OS X. You need java 1.6 installed and you'll need to install the fonts in the fonts folder to work correctly (I'm working on loading these from files).

You can get it here for now but I'll upload to source forge or something later:

http://fostorial.webs.com/sotm/FOTM.rar

Here is an example of the output from the app. I used BakaMatt's Knock Out Gas card which was designed for the competition. Knocked it together in about a minute!

Knock out gas

I've included the link to the original post but I would appreciate people trying it out, providing feedback and I'm happy to take feature requests. I've also included a couple of screenshots but the layout and fields may change over time.

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/869145/sotm-card-creation-software-very-early-alpha-bui

arenson9
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Thanks for sharing. I haven't got the energy to try to make my villain ideas into actual cards, but if I did, I'd give this software a shot.


Hi. My name's Andy. Feel free to call me Andy, since, ya know, that's my name. (he/him/his)

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, when? If I am for myself alone, what am I? -- Hillel

lugaru
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Downloaded, still a little too busy to play with it... I'm working on a homebrew game that is sucking up my photoshop hours.

 

That said I really want to do a series of alternate heroes and villains, since that is easier than whole decks. wink

Koga
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I'll probably take a look at this as well. If I could get my templates to work with this program then it'd be awesome. I've already spent a long time making my templates, but haven't been able to put them into a program that's easily accessible.


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Champions Online: Koga_Wolfe

faust
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As long as they are roughly the same size you should be able to just swap the images out to work with your templates.

faust
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Right! Spent loads of time re-writing bits of this and extending it in response to comments!

version 0.2 is now available on github (proper software management tools!) in the downloads section.

http://github.com/fostorial/Forge-of-the-Multiverse/downloads

New features:
- Hero/Villain Deck templates
- Deck creation
- Deck saving
- Deck loading
- Deck export (individual cards)
- Individual card export

Features planned for v0.3
- Environment deck mode
- Environment card template
- Villain gameplay card template
- Export deck to PDF/9 per sheet PNG/JPG

Willing to accept other requests too.

As always, feedback welcome. I've included some new screen shots of the new version.










lugaru
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Nice... quick question... would it be possible to implement support for long names? For example I was playfully doing a card for Junkyard Bunker and well I could not find a way to make the text smaller or add a line.

faust
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I was thinking of a text size option actually and increasing the sizes of some boxes. I figured I should probably try to use it myself since I spent so much time on it and I've come across a few annoying things I'd like to sort and I'll add text sizing to the list!

It's still pretty early on for it as a tool really though so I'm looking to make it better over time. Thanks for the feedback!

faust
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Actually, just come across and issue and uploaded v0.3. Any issues other issues, let me know.

 

Bug fix version to fix pretty fundamental issue with load. Saving a deck saved the card text but didn't load them correctly. This will open files created in v0.2 and restore the card text provided you haven't saved over it.

arenson9
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I've just tried launching this on my Win7 box and am struggling to understand how to use it. I don't see anything that allows one to change the image for a card in any way.


Hi. My name's Andy. Feel free to call me Andy, since, ya know, that's my name. (he/him/his)

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, when? If I am for myself alone, what am I? -- Hillel

arenson9
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arenson9 wrote:

I've just tried launching this on my Win7 box and am struggling to understand how to use it. I don't see anything that allows one to change the image for a card in any way.

 

Belay that -- just found the 'Edit Card' choice ...


Hi. My name's Andy. Feel free to call me Andy, since, ya know, that's my name. (he/him/his)

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, when? If I am for myself alone, what am I? -- Hillel

arenson9
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When editing a villain card, the label in the right-hand side panel uses 'Hero' instead of 'Villain'


Hi. My name's Andy. Feel free to call me Andy, since, ya know, that's my name. (he/him/his)

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, when? If I am for myself alone, what am I? -- Hillel

arenson9
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It's not yet clear to me how to create a 'text' card for the villain character.


Hi. My name's Andy. Feel free to call me Andy, since, ya know, that's my name. (he/him/his)

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, when? If I am for myself alone, what am I? -- Hillel

arenson9
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Setting the color for the font (and maybe the font itself?!)  for the name of a villain would be useful.


Hi. My name's Andy. Feel free to call me Andy, since, ya know, that's my name. (he/him/his)

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, when? If I am for myself alone, what am I? -- Hillel

arenson9
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For a villain target, I can't seem to get double-digit numbers to fit.


Hi. My name's Andy. Feel free to call me Andy, since, ya know, that's my name. (he/him/his)

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, when? If I am for myself alone, what am I? -- Hillel

faust
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Thanks for all the feedback! Really helpful!

Double digit works fine for me when I've got the Comic Book font installed (you could try installing the fonts in the zip file to match the style of official cards better) but I like your suggestion of font changing so I'll have a shot at implementing it which would solve the problem of font size quite well and allow you to change the color.

The text card for villains is on of the templates that is missing at the moment. I need to do that template and the environment card template.

Everything is currently accessed via the menus but I think you've got a point. I might put in a right click menu in the table as thats probably a bit more intuative. 

I'll see if I can get 0.4 out by the end of week with these changes in.

faust
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V0.4 available now.

http://github.com/fostorial/Forge-of-the-Multiverse/downloads

Bug Fixes:

  • Villain Character Card correctly labelled from Hero to Villain
  • Hero Front card has repositioned name to allow more portrait space
  • File changer doesn't get stuck in directory mode
  • Hero back doesn't lose underlay colour when saving if colour has not changed

Features:

  • User selectable font and colour for text in all templates
  • Deck export can now export to 9 per page sheets including card backs
  • Export deck to txt file (suitable for forum posting!)
arenson9
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Not ignoring this -- my time has just been hijacked by an ongoing urgent situation at work since Thu night ...


Hi. My name's Andy. Feel free to call me Andy, since, ya know, that's my name. (he/him/his)

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If not now, when? If I am for myself alone, what am I? -- Hillel

Gnipp
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Am I missing where you can change the portrait image on a hero card?

i see where you can do this on other cards, but not on the Hero Card front.

lugaru
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Gnipp wrote:

Am I missing where you can change the portrait image on a hero card?i see where you can do this on other cards, but not on the Hero Card front.

I was playing around this morning and was not able to figure it out either, maybe it was ommited?

faust
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lugaru wrote:

 

Gnipp wrote:
Am I missing where you can change the portrait image on a hero card?i see where you can do this on other cards, but not on the Hero Card front.

 

I was playing around this morning and was not able to figure it out either, maybe it was ommited?

It looks like its hiding behind another button. Must have just got messed up when I converted all the properties panes to relative values. I've nearly finished the environment deck so I'll release v0.5 this week with this fixed.

In the meantime, its under the 'Change Power Color' button. Click in the hero name field then press shift+tab to cycle backwards through buttons. You can press space to select the button once you have tabbed to the button under Change Power Color.

I'll try and release v0.5 tomorrow or Thursday.

lugaru
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Nice... I might try fooling with this officially after the next release... I will need to log into my old Champions Online account to get some good art to use tho.

smiley

 

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lugaru wrote:

Nice... I might try fooling with this officially after the next release... I will need to log into my old Champions Online account to get some good art to use tho.smiley

CO is a great place to get art for the cards, did it with my first custom hero and working on my second one. Made sure to do it in a variety of environments and different enemies. Took like 200+ screenshots to make sure I got things right.

Was eaiser on my first guy, he was already lvl 40, second one I had to start from scratch, but it got me in the game again. I have a lifetime sub so I come and go whenever I please.


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faust
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Version 0.5

Features:

  • Environment Deck and Environment Cards added
  • Right clicking implemented on deck screens and tabs
  • Deck Statistics implemented in deck manager

 

Bug Fixes:

  • Removed Deck statistics link from deck menu
  • Portrait button missing on Hero Front Card fixed
  • Needs more memory than default java heap size so deployed with batch file and packaged as exe
  • Export deck to pages now takes number in deck into account

 

http://github.com/fostorial/Forge-of-the-Multiverse/downloads

Available now! I have exported each type of deck and it appears to work fine. It's also packaged with an exe file so windows users please that as it sets up memory settings properly.

lugaru
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Nice, at this point all I'm looking for is a custom Villain card... right now I have screenshots and did the front and back for a new Voss but I dont have a card to put his front and back rules on. Also (and Koga should consider this too) an Oversized Villain card template would rock.. something with 2 layers so you can have a full body image that is half obscured by the rules and advanced edition info.

 

Also I started a custom enviroment deck, well... started taking screenshots for it. It is inspired by the Tomb of Anubis... this one is the Megalopolis Prison with about 10 unique super powered prisoners (in orange jump suits), a tough warden, and facility cards (generators, walls) that must be protected to stop the prison break.

It should be a fun deck to play with guys like Ambuscade or any of the Rook City villains who would benefit from a Prison Break. I'm contemplating making two prisoners into Citizens (Citizen Hit and Citizen Run) but that could create shenanigans with the Citizen Dawn deck.

Koga
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lugaru wrote:

Nice, at this point all I'm looking for is a custom Villain card... right now I have screenshots and did the front and back for a new Voss but I dont have a card to put his front and back rules on. Also (and Koga should consider this too) an Oversized Villain card template would rock.. something with 2 layers so you can have a full body image that is half obscured by the rules and advanced edition info.

I'll get working on an oversized villain template soon. My own custom villain seems decently balanced so far so would be nice to have an oversized card for him.


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lugaru
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Yeah, villain character cards tend to have lots of rules, so I LOOOOOOVE the format of the oversized villain cards. I think they are tarot cards, in terms of dimensions, with roughly 50% dedicated to rules boxes and 50% to a full card image.

logan_mann
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lugaru wrote:

Nice, at this point all I'm looking for is a custom Villain card... right now I have screenshots and did the front and back for a new Voss but I dont have a card to put his front and back rules on. Also (and Koga should consider this too) an Oversized Villain card template would rock.. something with 2 layers so you can have a full body image that is half obscured by the rules and advanced edition info. Also I started a custom enviroment deck, well... started taking screenshots for it. It is inspired by the Tomb of Anubis... this one is the Megalopolis Prison with about 10 unique super powered prisoners (in orange jump suits), a tough warden, and facility cards (generators, walls) that must be protected to stop the prison break.It should be a fun deck to play with guys like Ambuscade or any of the Rook City villains who would benefit from a Prison Break. I'm contemplating making two prisoners into Citizens (Citizen Hit and Citizen Run) but that could create shenanigans with the Citizen Dawn deck.

 

This sounds fantastic.  You could have a few different prisoners with key words...these two are citizens, this is a thug, this is a minion, etc.  Very cool options you could have.  But whether you go there or not this is just plain cool.

lugaru
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So I did a quick big villain template this morning, and I'm very happy with the way it came out.

 

Here is how it works...

Text (select layer, replace text with anything else, font is set up)

Solid colored text boxes (fill with another color as needed)

Black Frame

Image you want to use

Background

 

Watcha think? These are PNG previews. I will post some villains early next week.

Koga
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Just finished my own Oversized Villain cards as well. Need Adobe Illustrator to use mine though.

http://www.mediafire.com/?pppvyh8twn1aiw3


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plasticbrain
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EDIT 11/28/12: i found a way to change the color of the Quote bubble (simply find it in the FOTM image file, open it with GIMP, and change its color there; fortunately, it works retroactively on any cards you'ved created and saved when you re-open them!). so, i've removed that from the list below, though i would still recommend re-coloring it for future iterations of this software package. i've added the little bug about the "card text" box removing paragraph returns to the list.

@faust:

first, thanks for creating this card editor! it's a fun tool to have.

here are my suggestions to make it better:

1) be able to copy a card (not increase the number). this is so you don't have to edit every single field to get your cards to look the same when you want to use fonts and colors than the default ones. so frustrating!

2) be able to change the order of cards at will. so for example, if you create a new one-shot later for your deck, you can move it up to sit with the other one-shots.

3) might be nice if on the preview page, for the non-character cards, a preview of the card's text (or just the first few words) was one of the listed fields. also on this page, it would be nice if the preview picture of the card was at least large enough to read the text clearly.

4) finally, two fixes needed:

>>>a) when you choose "Export cards as PNG" they export as JPG and vice-versa. these somehow got mixed up. the "Export DECK as..." ones are fine though.

>>>b) when you save a deck , if you put paragraph returns between or before any text in the "card text" box, they are gone when you re-open it.

>>>c) you have templates for the Villain's HP card (front&back) but not for their Gameplay card (front&back needed for this too). the Gameplay card is actually more important since it tells you how to play with the Villain!

thanks! i'll be on the lookout for version 6!

here's what i've started on:


At the start of each turn, despair.

faust
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I'll work on putting those things in v0.6. I've done a little work on v0.6 already (it checks to see if a newer version exists) but it's been crazy busy at work. Should eaze off a little this week though so I'll try and do a bit more.

plasticbrain
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thanks! i look forward to it. it's been a lot of fun playing around with it. i've been using it in conjunction with word and gimp to make an entire Villain deck that i'll be posting soon. i'll link here when it's finished.

a couple of other notes on FOTM:

it would be nice to be able to export single cards instead of the entire deck of cards, for when you make an adjustment to just one card, but don't want to overwrite the other files you have previiously exported.

and another style/color fix: a black border around the "class" box. easy enough to add in GIMP.


At the start of each turn, despair.

Sir Valence
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So I started working up a villain deck in Forge of the Multiverse this morning. Looks pretty good so far, thanks for making it available! There's two things I haven't figured out yet:

1. Exporting the deck to JPG or PNG doesn't seem to work for me. I select the command and nothing happens... OH! Never mind, I just figured this one out. I kept trying to supply a filename, which kept it from outputting anything.

2. How do I create the rules card for a villain? I only see how to create the portrait card... OH! Looking back in the thread, I guess you haven't added this yet. I look forward to seeing this when it's ready!

Thanks again!