Visual representation of equipped items on player sprite?

[pickle chips]

Hey guys, this is my first post here. I love andors trail so far, and saw it was open source. I'm an aspiring software engineer and thought this would be fun. What I would like to do is make it so when you equip a sword, for example, you would see the player holding the sword. Maybe with armour as well. It would add some element of character customization. What do you guys think?

Also, what's it programmed in? I know it's Java but is there some other library involved?

Thanks.

[Zukero]

Hello pickle chips, and welcome to the forums.
I'm glad you like our game.

Getting involved in an open-source project is one of the best ways to progress in programming.

While your idea of displaying the equipment on the character is in itself good (and has been asked and discussed many times), it is by no means an easy one to implement. You would need to get involved in the graphics rendering layer of AT (not the easiest part), and worse, to rpoduce a lot of artwork: the item icons are all differently oriented, and cannot simply be scaled and placed over the hand of the character. It could be simplified by using the same icon for a whole category. IMHO, that's way beyond the scope of a programming beginner.

As you noted, it is programmed in Java, but not the "original" one. This is the Android SDK. It uses the same syntax and base classes as "standard" Java, but with completely different built-in APIs. It involves a lot of XML. Nothing to be afraid of though.

One last note: I've had flamed discussions on this matter with Oskar, but IHMO, AT's code is not the best example to follow in terms of software architecture. While all the functions and algorithms are well-written, I think the way the code is laid out is at best "strange" for a Java program, misapplying (or simply not using) the usual design patterns that make code easier to maintain.

Reading the code, and understanding how it works is a great exercise though.

Don't hesitate to follow the contribution guide in order to learn how to set up your computer and get ready to dive in the code !

[Piggy the Slayer]

Would be a brilliant addition to AT but as a greedy player I just need more content, story, varied visual damage to enemies....As developers of the best telephone game ever total respect.

[pickle chips]

Thanks for the response zukero. I wouldn't consider myself a beginner programmer (in no means am I advanced) but of course I would have to look at the code first and see how everything looks. I have a lot experience with c# in unity, Java script, and some c++ with SDL. Java has always been something I wanted to get into and I feel this would be a good and fun way. My idea is simply an idea right now, but I wanted to see if others would like it or not. Thanks for letting me know it wouldn't be easy, probably saved me a lot of grief I would of course have to get used to the code first. It might be something I'll look into, but I guess not for a while, since you said the code layout is strange I feel like I'd need to get accustomed first.

Thanks for the input, and I'm looking forward to (hopefully) contribute to this project in the future.