Applicable BYOND Key - Account Four
Character Name - Alexavier Julion
Request Type - Permission to Invent

Request Details - Alexavier is currently an apprentice of the De Luca family, a family who has made their money through tech advancements. I am interested in having AJ invent a few misc. things that could add to the world with out changing to much Mechanically (just yet)


For now this request is actually for permission to do rp for the creation of Bikes in Kovara. It's been a meme for a while that this game has sentient robots but no bike, so I figured it would be a fun place to start. The reason? TO make it easier for him to transport his projects between the Casino and the De Luca Industries Lab, or even from Meiaquar to Geledyne.

In this guide I'll demonstrate my method for creating Face Icon DMIs as rapidly as possible using WINDOWS PHOTOS. It's only available on windows so if you are on a different OS you will need to use an alternative program. Most steps of this guide don't rely on windows photos however so it may still contain useful info.

Step 1: Obtain images

First, make a folder and fill it with pictures you've found. I recommend using a mixture of multiple websites to find everything you need.

A few examples
Pinterest: More artistic works. Good to find beautiful profile pictures.
Danbooru: Large collection of images but most of them aren't gonna be usable. Good to find niche expressions.
Google Images: Useful to find multiple decent images quickly, can be surprisingly good
Pixiv: If you really need to dig deep.

Right click and save each picture to place them into your folder.

Tip: It's more important in my opinion to have a wide variety of expressions rather than amass a large amount of similar images that look good. For instance, if your DMI lacks a surprised expression, try to find one of those before going to the next step.

Usually you want:
- A neutral everyday expression
- A surprised expression
- A sad expression
- A fighting/struggling expression
- A crying expression
- A super happy expression / laughing
- A more normal smile for chill happiness
- Character specific expressions. If your char is smug often, you probably want a few of those. Or things like transformations, etc.

In addition, you want to find one or more pictures that look good as a profile pic.

Step 2: Cropping

Crop each picture to show only the face. For playbys, make sure to save the cropped version as a copy. I use windows photos because it allows me to do exactly what I want very fast.

1: Open any image with photos

The menu may look different on your machine.

2: Click the "edit image" button


3: Click the button to change the crop resolution


4: Set resolution to square


5: Crop the picture! As a rule of thumb, I like crops that start just below the chin and stops below the top of the head so you really see the face and expression. It also helps it be well framed/centered and consistency in face icon looks good.

6: Save the picture. If you are editing an image you want to use for your profile or just want to keep it, make sure to save as copy so it's not overwritten. Otherwise, best to just save to not clog your folder. 



7: Crop the next image. In windows photos, you can swap picture by looking at the bottom after you've saved. Helps keep things quick.



Once each picture you want as a face is cropped, pass onto the next step.

Step 3: Resize each picture

To resize the images, I use a website called iloveimg. Follow this link: https://www.iloveimg.com/resize-image#re...ons,pixels .

1: Drag each face picture into the box. You can use ctrl+click to select individual images

2: Make the image size 96 by 96 pixels, maintaining aspect ratio or not doesn't really matter since a picture with the wrong ratio will be broken anyway.



3: Press the Resize images button. If you have more than 30, you'll need to do batches of 30.

4: Download the images, it'll come out as a zip file. I recommend winrar if you have no way to unzip.

5: Make a new folder in your character folder, and put all the resized images in there.



If all went well, you should be able to get all your face icons resized to 96x96 in a few minutes.

Step 4: Create your DMI file

Next, create a dream maker environment with a dmi file, OR use the same environment for all of your character DMIs, and simply create a new DMI file. I prefer to keep it separate.

1: Open dream maker. This tool should come with installing BYOND. You can just press Ctrl+M in the BYOND pager.

2: Create a new environment from the file menu (Or open an old one)



3: Create a DMI file in your environment (CTRL+N) and give it a name

Step 5: Put all your images into the file REVAMPED (Fastest Version)

Edited because I found a better way.

We will be uploading all images at once with a few simple steps.

1: Look at your large collection of 96x96 images with random long names. Select ALL of them



2: Right click -> Rename. Name it "1" or something else that is a single character




Boom, you should now have a large list of images with about 6 characters at most.

This may seem odd to do, but it is crucial for the next step!

3: Go into the DMI you just made in Step 4 of the guide.

4: Press CTRL+I (Or use the menu at the top of the window to do Graphic -> Import. Same thing)


5: Select about 12-15 images at once and upload them in batches. If you get an error message, close the window and then try again with a smaller amount.



You should be able to upload everything quickly this way!

IF YOU GET IMAGES THAT UPLOAD WRONG
You may need to individually copy and paste those images from windows photos or paint into the DMI.

Step 6: Name and order your face icons

So now you want to order and name your icons. Example:



1: Order your images so they are grouped properly. I like to group smiles together, etc.

2: Remove any duplicates, or images that you don't really want to use.

IMPORTANT TIP:
Each page of face icons in game is exactly 7x5, 35 images. This means that any file with more than 35 images will be multiple pages. I like to keep it to at most 35 unless I have a lot of face icons I want. To visualize this, I highly recommend you make your dream maker window just wide enough to have 7-wide rows. Doing this allows you to see exactly on what page each picture will end up. Anything after the first 5 rows of 7 will be on the next page. So any images you want to use less commonly should be on the other pages.

3: The image you see in the battle menu is the very first picture on the top left. Make sure it's the one you want!

4: Name the face icons. This is only useful for
- being able to use the text menu if you're at the edge of a map or in a weird situation
- assigning victory and battle quotes
- "sneeze" and other special face icons
- being organized

If you really don't give a damn, you can just name them numbers or mash your keyboard to go faster  .

Step 7: Compression

Now you have a nice DMI, but it's way too big? That's normal. You need to compress it. Here is the most quick and easy method I know:

1: Rename your .dmi file to a .png file. Yes, it's that easy. If you can't see the file extension, go into view>enable extensions. You may be asked to confirm as it may make the file unusable. Don't worry.

The truth is, DMI files are PNG files with the information about the face icons and names in the metadata. This means that your png is literally just a DMI that can be compressed. It also means you can convert back and forth with absolutely no issues.

2: Put your new png into a compression website. I use https://compresspng.com/ because it works well for our purposes.



3: Download it. You're usually going to be fine when you have 40 images or less.

Step 7-B (Optional): Not compressed enough?

This website has a function that allows you to compress your face icons even harder.

1: Click on your image in the box, the square that shows your png above the "download" button. This will open a new menu below.

2: Use the slider on the right to lower the amount of colors. You can see what effect it has on the image by moving the little sliding panel on the image itself.



3: Make your face icon the right size. Currently, an account with patreon can have up to 640KB. 

If you're compressing too much, consider removing redundant or superfluous icons from your file instead.

Step 8: Upload

The trick here is, you literally don't need to do anything else. You can upload the png directly into SL2, it doesn't need to be a DMI at all. If you want to work on it again with dream maker in the future, you can simply rename it to a DMI 



Boom.

I recommend putting your downloaded compressed file into your character's folder of course. (But usually I don't bother and regret it later).

Good luck with your future endeavors, friends. Let me know if you have any questions, or if you have even more tips to improve the process!

Sword Polisher only activates when the owner of the trait uses an Inn, rather than any of their party members.

The wording of the trait 'when your party rests at an inn' implies anyone in the party using an inn should trigger it.

Steps to replicate:

Step 1. Be in a party with a character who has Sword Polisher

Step 2. Use an inn.

Step 3. Observe the lack of Polished Sword.

A simple verb or even just on login telling you how many players are on either Sigrogana or Korvara.

That way you can tell how many players are actually in the environment you're in, not just on the game in general.

This skill is amazing visually, but for its 6M cost, it leaves much to promise. I've been testing it and tried to stack as much SWA as possible to use it with that, but in the end, due to DEF and Armor blocking most of its damage, even on bosses like Fenrirberus, it deals quite the inferior damage my basic hits can easily outdo by a long shot.









Painful Grip deals way more damage, ignores Evade and ignores Protection, than literally throwing someone on their heads. This skill could be reworked a little in this manner:

- If the opponent was Painfully Grappled, this skill cannot be used. ("Your claws get in the way of the attempt!" or "Your opponent shakes you off, while in pain!")
- If the opponent is not wearing a Helmet accessory slot, it has a chance to inflict Clumsy for 2 rounds.
- Damage ignores Evasion.
- Damage ignores Protection.
- (OPTIONAL) Damage is (100% SWA) + (35% of the Target's Missing HP).

Reasons why:

- It costs 6M total. (3M to Grapple, 3M to use the skill.)
- Grapple is not a given, it's a chance, so people can't really crutch on this.
- You cannot walk-grapple-slam people, because it costs 6M total.
- Even if this ignores evade, CEL-based people have a trait that allows them to worm out of grapples easier, thus making this less optimal to be used as a counter, but a risky option. (Or at least it will be once it gets changed).
- This costs a sub-hand slot that could be another weapon (for Rogues/Magic Gunners) or a shield (for Soldiers).
- This skill requires your opponent to end their turn in melee range, which is rare in this meta.
- This gives access to more 'grapple' uses for other characters that are not Shaitan.
- This animation is too damn good to not be used because the skill is in need of a tone up.

I don't think the damage needs to be changed, by the way. Nor the extra need of LUC so you can make a full use of the skill's potential. Just the ways of making it a little more guaranteed after so much setup this skill requires.

Second life has an optional feature that could be useful here. 

In Second Life, there's an option you can click to make the chat box highlight whenever your account name is said. This can be used for any other word alerts that you wish to set up too.

It would essentially be like madness mantra's highlighting of a word. Ex:

Without the option toggled on:

"Oh hello Dahlia! How are you today?"

With the option toggled on:

"Oh hello Dahlia how are you today?"

This is mostly helpful for big RP scenes when there's multiple groups at once going and you mostly wanna pay attention to your group.

Some of the unique racial traits like Vampires Bite, Wyverntouched Poison, salamandra Fire should all be buffed and influenced by the SANC stat, giving you an extra reason to build it.

Many talents in the gathering niche are literally not doing anything in Korvara, or do so little that you do not even notice the difference. So I propose a change on how many of these Talents work, and maybe suggest a few additional ones.

Alchemy
Gatherer:  Currently increases chance to gather herbs by 20% per rank. Alas, you already have a 100% chance to get a herb from a node. So this is 100% useless talent in Korvara.

Proposed change: flat +20% chance to obtain an additional herb/mushroom (Wood?) from a node. 
OR: if chance is over 100% you get the additional %chance of a reroll. (technically the same as above just future proving if there is ever nodes that do not give 100% of the time)

Breakdown specialist (new) 5 ranks: Increase the chance to succesfully retrive materials and catalysts from items you break down by 10% per rank. Also increases the minimum material you get from breaking down (Aka: 0-2 cotton for example is more likey to do 1-2 cotton instead as an Example)

Cooking
Butcher: Currently increases 20% chance of finding an item while using the bonesaw on a harvest.
I am 99% sure this is bugged, to be honest. I have tested 50 times with and without the talent if I get any additional remains with it. and the difference was minimal, I still got roughly 1 remains per corpse on average, it might be that it just increases the base chance by not flat 20% but by 20% of that value which is fairly low already and that's why I probably barely notice a difference.

Proposed change: increase the chance of finding a remain item by flat +20% per rank, if its over 100% chance roll for a second.

Harvesting
Miner: Same as above really, with the exception that it DOES work on those "once a day" nodes...Which is usually only 1 Iron most of the time. So basically the worse version of normal nodes. Normal nodes feel like they give something everytime anyway

proposed change: increase chance of succesfully gathering by flat +20%, if above 100% chance, chance to reroll for an additional drop

Scavenger: Same as above, I would like to include the Junk piles into this though, if they are not already. 

Experienced: Hard to tell if its working or not, from a feeling I say no, cause I seem to get a pulled back/shoulder whatever just as much as before (might just be unlucky though, as its not a 100% resist at maximum and I didn't actually test it enough to get the data.)

proposed change: +20% per rank, so we get a full immunity when maxed, cause fuck losing movement speed from a pulled back! Additionally cause I think that's barely worth the skill points otherwise +20% chance to get an additional log or harvest item from a field.


I think thats all. Some of those changes are made specifically to make active farming more rewarding, versus the passive farming of fields as I personally feel that active methods should ALWAYS be better than passive (well mostly) methods, or at the very least equal. Thanks to taxes/craftig costs, thats not really the case though.

I wanted to add a Talent that reduces murai costs by 10% per rank, for crafts, but wasn't sure where to fit it. Anyway, I'd personally be happy with atleast some of the not-useful ones actually doing something in Korvara.

My friend and I were killing stuff when we both got over-encumbered. He traded me some of his stuff to hold whilst we went back to sell our stuff off.

I was able to return everything but an Alraune plushie, however trying to trade it back to him (the same character!) for some reason says the Alraune Plushie was twinked and gives an error message.

The trade occurred around 11am est 26th Dec on thewhitehairedgirl.slot2 if that helps.



All other items were returned without issue it's only the plushie, for some reason.

You cannot place a a feast table, campfire, or any new dynamic object introduced in Korvara's update ANYWHERE in the Great Six. Not houses, not exterior maps (I.E. Cellsvich Forest or Gate), not the world map. It just returns "System: Error: You cannot place dynamic objects on this map."
This is a bug more-so on the case of feast tables and campfires, which where before Korvara's update, but it does extend into the new ones as well. This is likely caused by the changes from a hotfix on Korvara's first week, where Korvara had the same issue.

This was in QoF suggestions at first since we thought maybe you couldn't put them into player homes, but then we tried putting them outside and got the same error and figured this was now a bug and not an intentional oversight.