idea for innate ability icon?

[subtledoctor]

If someone were, very hypothetically!, going to create an innate ability that allows sorcerers to remove one of their known spells and choose a new one in its place... what would make a good icon for that ability?

spcl919b.bam is already criminally overused.  And I'm only capable of, more or less, recoloring and rotating existing icons.  At the moment I'm thinking a recolored version of spwi110b.bam, the question mark for the Identify spell.  (That spell cannot actually be cast in the UI anyway, so the icon is not seen much.)  But I feel like I'm phoning in the icon for a moderately awesome mod.  (Which is of course totally hypothetical.) 

Anyone have a better idea?

[Jarno Mikkola]

The question mark is very good option... the question is, which color will you recolor it into ? I would say aquamarine... if that will be faily distinct from the while of the identify spell. But to give actual opinion, I would need to see the bam. And you might want to mirror the icon, so it's backwards. Aka; ⸮ Although, do NOT invert it.

Edited August 30, 2020 by Jarno Mikkola

[Bartimaeus]

I thought maybe the unused SPWI901, but it doesn't really look right for that concept. If you're going to go for Identify's question mark, why not used the unused-but-unique SPPR709 instead?

Also, love the idea for changing sorcerer's spellbook upon level-up. Sleep is amazing at level 1, not so much by the time you're level 10.

[Jarno Mikkola]

5 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

why not used the unused-but-unique SPPR709 instead?

You probably mean a recolored version of that, cause red is usually an attack...

Hmm, or one could use a recolored confusion(spwi401x.bam's).

[subtledoctor]

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

the unused SPWI901

Wow I never noticed that.  I bet I can find a use for it... not here though.

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

why not used the unused-but-unique SPPR709

Never noticed that one either.  Looks a bit like something you might see in the presence of The Riddler in the old Adam West Batman series...

No offense.  I just don't love it.  Same with spwi401 - it's good, but I use it elsewhere, for other things.  These are good suggestions though, they got me thinking and scrolling through the spell .BAMs again without my eyes glazing over.  I think I'll go with a modified spwi701b.bam... looks pretty good, and when I decolor and reverse it, it doesn't scream "spell turning!" in my brain.

9 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

love the idea for changing sorcerer's spellbook upon level-up

Turns out, when you put the spell-learning code with Kjeron's UI mod in the multiclass sorcerers together with the "imbue familiar" dialogue creation I made a few months ago, everything you need for sorcerer spell-switching is basically already done.  Just need to plug it in to existing sorcerers.  (Though, there might be compatibility issues with something like the Shadow Adept mod...)

Right now it is set up to allow two choices: change out spells once per 5 levels, or once per level.  I could add a few more options - once per 2 levels, or anytime you want - but I'm not sure it's worth the extra effort.

Of course, I could have uploaded it already, but instead I'm pairing it with a massive restructuring of the entire mod - moving some of the code into more portable functions, and integrating the Arcanist and Mana Sorcerer kits, and moving the ability score-based bonus spells from the middle to the very end so that it can more easily coexist with spell-table-altering tweak mods... which means substantially rewriting the code in the multi-sorcerers/mana sorcerer/arcanist that assumed they would be installed after the stat-based bonuses.  All told, there is a LOT that can break, and a lot to test.

Edited August 30, 2020 by subtledoctor

[Bartimaeus]

Haha, none taken - just an additional idea. I'm surprised the EE devs didn't try to figure out something for both.

I think once per level is correctly P&P for 3E? I think?

[Jarno Mikkola]

57 minutes ago, subtledoctor said:

All told, there is a LOT that can break, and a lot to test.

So why not upload the in progress codebase and update it when you find a broken thing in it. It's not like a beta state has ever stopped anyone ...

[temnix]

I can draw an icon for you. I do it all the time. Here is the barcode full of them for an upcoming mod:

But decide on a concept first. How about an eraser in flames? 

[Endarire]

@subtledoctor

I imagined a head (like from dominate) but with two arrows, one heading into the head from the left and the other leaving the head to the right.

A blue head icon with a question mark may also work.

Edited August 31, 2020 by Endarire

[Endarire]

Or do a recycling icon.

[Bartimaeus]

On 8/30/2020 at 1:33 PM, temnix said:

I can draw an icon for you. I do it all the time. Here is the barcode full of them for an upcoming mod:

But decide on a concept first. How about an eraser in flames? 

Although obviously not in the vanilla style of the BG games' icons, those are actually pretty neat-looking and not half bad - makes me think of a much grimmer style of game like Diablo 1 or something.

[temnix]

Obviously? I don't think so. A few of these came out grainier than is usual, and I might still smooth them over, but the two on the left, for example, fit seamlessly on a bar with standard icons. If subtledoctor wants one done, though, he'd better hurry and say it. I'm almost through with these boards and modding.