Autoload proposals
Be aware of the following guidelines for autoloads that may not be commonly understood, but which we feel are important to highlight.
Be plain
When describing the abilities on your autoload item. Be plain and specific about what you'd like. The less interpretation administration must perform, the more correctly we will be able to achieve your desired outcome. Please see Autoload defaults for inspiration!
| Statement | Better |
|---|---|
| "Like a siren song, I'd like the never enchanting chant from the invoke to work like a battle enchant and temporarily enhance my white dmg from attacks by up to 10 for 5 minutes." | "Self-buff to white damage." |
| "I would like to hit harder." | "Self-buff to white damage." |
| "This would make my foe have a higher chance to miss." | "Victim debuff to hit chance." |
| "This would make my character more robust." | "Self-buff to constitution."
"Self-buff to max hp." "Self-buff to max ep." "Self-buff to armor class" Honestly, this could mean anything! 🤡 |
If you don't know how to word something, ask on the question channel or seek advice from a peer.
Specifying numbers
It is best to not specify how many rounds something will behave, or how long a buff/debuff will last, or for how much something will achieve something. Autoload items have standard numbers for things like durations, how much a stat is adjusted, how many times a multi-attack will hit, how many times a bleed will happen. See Autoload defaults for more information.
Use of language
Quadruple check the wording you are using in your messages. These are the wield and unwield spams as well as the spams that are delivered during weapon procs, the spam command, and also the power command. We are not your editors. Get a buddy to help. Post on the board and ask if someone would be happy to assist you. A poll went out and quite a number of people were more than willing to help proofread. Help is there if you would like it.
Word substitutions/Gender
As an extension of #1 above, DO use the substitution words in your messaging. Do not hard code your pronouns, weapon/clothing name, nor name into the messages. If you ever restart your character and you get your autoload back, it's going to have those hard-coded words in your messages.
Not many of us are English majors and so sometimes certain pronouns can be mistaken. For example on a female, OBJ and POSS may look the same (her/her), however, on a male they would be different (him/his). If your new character is of a different gender (and obviously a different name) from the original owner, your messages will be awkward. The proposal templates do provide what each of the substitution words works out to. If you need help, ask someone.
Message length
The length of messages is important. You are free to write a message that goes to you which is lengthy, however, messages that go to the world or to another player, may not be. You are not permitted to spam the crap out of someone with enormous messages. Your messages should be up to 5 lines long after substitutions. Be cognisant of the fact that when you write your message, it may look to be 4 lines long, but messages are indent-wrapped on every line following the first by 5 spaces. In addition, target names can be up to 12 characters long. Please take these into consideration when you are crafting your messages. You will be asked to re-write them if they are deemed to be too spammy, thus incurring delays in development.
Damage types and messaging
Damage types and messages need to be clear and evidently related. If you want fire damage, then your message needs to relate to fire. Such as shooting out a bolt of fire. But, if your message tells how your hammer is beating in the skull of your enemy, you cannot choose fire as the damage type. It will be replaced with blunt. Non-physical damage-types (thus, not blunt, cutting, thrusting) should be indicated by something less physical-y when you write your message. Use your creativity and have fun with it!
Editors
A note about editors and special characters. Threshold does not support special characters. Only regular ASCII characters like letters and the things you see on your keyboard (well, American keyboard :)). If you are doing your editing in a WORD PROCESSOR (such as Google Docs), be aware that you may introduce problems if you have smart quotes on.
From help editor
By default, Google Docs has Smart Quotes enabled which provide visually appealing rounded quotation marks and apostrophes, however, this is not well-received in the Threshold editor. To disable:
1) Go to Tools > Preferences
2) Uncheck Use smart quotes
3) Click OK
