Colour Coding Messages - with reference image!

Feel free to (re)move this thread if there's a similar one around, somewhere, but I never found one and figure that if I was wonderin', someone else may do so too

I'm also not sure if this applies exactly to other makers, since I know 2k3 at least had it so I'm assuming they all do, but not sure if all the colours codes apply exactly or if they differ between the makers.

Colour coding a message:

Code: [Select]

\c[*]

Where * is the number of the colour you wish to use.  Simple as that

Code in 0 to get back to white, if the colours change multiple times over the same message.
Note also that the colour will only remain the same in each textbox, reverting back to white automatically in each new area.

2K3/XP/VX can only colour code things within the "show message" function of the game, altough scripts can allow coding outwith these areas.
VXA has the ability to colour code virtually anything that allows you to type; messages, details, skills, states etc.

What all the colours look like in game:

Spoiler for:

The colour code is

Code: [Select]

\c[*]

instead of /c[*]

The direction of the slash does make a difference

You should also note that the colour code only works per textbox.
Meaning that you can't use yellow on one textbox and expect it to continue into another without reinitialising it.

The colour code is

Code: [Select]

\c[*]

instead of /c[*]

The direction of the slash does make a difference

I've sat here for two hours coding in colours and item codes into absolutely eveyrthing then decide to post this up here and suddenly I'm screwing it up! D:
Bloody typical! :'(

Thanks for pointin' that out.  Also added that in and a mention about it affecting skill/item names etc.  Happen to know if that does work on other makers, out of curiosity?

Colour coding still works the same for both VX & XP.

You also can't colour code on items in VX

Whoops, I meant item details!  Fixed

No, VX and XP can only use colour codes for message boxes.
You can't colour code skills or items (name or description), nor state names, nor actor descriptions.

You can colour code those things in VXA, but XP & VX only allow you to do so in a message box (AKA 'Show Text' command).


You CAN get some scriptsthat will allow you to colour code those things, but by default it's not gonna happen.
Just another thing that makes VXA a little better than other makers

Hells yeah!  Totes love it myself.  Although the item name cannae be colour coded to appear within the inventory window, the colour codes will appear in the "whoever used whatever" window, which is nice...but not worth havin' the clunky code appear in the inventories.  I wouldn't want to colour code items anwyyas, would be a bit...bit too many for my tastes.

Either way, cheers for that

A little late here, but you should mention that the colours in which the text show up in VX and VXA are determined by the colour palette in the windowskin. The colour palette are the 32 colours in the lower right hand corner of the windowskin graphics, as shown in the attachment. The order is as follows:

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Changing the colours in the palette don't only affect the colours you can choose either, but some of those colours are set to other aspects of the game. Colour 0 is the normal colour for all text (things like the name of items in the equipment or inventory scene), while colour 16 is the system colour (things like the names of the equipment slots). Those are the most important colours in the palette, but other colours are used for other things in the game as well. In VXA for instance, these colours are:

• Normal Colour - Colour 0
• System Colour - Colour 16
• Crisis (Low Health) Colour - Colour 17
• Knockout (Dead) Colour - Colour 18
• Gauge Back Colour - Colour 19
• HP Gauge Colour 1 - Colour 20
• HP Gauge Colour 2 - Colour 21
• MP Gauge Colour 1 - Colour 22
• MP Gauge Colour 2 - Colour 23
• MP Cost Colour - Colour 23
• Power Up Colour - Colour 24
• Power Down Colour - Colour 25
• TP Gauge Colour 1 - Colour 28
• TP Gauge Colour 2 - Colour 29
• TP Cost Colour - Colour 29

With the exception of the TP colours and the MP cost colour, the same list goes for VX. So if you are changing those colours of the palette, you'll have to be aware that you are also changing the colours of those in-game colours.

I don't remember if you can change the colour palettes in XP or 2k3.

As for the VXA database, the only things that the colour codes work for by default are things like item descriptions that would show up in help windows (and the actor description as well). They actually don't work for things like item names or the vocabulary terms.

All in all though, it's a nice tutorial - it is good to draw people's attention to this feature.

So that's how you color code...

Thanks