Difference between revisions of "Pern Dragon Modding Guide"

Latest revision as of 18:33, 19 April 2010

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Breed Selection

While many different quadraped Dragon bodies that may be used, the most popular at this writing is the Astral. This species is very compatible with the look of Pern dragons, and is easily modified to remove the unnecessary parts. The Wings of your new Pern dragon, however, should be those of the Storm, as they are the only ones available that are similar enough to those described in the book. But it is totaly up to the individual which of Daryth's quadraped dragons you wish to use.

A decision has been made that will allow both full-sized Wyrms and Wyrmlings alike to hold all ranks, allowing the clan to grow beyond the limits of the Council of Wyrms. Therefor, if you are not a member or cannot afford two full-sized Wyrms, you can get the associated Wyrmlings and use the parts from them to construct your Pern Dragon.

At this point, there are no plans to use the Hatchling sizes. The time period of this RP (4th Pass) has no fire-lizards. Also because there are no Wyverns on Pern we will not have Wyverns in our role play.

HUD 2.5

With the newer HUD, modifying your Dragon to fit the look of Pern is a snap. When you are accepted into the clan, and given a rank, you will be issued a Rank Notecard - your Pern (color) Notecard. This card is used by the Dragon HUD to recolor, retexture, and adjust the shine and visibility of your dragon to fit your rank.

Rank can only be issued by a Gold or Bronze Dragon. If someone claims to have lost their card, they must get a new one from a Gold or Bronze. If you falsify your rank you could be expelled from the clan.

Adding your Rank Notecard

Once you have received your notecard, wear your Dragon and HUD. Open the pallet option (3rd from the top), and you should see an egg. Right-click on the egg, and choose "Edit". Open the More window, and you will see a script and (about) 3 notecards. Drop your new Rank Notecard into the contents folder, and close the Edit window.

Activating your Rank

You are now ready to re-color your Dragon! With your HUD pallet option open, left-click on the Egg. You will be presented with a blue pop-down menu - choose "Load", and then chose the option associated with your Pern Color. Your Chat history will say "Loading...", and after a few moments, will say "Loading Complete". Click the Egg again, and select "Activate" from the menu, and your Dragon will transform before your eyes into your new Rank & Color.

Eye Whirling

The Pern books described Dragon Eyes very specifically. Dragon eyes are faceted, and whirl in different patterns and speeds to indicate mood. While the changes listed above will texture them correctly, they will not add the "whirling" effect. This can be done with a very simple script, but the process itself is tricky and may take several tries.

Currently, we are using the script "anim-SMOOTH" from the Library, which everyone has access to in your Inventory. A newer version is in development that will add more angles and changes of speed. When available, it will be posted on this page.

The difficult part is getting the script into the eye. While wearing the head, preferably on a posing stand, right-click on the Dragon head and select "Edit". Check the option to "Edit Linked Prims" and select the eyelid or any other single part. This is where it gets tricky - the eyelid (the part that blinks) is blocking our access to the eye. One option is to move the eyelid temporarily, but if you do, make sure you note the position before you move it, so that it can be returned to exactly the spot it started in. If you're not comfortable with that, the other option is to use the camera controls to VERY carefully move your camera until it is INSIDE the eyelid - this allows you to select the eyeball itself. You can then drop the rotation script into the contents panel on the eyeball.

Once you have dropped the script into the eye, MAKE SURE it's the eye that's rotating before you deselect anything!

Dragon Saddles

Saddles come standard issue with Daryth's Dragon avs. But not all Saddles are created equal. The older style saddles are very very hard to manuver and very prone to lag. The newer saddles avaliable in the Egyptian dragons is so far the newest. And the easyest to use. It has superior movement and allows you wo walk or fly as you wish where the older style has you flying as soon as you put it on. They also let you select between 2 or 1 rider and you can select your breed and who controles the drivin (Rider or Dragon).The newer saddles are suposed to come in the Dragon Upgrade packs from Daryth once she finishes them, but there is not telling when that will be as she has allot of project going on. So for right now your only way to obtain one of these saddles is to get an egyptian dragon.

Breath Weapon

The Breath weapon we use now is a reactive emitter to thread and practice targets. To use it you must wear it on your avatar. Do NOT link it to your head as it will break. Wear them on your head in a empty slot like mouth or ear. Then you will have to find it and edit it and move it to your dragons mouth. This will put the flame comming from your dragons mouth and not its neck. To fire the breath you will need to be in mouselook and click with a mouse button. It will flame and this is how you aim at your target.

A simple way to find the Breath weapon to reposition it is to detach your dragons head, wear the Breath weapon and then position it well away from the space your dragons head would occupy. Then rewear yoour dragons head and reposition the Breath weapon on your dragons mouth.

One little thing is sometimes when you put a saddle on it will take the mouselook button away. You may have to detatch your breath and then reattach it. to get the mouselook option back.

Final touches