Oh dear. I gave a look again at the things Knight Scalarik sent us... And from the design point of view there's place for imporvements.
For what it might concern the Suggestions. It is indeed out of the database. They will be calls for database in their major part, and they will be implemented in the game part.
What we need is three parts on the same tab. in our database manager (and maybe two databases).
The first one outputs the informatin about a Jedi, selected from the list. This is the primary database and the core part of the whole database. It includes the information pertinent to the member ATTRIBUTES, and outputs them on the top of the screen. The attributes are:
- Portrait (chosen from a list);
- First Name;
- Last Name;
- Also Known As (multiple strings allowed);
- Species;
- Home planet
- Gender;
- Age: automatic value;
- Midiclorian count.
- Saber color;
- Current rank: automatic value;
The input is made by the "New, modify, delete" buttons already implemented, but with different design. In the form, the "automatic" values should NOT be inputted in the form.
The only NECESSARY line is first name. Any other lines are optional.
The second database is a timeline. It tells anything what happened to the selected member in cronological order. It gets filled by a parser (if possible. For now I will illustrate my idea. If it's not possible, let me know) by the following syntax:
Year $Year (day $Day): $First_name $command.
$command can be anything that Knight Scalarik described and more: from born to applied, from accepted as padawan by (master's) $First_name to taken padawan (padawan's) $First_name. The syntax can be more or less scripted, ideal would be a droplist with suggestions (google-like). Also, the strings are inputted in separate database, and any member can take advantage of it (for example, it is not necessary to write both "x takes y as padawan" and "y is taken padawan by x", the one creates the other). "The Complete timeline" selection shows all the history of inputs.
The third part elaborates all this information and outputs it, the output goes in categories: Life, Trials, Legacy (masters/apprentices), Notable facts. All the names in that part are clickable.
I've tried to design it on screen, to give a better idea.
If you tell me that the parser thing is not a madness I will start looking into all the possible commands.
ps. it's 2 a.m. and I've wrote this down now because otherwise I'd never do it. If you have something you didn't quite understand, it's quite probable It's my fault
I'll explain you better.
