Image Designer Archive
Thread: FAQ and Tips for Image Designers: Version 2.0
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NJ62
Mon Feb 16, 2004 4:28 pm
#1
FAQ and Tips for Image Designers: version 2.0
Compiled from
Q: What can an image designer do?
A: everything at character creation: minus bugged items, plus some additional hairstyles, frill styles, horn styles or lekku positions. And that’s it. No tattoos, no weird hair colors. We’re working on it.
Q: What about wookiees with fros! I see them all the time
A: The exploit that enabled image designers to give cross-species hairdos has been disabled, and most people have reverted to normal hairdos (although there are some players whose hair has not yet been fixed).
Q: How do I do an image design?
A: Group with your victim. Then target your victim and use the radial menu – an “image design” option should appear. Alternatively, you can target the victim and type /image.
Q: Can I image design myself?
A: Yes. Type control-1 to target yourself(or/target self)and then type /image. You will then be able to change yourself using the interface. You can also image design yourself by clearing your current target (by pressing “escape”) and typing /image.
Q: How do I get image design experience?
A: First, group with a willing victim. Then use the interface to “offer” an image design. If he or she accepts, you gain experience, and your mind pool is slightly depleted. You don’t have to actually change anything to get experience – you can offer the same thing that the person already has. Accepting a non-change will also give experience.
Q: Do I get experience if I image design myself?
A: Yes, but only a quarter of the normal experience, and each change will cost the same mind pool. It is better to “practice” on a friend for experience.
Q: I can’t image design myself or my friend. It’s broken!
A: Is your friend a Wookiee or a Mon Cal? If so, you’re out of luck for now. They have no features changeable until ID2 in the entertainer tree, when you get eye color.
Q: What lines should I go up first?
A: It depends on what you want to do. If you want to grind to master quickly, use face or body, because those have high-experience changes which can be used on any victim (all races have height & noses, but not all have hair, for example). If you want to become “useful” quickly, do hair followed by markings, because those are the most frequently requested changes.
Q: What is fastest to grind?
A: the mind-to-experience ratio is not constant. For example, it may cost 50 mind to do an design that is worth 50 xp. But it may cost 125 mind to do a design worth 100 xp. Usually you get more “xp for your mind expenditure” using a lower-level design. However, if you use food or buffs, your regen rate will increase to the level that you will be able to “keep up” with using the higher-level designs. Another issue you might want to consider is the irritation level of your victim. This person was kind enough to let you practice on him or her – does he or she want to click twice as much just to conserve your mind pool so you never have to rest? Along that vein, are you the type of person who doesn’t like to grind for a solid hour? If so, feel free to deplete your mind pool and then socialize or do something else until it regens. Most people choose to grind hair color or lip color until they get eye color. Some image designers used only eye color to grind all the way to master, while others found nose modifications useful. Basically, use whatever you feel comfortable with based on your mana regen rate, your partner’s playstyle, and your playstyle.
Q: What do I get when? The skill boxes are uninformative!
A: There is a lovely chart in Kwee’s Image Design Guide.
Q: Where are the trainers?
A: Usually in any theater, in the back room. Also, swg.allakhazam.com has a trainer database.
Q: What’s all this macro stuff I’m hearing about? I want to macro too!!
A: To macro, you click your target and use the following command lines:
/im; /pause 2; /imagedesignSetValue blah blah ##; /pause 4; /ui action toolbarSlot##
Here are the essential components to this macro
- Pauses: so you don’t get bugged. Very important.
- /im or /imagestarts your interface. You must use it every time you want to macro.
- /imagedesignSetValue blah blah ##. First, make sure you capitalize as I have with SetValue, and copy the spacing exactly. Second, you’re probably wondering what blah blah is. Well it’s what feature you want to change. The ## is the value of the change (i.e. what color or size). So for example, you want to change hair color. You do /imagedesignSetValue hair_color 03 (or whatever number you like) using that exact spacing and capitalization. For a list of commands (eye color, hair color etc) see /ImagedesignSetValue list 1, /ImagedesignSetValue list 2, or Syzygy’s /ImagedesignSetValue site
- Hint: because there is always the possibility that you or your partner will become bugged, try to use the value that he or she already has. With a slider, you simply use the interface to determine what value your friend is (i.e. you try to ID his height and you see that the slider is at number 197). Then you use that number in your macro. With colors, simply count left to right, starting at 00. When you reach the color your friend has, use that number in your macro.
- /ui action toolbarSlot##. This is how to loop your macro. Use the exact spacing and capitalization there. The "slot" is where you put the macro button, and this command tells the computer to “hit” that button again. So if you want to put it in the top row of F1, it would be /ui action toolbarSlot00, and f2 would be 01, and so on. The second row starts with f1=12, and so on.
Important tips regarding macro looping: - To get rid of a looping macro hit /dump.
- Do not swap to a different hotbar when you have this macro running or the macro will hit whatever happens to be in F1 (or F2 or wherever) at the time. So on quickbar 2, that might be your burst run, or whatever. Don’t do it.
- There is a possibility that you may become bugged if your friend does not hit “accept” before he or she gets the next offer. If your friend doesn’t have an itchy trigger finger, you may want to leave off the /ui action part. You can hit the button manually and it’s quicker than using a macro.
Q: How do I macro myself?
A: You have to target yourself in order to use a macro on yourself. Standard is control-1 unless you changed your keymap. You can also use the command /target self in your macro, to be safe.
Q: I hate macros. Bah on them. How do I grind ID the old-fashioned way?
A: First, you can use a macro that doesn’t loop, which some people find preferable (simply leave off the “ui action” part at the end of the above macro). Second, there’s the “line up and click” way. Simply go through the interface and line up the boxes so that you will never have to move your mouse for the change you want to make. The second box is stationary, so you must move the first and third boxes to the desired position. Because you don’t need to make a “change” to get exp, don’t worry about moving the slider, or changing the color. Warning: see below for details on the “slider bug”.
Q: is there a way to auto-accept an image design? A: no, there is no /imagedesignAccept or anything of the sort. It’s an urban legend. Your victim will just have to click accept. There is really no way around this.
Q: My macro won’t work. It’s broken. I hate it.
A: There are several reasons your macro may not work
- You may not qualify for the design. You want to do lekku pattern? Nice try, until you get hair 4 you can’t do it, macro or not. To find out what you do qualify for, use the normal interface to see what you can and can’t do. If a box doesn’t appear, or is grayed out, you’re out of luck.
- Make sure to type /image before you hit the /imagedesignSetValue part, even though the interface stays open. If you don’t redo /image every time you want to do a design, you get a fake “accept” screen, but the design doesn’t go through.
Q: I don’t have the ability to make people bald! Woe is me!
A: Fortunately there is a workaround:
- offer client hairdo (any)
- client clicks "x" box in top right corner
- offer client hairdo (any)
- client accepts
- instruct client to destroy "wig" that will appear in client inventory
Q: I don't want to be bald, but I have a wig in inventory!
A: Don't delete it. It should disappear upon relog or server reset.
Q: I can’t change eye shape!! Oh the inhumanity!
A: Well… it’s a bug, no workaround for you! We’re working on it, for real.
Q: When I change hair color, I can’t see it. When I change hair style, it reverts to brown. Oh the horror!
A: The infamous Hair color/horn color/rhodian frill tip color bug. This bug essentially causes the image design client to see the hair’s real color, while others see a different color.
- If you change a hair style, the color will look the “default color” to everyone but the client (brown for humans and zabraks, white for bothans).
- If you change hair color or horn color, the color will look like the old color before the change to everyone but the client.
- If you change color and style, the hair color will be the default color to everyone but the client.
- But… if you change the zabrak horn/hair style, the horn color will revert to brown to you and the client. I think it’s permanent. Be sure to fix the horn color in these cases.
This bug is resolved by doing an exceptionally long relog (more than 30 minutes). Sometimes this does not work. Server reset always fixes this problem. This bug, however, would explain why an image designer might have trouble matching hair and eyebrows.
Q: What the frick is up with my slider? I know that dude wasn’t at minimum weight and no chin when he came in? What is going ON!
A: sometimes when the image designer clicks on which feature he or she wants to change, the “slider” reverts to the zero value. For example, clicking on weight will cause the slider to revert to zero. This is a problem because the image designer sees the client AS THE SLIDER IS, not as the client actually is.
- Closing the ID interface does NOT make the image designer see client as he actually is, but the image designer will continue to see the client at the zero value (i.e. for weight, extremely thin).
- Accepting: once the client clicks accept the first time, the second time the ID changes the same feature, the slider will not revert to zero. The slider bug has been known to occur on weight, ear size, nose length, nose protrusion, nose width(?), chin, jaw and cheekbones. This is particularly important when you are doing the “click click” grind method, because you may not think you are changing the client, when in fact you are.
- Rejecting: if the client rejects the change, the client will see him or herself revert to the zero value, and might freak out. As far as I know, this is not an actual change, and the client will resolve the issue by doing a quick relog. However, it’s probably best for you to put the client back to the way he or she was.
Q: my partner has an outstanding image design offer. What is that and how do I fix it?
A: That usually happens when you spam a macro too quickly for your partner to keep up with accepting, or when one of you goes LD during a design. The following fix may work, but this is a tricky and annoying bug.
- If your partner has an outstanding offer:
- target self using control-1
- type /im
- target partner
- type /imagedesignSetValue blah blah
- partner accepts
- If you have the outstanding offer
- target partner
- type /im
- target self using control-1
- type /imagedesignSetValue blah blah
- you accept
Note this doesn't end the bug, it just passes the bug. The only known fix is a server reset.
Q: I’m impatient. How do I get through this quickly.
A: There are some foods that will be useful – and we will add them to this guide when info comes in. For now it’s safe to say, use muon. The problem with muon, however, is puking on your clients (not wise) and getting incapped (really not wise.) The best thing you can do is get a musician buff because that affects your regeneration rate.
Q: How do I see what I'm doing? It's sooo dark.
A: target client and type /ex for examine window. To examine self, control-1 to target self, followed by /ex.
Q: Do I have to go through every hairdo/tattoo style with this guy, so he can see them all??
A: Nope! Send him either to swgwarcry or atomicspacekitty. You don’t have to do anything that you feel wastes your time.
Q: What should I charge?
A: That’s really up to you. You can charge by the time or by the level of design, or can simply rely upon tips. Don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t deserve to be paid. You spend the time with them, you have expertise and creative vision, and you spent the skill points that your client was unwilling to spend. For more information on pricing see Pani’s guidelines or Kwee’s Image Design Guide. Also, don’t be bullied into waiving your fee when someone doesn’t end up making a change. He made the appointment, he spent your time, he should pay for it.
Q: How should I run my business?
A: Again, Kwee’s guide and Pani’s site are excellent resources. You can do image design on the fly or you can make a salon environment in your home. You can take appointments in advance, or do it on a first-come first-served basis. There is no right way to do it, so find what makes you comfortable.
Message Edited by NJ62 on 02-16-2004 03:50 PM
Syzygy-Gorath
Tue Feb 17, 2004 6:51 am
#3
The new drink of choice for grinding ID is Vasarian Brandy—if you get the high-quality, bio-enhanced stuff you can get upwards of a 400-point buff to mind, focus, and willpower for over half an hour and you can drink two doses before you're full. Mmmm…brandy.
NJ62
Sat Feb 21, 2004 4:14 pm
#4
Addendum (but I'm not editing the above post because editing destroys my pretty links!)
When you use a macro, the image design interface (hair, body, face, markings)will stay open, even after the victim clicks "accept". This is normal. You're getting experience, so long as your screen keeps telling you "you get 150 points of image designer experience." Just ignore it.
You still need to do /image every time you want to use the interface or use /imagedesignSetValue, even if this box is up from a previous image design. Just ignore the box. Continue as you normally would.
Jynn_Seidai
Sat Feb 21, 2004 6:27 pm
#5
Well done n'Jessi. I had to laugh a few times during your FAQ for Customers, it was very funny. Thank you for the time you put into this.
Teminalor
Tue Mar 09, 2004 11:00 pm
#7
NJ62 wrote:
Q: my partner has an outstanding image design offer. What is that and how do I fix it?
A: That usually happens when you spam a macro too quickly for your partner to keep up with accepting, or when one of you goes LD during a design. The following fix may work, but this is a tricky and annoying bug.
- If your partner has an outstanding offer:
- target self using control-1
- type /im
- target partner
- type /imagedesignSetValue blah blah
- partner accepts
- If you have the outstanding offer
- target partner
- type /im
- target self using control-1
- type /imagedesignSetValue blah blah
- you accept
Note this doesn't end the bug, it just passes the bug. The only known fix is a server reset.
Doesn't work on self, it says I am already image designing.
Jynn_Seidai
Wed Mar 10, 2004 5:41 am
#8
It works for some people; me for example. However if it didn't work for you it will take a server reset or a long, like 20 min or more, logout for it to clear for you.
wisp1422
Thu Mar 11, 2004 7:17 am
#9
If you use both MUON and BRANDY it will be even better the brandy even kinda helps with the muon downer
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