Signs, Signs, Everywhere There's Signs...

Signs are a great way to communicate static information to your players.  The names of towns are a standard use for signs, but they can also be used to indicate things like warnings.  A sign placed at the entrance to a mine can warn the user of poison gas, falling stones or killer monsters. This can add a degree of foreboding to the atmosphere of the game.

As an example, let’s create a sign to announce the name of the town.  Select the EVENT ICON, and place an event in the square in front of the sign.

Right-click in the square and select Edit Event… from the menu.  Double-click on the top line at the “@>” prompt.

When the Event Commands dialog box appears, select the Show Text button.

In the Text: text box, type the message that would be on the sign. Select Preview… to look at the format of the message.  Adjust the spacing to your liking.

To create a distinction in the game when your player reads your text, you can insert color formatting commands to change the color of the text in your messages.  Why is this useful?  Creating a standard, such as displaying location names in the color blue, reduces confusion and adds “pop” to your messages.  How do we set the color?  We use the /c command followed by the color number.  Here, the town names are written in blue using the /c[1] command, and to set it back to the default color, we use the /c[0] command.

The final event as viewed by your character. When your character is standing in front of the sign, press your action key and the text window appears.

þ Using unique colors to separate locations from treasures, NPC character names, quest items will make it easier for the player to identify messages that are important to them.