Paintball Party Character Designer (c) 2005 NewCreature Design
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This program is freeware. Enjoy.


Disclaimer
----------

NewCreature Design makes no gaurantees regarding the Paintball Party Character
Designer software. We take no responsibility for any damages the software may
cause to you or your equipment, though it has not been known to cause any
problems. Please contact us if you have any trouble with the software and we'll
see if we can resolve the problem.


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Getting Started
---------------

When Character Designer is started, you can either load an existing character
or create a new one from scratch. For your first time, we recommend loading the
included template character "template.ppc" and fiddle a little to get to know
the program.


Things You Might Want to Know
-----------------------------

Characters are made up of a collection of animations attached to player states.
A player state is a way the player can act (like jumping). In order to make a
character, you must fill all the possible player states with animations.

Each state also has a CMAP (collision map) which tells the game what part of
the character is solid.

For firing states you also need to specify where the paintball is generated and
where the "gun flash" appears in relation to the character.

In addition, you need to specify where the "it" arrow and the "pointer" arrow
draw in relation to the character.

You should make all the player animations the same size. The other animations
don't need to be the same size (paintball, etc.).


Global Controls
---------------

Here are the shortcut keys to do some of the common tasks:

F2         - Save current character
F3         - Load a character
F4         - Create a new character
Tab        - Change editor mode
Left/Right - Select the state to edit

To bring up the menu, move the mouse to the upper left corner of the screen.


Animation Controls
------------------

These are the extra controls available in Animation editor mode:

+/- (Numpad) - Zoom in/out
Up/Down      - Select previous/next animation frame
A            - Shift current image left
D            - Shift current image right
W            - Shift current image up
S            - Shift current image down
Shift+A      - Shift current animation left
Shift+D      - Shift current animation right
Shift+W      - Shift current animation up
Shift+S      - Shift current animation down
Shift+Del    - Cut currently selected area from image
Ctrl+C       - Copy currently selected area to clipboard
Ctrl+V       - Paste clipboard into image
H            - Flip selected area horizontally
V            - Flip selected area vertically
R            - Turn selected area counter-clockwise
<            - Decrease animation speed
>            - Increase animation speed

Use the left mouse button to draw in the image box using the selected tool or
select a color from the palette. The right mouse button will select the color
you are pointing to in the image box.

To help in the creation of characters, you can use the "Create Flipped" and
"Create Fire" options in the ANI menu. "Create Flipped" creates the flipped
version of the current animation and places it in the appropriate state. The
"Create Fire" option copies the current animation into the firing state, useful
if the firing state and regular state will look the same. If all the firing
states are going to be identical to the regular states, you can used the
"Create All Fire" option to copy them all over.


Layout Controls
---------------

Finally, the layout controls:

Enter - Select next item

Use the mouse to drag the pegs (white squares) and move the items around as you
please.

If the option "CMAP Locked" is selected, all the ducking states will share one
CMAP and all the standing states will share another CMAP. All the CMAPs should
have the same left, right, and bottom edge to prevent movement problems in the
game. You can do otherwise, but your character might pass through walls and
such.


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Contacting Us
-------------

If you have general questions about our programs or anything else you can
contact us via e-mail. Please report any bugs you find in our software as well.
Comments are also appreciated. Visit our web site for the latest updates and
releases.

You may submit new characters to us by e-mail or upload it to our anonymous FTP
server. We will review any submitted characters for addition to the Paintball
Party characters repository on our web site. Please submit files in ZIP format.
The ZIP file should have the character file (".ppc") and an optional text file
containing information about your character (author credits, etc.).

E-mail     - todd@ncdgames.com

Snail Mail - 1409 Diuguid Drive
             Murray, KY 42071
             Apt. A5

Web Site   - http://www.ncdgames.com
