Request for Feedback: Heraldry Tool Preview

there's a sketchfab of one

 

1152*864

that's REALLY painful. to make the forums legible i regularly run at 150%, zoom text only.



as firefox stores that per domain, it makes the maps website a little odd, but still useable. the heraldry generator, on the other hand:

with my defaults


100%


turning off zoom text only and dropping zoom to 30%


turning off zoom text only and increasing zoom make it wider than the screen

 

correct astrolab to astrolabe

 

There are so few lines of division and ordinaries that this will be nigh unto useless for generating any real heraldry.

 

There is a real need for instructions.

In the original COA generator (not the new one) there were many more static divisions to choose from without having to fiddle around much, and I chose Party Per Fess Rayonny which looks like flames covering the bottom half. This is what I am trying (and failing) to reconstruct:



In the new generator there is a Division labeled Per on the left that you apparently have to customize on the right side of the screen, where it is labeled Party Per Fess. The default when I select it without assigning any colors or pattern has a top area (Primary) that is Argent, a bottom area (Secondary) that is Sable and a very thick middle stripe that is grey. I haven't figured out how to make that middle area go away. I thought Party Per Fess was the entire area halved horizontally without a huge grey stripe. Below the selections for Primary and Secondary there is a drop-down list of line shapes to choose from, but selecting one doesn't seem to do anything even though there is one called Rayonny, which sounds like what I want.

If I select one of the bars shown under Ordinaires, the grey stripe keeps peeking through:


I want to put a black Ankh Charge on top of the COA. When I select a charge, it appears outlined in black with a gold (Or) fill. If I change the fill to black, the outline turns white. I want to be able to have a black outline and a black fill at the same time.

I see thumbnails of the different selected components (Division, Ordinaire and Charge), but if the Charge is on top of the Ordinaire, the Ordinaire greys out on the main display. Maybe it isn't allowed to have them overlap. In any case, I tried to delete the Ankh by clicking on the trashcan, but although the thumbnail disappeared, a ghostly ankh remained on the main display and there was no way to get rid of it. I tried deleting the other components so that there were no thumbnails at all and I tried selecting other charges instead, but the ghostly ankh would not go away. I finally had to reload the entire page to make it go away.

Sometimes, when I just load the page for the first time and click back and forth between the Division selections on the left, and then click the Per one , it looks like this on my screen, and I wonder if it is supposed to do that:


My COA does not look good as a square. I need to be able to have it in the form of a shield like in the first screenshot above.

 

1)

OK, so first off, this is what I could do with the old generator:

That is not possible with this one. Which would make me a sad panda.

This since both the broken moon - Daedalus - is missing.

But also since the Spoon is missing, as in the utensil.

Where I don't think @Amber Raine would be happy without the ability to add a Spoon and a Chaos symbol to form a Chaos Spoon.


2)
Then in the images you have chosen to include composites instead of supplying the elements individually which would give us more diversity and utility.
For instance you have this:

Those four are all composites of several elements - elements which would be great to have on their own.
Top Left - this is two elements one of which you already have in your list as "Object double square none" (which should be Octagon) and a flower.
Top Right - this is a composite of a war-hammer and a stylized gear.
Bottom left - this is composite of a) Daedalus b) yin/yang symbol c) edelweiss comet
Bottom Right - this is the composite of a) modern stylized skull b) the chaos symbol

Where it would be much better if the users could have access to each individual element instead and use those as well to create such composites themselves.
Like the
Daedalus
Chaos symbol
Stylized gear
Stylized skull
etc


3)
There is no [Preview] button, which unsellects all objects.

Which means that since whichever object I have selected, then all else get ghosted so I cannot actually see how the end result will look like.
Unless one figure out that if I select an object and then select it again it becomes unselected which is the only way to get the end preview.

4)

There is no [Clear] button.
So to restart I would have to re-load the page.

5)

There are no [+] and [-] buttons to resize the Charges. Also no [Nudge left-right/up-down]
So I can't have a small charge in the center "Over All"
Thus if I want to recreate something like the Swedish CoA, I can't because I cannot control size/location of the charges.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coat_of_arms_of_Sweden

6)
The
contourné
and
inverted
do the same thing.

So for instance to create the sun and the moon facing eachother across a embattled bar, then the moon is facing away regardless of which one I chose.
Instead to get it to face 'left' then I had to spin it 4 times and then contourné.

Here you can again see point 5 above - since I can't nudge the moon left a bit this CoA won't work.

7)
If you delete all objects including the Division you get after effects of the last object deleted and some weird behavior when you add a new object.

Add 3 charges (beer)
Add division - none - to get a background
Delete them left to right, so division first then the beers I get this:

No objects left in the top right, but an after image of the last beer.



Ok better stop now and head to bed. More to come tomorrow.

 

@Rok Yrikk
Can you also please provide an export to PNG function?

 

The top two were meant for NPC towns. The bottom two were created for individuals because the generator was unable to position charges in those locations.
There seems to have been some sort of weird mixing of files here.

 

I think there is no intention to do real heraldry.

 

I'm personally not interested in "real heraldry". I want something that looks good and visually represents my guild. The archaic and esoteric rules of heraldry need not apply.

 

Indeed.
You and many, many others.

 

The tool is easy enough to use, good work.

A few observations of things I have been tangling with:

1. At one point I couldn't delete an added charge. I had added a division, then a charge, then a pine tree as a second charge. But then I deleted the pine tree, then the first charge, and then the division (in reverse order added), but then a yellow pine tree image returned in the remaining now 'empty' canvas that could not be deleted (without refreshing the page).

2. The 'Daedaulus' (broken moon) charge from the initial SOTAcoa.com generator is missing.

3. In several attempts I was unable to change the color of the plant Ylldrassil charge to any color other than black, except once and I don't know how. Edit:I got it white a second time, but had to click the black color for the charge to get it to appear white/sable. I don't get it.

4. The 'graying out' of image elements can be confusing. For example, when I add a second charge, the first charge's color appears to get dulled out. Why don't both remain at full color? I realized later that with clicking the little division icon in the upper right twice, that I could get all of the layers to reappear in full color. I'm assuming the dulling out effect is an active/inactive image layering thing. Confusion might be averted with a 'preview' button for the final image.

 

This has been my CoA since 2014. There seems to be something missing in the generator... mainly.. everything that would allow me to have the CoA that was created for me in the College of Arms by a wonderful Herald.

The rewards have always been known - Worthiness
Church of the Dark Star (Church of Equality) - Unity
"There is a reason for every action, even if that action seems not pleasing at first, you just need to look for it, instead of being blind to it" - Trust

- Uphold (embrace) the 8 Virtues as brought to us by the one who opened the path of true freedom to us (U5 - Blackthorn's Eight Laws of Virtue).

Has there really ever been any question?

 

To all those who have had their arms created by the CoA...you will be able to import them into the game when the time comes. Please dig through your files and find the best resolution we supplied for you and hang on to it. The generator is for creating new arms.

- Bug report
1) Several charges that are shown as available are actually reserved for special arms. The Kobold hammer and gear combination, or the Resolute Fist are just two of them. Those will need to be removed and not made available to the players.
2) There will need to be a search or separation of types of charges to make them easier to find. The CoA had five (5) categories for charges: Plant, Animal, Human, Weapon, and Object. Grouping the charges would help folks out to at least find what they want.

Spoon...Daedalus charge will be available as a single charge (it is one of Sir Frank's arms!) It is drawn and waiting to be reconfigured to work in the generator.

I will delve deeper into the mechanics after some sleep

Rufus...unfortunately the math to get all the ordinaries was kicking the coders backside, he has made available all that he could. Please note the elements must be able to be recalculated on the fly and to fit onto any shape, not as simple as a flat 2 dimensional drawing.

Rok Yrikk...any heraldry type questions feel free to ask Sir Frank, Rufus, or myself and we will try and get you as knowledgeable as we can.

 

Thank you - this is great data, we definitely need different styling for smaller widths.

We are currently using the SotA COA generator that exists at https://sotacoa.com/generator/new - we intend to regularly integrate any updates to this project. You can contribute here - https://github.com/GeneaLabs/sotacoa.com

There was no communication to me that art should be restricted per user. Everything shown is available to all players with access. If this is an issue and you would rather bring it off-forum - email support@portalarium.com

The search operation was scrapped because it relied on server-side communication. The shroudoftheavatar.com COA demo does not use any server side logic.

 

Unfortunately, neither my or my son's arms are reproducible using this generator.

Here is mine: Sable, a pile argent upon which in chief three Soyuz one and two Or fimbriated sable, azure and gules, and overall a Phoenix displayed azure


I realize that Ember's phoenix is not available, but even without that I see a couple issues.

• The "pile" division, which allows for a deep cut of color is missing, and only the "party per fall" and "party chevron" (which are identical, except that one allows three colors and one only two) exist.
• The positions (In Dexter Chief, Honor Point, In Sinister Chief, etc) position properly, but size the charges as if they were for quarters, rather than for ninths. (There is no option for quarters either, which will also be an annoyance to some).
• The "Over All" charge cannot be scaled or placed "low" or "high", only "issuant" which cuts off half of the charge. Mine would be best to have a "Overall Nombril" which would be a full-sized charge in the Nombril Point position, rather than a small charge in that locale.

The best I can do now is a phoenix rising with three stars that overlap it and each other, on a inverted party du chevron, which is nothing like what I registered years ago.

Here is my son's: Ash upon which in chief Daedaelus counterchanged sable and or, and overall a Scorpion counterchanged sable and or

• There is no Daedalus charge, much less a perfect "Daedalus in his agony" divided charge. Note that Daedalus IS available on the sotacoa generator.
• The available scorpion charge is a side view, and doesnt fit the design at all.
• It is not possible to divide charges.
• Again, it is not possible to place charges "Overall Honor" or "Overall Nombril"

I realize that the generator cannot do everything, but this seems like a huge step down from what we were able to create in years past. I'm concerned about any divisions and how they will appear on the armor; if they simply fill a square, its not worth using. The division colors should stretch to the edge of the cloth. In that case, division colors should only be made to match dyes, so we can dye the armor to match the division appropriately. I don't know how this would work for ones like LB's crest, with yellow and blue divided; I can't imagine that as just a box in the center of a hauberk.

 

If the generator can't create it, we can upload it.

 

Cool design. I don't know much about heraldry but that's Sable and Argent (Or is gold).

 

So I tried to reproduce my coa but wasn’t able to. As it is registered at https://sotacoa.com/blazones/registered that means I should not worry because I will be able to upload the coa to SotA?

 

At first I would like to offer my condolences to @Rok Yrikk no idea what you did but taking over this part of the project is either punishment or you pulled the short straw ^^
Seldomly a topic has created that much (constructive I admit) feedback in such a short time and was that emotional ;-)

That being said a short reminder from the main post: