We've launched the announced Talent and Lore Update! All characters are granted one free RP talent and race change. Update Log.
Updates to Talents and Monsters: Read the specifics in the Update Log
08/01/'21
Gaia Reborn
Gaia Reborn, the hottest MMORPG of the last decade, has seen millions of players experience its unique world - a combination of fantasy and reality. When Gaia Reborn was a game, one goal was to make the game world a one-half scale model of the real world. This pursuit was known as the Half-Gaia Project, and it is one of the aspects which led to Gaia Reborn becoming such a popular virtual world. With regional servers having unique areas, quests, cities, and monsters, it wasn't uncommon for people to create alternate characters on other servers to experience what felt like an entirely new game.
Ten years after the game's launch, millions of players have joined and created countless characters across the many servers. Now, with the release of the latest expansion, Pioneers of Arcadia, many are getting ready to begin new adventures in the new Italian server, exploring the new region corresponding to Italy, known in Gaia as Italia. Characters would have to start from fresh in this new world, but Italy would finally get its own piece of this world.
Countless players created their characters, logged in with excitement fueling their hands as the cursor swept across the screen, and then... darkness... Everything was black, and as their eyes opened, the players found themselves in the streets of an unfamiliar city. Looking around to survey their surroundings, many players realized this city was not so new after all. While desolate and ruined, the architecture conquered by vines and greenery, this city was unmistakably Rome, but at the same time, it was not. Finding themselves in the bodies of their characters, trapped in the world of Gaia Reborn, players are left to adapt to their new reality in this fantasy world.
It's time. It's time! His all time favorite MMO is back! David let loose with his maniacal laughter. He's ready to get back into the world of Gaia Reborn and bring his parents along for the ride! When he got back home from school, he grabbed his laptop from his bedroom and brought it downstairs. He found his dad and step-mom talking to each other in Japanese on the couch. The Japanese news station was on and the rather pretty female anchor was reporting on what was going on in the country. Clapping his hands he said, <"Alright people! It's time. You two are going to join me in this amazing video game today. Let's get bonding!"> The two adults looked at each other and back to him. Old Man McClain (David's affectionate nickname for him) said, <"What is it this time?"> David grinned. <"We're gonna be playing a little game I was introduced to by a beautiful upperclassman called Gaia Reborn!"> His step-mother held a hand to her mouth to hide a grin. <"Hooo. A girl you say?"> David nodded. <"Yup! And no, we aren't in a relationship if that's what you're implying!"> She pouted and crossed her arms. Old Man McClain sighed. <"Look. I get that you want to show me what you find cool, but I don't have time for that kind of stuff. I'm a busy man."> David crossed his arms and his grin widened. <"Dad. You can stop that now. I know you aren't busy. Whoever you work for hasn't called you in didn't they? Besides. I'm sure your boss can live without you for a couple of hours. Besides! It's my birthday today.">
David's father was about to talk his way out of it until his wife stopped him. <"You know. It's been a long time since I played a video game before. Especially an MMO. And I've been hearing about Gaia Reborn from my coworkers. We'll be playing it for a couple hours anyway."> The old man still wanted to object but stopped again because of the woman's face. Her eyes were closed and she was smiling, but he could feel a very dangerous aura filling up the room and she was the source of it. He sighed and said, <"Alright alright."> She brought her hand together and the menacing aura dropped. <"That's the spirit! I'll get our laptops."> And with that, she left the room. He leaned forward and laid his arms on his legs while muttering in English, "Damn that woman. She can be scary as hell and convincing." David's step-mother came into the room with both computers and gave his dad the one in her left hand. After downloading the client and customizing each other's characters, the young one-eyed teen said, <"Ok. On the count of three. One. Two. Three!"> The three of them clicked the "Enter World" button and when they did, it was like someone flipped the switch.
David kept his eyes closed. Ok. THAT was weird. Why the hell did the lights turn off like that? Maybe the power went out? At that moment, he felt a soft breeze tickle his cheek. Wait what? How did he get outside again? The young man decided to try opening his eyes. And then he closed them. And opened them again. He did this four times more. Then he pinched himself. Hard. Still nothing. He thought, "What the fuck?" Looking around, he noticed he was in a forest of some kind. Deciding to chance it, he yelled, "HELLO!?" Then immediately drew back in on himself. "What in the actual hell was that? Was that MY voice?" As he opened his mouth to speak, a soft breeze blew a strand of hair into his mouth. Sputtering, David suddenly lost balance and fell onto his ass. Hearing the trickle of water, the young man (?) flipped over and found a stream of crystal clear water. He looked at his reflection and what he saw shocked him. He was a girl. He was now a freaking girl. David started panicking. He can't be a girl. It was impossible. He briefly entertained the idea of being abducted by a plastic surgeon but shook his head fiercely. There was no way technology is that good to be able to turn a guy like him into a silver haired bombshell. It's either magic, or it's a dream. So he pinched himself again. He slapped himself afterward. Nope. He was still in the woods.
He sighed and said, "Well, guess I have to do a deep dive." David then went to do the thing every guy would do if they were in his situation. He checked to see if his manhood was still there. After five minutes of searching and most of those minutes used to deny the reality of his situation, David finally gave up. It's official. He was a girl now. Picking himself up, he said, "Ok. Now that's done and over with, I need to find civilization. I'm most likely inside the world of Gaia Reborn, but I wasn't killed by Truck-kun to get here." He gasped. "My parents! I need to find them!" He then took off running.
Post by Isabelle Erabus on Mar 17, 2020 1:42:25 GMT
[attr=class,xiontext] Rubbing her eyes, she would look off the the side of the room, to where the curtain was doing it's best to block the afternoon sun. She had been getting accustomed to staying up later and later, and was now sometimes even greeting the sun in the morning. Not that her husband cared. He preferred it that way anyways, so whatever mistress he had over that night could stay until she decided to leave.
Her husband of course, was long gone. Looking over at the clock, she would notice it was already well into the afternoon, and well, it wasn't like she needed to do much before he came home anyways. Other than well, make herself scarce. Much as it had been for the past year. Where he only really cared if he was actually going to be home on time, and expected her to have prepared something for him to eat. That and keeping the house clean were her only real responsibilities, and even then, keeping the house clean was often left to the maid that they hired. She only needed to clean if there were something more immediate that needed attending.
Her life seemed like a perfect 'trophy wife' sort of situation to outsiders. One where she had a husband that was rich, and she didn't need to work a day in her life. But then once it got to those in the neighborhood, they knew better. Their whispers of his infidelity having been the talk of the town at one point, but now it was old news. A fact the community had begun to accept was that she was wife in name only. His heart belonging to whatever whim it had for the evening.
Now, when she wasn't off getting groceries, she needed something to fill her time with. Watching tv could only entertain her for so long, and so she had turned to virtual reality games. And more importantly, anything among RPGs. The mere freedom that it allowed her. It let her live an entire other life. One free from her husband and the cold shoulder he always presented her with. Diving into this game and that. She had already ventured the tiers of Aincrad, been to the kingdom of Melromarc. All were great games, and yet, she would get bored by the time she would reach the late game. Much as she had when she first began playing Gaia Reborn. Where she had become one of the top players on the Japan server before vanishing. But, she had heard that a new server was opening up. One featuring Italy this time. And well, she had always wanted to go to Italy. Ever since high school, when she had first found out it was a country of romance. She had hoped that she would maybe find love there. Get married, have a loving husband. A dream that had since died, but was somewhat rekindled with the opportunity to go now. Or at least, to go through the virtual world.
Speeding through character creation, picking out a new class, she was able to start from the beginning. And really, it was rather exciting for her. She figured this time she would pick a tailor, since one of the biggest issues she had previously was that she always needed someone else to make her clothing and well, she was a sucker for aesthetics. So at least this way, while she looked ratty now, she would be more than able to look better in the future.
Once spawned into the world, she found herself this time out in the middle of a forest. Which was interesting. Not many games just dropped you off into the wilderness. Looking around, it felt nice to have the breeze on her face. The dew on the grass still damp and soft as she would drag a foot through the grass, merely enjoying the feeling. And suddenly, that's when a realization start to hit her. She realized that.... she wasn't looking at a computer monitor anymore. She had been so caught up in the aesthetics of everything that she didn't even realize it at first. But she was... she was here? Reaching out and tapping the tree, she could feel the wood on her fingers.
Jumping into her log in screen, she would start scrolling through the options. Scanning for an option or something akin to a 'log out' button. She had played VR games before, but there was always something that was a little off. Something that helped differentiated that from the real world. The unrealistic feeling of picking up something you shouldn't be able to, the perfect taste of everything, the way something smelled. There was always some way so that you could tell 'this was a game'. And yet, here she was, standing under the shade of a tree and realizing... this was far too realistic. Gaia reborn was a desktop game, and while she had certainly played VR games before, this one would have been far too realistic.
Taking a moment, she would reach down and stick her hand into the grass, pulling out a clump of it as she would feel the earth tug and give way, relenting to her attempt. She hadn't been able to do this in any games before. She was a little worried, she had to figure out what was going on. Was this a dream? She clearly remembered waking up. It was always hell every morning she woke up. Running her hands through her hair while she would look down, she would start to panic. Not really sure what to do at first. But eventually, she would calm herself down. After but a minute she realized. Someone had to know what was going on. And it was perfect timing too, because she heard a small thud in the distance. But looking over, she realized she didn't see anything. Why could she... remembering back to the character creation option when she was mulling over the races, she remembered picking faunri due to their alleged heightened perceptions. Which she had figured meant that she would notice things others wouldn't in dungeons. Chance for extra loot, less likely enemies could ambush her group. Things like that. Growing curious, she would stand up. Taking a deep breath she would start heading over in the direction of the noise.
But well, all good things have to come to an end, as the first thing she saw when she walked over was someone that was... nope. Nope nope nope nope nope.
Turning right around she would start walking the other way. She was not going to get involved in what was going on over there. At least, not until she heard the pounding of footsteps starting to catch up to her. Turning around, she spotted the other girl beginning to make her way over. Though, it didn't seem like she was chasing after her, merely a coincidence that she had started coming the same way.
Holding up a hand and waving she would give off a smile "Hey!" She would say waving a hand towards her, trying to pretend like she didn't just notice her doing something that well, she would rather have not seen. A grin gracing her face as it would also show off her slightly pointed fangs. One of the traits that helped distinguish her as a faunri from an Alv, something her ears certainly would give the first impression of normally.
David ran through the forest. His much lighter body was capable of traversing the terrain with ease. He clambered and jumped over the fallen logs that crossed his path. He slid under the suns that were somewhat elevated above the ground and reached his stomach. Despite his current predicament of being in his female avatar, the young man felt alive. He almost felt superhuman. Plus he could see! It was like he never lost his eye in the first place. Still, David wondered about how his parents were doing. They were still green around the ears when it came to this game and suddenly wearing the body of their avatars must have been shocking. Hopefully they were alright. David prayed that whatever force drew them into the game world didn't turn off the respawn mechanics. Now that would have been cruel. This isn't Sword Art Online!
When he heard another voice yell, "Hey!", the teen was taken off guard. He completely forgot that the character he made was an Alv and wasn't prepared for the noise that made his ears ring. Because of this, he ended up losing his balance and tripping all over himself. David landed face planted into the ground and groaned. He disregarded his disheveled silver hair and climbed to a sitting position. After looking around for the source of the noise, he found a rather youngish looking girl with red eyes and pointed ears who was smiling. He thought she was an Alv, but upon a closer look he could see she was a Faunri. David smiled back sheepishly. He didn't think he would encounter anyone this soon, but he was glad he did. Standing up and dusting off his clothes, he said, "Heyo! You also a player trapped in the game?" Word Count: 296 Total Word Count: 296 Tags: Isabelle Erabus
Post by Isabelle Erabus on Mar 17, 2020 17:38:02 GMT
[attr=class,xiontext] Well, certainly not what she was expecting, as she would watch as the girl who had been running just moments ago, after a simple callout, one that she didn't think even she would have any issues with (and she was a faunri, the race that actually had the best senses of all) she would then watch the girl just tumble, falling face first in the dirt. Causing her to just do her best to cover a laugh, though, it wasn't something that she accomplished very well. As she would wheeze a bit, using her hand to cover her mouth at least. And that made it somewhat better, right?
Well, even if it wasn't the nicest of awakenings, she would notice the girl sitting up, and rather than actually reconforming her hair, something that she figured would have been one of the first things the other girl did (it's something she would have done at least) she instead just sat up and looked at her before speaking. Giving a small smile before asking her if she was a player that's..... trapped in the game?
"What do you mean, trapped in the game?" She would ask, suddenly rather very concerned. Before the realization setting in on her. She didn't have the log out option either. She too, was trapped here. As she would suddenly start to take slow and deep breaths, the realizations of everything from before settling in on her once again. Yes, they were trapped here. Before taking a second and closing her eyes, taking one final inhale, holding her breath, and exhaling. Opening her eyes finally and looking over at the other person. (That is how her therapist had told her to try calming herself down, and it generally worked decently well for her.) Oh god she was going to miss her therapist session. She would start to think before realizing that she had a much more important issue, one that had just tripped in front of her.
Walking over and offering the other girl a hand, she would put aside her worries, as well as setting aside the fact she had previously decided to just let that girl be and would ask someone who hadn't been doing.... that. In order to hopefully make someone's acquaintance. "Need a hand?" She would ask, and whether the girl took it or not, once she was standing she would ask "And I have to ask... do you know what's happening?"
When he watched the girl before him look like she was about to break down, he thought, 'Oh dear.' Speaking aloud he said hoping this would help calm her down, "It's not all bad. At least we don't have to worry about dying in the game and dying in real life. I hope." The last part was muttered very softly as he knew she would have heard him. The teen had played a couple of Faunri along with owning two toons for each race, although he highly preferred to play Humans or Alvs. When the girl asked, "Need a hand?", David nodded thankfully. He took it and pulled himself up. Smiling at the 5'2 Faunri, the teen said, "Thanks. Name's Kleio by the way. Before you ask, I'm a seventeen year old dude in the real world. Wasn't expecting to be like this when I made my character." He gestured at his new body to emphasize what he meant. When she asked him if he knew what was going on, David sighed, crossed his arms and shook his head. "No I don't actually. All I remember was making my character along with my parents and all three of us entering the game world at the same time. Next thing I knew was I'm waking up here. Sorry about that."
He frowned when thinking about what had happened. Just what otherworldly force pulled him into this world? He shook his head again. There's more than enough time to look into that stuff. He's in a video game! This was one of his wildest dreams! Sure Sword Art Online sucked major ass after the Aincrad Arc and the only redeeming quality of the second season was the Death Gun Arc, but the premise is what drew him in. Being stuck in a virtual world? Preferably without the whole "die in the game, you die for real" shtick? Who wouldn't want to do it? Looking at her, David smiled and said, "How about we look for someone who probably does? In fact, let's look for civilization. I might have played the game for a while, but the Italy server is like a new frontier for me." Word Count: 363 Total Word Count: 363 Tags: Isabelle Erabus
Post by Isabelle Erabus on Mar 17, 2020 21:18:26 GMT
[attr=class,xiontext] As the other girl watched her start to have a panic attack, attempting to calm herself down, the other girl would also chime in some words of encouragement, about how dying here didn't actually mean dying in real life, which of course, she knew there was no way to prove that, not unless this girl actually knew more than she was letting on, in which case she was going to be looking to exchange some not so kind words with her. But the sentiment was appreciated at the least, so as she would offer her a hand up, pulling the taller girl up, she would get an introduction, which as she would state her name, and start talking about her actual life, she would cringe slightly. 'So he's that type of person. Got a girl's body and first thing he did was .....' She wasn't going to let it show on her face too much what she had witnessed, though, the other girl... boy? Would probably be able to guess something was up. "Name's Isabelle Erabus. Old name from the Japan server, came over when the new server opened up and just renewed the account. Most people call me Belle though." She would say back to her.
Though, she still had to ask if they knew anything about what was going on. To which they would just reply that they didn't know about anything, though, once they talked about joining with their parents, she would give him a weird look yet again. "So first off. One. You play this with your parents? And two. Where are they now?" She would ask to him... her. Ok, she really needed to figure that one out. "So, what should I be calling you, Kleio I'm guessing but I mean like. Him or her." She would state as she would look the rather bustuous woman up and down once. She also had curiosities as to how he/she ended up like that, but all of those for a later date. "Yeah, looking for civilization is a good first call. We might find somebody who knows what the hell is going on. And before you say anything else, no I don't actually look like this in real life either. And furthermore, the Italy server is new to everyone. It's a brand new region. No one really knows too much about it, unless you happened to beta test it." She would say, before turning and starting to head forwards.
After a few moments of walking, presuming the other girl was following along, she would ask. "How much do you know about Italian geography. To tell where the hell we're going and if we're even walking in the right direction I mean." She would say back to the other girl.
David studied the girl. Isabelle huh? Cute name. "Alright Belle. 'Tis a pleasure to meet you." The teen said this as he gave an overly dramatic bow. When she asked that he played with his parents, he responded, "Well yes, but it's their first time. I was planning on showing them the ropes when we all logged in." A moment later he shrugged. "Have no clue. They might be in the main hub for adventurers, or somewhere else entirely." When she asked him about pronouns, David said, "Let's go with him. I may not look it right now, but I'm a guy through and through." After Belle started walking, he followed her as he thought about how to access the menu interface. Aincrad had a thing where you put your right index finger and thumb together and swiped downwards. The Alfheim game that followed had a similar function but it was left handed. So that's what he tried to do. He swiped down with both fingers twice on each side to see if it worked, but was disappointed at the lack of results.
As he pondered what to do, he heard Belle ask him if he knew anything about Italian geography. He shook his head. "Not much. I could if this server was in Greece. Athens specifically. Italy? Nope." Looking around, he noticed what looked like buildings in the distance and pointed towards them. "Why don't we go that way? Buildings could mean people and maybe other Adventurers." While waiting for Belle's response, the teen decided to try getting his menu interface working again. This time, he closed his eyes and thought hard about his need for it, and he heard the familiar noise a couple seconds after. He thought, 'Yes! I have the menu! Would have been a big problem if I couldn't open it.' Everything was there. The character profile, the inventory, everything! He looked towards Belle and said, "Think about your need for the menu. It'll show up that way." Word Count: 333 Total Word Count: 333 Tags: Isabelle Erabus
Post by Isabelle Erabus on Mar 19, 2020 19:07:42 GMT
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As she would inform the other person of her name, she would nod her head towards him "Likewise" Being her only response to that. But, as she had asked about why he played with his parents, he would say that it was their first time and how they needed to be shown how to actually play still, which caused her to internally cringe a bit as she tried to picture her own parents attempting to play this. Which well, it wouldn't have looked good, and he certainly must be a kid if he was getting his parents to play games like this. So it only moved to validate his story even further because at least in her eyes, if she had asked her parents to play a game like this her mother would have even less of an idea what to do, and her father would have just laughed her off and told her to go back to her husband.
Though, as he would talk about them being in the main hub, she would nod her head. "Well if we spawned out here, could they have as well? Or do you think we were just unlucky?" She would ask, still confused over the whole situation and acting as if he had the actual answers. Though, at least she was glad she knew to refer to him as a he now, because well, it still felt weird to look at... that... and say 'he' to it. But hey. To each their own.
But as the two started walking, she knew that since it was based on Italy, it should hopefully have similar geography, meaning she hoped that he was at least Italian. But nope, seems like he was greek. "Greek?" She would ask him. Though, as he would spot the buildings in the distance, she would see that they looked old, and partially broken down. But it was better than nothing. "Sounds like a good idea. Besides, who knows, it probably is a landmark of some sort at the least, if not the main town." She would say with a nod, before starting to walk on in that direction. As they walked on in momentary silence, he would be right behind her thinking on something, which she figured it might just be his family or something of the sort, so she didn't mind too much. But instead, he would tell her about how the menu shows up, which she would try, and it would work. Scanning through options real quick though, she would frown a bit. "And yet. No minimap." She would say with a sigh before closing it. That was unfortunate. "Though it is interesting to know that the menu is still around. I didn't see a log out option, did you?" WC: 468 TWC: 2595
He looked at Belle as they walked. "Me? Greek? No. I'm an American. Born and raised in Chicago before moving to Japan. I just really like Greek stuff." David browsed through the menu. When he looked at the inventory more closely, all he could see was his starting <Novice Sword>. Selecting it and equipping it, he heard the sound of the weapon materializing out of thin air onto his left hip. It felt...natural being there. He went to the status menu which showed his avatar standing in the menu. Equipment slots surrounded the picture of his character and it showed a small sprite in one of the weapon slots that signified that his sword was equipped. His health bar and mana bar were abysmal, but that was to be expected from a character that was just starting out. David also had a <Novice Shirt> equipped which didn't give any stats at all which was a bummer. But at least he was wearing something. It honestly would have been embarrassing if he woke up in the game world without any clothes on. The teen didn't have any Gold, but when he got a foothold in the game, he was going to start hunting monsters and doing quests.
When Belle brought up the log out menu, David went to look for it. When he found the spot for it, it did show up, but an alarm only he could hear kept sounding every time he clicked the button. He nodded. "I found it, but it's not letting me log out. Maybe a bug? Hope it's not permanent." He wondered if anyone noticed their disappearance. Or was it like SCP-3008? The Infinite IKEA? The anomalous building where people disappear into and people on the outside world apparently forgets about their existence? He seriously hoped this wasn't the case. Maybe the world of Gaia Reborn is their new home now. Lost in his thoughts, David didn't notice when the two reached the location he pointed out. Looks like they didn't find the Adventurer's hub, but they did find something else. A massive behemoth of a structure that looks like nature had reclaimed it due to the lack of attention and age. He stopped to admire the site. "Huh. This is new." Word Count: 377 Total Word Count: 377 Tags: Isabelle Erabus
Post by Isabelle Erabus on Mar 20, 2020 18:54:03 GMT
[attr=class,xiontext] As he would explain that he was American, not actually Greek, it would cause her to wonder why it was that he was so interested in Greek stuff, and also, she wondered why he moved to Japan (since that was kind of just dropped in there) but she figured that based on his age, that it was probably something like his parents work and so he was just pulled along. Though, it was certainly interesting that there was another Japanese person playing on the Italy server. Or well, 'Japanese'.
She would then watch as his sword equipped to his hip, which made her suddenly curious, as she would go through her own menu and do the same, her sword materializing on her hip. It then raised another question for her though, which was more about the actual spells. She had picked some before, but didn't know if they would actually count towards what they could do. Causing her to go through her menu to find the spell she had picked out, she only took one that actually cast mana, the rest of the stuff she had were all just passive skills, but it meant that she could just keep that spell up was her reasoning. Taking a moment to find the spell again, she would select it, clapping her hands together while thinking on it for a moment, and then pulling her hands apart, another sword would be in it's place, floating up to be next to her, to which she would see a list of verbal commands that she could give it. Interesting. Well, best to leave it there, for no other reason than to test what mana drain actually did. If she was here now, she wanted to start learning everything she could as soon as possible, to be able to acclimate herself to the world well enough as quickly as possible.
As he would find the log out button in the menu, he would find it, to which he would try logging out, but to no effect, causing her to sigh. So they were stuck here, at least for now. Interesting none the less. But certainly not ideal. Anyways, as they had been walking for awhile now at this point and reached the building, or it would probably be more accurate to call it a 'building'. Because well, it had a massive vine growing up through the middle of it, where it had knocked out one of the walls on an upper floor revealing a room. "For some reason, I don't think this is an exact replica of Italy. I doubt they have a place like this." She would say as she would start walking towards the door. "Best to check to see if anyone is living in here." She would say to him.
Welcome to the help dialog for the Custom Mini-Profile Creator plugin!
Click on any of the tabs above to go through the plugin configuration process!
You can access this menu at any time by clicking on the icon in the bottom right bar (may not be applicable if you're on Forums.net), or you can disable the welcome window and/or the icon by going to Plugins > Manage > Custom Mini-Profile Creator and changing the Show Help option.
This step is essential as it gives the plugin everything it needs on the page to get as much profile information as possible.
To make the profile variables work you'll need to add a new line to the very end of Themes > Layout Templates > Mini-Profile and paste the code below on it. The code should be placed completely outside of the mini-profile, so if you're using the default mini-profile template this will be after the very last closing </div> tag. This needs to be done on every theme you have the plugin enabled on as the template is theme-specific.
If your mini-profile template is already customized and you've hit the variable limit for your template you're free to remove any lines from the code below if they contain information that you don't plan on using. For example, if you have no plans to ever add a user's IP to their mini-profile for staff reference you can remove <div class="mp-info ip">$[user.ip]</div> from the code and everything else will still work just fine.
Once you've added the HTML from the Layout Templates tab you're ready to move on to building your mini-profiles. If you want to get going and try some out now or you're not very adept at HTML, CSS, or Javascript, worry not! This plugin includes some examples for you to try out. You're free to skip to the Custom Profile Fields tab and read over this tab later when you're ready to build your own.
Here's a quick rundown of each of the components in Plugins > Manage > Custom Mini-Profile Creator:
Name This is the name you'll be adding to your custom profile field dropdown once you've finished coding the mini-profile. Pretty self-explanatory. Make sure this name is unique from every other name you use for your mini-profiles or you'll end up overwriting the earlier ones in the list.
HTML This is the HTML that will go inside your mini-profile. You can use just about any HTML tag here so long as it's appropriate for where the mini-profile is showing on the page. Please refrain from using <style> or <script> tags here. You have the next two sections for that! Also, remember that mini-profiles can show multiple times on the same page, so you shouldn't add ID attributes to any of your elements here. Two elements on the same page cannot have the same ID per HTML standards.
CSS This is where you'll place what would normally go in your forum's style sheet or what would normally be between <style> tags. Try to code your mini-profile's HTML in a way that will allow you to target it specifically with your selectors. For example, you can surround all of the content in your HTML with a <div> element with a class and target that class and its child elements specifically with your CSS. That way you don't accidentally target every mini-profile on the page with CSS that was meant for the one you're building. One more thing: The forum theme's CSS still applies beforehand, so your mini-profile may look right in one theme but not in another. The best way to circumvent this is to define as many styles as you can to override the theme's CSS.
Javascript Anything that normally goes between <script> tags will go here. This one's a bit tricky since you'll obviously want to target the custom mini-profile specifically. Luckily there's an easy way to do that. In your statements you can use the $(this) variable to target the mini-profile if you're coding using jQuery. Otherwise, if you only plan on using standard Javascript you can target $(this)[0] instead.
Once you've finished building your mini-profiles it's finally time to add them to the Edit Profile page for use! To enable selection of custom mini-profiles you'll first need to add two specific custom profile fields in Members > Custom Profile Fields in your forum's admin area:
Mini-Profile Theme
Staff Mini-Profile Theme
Mini-Profile Theme is for mini-profiles that are designed for member use. You can set the Who Can Edit option for this field to Staff With Power if you only want staff to be able to choose mini-profiles for users. Otherwise, if you want members to freely be able to choose their own mini-profiles you can choose Members and Staff With Power.
Staff Mini-Profile Theme is for mini-profiles designed specifically for staff use. This field is completely optional.
Set the type for both of these fields as Drop Down Selection. Click on the (View/Edit) link to add mini-profile names to each of these fields.
If you've just installed this plugin you should have three different mini-profiles already installed by default: Example 1, Example 2, and Example 3. You can add these to your dropdowns to test them out and see the plugin in action.
If you're having trouble getting this plugin to work despite following the instructions in the previous tabs you may want to check that each of your themes meets the prerequisites below in Themes > Layout Templates > Mini-Profile.
First, ensure that opening tag of your mini-profile template includes the $[miniprofile_class] variable in its class. On the default ProBoards theme it should look something like this:
<div class="$[miniprofile_class]">
Next, make sure that the default {foreach} loop for custom fields is present inside your mini-profile. It doesn't need to be visible, so you're free to add it inside a hidden element if you don't plan on displaying it or if it would mess up the appearance of your own custom template.
Beyond that you can do whatever you like to the mini-profile template for the most part and it shouldn't negatively impact the plugin.
The following is a list of available variables for use in the HTML section of the mini-profile creator and their definitions. Adding any of these to a mini-profile will generate the content described in its definition in place of the variable so long as the information that variable outputs is visible to you.
To reference your forum's custom profile fields you can use $[user.customfieldname], substituting "customfieldname" with your custom field's name. You'll need to type the name in all lowercase with no spaces and only use characters A-Z and 0-9.
For example, Mini-Profile Theme becomes $[user.miniprofiletheme]. This will output the value of the custom field. In the case of this example, it'll be the name of the mini-profile theme you've chosen in your profile.
IMPORTANT NOTE: These will only work if you followed the steps in the Installation tab of this window on each of your themes. Any themes that do not include the template code specified there will not have these variables replaced in the mini-profile.
$[user]
User's display name link.
$[user.age]
User's age (if visible to you).
$[user.avatar]
User's current avatar.
$[user.badges]
User's list of badges.
$[user.birthday]
User's date of birth (if visible to you).
$[user.color]
Hex color of user's group. If user is not in a group this will return inherit.
$[user.custom_title]
User's custom title.
$[user.email]
User's email (if visible to you).
$[user.gender.image]
Image associated with the gender selected in the user's profile (if available).
$[user.gender.text]
Name of gender selected in the user's profile (if available).
$[user.group.name]
Name of user's current display group.
$[user.group.stars]
Star images associated with user's current display group.
$[user.id]
User's numerical ID.
$[user.instant_messenger]
User's list of instant messengers specified in their profile (if available).
$[user.invisible]
Returns 1 if a user is invisible. More useful for Javascript.
$[user.ip]
User's IP address (if visible to you).
$[user.is_online]
Returns Member is Online if user is currently online.
$[user.is_staff]
Returns 1 if a user is designated as staff. More useful for Javascript.
$[user.last_online]
Timestamp showing when user was last online.
$[user.likes]
Number of likes this user's posts have received.
$[user.location]
Location specified in user's profile.
$[user.name]
User's display name in plain text.
$[user.personal_text]
User's most recent status.
$[user.posts]
User's post count.
$[user.rank.name]
User's current posting rank.
$[user.rank.stars]
Star images associated with user's current posting rank.
$[user.registered_on]
Timestamp showing the date/time the user registered on the forum.
$[user.registered_on_short]
Condensed version of user's registration date.
$[user.social_network]
User's list of social networks specified in their profile (if available).
$[user.username]
Outputs the user's login username in plain text.
$[user.warning.bar]
User's warning bar (if it exists).
$[user.warning.level]
User's current warning level (if visible to you).
$[user.website]
Website specified in user's profile.
You can utilize the $(this) variable in the Javascript component to target the mini-profile <div> element. For example, if you wanted to add a class to the mini-profile you can use:
$(this).addClass('class-name-here');
Profile variables can also be used in the Javascript component in this plugin. In Javascript the value undefined is used to signify that a value doesn't exist for the variable you've specified. With this in mind you can use profile variables in Javascript conditional statements within the plugin similar to how they're used in the actual layout templates section of the admin area.
if(variable) will only run if the variable you specify has a value.
if(!variable) will only run if the variable you specify has no value.
Example 1 (variable has value):
if(user.group){
$(this).find('.group').show();
}
If the user has their group displayed in their profile the above Javascript would make the HTML below visible if you had it hidden with CSS.