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[PTTG??]

This is a complex one, and it may involve fundamental re-coding. I would appreciate feedback; does the fourm think this would be worth the effort?
In order to streamline Adventurer mode combat, and in particular make it run more consistently, have every action taken occur in the same length of time as a DF step, or the char's movement speed, whatever is lower. This means that for a player with a fast character, the game will take place as normal, while for one who is laying down, has a broken leg or otherwise is moving slowly, they will take an action, then the game will move forward as if it was playing at DF mode speed, until that char gets a new action. The most immediate benifit would be that an unconscious player would be able to watch as they are hacked apart in real time. The main usefulness of this, however, is that a character with a normal move of something like 1600 is unplayable because the game must render the whole time between it's moves all at once, causing twice as much delay between turns. If this where implemented, the game would still have to render this information in between the players turns, but doing it this way means that players get more information instead of a big pause. Finaly, this opens the Adv. mode engine to later expansion so that crafting, harvesting and other significantly longer than normal activites can be implemented more directly.
All that said, I'll admit I dont know anything about the basic structure of the adv. mode engine, and perhaps this is a relatively simple tweak. Anyway, thoughts?

P.S. by allowing interaction during the "moving" phase, the player can re-think actions and interrupt.

[Draco18s]

I like.

[Capntastic]

I'm a bit confused.   Are you saying that actions that would realistically take longer to perform should all be made shorter?

[Zonhin]

No, it means that Adventure mode moves in real time at the same speed as dwarf mode until the player gets a chance to move, then it pauses and waits for input.

[Capntastic]

Aha.  That might actually be a cool option to have.

[Dwarfaholic]

Nice idea, I support it.

Also, you could make "wait" just make you the game world run like in fortress mode until you perform an action, like moving.

[Sean Mirrsen]

I don't get it. Isn't it EXACTLY what already happens? The only difference is that the sim runs too fast for the player to notice. If you happen to fall unconscious in a peaceful area, and spend a considerable amount of time so, you will be able to see surrounding creatures run around, doing their stuff.
Combat moves are already synced to movement speed. A prone character gets an attack for each 3 attacks of its enemy. It's also the reason why the first thing you get when discovered while sneaking is a hit in the face. It's the main reason why I don't play bowmen - the time it takes to reload the bow/xbow is automatically added to the turn time, so you spend quite a lot of time standing, while the enemies advance.

Or what is the basis of your suggestion?

Combat and other messages pausing the sim will make "out time" that much longer, especially if you don't quite care for the details that you can find out by viewing the message log later (even after your demise). Limiting the sim to fort mode speed will ANNIHILATE Adv. mode FPS, because even with the sim as fast as it is, moving around town with a low speed lags the controls very much.

edit: hm, reread your post. You want low-speed characters to, what, have a minimum turn time of one DF step? I see no point in this...   :confused:

[ January 28, 2008: Message edited by: Sean Mirrsen ]

[briktal]

If I'm reading it right, the main point of the idea is that when everyone else acts, instead of getting a huge message dump it happens in real time, until it is your turn again, especially if you get knocked out in combat.  This way, instead of 3 pages of people attacking you appearing all at once, you see them kill you in "real" time.

[Sean Mirrsen]

It IS realtime. It's just too fast. It could be slowed down to Fort-mode speed, though.

The thing is, it's hardly "real" time, as you still can't act (and thus can't look around, any other way would be impossible with the way the interface works), and you would still get the message dump after it's all done. The only solution I can see is artificially slowing down the sim, and allowing "streaming messages" while unconscious or otherwise missing a turn. You can't build a comprehensive system on exceptions alone, the system has to work as a whole - thus, the streaming messages would, in fact, be less informative, as you would have to look through the log to see what happened exactly, for example when many enemies attack you.

In general, I think the easiest change to conform to the request would be a "slow-mo" init option to slow down the sim so that you can see how the situation develops, as well as a small realtime message system that does not pause the game in the said slow-mo mode.

[PTTG??]

quote:Originally posted by Zonhin:
<STRONG>No, it means that Adventure mode moves in real time at the same speed as dwarf mode until the player gets a chance to move, then it pauses and waits for input.</STRONG>

You put it better than I did! Just so it's clear to everybody, the game plays as you take the action, and displays this action on-screen, until you get your turn to act. For a normal speed char, this means that players wait several steps, and see other chars taking there steps as this goes on, and then get their next turn. For a fast char, they get their turn as normal.

Thus, while in the old way, once you step off a cliff, you arrive at the bottom instantly, this way you would be able to see yourself fall.

Come to think of it, the game already does this of a sort, after you die. This may be possible to do, then. I am curious what Toady one thinks.

[Neskiairti]

it would be like making it turnbase, where each turn takes maybe .5 seconds.. this would cause a few things.. one.. the system would have to do alot less /constantly/ allowing you a higher frame rate (though slightly slower gameplay) so each turn things that happen happen during their turn instead of all at once before your turns (causing the game to lock up some times for a second or two)
so as things happen.. it would happen in order, and on time.. so the first zombie elephant tusks you.. puncturing your body and bruising your liver.. it pops up.. then maybe a second later the next two gore you at once.. and so forth..

[Sean Mirrsen]

Can the OP please describe in detail, how he sees the progress of the game with the described system? Because frankly, I fail to understand the point. Sure, the graphic representation of the action, like you see it in fort mode, could be entertaining to watch, but aren't the actual combat messages what counts? From a gameplay perspective, it is better to quickly get the sim action over with, and allow the player to act again (if he's still capable of acting) ASAP.

The only way I can imagine the fort-mode-speed system working better is if fort-mode-control (possibly involving the mouse) is also implemented, allowing to issue a move order over a distance and look as the character walks. In combat, the faster the action's over, the faster you can get back to it.