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Author Topic: Adventure mode experiences that could be improved  (Read 1401 times)

sanchezman

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Adventure mode experiences that could be improved
« on: April 09, 2020, 06:43:02 pm »

Naming a site/group/object:
It's a very annoying fact that pressing "esc" on the naming menu saves your current selection.  My games are filled with stupidly named sites/groups/objects all because I pressed "esc" wanting to cancel the screen, but instead named by legendary hammer "icedcat the happy revival of confusion".

Adventurer log:
A small page, maybe in the quest log, where I can type notes about my adventure.  Currently, I keep notes on a physical pad of paper by my desk, listing all the places I want to visit, or naming the monsters I've killed that I want to tell people about.  It's strange that my adventurer can remember of bestiary of 10,000 different cave monsters, but if I myself forget where I slew that one dragon, I'll never be able to tell a story about that site again.

Finding people:
I hate trying to find someone in a busy town.  When I ask about how to find someone, all I ever get is "We are in Ringconfused", with no help on where the person is located.  When I hear that someone is in a town, I just give up on that quest, because my only option is to talk to everyone.  I understand that there are issues with "generic" population members knowing information about specific events, but what about a game mechanic based around physical descriptions?  Perhaps when I ask about the hunter Urist McWolfslayer, I could get a response like "I don't know where he is, but he shouldn't be hard to find.  Keep an eye out for... [You receive a detailed physical description of Urist McWolfSlayer]".  Then, maybe in the quest log, I could make my adventurer keep an eye out for people matching that description.  When someone matching that description enters my character's view, I should get an alert message (maybe one that pauses the game), and have my [l]ook cursor automatically hover over their position.  Perhaps the memory attribute could also be used here, as an adventurer with better memory could remember more people, and more details of what they look like.  An adventurer with poor memory might only be able to remember the hair color or something.

Dialogue filters:
I wish that the dialogue menus didn't have preset filters.  When I want to tell someone about the cyclops who bashed my friend's skull in, the only filtering options are "fight" or "conflict".  Really?  I have to scroll through pages of random wildlife combat because I can't just type in the name of the cyclops or my friend.

Confusing ramps in lairs/generated underground structures:
Every once in a while, I will come across a puzzling one-way ramp that is easy to descend, but hard to climb back up.  I'm not 100% sure why the geometry works this way, but sometimes I can only climb up a ramp by very carefully alt-numpad'ing in every direction until I see the option to move "NW (Above)".  Now that I'm used to it, it's not a big deal.  However, as a new player, I found this impossible to navigate.  I recall several early adventurers who I straight-up abandoned because I couldn't figure out how to climb the ramp out of a lair.  If possible, it would be nice to add some checks that prevent these difficult ramps from generating.

Standing up when someone is in the way:
When I'm walking around with a large crew of followers, it's annoying for my character to begin crawling on the ground when my friends get in the way.  Then, when I try to stand, they're in the way and I cannot get up.  It would be nice if there were some option to try and rudely shove someone out of the way to stand up.  If I do this to my companions, they should be OK with it.  However, if I do this to a stranger, perhaps it has a chance of escalating into a brawl ("Who do you think you're pushing?" or "Sorry for being in the way" depending on the NPC's emotions).

Coins and value:
I realize that this may be a little controversial, but I think there's a case to be made for treating all coins the same, regardless of civilization.  At the moment, coins are basically useless, because it's so hard to find someone to accept a coin from a given civ.  Since an actual economy is very far away in the development timeline, I don't see why their acceptance can't be relaxed until a real economy can be implemented.  After all, a gold coin from civ A weighs the same as a gold coin from civ B.  Does it really matter whose head is on it, if they both contain the same amount of gold?  In the same way that Toady removed ubiquitous boogeymen because it wasn't fun, I think universal currency acceptance would be a suitable sacrifice of "realism" (not that I think the current behavior is very realistic) for intermediate-term RP/fun until real economies exist.
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Luckyowl

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Re: Adventure mode experiences that could be improved
« Reply #1 on: April 13, 2020, 08:02:51 pm »

Naming a site/group/object:
It's a very annoying fact that pressing "esc" on the naming menu saves your current selection.  My games are filled with stupidly named sites/groups/objects all because I pressed "esc" wanting to cancel the screen, but instead named by legendary hammer "icedcat the happy revival of confusion".


Yes! I hate it when I accidentally open up the naming menu and now I must spontaneously yell at a local who I was causally chatting with that "I'm the lady/Lord now!" Toady should really give us a keybind that allow us to exit from the naming menu without naming anything.

Quote
Dialogue filters:
I wish that the dialogue menus didn't have preset filters.  When I want to tell someone about the cyclops who bashed my friend's skull in, the only filtering options are "fight" or "conflict".  Really?  I have to scroll through pages of random wildlife combat because I can't just type in the name of the cyclops or my friend.

When you are in the dialog option menu you can automatically filter by just typing.

Quote
   Finding people:
I hate trying to find someone in a busy town.  When I ask about how to find someone, all I ever get is "We are in Ringconfused", with no help on where the person is located.  When I hear that someone is in a town, I just give up on that quest, because my only option is to talk to everyone.  I understand that there are issues with "generic" population members knowing information about specific events, but what about a game mechanic based around physical descriptions?  Perhaps when I ask about the hunter Urist McWolfslayer, I could get a response like "I don't know where he is, but he shouldn't be hard to find.  Keep an eye out for... [You receive a detailed physical description of Urist McWolfSlayer]".  Then, maybe in the quest log, I could make my adventurer keep an eye out for people matching that description.  When someone matching that description enters my character's view, I should get an alert message (maybe one that pauses the game), and have my [l]ook cursor automatically hover over their position.  Perhaps the memory attribute could also be used here, as an adventurer with better memory could remember more people, and more details of what they look like.  An adventurer with poor memory might only be able to remember the hair color or something.
 

Oh yes! This would be great. It would make finding people in a busy town more easier. Allowing  us to actually complete a quest or receive a location for a site.


Quote
     Standing up when someone is in the way:
When I'm walking around with a large crew of followers, it's annoying for my character to begin crawling on the ground when my friends get in the way.  Then, when I try to stand, they're in the way and I cannot get up.  It would be nice if there were some option to try and rudely shove someone out of the way to stand up.  If I do this to my companions, they should be OK with it.  However, if I do this to a stranger, perhaps it has a chance of escalating into a brawl ("Who do you think you're pushing?" or "Sorry for being in the way" depending on the NPC's emotions)


Hm, as of now, that would turn crowded taverns, forts,
andl mead halls into a bloodbath.The idea is great! But right now how Df is structure it's not viable to implement this without making everyone in crowded meeting areas to go bat shit crazy. Of course I lack coding experience maybe there is a way for Toady to add in a pushing/brawl mechanics. If so, would like to read your solution on the matter.
« Last Edit: April 13, 2020, 08:05:35 pm by Luckyowl »
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therahedwig

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Re: Adventure mode experiences that could be improved
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2020, 03:52:28 am »

Quote
When you are in the dialog option menu you can automatically filter by just typing.
Yeah, but for your own fights, the only filter keywords are 'conflict' and 'fight', even if you fought a night creature or another historical figure...

I'd also appreciate it if events that you have pinned are at the top of the list, but better keywords would be a great start already.
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Timeless Bob

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Re: Adventure mode experiences that could be improved
« Reply #3 on: April 30, 2020, 06:51:09 pm »

RE: Coins
We all know that one bar of a metal will make 500 coins. So this means that each coin is worth 1/500th of a single bar of that metal, in metal.

However, if you're not looking at the "gold standard" of how much the coin is valued by its base material, but instead use it as a symbol for a promise of a certain limited resource that is in high demand, like food or protection from a were-beast or something, (The symbols shown on each coin would indicate what resource that coin was based on), then the various economies would have their basis.  Money markets would certainly become an interesting place, as the various civilizations would be able to produce icons of their exports in coin form first, and provide those services in exchange for the coins themselves, or in exchange for needed materials or the promis of such materials in the future in the form of these coins.
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Sarmatian123

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Re: Adventure mode experiences that could be improved
« Reply #4 on: May 01, 2020, 09:06:14 am »

You could add coin stacks combine and split reactions into adventure mode. Like combine 2 stacks of same material coins together. Then split 1 coin or 10 or 100 out of it. I would like that. Unfortunately Toady added year for coin production. This thing differs coins of same type. I think year could be removed from the raws for coin creation.
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Azerty

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Re: Adventure mode experiences that could be improved
« Reply #5 on: May 01, 2020, 01:37:11 pm »

RE: Coins
We all know that one bar of a metal will make 500 coins. So this means that each coin is worth 1/500th of a single bar of that metal, in metal.

However, if you're not looking at the "gold standard" of how much the coin is valued by its base material, but instead use it as a symbol for a promise of a certain limited resource that is in high demand, like food or protection from a were-beast or something, (The symbols shown on each coin would indicate what resource that coin was based on), then the various economies would have their basis.  Money markets would certainly become an interesting place, as the various civilizations would be able to produce icons of their exports in coin form first, and provide those services in exchange for the coins themselves, or in exchange for needed materials or the promis of such materials in the future in the form of these coins.

Paper money could be used by some advanced civilizations, where the government is strong enough to ensure each of these banknotes could be backed by precious metal stored by the emitter, whether the government, local authorities or private persons.
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