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[daemoria]

I just wanted to first say that this game is great...and for it to be still only an alpha, mad kudos to you guys. Me and my friend's overactive imagination have turned this game into an epic rpg with amazing (in brain) graphics.

*ahem*

While playing adventure mode, more often than not, your (anti)hero is going to be in combat. Now, I usually have a steady supply of walking arrow shields, aka mercenaries with me, and they usually rush off with full gusto and start having their own battles.

This is great and all, but there is a small problem when they run out of my line of sight... I can still read their combat reports. Somewhat confusing, and very immersion breaking at various points.

I am no programmer, so I don't know how difficult it would be to cut off combat reports on other entities that you don't see.
The one other time where the combat reports help is when i'm deceased. It lets me know if my adventurer has been avenged or not.  

<<my>>

[Grek]

I think this is on the list of things to do.

[daemoria]

If it is, I'll delete my topic.

I'm off to read thru the bloat and the rest of req. (I only really read the core stuff in detail)

[puke]

hello! welcome!  i hate to do this for such a well written first post, but i strongly disagree you.

my complaint is actually the exact oposite of this.  when you are trying to keep your companions alive, it is extremely frustrating not knowing which direction their screams are coming from, and being unable to track them down in the dark.

i would prefer that instead of this helpfull information being squelched out, that it be augmented with some sort of directional indicator.

of course, the PC thing is to suggest both methods be implemented but having a toggle switch in the init file or something.  but seriously.  Toady's time is limited, and i like my way better.

as a modest suggestion, you can alter the scroll length of the announcements, or disable the |more thing altogether with a change in the init.txt file.  this has the adverse effect of forcing you to hit "a" to see your own combat messages, if you are interested in them.  it confers the benefit of having your off-screen combats fly by without forcing you to stop.

of course, as a less modest suggestion, i guess you can just tell me to sit-and-spin  

the log is still pretty muddy to look at, but instead maybe it could be categorized into "show your messages" vs "show other's messages" vs "show all" or something.  

right now though, i've gotten pretty good for scanning it for the important colors and focusing on the part of the sentence that tells me who is acting on whom.

[daemoria]

I forgot to include the other part of the request in my haste.
I agree with you Puke, and I think i know a compromise of sorts; sound and noise already exists (dwarfs complain of it while attempting to sleep, and I saw some diagrams on the wiki), so by using that, and if you are in range, you should be able to read some messages such as the following

You hear the sound of flesh tearing to the  south.
You hear screams.

and so on and so forth.

I do like the idea of a toggle tho, to switch between the methods of reports. And I assume if this method of reporting gets implemented, it sure wouldn't be hard to toggle it in the init.txt .
<<I'm still reading through the dev features, but so far there is nothing>>

[TerminatorII]

daemoreia that is a very good suggestion. very RPish and helpful at the same time.   GJ

[Gaulgath]

quote:Originally posted by puke:
Blablablbla "show other's messages"

The thing is, it doesn't make sense at all that you know your drunk's pinky is lightly bruised when he is on the other side of a pitch black cave.

 

quote:You hear the sound of flesh tearing to the south.
You hear screams.

Now that makes sense and would add to the adventure mode experience.    

[ July 09, 2007: Message edited by: Gaulgath ]

[ July 09, 2007: Message edited by: Gaulgath ]

[Dwarmin]

It would definitaly make adenturing more creepy.

You hear an echoing scream, abruptly cut off..
You hear light footsteps behind you...

[puke]

thats very astute, Gaulgath.  in a perfect world, id have to agree.  Im not debating what makes a good simulation, though.

regardless of the gameplay tradeoffs that could never be reconciled between OCD completionists who want to know everything possible and simulationists who want a perfectly immersive fantasy world, my reasoning for suggesting things be done that was was out of practicality and expedience.  attend:

in one scenario, a second (possibly more, possibly less, depending on how they can be condensed) set of combat messages is written for each potential combat event.  then additional LOS checks need to be done during each event, and also aural range checks.  then the selected message must be displayed.

in the other scenario, there is a minor interface adjustent and all of the underlaying game mechanics remain unchanged.

I'd prefer things your way.  I really would.  But I'd never suggest DOING things that way.  the game's planned feature list is pretty long.  the bloat list is rather intimidating, too.

ultimately, its good that both ideas have been voiced, and the ultimate decision is up to Toady One the Great.

[Eagle of Fire]

I can't agree more with the original poster: if there's something which tick me off is to have to go thru one full or even two pages of unwanted text I don't want to read only because I brought with myself half a dozain "allies" (read: cannon fodders).

I tend to adventure "solo" a lot because of that.