Moo
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Kind of similar to this and this, but not quite.
The current scroll system, with the text being displayed in the side bar of the window, means the scrolls can only contain short texts. This is problematic in TSS, where texts have had to be abbreviated or split between multiple scrolls. Currently the level intro texts can be long but the in-game texts short, which must be rather limiting. I guess any improvement would be too late for TSS now, but still useful in future...
I'm guessing the current scroll system is inherited from way back in the first DROD incarnation, and hasn't really been updated since. Rather than add scrollbars (scroll-scrollbars? heh) (which would make it even more clunky), I suggest a "big" scroll that displays in the middle of the screen, similarly to the image "scrolls" in TSS. This would allow plenty of room for text, and with more room there would be more justification for adding such things as tags for simple formatting, custom scroll graphics, and sound support so the scrolls could be read out.
The main disadvantage I see of this system would be that by covering the play area, it would mean you couldn't see yourself to be able to move off the scroll. Simple options for this would be a button & key to close the scroll, or having the scroll take up perhaps half of the vertical area with the position such that the view of your character isn't blocked. Another way would be to have the scroll centered, but have the scroll graphics re-size to accommodate the text, meaning it'd be up to the architect to make sure it doesn't cover the player (they could perhaps even set the display position). I can think of other options too, so I don't think this should get in the way...
Another problem may be that by covering the play area, the state of the room and the scroll text couldn't be displayed together. This would mean hint scrolls etc wouldn't be so useful. Also, old short texts may look silly in a big new scroll area. So, I suggest that instead of replacing the old scrolls, a new scroll object be added with the new display style, leaving old scrolls (and any the architects choose) with the old system. By having the in-game object graphics different for the two, players wouldn't be as surprised by the different display styles.

Tuttle
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I think a key feature of the current scrolls that we should try to preserve is that you can run over them multiple times without it really getting annoying. Apart from influencing monster behaviour in some cases, scroll placement doesn't matter that much.

I can imagine having scrolls with both a preview and full-screen content, though -- walking over the scroll does exactly what current scrolls do, but there's a cue to press a key (Enter?) to read the full thing if you want to. At that point the large version can be as big as it needs to, without needing to care about obscuring the play area.

Moo
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You could still use the old scrolls when there was a need to walk over them repeatedly. Longer scrolls could be placed where they didn't need to be walked over.

gamer_extreme_101
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Can't you technically just do this with scripting? Same way they did the larger scrolls?

I know it's slightly more of a pain since you'd have to make an image or two to make it work, but it is possible...

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Moo
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Possibly, but that's clunkier and more difficult than it aught to be...

Tim
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Moo wrote:
Kind of similar to this and this, but not quite.
The current scroll system, with the text being displayed in the side bar of the window, means the scrolls can only contain short texts. This is problematic in TSS, where texts have had to be abbreviated or split between multiple scrolls. Currently the level intro texts can be long but the in-game texts short, which must be rather limiting. I guess any improvement would be too late for TSS now, but still useful in future...
I'm guessing the current scroll system is inherited from way back in the first DROD incarnation, and hasn't really been updated since. Rather than add scrollbars (scroll-scrollbars? heh) (which would make it even more clunky), I suggest a "big" scroll that displays in the middle of the screen, similarly to the image "scrolls" in TSS. This would allow plenty of room for text, and with more room there would be more justification for adding such things as tags for simple formatting, custom scroll graphics, and sound support so the scrolls could be read out.
The main disadvantage I see of this system would be that by covering the play area, it would mean you couldn't see yourself to be able to move off the scroll. Simple options for this would be a button & key to close the scroll, or having the scroll take up perhaps half of the vertical area with the position such that the view of your character isn't blocked. Another way would be to have the scroll centered, but have the scroll graphics re-size to accommodate the text, meaning it'd be up to the architect to make sure it doesn't cover the player (they could perhaps even set the display position). I can think of other options too, so I don't think this should get in the way...
Another problem may be that by covering the play area, the state of the room and the scroll text couldn't be displayed together. This would mean hint scrolls etc wouldn't be so useful. Also, old short texts may look silly in a big new scroll area. So, I suggest that instead of replacing the old scrolls, a new scroll object be added with the new display style, leaving old scrolls (and any the architects choose) with the old system. By having the in-game object graphics different for the two, players wouldn't be as surprised by the different display styles.

tl;dr.

I haven't read many of your request, but do you mean that you want a very large scroll on screen so that you can put all kinds of texts on them that people aren't going to read?

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[Last edited by Tim at 07-29-2014 06:15 PM]

Moo
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No, so other people can put longer texts on them, that people are going to read.

Tim
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Yeah, your rite. I can alreddy cee a goodd use for this. I could put some grammer nazi's thru _paeges_ of my wunderful english creations, and they r 4ced to red it.

Pleezz insert this inside within the gamme at 1ce!

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[Last edited by Tim at 07-29-2014 06:55 PM]

Citrus
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Why are you being such a jerk Tim? You can express your disapproval or your critiques of the request without being as vicious.

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bomber50
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This can already be done in similar ways with Image Overlay, Speech and Flashing Message. Image Overlay, of course, is the one with the most flexibility.

Tim
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Ezlo wrote:
Why are you being such a jerk Tim? You can express your disapproval or your critiques of the request without being as vicious.

Have you noticed that you're the one who's blaming the messenger instead of the message? This is Feature Requests, please judge ideas here and not people.

Note that I didn't mod you down, even if you're derailing the thread here, while I'm just showing examples.

EDIT: This will be my final discussion with you. If you just only want yes-man near you then I'm gone.

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[Last edited by Tim at 07-29-2014 07:22 PM]

Schik
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The idea of how you interact with people in this thread is a terrible idea.

Sure, you can accomplish this task with scripting, but if it's something that could be used a lot then it might make sense to add it natively to the game instead of forcing people to script it.

That said, the current solution of "just script it" is a lot more flexible than whatever we'd come up with as a new element. I'd probably pass on it, though I'd love people to use bigger scripted scrolls in important places where you really need to grab my attention.

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bomber50
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I don't like the idea. I see minimal practical use for it over a regular scroll. In addition, it allows for very easy abuse of deliberately hiding parts of the screen. While hiding the screen could be done with image overlay too, the easy accessibility of it would just cause more abuse.

BlueFlower
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How about placing arrows on the bottom of the scroll area, so people could see more text on multiple pages?

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skell
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My suggestion based on reading of the thread:

Allow scrolling through scrolls. If the scroll has more text than can fit, small arrows appear at the edges where you can still scroll. You can scroll with mouse wheel, by pressing the arrows with the mouse or by using a keymappable shortcuts (page up/down sounds like an obvious default).

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[Last edited by skell at 11-23-2020 11:18 PM]

Illusionist
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File: bez tytułu.JPG (167.2 KB)
Downloaded 50 times.
License: Public Domain

skell wrote:
My suggestion based on reading of the thread:

Allow scrolling through scrolls. If the scroll has more text than can fit, small arrows appear at the edges where you can still scroll. You can scroll with mouse wheel, by pressing the arrows with the mouse or by using a keymappable shortcuts (page up/down sounds like an obvious default).

Ah, I was about to start a thread about it, thankfully found this one

it's certainly a problem in cases like the one in the attachments

Now to be honest, I wasn't sure at first but it seems that the text ending abruptly was intentional?

averagemoe
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And then while you're at it, update Complex Complex to contain the full text of each of Ombus's scrolls.

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