StuartK
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 564
Registered: 06-10-2003
IP: Logged

I really ought to have put this example (regarding King Tim's Dungeons) in a secret since it might be considered somewhat spoily, sorry *smack* Edited now.



I'd prefer to be able to click on any 'room' whether I've visited it or not, if it's within the horizontal and vertical bounds of the level. The room would only display if it had been actually visited.

This might not really be so important unless people generally start coming out with really large holds (so far it's only been an issue once, and the level is rather unique ) Something to do on a rainy day, perhaps, unless it's really easy.

[Edited by StuartK on 07-12-2003 at 01:29 AM]

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Urgh...let me see if I understand...Unvisited rooms are intentionally not displayed on the map. You wouldn't want just anyone to see where all your secret rooms were, after all. So we could add the restriction: allow clicking anywhere within the visible (i.e. visited) bounds of the level. But still, clicking out in space and getting lost on large levels without any reference is kinda yucky. Probably the best solution would be to attach some scroll bars to the map, as has been suggested before.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

It's a good sign when no one has any more new bugs to post and all that's left to do is niggle

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

Hey, that's a good idea about double-clicking to select the file (i.e. OKing it). Writing a file chooser is pretty complex!

What's that you mean about "completely redrawing the screen"? When toggling full screen I don't think I've seen anything out of the ordinary... This is probably an issue I'm unaware of.

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.

bdcribbs
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 390
Registered: 04-08-2003
IP: Logged

mrimer wrote:
Hey, that's a good idea about double-clicking to select the file (i.e. OKing it). Writing a file chooser is pretty complex!

What's that you mean about "completely redrawing the screen"? When toggling full screen I don't think I've seen anything out of the ordinary... This is probably an issue I'm unaware of.

heh, I took away that post cuz I felt sheepish about asking too much in the "nice features" zone while I know you are still working on the actual bugs...

When I toggle back to full screen, only the "active" parts get redrawn. To be more specific... that depends on which screen I'm on. On the title screen (assuming it's not demoing), only the rotating heads are redrawn. In the game, only the room itself and Beethro's picture are redrawn. The title and map will get redrawn if I go to a new room. The border of the screen will never be redrawn until I ESC out and go "continue" the game.

In all cases, wiggling my mouse over the black part of the screen makes it redraw.

EDIT:
I am *sure* there was a post on this forum by someone (not me) about this, but made another pass through and can't find it.

[Edited by bdcribbs on 07-12-2003 at 04:33 AM]

bdcribbs
Level: Smiter
Rank Points: 390
Registered: 04-08-2003
IP: Logged

(oops, forgot, on the title screen, the caravel waves are also redrawn)

For example, title screen:
( I moved my mouse across the screen to show how it redraws when I move the mouse )



and in the game:
( again, I moved my mouse up to the top, you can see it redraws that )



[Edited by bdcribbs on 07-12-2003 at 04:54 AM]

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

I vote for scrollbars.

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

StuartK
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 564
Registered: 06-10-2003
IP: Logged

mrimer wrote:
Urgh...let me see if I understand...Unvisited rooms are intentionally not displayed on the map. You wouldn't want just anyone to see where all your secret rooms were, after all. So we could add the restriction: allow clicking anywhere within the visible (i.e. visited) bounds of the level. But still, clicking out in space and getting lost on large levels without any reference is kinda yucky. Probably the best solution would be to attach some scroll bars to the map, as has been suggested before.

As alternatives to scrollbars or clicking. Would it be feasible to click+drag the map so it scrolls around the mini-map (this might be a nice 'polish' feature, and useful ingame as well, where the minimap is much smaller <3x3 rooms)? And right clicking on the map could redraw as a mini-mini-map, say 6x8 pixels (just white/red/green on black) per room or whatever size, scaled to the available area) Selecting a room on the mini-minimap would zoom into the larger map view focussed on that room. If ingame, moving Beethro would snap focus back to the current room on the minimap. These are most definitely rainy-day suggestions.


And again on the niggle front, how about allowing the 'F1-help' and 'ESC-exit' art that appears at the bottom left ingame and in the demos, to be clickable with the mouse, to perform those functions?


And on help. It would be nice if you could open the help page in a seperate browser instance, instead of replacing any currently open ones (I usually have DROD multitasking alongside a few browser windows which I am, yes, actually using) I don't know how you'd program this, but with a normal html link you could set the target="drodhelp" (all links to DROD help would go to the same window) or target="_blank" (all links to DROD help would go to a seperate, new, browser instance) I'm using IE6 so I don't know if this work in other browsers. I just pick stuff up as I go along...


OK, I'm done for now

[Edited by StuartK on 07-12-2003 at 06:59 AM]

eytanz
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 2708
Registered: 02-05-2003
IP: Logged

I like the idea of scrollbars. Click+drag is a close second.

____________________________
I got my avatar back! Yay!

Scott
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 578
Registered: 02-12-2003
IP: Logged

Scroll bars would be my preference

StuartK
Level: Smitemaster

Rank Points: 564
Registered: 06-10-2003
IP: Logged

Scott wrote:
Scroll bars would be my preference

If we want to be able to look around a level from within the game (sometimes it'd be nice) I'd rather not lose the area of the current map (already small) that scrollbars would take up. On the restore function, either would be fine (or neither, it was and is still a niggle) If both are wanted, consistency would be better IMO. I inserted the other suggestion (right click zoom out) so we wouldn't have any trouble with the 'getting lost on a large map' problem.

mrimer
Level: Legendary Smitemaster

Rank Points: 5056
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged

bdcribbs wrote:
heh, I took away that post cuz I felt sheepish about asking too much in the "nice features" zone while I know you are still working on the actual bugs...

When I toggle back to full screen, only the "active" parts get redrawn.

No, that's quite all right! This is definitely a bug, but on my system I've never seen it before. Putting in an extra draw everything command after toggling screen size should take care of this. I'm gonna put it in right now, and you please tell me whether it's fixed in build 28, okay? And, actually, I think I'm out of big, fat, juicy bugs to fix. At least until build 28 comes out tomorrow. So fixing up all these other bugs where things aren't working right, no matter how small, is the next priority. Feature requests come after that.

About the scroll bars: I'd think the maps on the restore and editor screens would have them, but the little in-game one would not. Dragging it around in that case sounds like a neat idea.

[Edited by mrimer on 07-12-2003 at 08:57 PM GMT: added scroll bar explanation]

____________________________
Gandalf? Yes... That's what they used to call me.
Gandalf the Grey. That was my name.
I am Gandalf the White.
And I come back to you now at the turn of the tide.