OOPS!! Interface and Cartography discussion....

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Gallifrey
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Post by Gallifrey »

BasiliskWrangler wrote:For those of you who don't regularly stop at the News page, we put that new screenshot up in the gallery section showing off the reduced interface.
I approve! The double icon row looks really good, the smooth game window edges are a definite improvement.

Is the resolution size adjustable, and is it possible to zoom in and out of the main game window?
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BasiliskWrangler
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Post by BasiliskWrangler »

Since the game is 2D sprites (not 3D polys), the resolution is locked at 800x600. In hindsight I wish we would have made the default resolution 1024x768, but like many other things, that will have to wait for the next game.

Still, I personally run the game full-screen on a 1680x1050 widescreen LCD monitor and it still looks pretty good.
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Post by Ledorax »

Love the new font, makes it look more interesting. I personally prefer 640x480, but I'm probably the only one.

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Gallifrey
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Post by Gallifrey »

BasiliskWrangler wrote:Since the game is 2D sprites (not 3D polys), the resolution is locked at 800x600. In hindsight I wish we would have made the default resolution 1024x768, but like many other things, that will have to wait for the next game.
That makes sense. I'm not terribly picky about resolution sizes so long as the size doesn't adversely impact the gameplay.
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Post by Dragonlady »

I like the way the top bar is now. It doesn't interfer with the main screen. Good!
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Post by Sanctus »

Yeah like Dragonlady said... the top bar is better now
Also the game is kinda 3D(rember that bmax uses opengl(3d) to draw 2d sprites?)
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Post by myriac »

there must be a compulsory cartography skill just some friends mentioned.
i remember those holy old days that it was very thrilling and so addictive to draw the map on the papers from scratch in the games like eob series, legend of faerghail, phantasie series, dm, perihelion, etc..
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Post by Gallifrey »

I still make hand-drawn maps for my NWN on-line gaming, and it's still fun to do all these years later.
Though for a single-player game, I do like to see the mapping handled in-game.
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Post by GSV3MiaC »

bargeral wrote: Anyway I like it. Just with the caveat that it never leave me taking notes for something - if I know it then the automap should know it.
Amen to that .. with the proviso that I'd still like to be able to scribble personal notes someplace. And the most important thing I often know about a location is that I don't know something (locked door or chest I couldn't open yet, monster I couldn't get past, secret door, maybe, I'm not cute enough to discover).

I quite liked the Avernum system where there was an automap, but some things would only show up after an appropriate spell (and no stumbling through secret doors by just wall-banging). And of course the frustration of things you can see but not get to (in some cases 'never').

IIRC (It's been a while) Ultima Underworld got that wrong - your automap would show you 'the other side' of secret doors so you knew exactly where they were.
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Post by RezoApio »

Rollor wrote:
Gallifrey wrote:I think it would be interesting to see your map get filled in with more pertinent details as one's Cartography skill increases. Start with a basic, rough map, and as the skill rises, more details are filled in. Starting with major roadways, landmarks and geographical features, then displaying more side roads, buildings, settlements, and progress into short cuts, hidden caves, and so on as the skill improves. Essentially increasing detail on the map. And the map would of course start with a small area and get larger, with the details starting locally and filling in on an outward expansion. So an amateur could map his locality, but it would take a professional Cartographer to accurately map far-away places.
This idea is so cool:). Has any game got something like this? I have never heard such thing.. Combined with GhanBuriGhan quests it would be so cool:). Hopefully we'll see this in one of the books.
Sorry to quote so much but yes this is really a great idea.... I am eager to see it...
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Post by Nomander »

Sir Tech did this with Wizardry 7 as well. I can't remember if it was the original "wizardry 7" or if it was "wizardry gold" which was really just an updated "wizardry 7".

Anyway, the maps and their detail were linked to the skill itself. The higher the characters skill, the more details ranging from doors, traps, and even monuments showed up. It was an exciting system and really brought a whole new "style" to mapping in a game.

Maps for the most part were either very basic or didn't exist at all leaving the player to pick up mapping paper and do it themselves. This feature allowed for a progression that still retained the essence of "finding and knowing where you were at" within a game.
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