"Simple Mode" for CUSTOM.EXE

[Chronoboy]

Just a suggestion here for the custom. Now that the editor has so many features, it's bound to overwhelm a newcomer at first and deter them from even trying to use it. I originally learned it back in 2001ish, before the interface became so feature packed.

So my suggestion is to enable a "Simple Mode", or call it "Advanced Mode", depending what it's called it should hide less used features to make the interface less cluttered.

And yes I know The Editor Editor when that finally comes out, will be-able to do this. Personally having the ability to hide menu items that I rarely use would be really nice, and make it quicker to navigate as those menu items won't be there. I constantly find myself pressing up or down a billion times in an OHR session, when I could be using this time to actually build my game.

A very cool option would be to have a bitset called "NoScript", which would effect the editor(or perhaps the game too), it would remove all the scripting menu cruft from each menu. This would be especially useful for people in a contest where scripting is prohibited. The bitset would prevent any scripting in the engine itself. The reason I bring this up, is because I am currently working on a game which does not use any plot-scripting whatsoever, and these scripting menu items are a tad annoying at times.

An idea would be to make a "hotkey" in every single menu which would being up a simple menu editor(perhaps using code from the menus menu), it would allow you to hide specific menu items that you won't be using for that specific game.

Just a thought.

[TMC]

I do agree that the menus in Custom becoming more cluttered and more features available which can overwhelm someone is a problem so I like to hear ideas. (But to be fair I've never watched a new user learning the engine, so the scale of the problem is just assumed.) Back when I learned the engine, also in 2001, I believe that the HOWTO covered most of the stuff in Custom, or at least nearly all the menus, while now it most certainly does not.

I'm not so sure about a bitset to disable scripting or the ability to hide menu items. These are suggestions to combat clutter, but don't help out new users. Instead, consider the newly (in Beelzebufo) cleaned up General Map Data menu. All the script settings are in a block, so it's super easy to ignore them and skip over them.

As a second example a lot of attack settings are hidden when they aren't relevant. Extending these two idea to the rest of the editor, I think things could get much cleaner. We could cordon off more advanced settings in 'Advanced' sections or even separate menus.

Actually, you're making a game without scripting? Heh, that's surprising!

Also, once we have more screen space there's more we could do: we could give settings longer names (some stuff is really squeezed), and show a one line description of the selected setting at the bottom: the first line of the F1 help page description. I would probably also align stuff into 'setting name' and 'value' columns.

Regarding there just being so many menu items on screen that it's time consuming to find or select one, this isn't a proper solution, but there are two in-progress workarounds. Firstly, you can type part of a menu item, like "sy" for "Battle System Options" to jump to it, but that only works in about half the menus currently. Secondly, in nightlies James has added the ability to select stuff with the mouse. Also a work in progress and doesn't work with gfx_directx yet.

[Chronoboy]

Actually, you're making a game without scripting? Heh, that's surprising!

I wanted to challenge myself and see what I can make without extending the engine, so far it's turning out really awesome! I was hoping to release it days ago, but I just keep finding new things I want to add or fine-tune. It's nearing completion, so keep a look out for it. It is following a Dragon Quest-like game play for the most part. The graphics are all 8-bit NES, with both old school style music and some newerish music. No OGG music either, all MIDI music to keep the general mood, and also keeps the file size down too. It also uses the new turn-based battle system recently added, so it gives people a chance to see it in action and to note any possible bugs with it.

[Bob the Hamster]

I don't like the idea of an option to hide/show scripting stuff. In general, i am opposed to switching between easy/advanced modes, because I feel like the decision about which features are simple and which features are advanced is impossible to make for a tool that is being used by multiple people.

Now what I would happily support is a feature that lets a user hide menu options in custom if they don't plan on using them. That would be a great feature for the editor-editor.

[Meowskivich]

Actually, you're making a game without scripting? Heh, that's surprising!

I wanted to challenge myself and see what I can make without extending the engine, so far it's turning out really awesome! I was hoping to release it days ago, but I just keep finding new things I want to add or fine-tune. It's nearing completion, so keep a look out for it. It is following a Dragon Quest-like game play for the most part. The graphics are all 8-bit NES, with both old school style music and some newerish music. No OGG music either, all MIDI music to keep the general mood, and also keeps the file size down too. It also uses the new turn-based battle system recently added, so it gives people a chance to see it in action and to note any possible bugs with it.

you will show more information about the game with us or I will hunt you down and tickle your toenails until you spill the beans...you know, if that's okay with you.

[Chronoboy]

Actually, you're making a game without scripting? Heh, that's surprising!

I wanted to challenge myself and see what I can make without extending the engine, so far it's turning out really awesome! I was hoping to release it days ago, but I just keep finding new things I want to add or fine-tune. It's nearing completion, so keep a look out for it. It is following a Dragon Quest-like game play for the most part. The graphics are all 8-bit NES, with both old school style music and some newerish music. No OGG music either, all MIDI music to keep the general mood, and also keeps the file size down too. It also uses the new turn-based battle system recently added, so it gives people a chance to see it in action and to note any possible bugs with it.

you will show more information about the game with us or I will hunt you down and tickle your toenails until you spill the beans...you know, if that's okay with you.

Here's some quick screen shots, and that's all I'm sharing... So wait for the release:

First screen shot is the intro scene(not unlike Dragon Warrior's), the second screen shot should be obvious, it's the word map(There's lots of secrets to be found, and a handful of sub-quests). And here is the current list of sub-quests which is only growing...

One of the sub quests listed namely Upset the King is more for humor. All of these quests are completely optional, you can beat the game without them(but the treasures each provide will definitely help you on the main quest). That being said, the game doesn't use original graphics(I'm still learning how to make pixel art), since my art is not very good at the moment, mainly when drawing people, and I'm much better at polishing up existing graphics, I used an existing tileset and sprites. I hope to make a future game which will use all original graphics and music.

The game will also not be password protected, since it does not use scripting, I thought it would be a great game to showcase what one can do with solely the engine. People can easily look around the game in CUSTOM and see how everything ticks and how the plot is moved forward(all without a single plotscript).

Edit: Actually, I did draw some enemy sprites all on my own. When you see the monsters Hocker, Snake, DarkMagi, and Maskette tell me what you think. The last 2 are my favorites. They are a little primitive looking, but do suit the 8-bit style. The last 2 are also among the more difficult enemies. There is more than just 4 enemy types, there over 10. The game also makes use of elements and various status effects to add some strategy to the combat. And DarkMagi and Maskette need some pretty good strategy, you don't want to confront them too early in the game. Think of Dragon Warrior's encounter layout. The farther you get from home, the more difficult the monsters will be. In the beginning these 2 enemies will be rare, but the father you travel, the more they will appear. ... I really need to stop talking now, or I'm going to say way too much ... I never intended to spill the beans until it was released, but being tickled can really do it.

[Meowskivich]

I do hope evidence of "harder area ahead" will be in this. It has a striking beauty resembling the classic game, and I am eager to see these monsters of yours (pretty much the things I look forward to most in any game, just about).
Going with classic bridges? Or, seeing as there are mountains about, will you be using narrow passages into new areas through them as transitions?

edit: maybe want to take this to a new thread first, though, since it'll be off-topic of "simple mode"