OHRRPGCE feature requests/suggestions

That sounds a lot like another request I made a long time ago. Definitely one I could use. Thanks for adding it.



I don't know what the regular mouse behavior does or is supposed to do during suspend/resume player, but when you're using mouse commands in a while loop and you suspend the player, the hero continues to move to his destination until he reaches it. Keep in mind that this is the case if you suspend player after the mouse is clicked. I don't know if the same applies if you suspend player before the mouse is clicked.



I think so, yeah. In a while loop, if the script can only continue if it reaches the destination and then can't reach a destination, that's a problem if you've got a wait tick before canceling counting down to 1000. I don't see this being a problem if you don't have a wait, but it can be a pain if you do. But, there are ways to script out of it, which is what I think you saw in action in the video for Hybrid Mystery Park (I'll remind you in the other thread what I'm talking about).



This is probably badly conceived, but the gist is that if your pathfinding via mouse cancels due to obstruction or unclear path, and then the script moves the obstacle out of the way, a "repeat last mouse action" would essentially repeat the last command issued by the player without requiring a new click. The workaround is to store pixel or tile destination coordinates and send it to the coordinates, but plotscript doesn't really do single destination coordinates well. As of now, it has to be done in two commands: "walk hero to x" and "walk hero to y." We should really have something called "pathfind hero to location (x,y)" so that the previous two commands don't yield wonky results. (I see that NPCs already have this command. Heroes need it, too.)



Yeah, this would be a luxury feature, but sometimes those features make the engine more diverse and user-friendly. But, definitely not a priority.

---

Place Obligatory Signature Here

There's no way to do that (aside from running Custom.exe again without closing the current window... technically an answer to your question!) And we won't be adding that, it's just too much work for minor benefit.


Oh, I understand why that happens. Yeah, I feel that would be a bug and the hero should stop moving in that case, because suspendplayer is expected to stop the player from moving the hero.

Hmm, but what if you use a script command to path the hero to a distant tile (that command doesn't exist yet) and then call "suspend player". Should the hero keep moving, since it's a scripted movement rather than a player-caused one? I'm leaning towards yes.

(I'll reply to the rest some other time)

How about a "recent projects" link that shows previously loaded .rpg files?
It could be displayed when CUSTOM starts, to help users quickly load their games.

EDIT: Along these lines, it might be nice to hide projects, or be able to put them in a quick-list, or something like that.

Wendigo was interested in that. It would be nice.

I thought about this earlier, and this is the conclusion I came to:

"suspend player" is not about stopping hero movement, "suspend player" is about preventing player input. Notice that it is not called "suspend hero"

It is worth noting that "suspend player" does not currently cancel any pending "walk hero" commands, although I imagine that people rarely notice that fact because you usually only call "walk hero" after you call "suspend player"

The proper way to get the effect you expect would be:



Except of course, I haven't gotten around to implementing "cancel hero walk" yet, but don't worry, it will definitely be available before ethedreme.

Now I can also see a reasonable argument that "suspend player" ought to automatically cancel hero walk, and if that is what other people want, then I will go along with it, but in that case I would probably add a additional new command like "suspend player without canceling walk" for those cases when my behavior is desired :)

I advocate for making suspend player exclusive to preventing player control and cancel hero walk exclusive to pausing movement. I don't think they should be the same.

---

Place Obligatory Signature Here

The problem I see is that existing scripts that make use of suspendplayer are quite likely to break if you enable mouse controls, because hero movement will no longer stop promptly, so people can't just enable that option in their games. (It would also be nice to give players the option to override-enable it in existing games without the game needing to be updated.) For example you might have a step-on NPC to start a cutscene when the player enters an area. With mouse controls the hero could keep walking right across the area.
Making suspendplayer act this way also means scripts can be shorter and similar: one less command to have to remember to write.

So yes I would argue for making suspendplayer cancel pathfinding not caused by a script, and add a separate command (maybe "suspend controls" or "suspend player no cancel") that's the same but doesn't cancel pathfinding. (suspend controls may be a poor name, because suspend hero doesn't disable menu or textbox controls). Or even give suspendplayer an argument.

"cancel npc/hero walk" (the hero version isn't implemented yet) doesn't pause movement, it cancels it.
Commands to pause npc/hero movement would be particularly useful with pathfinding. Would probably need an argument to say whether the hero/npc should stop immediately, or finish the current tile's movement, in order to end up aligned.


If I understand correctly, that would be a bug in the script; you need to allow that the destination might be unreachable. Use "while(hero is walking)" instead.


Should probably handle this at the time that the player first clicks, checking if they clicked on an inaccessible tile (there'll be a command for that).
We should add new script triggers for when the player attempts to move the hero either with arrows arrows or by clicking, so that you can hook into those actions directly instead of needing an on-keypress script. Hooks is something the engine does badly at the moment.

Oh, yeah, you are right. "suspend player" is going to need to imply "cancel hero walk" for compatibility with many existing scripts. You are totally right.

Maybe this already exists, if not, this is an official suggestion... Is there a way to preview a weapon graphic on a given hero set? I assume best place to do this would be to check it over the weapon graphic and just preview it with different hero art. For instance, you have two swordsmen and you want to make sure you get the handle and the hand positions just right without having to take a thousand screenshots and modifications. I know in Axe Cop I use a lot of attacks with custom weapons and it was a bit time consuming to do this to make sure I get them all perfect.

---

Check out Red Triangle Games!

I notice in Kaiju Big Battel that when stats are damaged or healed, the numerical pop-up also displays the name of the stat.
Any chance of getting this as a feature?

I believe this is done via the use of chaining attacks, and use of the bitset "show attack name"?

---

To friends long gone, and those I've yet to meet - thank you.

Yeah, I just link stat moves to moves with names like Attack Up and show the attack name. It would be nice to be able to pick the color of font for damage though! Make it really stand out from attack damage.

---

Super Walrus Land: Mouth Words Edition

Ah, having a per-attack option to override the damage colour is a little easier than what you suggested before.


Good idea.

(Sorry if it's already been suggested)
Could we see a new attack animation, called 'rise'?
This would be great for (e.g.) life spells, where a feather or orb of light rises on the target
I imagine this rises a few pixels above the target, rather than shooting off the top of the screen, which would be antithetical to the animation 'drop'.

As an idea for extended mouse support, how about changing the value of a selection by clicking it, and dragging left/right to change it? You could also use the mouse scroll wheel, or by holding down the mouse button, be made to go forward in the list, and holding the secondary click does it in reverse order.

edit: how about a persistent toolbar that can edit the current selected item, for example, having buttons to increase or decrease the current value

EDIT:
You know how we can now add commands to the battle menu (thanks btw, its brilliant) and we can give it a custom appearance (caption and colour)?
It would be really cool to be able to do the same for spells in the spell lists.
As well as giving it a cool/neat appearance, being able to make items in spell-lists appear conditionally based on tags would be good. Or you might change the way spell-lists and the battle menu are arranged somehow. No idea tbh.

You can already hold down the right mouse button and scroll the wheel to modify a value. Not very obvious, I know. But holding down the right button and dragging the mouse sounds like it could be more comfortable and easier. Definitely happy to hear suggestions. I don't think having a toolbar with +/- buttons would be practical, since you would have move the mouse over to it to click them.

Tag conditions on spells being enabled/appearing in spelllists is definitely something we should add.