Slowing down damage

JSH357 · Post by **JSH357** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 6:33 pm

I guess this is a developer question. Would there be any way to make damage display a bit longer in battles? I find that often I'm looking through a menu or concentrating on another part of the screen when damage displays over a character, and by the time I look to see how much an attack did, it's gone. Cosmetic, but I personally think it would improve the flow of battles somewhat. OHR battles tend to be lightning-fast, and sometimes it is off-putting.

Of course, I'd also love a way to display the spell menu somewhere else, as it covers the HP values.

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 6:40 pm

I'll look into it.

I think making damage display time customizable should be reasonably easy.

I have a similar problem with attack captions. I find that the "full duration of attack" setting is next to useless, and I almost always need to manually set a longer tick time.

JSH357 · Post by **JSH357** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 6:45 pm

Yes! I always have to set captions to at least 20 ticks, more depending on what is in them.

Newbie Newtype · Post by **Newbie Newtype** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 7:45 pm

I am Newbie Newtype, and I approve of this thread.

Being able to adjust the speed of attack animations would be nice too, for the same purpose of allowing the player to gather visual information.

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 9:37 pm

Animation speed control would be much harder. That code has many branches, and still requires a lot of cleanup

Newbie Newtype · Post by **Newbie Newtype** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 10:09 pm

That's fine. Slowing down damage display will probably be enough anyway.

The Wobbler · Post by **The Wobbler** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 12:53 am

I've never thought about this before, but it really would be a great addition.

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 3:11 pm

I implemented this last night, so it is in the nightlies now.

In addition to customizing how long the damage stays on screen, you can also customize how high the damage rises.

camdog · Post by **camdog** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 3:58 pm

This is totally awesome! I've been wanting something like this forever. Thanks!

JSH357 · Post by **JSH357** » Mon Sep 28, 2009 11:38 pm

James, I think I owe you three first-borns, is it?

Already this is making battles much more pleasant for me.

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 12:00 am

JSH357 wrote:James, I think I owe you three first-borns, is it?

James: "Honey, I'm home! I adopted three more babies today!"

FnrrfYgmSchnish · Post by **FnrrfYgmSchnish** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 2:10 am

Wow... we've got editable damage speed and height now... could that mean that we might see "damage bounce patterns" in the future?

Maybe then we could finally make the damage numbers jump up one at a time, fall down a little, and then display for a second before finally disappearing? I honestly can't remember which game had that specific pattern off the top of my head, but I know there was at least one like that...

msw188 · Post by **msw188** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 4:47 am

Sorry to sound like a Surlaw echo, but its the truth, I also never thought about this but I'm glad someone did.

Fenrir-Lunaris · Post by **Fenrir-Lunaris** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 4:54 am

FnrrfYgmSchnish wrote:Maybe then we could finally make the damage numbers jump up one at a time, fall down a little, and then display for a second before finally disappearing? I honestly can't remember which game had that specific pattern off the top of my head, but I know there was at least one like that...

Final Fantasy IV, V, VI. It certain makes battles MUCH more visually stimulating.

JSH357 · Post by **JSH357** » Tue Sep 29, 2009 11:52 pm

I... have got a problem here.

Battle captions have completely stopped displaying for me. I have done some testing, and I can only get captions to show up with "Full duration" length; any other length prevents it.

This was not happening before I started with the current nightly, FYI.

Edit: Low tick numbers work too! 10 works.