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Ongoing redesign: start options/ini/ingame options[message #354656]

Sun, 02 September 2018 18:09

Flugente

Messages:3507
Registered:April 2009
Location: Germany

We have a staggering amount of input data for the game. While this allows us to finetune the game to high degree, this can be more than a bit frightening.

One of my pet peeves is that options which control features are set in several locations:

Some options are set at the campaign start screen. They are stored in the savefiles and cannot be changed later on (apart from debugging or hex-editing).
Some options are set in the game options screen. They are read and written in the Profiles folder and are savegame-independent.
Most options are set in JA2_Options.ini or the myriad of other inis and xmls we have. They are savegame-independent.

We can further divide options into two types:

those that are used to set up savegame-stored data that cannnot be changed later on. This includes squad size, max number of team members, iron-man settings, long-term quest things... We could theoretically change the code so that all these can be altered as well (or we can already do so but don't want due to story-related reasons), but for now, let's just assume they cannot.
those that are used to control features that can be changed at any point in the game. This is the vast majority of options.

My pet peeve with this is that

we have options that set up savegame-stored data but are not set up at the campaign screen. As a result, changing them in the ini leaves us no choice but to throw an error (best example: MAX_NUMBER_PLAYER_MERCS in JA2_Options.ini).
we have options that can be changed at any point in time codewise (even ingame), but we cannot do so. Examples: Food, NCTH, improved interrupt system... half the start screen, really. As a result, if a player comes to the conclusion that he doesn't like the choice he made earlier, he has to start a new campaign or learn how to hack this.

Both things are bad and inconvenient. I aim to change that (whenever I have the energy to do so). To start with this, as of r8610 & GameDir r2442, the following options have been moved from the campaign start screen to JA2_Options.ini:

Max number of IMPs has been deleted as of r8622
Enemies drop all items (now DROP_ALL (Default: FALSE))
Merc Story Backgrounds (now BACKGROUNDS (Default: TRUE))
Food System (now FOOD (Default: FALSE))
Improved Interrupt System (now IMPROVED_INTERRUPT_SYSTEM (Default: TRUE))
Inventory Manipulation Costs AP (now INVENTORY_MANIPULATION_COSTS_AP (Default: FALSE))
New Chance to Hit System (now NCTH (Default: FALSE)) as of r8625

It now (r8610) looks like this:

I am fully aware that this might be controversial for some people. Though given that with most SCI releases there are options changed in the ini, I'm not that sure why adapting an existing campaign to a new ini should be an unusual effort.

As said, I will continue to move settings in this manner and will list these changes in this thread.

I am also aware that having some settings in the ini and some settings in DifficultySettings.xml is unusual. I've personally ranted more than a bit about that, no need to explain to me why you feel that is an odd design choice.

People who might want to complain about us having so many options everywhere might bear in mind that they are often the same people who request for more stuff to be externalised.

[Updated on: Sun, 30 September 2018 23:08]

I know now that it could never work between us, as much as we wanted to, it could never be! Not because you're a rabbit, but because you're black.

If you want, you can donate to me. This will not affect how and what I code, and I will not code specific features in return. I will be thankful though.