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Hints on Loading Screens[message #306991]

Sun, 08 July 2012 16:54

Sandro is currently offline

Messages:420
Registered:November 2008
Location: Mars

(I really like to make feature requests.)

Might be nice, if a short tip/hint explaining something from the game would be shown on loading screens. With the amount of features and new controls flowing in to 1.13, I am myself not sure if I know about all the new stuff currently existing.

Something like: "Ctrl+Left Mouse click on strategic view transfers the item from merc inventory to sector inventory and vice versa."

"Shift+Right mouse Button unloads the magazine froma a gun."

"The NCTH cursor represents the field of the final possible bullet location hit"

"Don't forget to send Deidranna some flowers!"

Etc.

Since we have no apropriate 1.13 ingame help, this could come handy.

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Master Sergeant

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #306992]

Sun, 08 July 2012 17:00

Messages:656
Registered:February 2008
Location: NL

Sounds like a good solution to the sheer amount of hotkeys and hidden tricks in the game, if it would have an XML where we could put these hints I'm pretty sure we can think of a shitload of hints to add to that file.

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First Sergeant

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #306995]

Sun, 08 July 2012 17:16

Sandro is currently offline

Messages:420
Registered:November 2008
Location: Mars

Exactly.

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Master Sergeant

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307002]

Sun, 08 July 2012 20:52

cdudau

Yes! This is it.

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Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307005]

Sun, 08 July 2012 21:44

Messages:656
Registered:February 2008
Location: NL

So who's gonna make it? :moosegrin:

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First Sergeant

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307006]

Sun, 08 July 2012 21:50

Messages:2815
Registered:September 2004
Location: Canada

As an interim step, couldn't text be just integrated into the existing loading screens (ie. as part of the STI/PCX picture)? I'm doing this already as a work around with the UBT Station information in UC-1.13 (integrated it with the in-game laptop's desktop PCX).

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Lieutenant

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307011]

Sun, 08 July 2012 22:41

cdudau

An Sti overlay would work as well and could be set up via (algorithm?).

The load progress bar works like this, without the algorithm because it never changes. The hints could be loaded from an external xml?

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Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307013]

Sun, 08 July 2012 23:57

Messages:3509
Registered:April 2009
Location: Germany

Great idea.

Wouldn't it be possible to directly write that text over there? I mean.. It does directly display what is currently loaded, so some sort of overwriting already happens.

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Captain

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307014]

Mon, 09 July 2012 00:13

DepressivesBrot is currently offline

DepressivesBrot

Messages:3658
Registered:July 2009

Yeah, randomly pick one from a plaintext list (no need for fancy dancy xml if we just need a list of oneliners) and plot it to the screen.

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Captain

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307015]

Mon, 09 July 2012 00:15

Messages:1966
Registered:March 2009
Location: Middle of Germany

Very good idea!
I 2nd that. Smile

Smile

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Sergeant Major

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307016]

Mon, 09 July 2012 00:32

Messages:3509
Registered:April 2009
Location: Germany

Well, at least writing into that progress bar is easy:

http://i49.tinypic.com/2zgahpz.jpg

Smile

[Updated on: Mon, 09 July 2012 00:58] by Moderator

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Captain

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307020]

Mon, 09 July 2012 02:22

cdudau

Looks good. Any way to keep text centered?

By the way, I really have to state this again: This is a GREAT feature. I am a very goal oriented person and from time to time I get very busy. This leaves no room to play games. I notice that every time I return to this one, MANY things are changed and I am left in the dark about what exactly things do. This has the potential to clarify many new features for players.

Nice idea Sandro.

Nice work Flugente.

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Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307032]

Mon, 09 July 2012 11:04

wanne (aka RoWa21) is currently offline

wanne (aka RoWa21)

Messages:1961
Registered:October 2005
Location: Austria

DepressivesBrot

Yeah, randomly pick one from a plaintext list (no need for fancy dancy xml if we just need a list of oneliners) and plot it to the screen.

I would go with a simple XML file, so we can have editing support in the XML editor. Sure, the xml structure is very simple.

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Sergeant Major

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307033]

Mon, 09 July 2012 11:05

wanne (aka RoWa21) is currently offline

wanne (aka RoWa21)

Messages:1961
Registered:October 2005
Location: Austria

Flugente

Well, at least writing into that progress bar is easy:

Nice work, would you like to volunteer to implement that feature?

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Sergeant Major

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307052]

Mon, 09 July 2012 15:50

Sovereign is currently offline

Messages:80
Registered:July 2010
Location: Jerusalem, Israel

RoWa21

Flugente
Well, at least writing into that progress bar is easy:

Nice work, would you like to volunteer to implement that feature?

If someone were to help me find my arms and legs in the code, I can do it.

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Corporal 1st Class

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307054]

Mon, 09 July 2012 16:16

JMich is currently offline

Messages:546
Registered:January 2011
Location: Greece

The progress bar is called by LoadWorld function in TileEngine\worlddef.cpp. The function it calls is SetRelativeStartAndEndPercentage in Utils\Animated ProgressBar.cpp.
I think you should be able to print a hint above the progress bar by modifying the line

mprintf( pCurr->usBarLeft, pCurr->usBarBottom + 3, str );

by replacing the 2 positions and changing the string. Then of course you'd have to add the hints text table, the way to read it, and the way to choose a hint.

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First Sergeant

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307055]

Mon, 09 July 2012 16:33

Sovereign is currently offline

Messages:80
Registered:July 2010
Location: Jerusalem, Israel

JMich

The progress bar is called by LoadWorld function in TileEngine\worlddef.cpp. The function it calls is SetRelativeStartAndEndPercentage in Utils\Animated ProgressBar.cpp.
I think you should be able to print a hint above the progress bar by modifying the line
mprintf( pCurr->usBarLeft, pCurr->usBarBottom + 3, str );
by replacing the 2 positions and changing the string. Then of course you'd have to add the hints text table, the way to read it, and the way to choose a hint.

Roger. I'll take a look tonight after I get off work.

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Corporal 1st Class

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307056]

Mon, 09 July 2012 16:36

JMich is currently offline

Messages:546
Registered:January 2011
Location: Greece

Sovereign

Roger. I'll take a look tonight after I get off work.

Get on irc as well since it seems like Flugente also tried it, so you can coordinate (if needed).

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First Sergeant

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307057]

Mon, 09 July 2012 16:40

Sovereign is currently offline

Messages:80
Registered:July 2010
Location: Jerusalem, Israel

JMich

Sovereign
Roger. I'll take a look tonight after I get off work.
Get on irc as well since it seems like Flugente also tried it, so you can coordinate (if needed).

I am typically there as of late.

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Corporal 1st Class

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307067]

Mon, 09 July 2012 18:45

Messages:656
Registered:February 2008
Location: NL

IRC! BEST PLACE TO BE!

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First Sergeant

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307080]

Mon, 09 July 2012 22:16

Messages:3509
Registered:April 2009
Location: Germany

I wont be in IRC today, and still have some other stuff to code. I simply altered the line JMich posted above.

Go, Sovereign! Smile

Smile

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Captain

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307083]

Mon, 09 July 2012 22:25

Sovereign is currently offline

Messages:80
Registered:July 2010
Location: Jerusalem, Israel

Flugente

I wont be in IRC today, and still have some other stuff to code. I simply altered the line JMich posted above.

Go, Sovereign!

Go SVN, first. I got some extra code in there to toy with but the GameDir is taking a friggin' forever to get over here to fire it all up Razz

Razz

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Corporal 1st Class

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307149]

Tue, 10 July 2012 17:46

Sovereign is currently offline

Messages:80
Registered:July 2010
Location: Jerusalem, Israel

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/926631/JA2Dev/bkgrnd_new.png

(Right click and do a view image, for some reason it makes it tiny on the forum)

Okay. The basic display is working. Now I just need to figure the weird-ass XML parser in use here.

I plan to externalize five XML files and write the hint container so that you (as a coder) can request a specific type of hint (or just a random one).

Currently, I've the following planned:
Tips (shortcuts, etc), Funny (silly one liners about the game), Historic (about the setting, or history of firearms), Relationships (hints about merc relationships), Weapons (hints about weapons in game).

Got any more ideas for this, folks ?

EDIT: Screw five files. An XML tag can define the type of hint. One file.

[Updated on: Tue, 10 July 2012 17:56] by Moderator

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Corporal 1st Class

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307150]

Tue, 10 July 2012 17:53

Messages:2815
Registered:September 2004
Location: Canada

Perhaps hints specific to the sector being loaded?

[Updated on: Tue, 10 July 2012 17:53] by Moderator

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Lieutenant

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307152]

Tue, 10 July 2012 18:07

Sovereign is currently offline

Messages:80
Registered:July 2010
Location: Jerusalem, Israel

wil473

Perhaps hints specific to the sector being loaded?

Good idea. Lemme see how that fits in.

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Corporal 1st Class

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307153]

Tue, 10 July 2012 18:09

cdudau

Did you know.... hints on how to modify certain aspects easily.

For example:

Did you know that one can change the uniforms of enemies, players, and militia by altering Unfirom Colors located in Data_1.13/TableData/Army ?

Believe it or not, a lot of players don't know how to do some of these things.

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Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307154]

Tue, 10 July 2012 18:16

Sovereign is currently offline

Messages:80
Registered:July 2010
Location: Jerusalem, Israel

tao

Did you know.... hints on how to modify certain aspects easily.

For example:

Did you know that one can change the uniforms of enemies, players, and militia by altering Unfirom Colors located in Data_1.13/TableData/Army ?

Believe it or not, a lot of players don't know how to do some of these things.

That's a generic tip (and a pretty decent one) belonging to the first category, not a new category.

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Corporal 1st Class

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307155]

Tue, 10 July 2012 18:18

cdudau

Modding tips with in game tips?

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Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307156]

Tue, 10 July 2012 18:18

Messages:1966
Registered:March 2009
Location: Middle of Germany

I'd rather restrict the ingame hints on the loading screen to hints at actually playing the game.
Put hints at what to edit where in the according editor like XML-Editor, INI-Editor (or readme, tuorials , How-To's).

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Sergeant Major

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307157]

Tue, 10 July 2012 18:24

cdudau

Tip:

Did you know that Arulco is actually %$*#@!%$@#@ ?

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Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307158]

Tue, 10 July 2012 18:26

Sovereign is currently offline

Messages:80
Registered:July 2010
Location: Jerusalem, Israel

Sam_Hotte

I'd rather restrict the ingame hints on the loading screen to hints at actually playing the game.
Put hints at what to edit where in the according editor like XML-Editor, INI-Editor (or readme, tuorials , How-To's).

Yeah, I guess. But that's not really the point. The contents of the hint file is plain XML and it will manage whatever you stick in it.

So features of the system are what I am looking of, not specific hints, or categories.

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Corporal 1st Class

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #307747]

Thu, 19 July 2012 21:23

Sandro is currently offline

Messages:420
Registered:November 2008
Location: Mars

tao

Did you know.... hints on how to modify certain aspects easily.

For example:

Did you know that one can change the uniforms of enemies, players, and militia by altering Unfirom Colors located in Data_1.13/TableData/Army ?

Believe it or not, a lot of players don't know how to do some of these things.

I did not know!!!!

Btw, Sovereign.. Print the hint text center justified.
And some kind of a frame to fit it in will be needed too - customized loadscreens may make the text unreadable.
Maybe the loading progress bar (and thus the hint) could be positioned lower too.

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Master Sergeant

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #308073]

Tue, 24 July 2012 23:38

Messages:3509
Registered:April 2009
Location: Germany

Not to sound impatient... how's the progress? Any news? Smile

Smile

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Captain

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #308165]

Thu, 26 July 2012 14:34

Messages:3199
Registered:December 2008
Location: B

please don't forget the 'NEVER SHOW AGAIN'-checkbox

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Captain

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #317812]

Wed, 24 April 2013 23:10

Messages:3509
Registered:April 2009
Location: Germany

As Sovereign seems to have gone AWOL, I've done this myself... this is in as of r6022 and GameDir r1655. I added a new xml - LoadScreenHints.xml. In this xml one can define the hints:

                                                                                                 

  
    0
    This template should never show up
    0
    0
    0
    0
    0
    0
    0
    0
    0
  
  
    1
    Most machineguns have replacable barrels. Use this to rapidly cool down your gun during combat.
    1
  
  
    2
    Use your knife on a corpse to retrieve its uniform, or pick up the corpse.
    1
  
...

The hints are displayed if any of their property flags are set and valid for the game. So a hint that has 1 and nothing else will only show if the zombie option is turned on (and the exe supports that feature - it is currently commented out, because soemone said he wanted to investigate possible errors [that were fixed long ago]). The lore, weapons, items and keybind tags are always valid (but perhaps we can differentiate them later). More hints can easily be added (depending on the condition of course).

This feature can be turned off with USE_LOADSCREENHINTS = FALSE in the Ja2Options.ini (default is TRUE).

A tip will only show up once during a single game session.

So now, we need to come up with tons of hints. Current maximum is 200, but can be raised trivially. I'll leave this to the community.

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Captain

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #317814]

Wed, 24 April 2013 23:31

Messages:1966
Registered:March 2009
Location: Middle of Germany

:super:

Kudos to the Flug-'Master of New Features'-ente! :thumbsup:

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Sergeant Major

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #318160]

Mon, 29 April 2013 00:34

Messages:3509
Registered:April 2009
Location: Germany

You know... this is supposed to be the point where forum members stand up and say 'Yeah! I'm going to add tons of relevant tips in there, so that the game answers questions I once had!'

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Captain

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #318165]

Mon, 29 April 2013 02:17

Messages:1966
Registered:March 2009
Location: Middle of Germany

I'm pretty confident this is gonna happen once the feature gets noticed by a broader audience here (and the JAF kickstarter hype is over)

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Sergeant Major

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #318174]

Mon, 29 April 2013 10:35

JMich is currently offline

Messages:546
Registered:January 2011
Location: Greece

 
    10
    Don't forget to check out Jagged Alliance: Flashback on Kickstarter!
    1

There. Better?

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First Sergeant

Re: Hints on Loading Screens[message #318188]

Mon, 29 April 2013 16:05

Messages:1966
Registered:March 2009
Location: Middle of Germany

Something to start with:


    20
    Don't be lame! Drop backpacks with [SHIFT]+[B] in tactical to enhance movement and enable climbing.
    1
  

    21
    Need help? Help yourself by pressing [H] in strategic screen. And visit the helping bears at http://www.ja-galaxy-forum.com
    1
    1
  

    22
    Turn the wheel to your fortune. Increase Chance To Hit in all fire modes with the mouse [WHEEL]. [ALT]+[WHEEL] sets size of auto-fire volley.
    1
  

    23
    Facilities granted. Some sectors offer facilities like bars or mines that you can assign mercs to in strategical. Tool tips hinting at facility's function appear when assigning a merc just like you'd assign a merc to repairing, doctoring or training militia.
    1
    1
  

    24
    Guild of Thieves. Steal opponent's gun with the hand-cursor [CTRL]+[LEFTCLICK]. If enemy is kissing the dust in a non-dying state you may strip off really everything carried including additional ammo and armour.
    1
    1

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Sergeant Major

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