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Author Topic: Color Blind options and other minor tweaks  (Read 8880 times)

DisaffectedBeta

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Color Blind options and other minor tweaks
« on: July 05, 2007, 06:51 »

Sorry if any of the below repeated other people's suggestions, I haven't gone through the whole forum yet.

Would it be possible to have a starting tactic toggle?  I don't know if there is one already, but I tend to switch to coward on the first board because that seems to yield the best results.  The one I use the least is probably cautious, unless I've upgraded my character's to-hit modifier.  It'd be nice if I could start all my games with the same tactic without having to cycle through them every time I start.

I don't know the limitations of roguelike designs, but I wonder if there could be a feature that would dump a buffer of keypresses if the character gets wounded.  Maybe I should just change my playing style, but when I'm running across a board to get to the unexplored area, and some enemy has sneaked into the explored zone and starts rapid-firing, I get to watch helplessly as my buffered commands get carried out while the enemy fires.

This isn't a request because I know how hard it would be to implement, but it would be neat to someday see the monsters actually get angry at each other like they did in the original, to help take some heat off the player.

Boots don't seem to do much good, but maybe I'm missing some underlying process that reduces damage.  I seem to always get just as damaged as I do without them, but maybe you need plasteel in order to see any real difference.  I miss chemsuits, where you have a limited time of running over the bad stuff without worrying about damage, like an invincible sphere but longer duration and less benefit.  Maybe getting a chem suit wouldn't be so useful unless it was useable like a first aid kit.

For the colorblind players out there, some of the weapon colors are a bit hard to discern.  I have real trouble differentiating the shotguns from the plasma rifles (and their ammunition).  And the way I can tell the double barrel shotgun from the pistol is that the db shotgun looks slightly brighter.  I imagine it's actually a different color, though.  At least the combat shoguns, advanced weapons and rocket launchers are easy to spot.  I'm willing to help out in this regard, because I realize if you can see in full color it would never occur to you that there was anything wrong for us cripples :)

I think a neat addition would be complex buildings to lay siege to from the outside, like the first level only with harder enemies inside.  That way you could have multiple entry points you could try out, much in the way that some of the red exit buildings have been done.  Has the red exit generation changed?  It seems to be much more regular than it was previously.

Edit: A nice display idea would be to turn the text a different color if your health falls below 30 percent or so.  I tend to be so busy playing I don't notice my tiny health indicator is near to zero.  Another low health option:  Remember in Wolfenstein 3-D when your health got below a certain amount, you could actually drink blood and eat certain corpses?  Sounds a bit gross, but it might be a nice to do when you're desperately low on health.

One final thing, I think the difficulty seems to ramp up pretty drastically.  I was on level 10 and found myself surrounded by three Barons, one Arachnotron, one Hell Knight, with a Mancubus in the distance waiting to take me out if they all failed.  I realize this game has some random elements that can't be tweaked too much otherwise it'll mess up the fun, but was I just lucky all those previous rounds?  The jump was too much, considering I had found next to nothing in the way of weaponry leading up to that moment (chaingun and combat shotgun were pretty much it).  Since the new version I felt as though the scaling had changed, but maybe I just got lucky before. 

The game is always fun, if sometimes frustrating.  I play it WAY too much :)  Thanks Kornel, you've made a gem.
« Last Edit: July 05, 2007, 08:11 by DisaffectedBeta »
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Rabiat

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Re: Color Blind options and other minor tweaks
« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2007, 08:15 »

Quote
I don't know the limitations of roguelike designs, but I wonder if there could be a feature that would dump a buffer of keypresses if the character gets wounded.  Maybe I should just change my playing style, but when I'm running across a board to get to the unexplored area, and some enemy has sneaked into the explored zone and starts rapid-firing, I get to watch helplessly as my buffered commands get carried out while the enemy fires.

Don't worry, just a couple more death messages will condition the key leaning out of you sooner or later. ;) Clearing the keyboard buffer should be very easy (the tricky part would be to determine the moment to clear it), but it would be better to have a 'run' command like most major RLs. Implementing a half decent run command takes a lot of work, though.

Quote
For the colorblind players out there, some of the weapon colors are a bit hard to discern.  I have real trouble differentiating the shotguns from the plasma rifles (and their ammunition).  And the way I can tell the double barrel shotgun from the pistol is that the db shotgun looks slightly brighter.  I imagine it's actually a different color, though.

Seconded! I couldn't tell the difference between a pistol and a plasma gun if my life depended on it (well, if it does, I use the 'look' command). Standard CRT colours light gray and cyan are pretty much identical to me, as well as yellow and bright green. An ini file to set tile colors (and characters?) would be great.
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DisaffectedBeta

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Re: Color Blind options and other minor tweaks
« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2007, 08:48 »

I thought there was a Run function.  I saw it mentioned but didn't know what it was, so I never used it.  Except once.  By accident I hit it and my guy went running across the screen.  Would he have stopped if he were shot or bit or burned or whatever?  I seem to remember seeing some mention of it somewhere but I wouldn't know where to look...
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Rabiat

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Re: Color Blind options and other minor tweaks
« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2007, 11:34 »

Oh, right, DoomRL already has a run command. Sorry, haven't played for a while and I never used it anyway. Press , (comma) followed by a direction and doomguy will walk in the given direction until he bumps into a door/wall, or an enemy pops up. I don't remember if the run command walks around corners and stops at objects, but you'll figure that out soon enough. :)
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BDR

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Re: Color Blind options and other minor tweaks
« Reply #4 on: July 06, 2007, 10:08 »

IIRC, it stops at the first object that stops progress and the first time an enemy does something.  It doesn't travel around corners, and I can't remember if it stops at corridors or not (but I think it doesn't).
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Blade

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Re: Color Blind options and other minor tweaks
« Reply #5 on: July 06, 2007, 14:14 »

It stops when you step into something stinky(Plasma rifle, med-packs, or any other item), but only if you have "RunOverItems     = FALSE;" in .ini file. Also it stops BEFORE doors(even opened), walls, barrels, teleporters, lava and acid. And it stops if you see any enemy. It works like this: you hit "Run" key, then choose direction, and then you move in that direction until something up listed will stop you.
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DisaffectedBeta

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Re: Color Blind options and other minor tweaks
« Reply #6 on: July 06, 2007, 15:59 »

I guess the big test will be to see if I remember it exists
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DisaffectedBeta

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I was just thinking.  Maybe a chemsuit could basically be a form of armor that you'd have to put on.  It would only eliminate ground damage (and maybe reduce acid barrel explosion damage, if you wanted to diversify its functionality).  Every time you walk through acid or gets hit it reduces in quality, whether or not you're protected from that hit.  It would be a tactical decision to make: "Should I risk getting rid of the ballistics armor to walk across that field of acid, knowing I'll probably run into a bunch of enemies on the others side?"

To remind you you had it on, its color would be white (like the old chemsuit).  Maybe it might add a green tint to everything you see, but that might be unnecessary.

ADDITIONAL:

*Or what about that suicide message?  I never actually mean to pull the trigger on myself, sometimes I hit the key twice as a reflex action because I think I'm going to autotarget, and I have to unstick- the "[more]" message in order to aim again.  I wonder if there could be some alternative to that.  It was funny when I first saw it, but now I wind up getting stuck a lot when I'm trying to make the game go a bit more smoothly. 

*I really like the autotarget, but sometimes I have to aim past enemies in order to hit them when they're lurking around corners, and sometimes they can shoot me when I can't shoot them.  Wouldn't mind having THEIR autotargeting sometimes :)

*One way to have secret doors might be to have indestructable walls, and then if you walk next to the secret door wall, it automatically turns into a door that opens.  But I guess that just adds a step, because if you notice an indestructable wall, you'll just skim it until you find the door.  Or maybe another color of levers, ones that may be harder to destroy with explosions, which, if you pull them in the right order, will open something up?  You might find a clue written on a wall which will flash in the text message, like "you see RGY scrawled in blood along the wall" which means Red Green Yellow.  You then pull them in the proper order and get a nice surprise that appears out of nowhere, and a nasty surprise if you pull them out of order.

Argh, I can't stop.  Your game is great, I guess that's why the ideas come easily.

*What about a music randomizer, so I don't have to associate one of my favorite Doom songs, the first level one, with just having died all the time.  I think a music randomizer might add a little mood to certain areas that are otherwise fairly standard big block rooms.

*I would like to be able to hit Escape at the naming screen or the skill select screen to be able to go back a step.  If I accidentally hit the wrong difficulty I'm stuck following through until the game.  If I could move back a step, that would save some time better spent killing.

That's it for the time being...

I had a fun moment not too long ago, was being chased by a couple of hellknights and I had only a few percent health to go.  I'd managed to wound them but I wasn't seriously considering that I might survive.  They drew closer, one of them dying in the other's fireball.  The stronger one advanced, step after step, toward me, while I was unloading my chaingun's magazine into him, then, when he got to within arm's reach, he died.  You can't prepare for that kinda moment.  Very fun.
« Last Edit: July 09, 2007, 16:14 by DisaffectedBeta »
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Aerton

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Re: Color Blind options and other minor tweaks
« Reply #8 on: July 09, 2007, 20:05 »

I think most people aren't aware of the run command because it doesn't work on the first level. I imagine them trying it there, getting a failure and immediately discarding it from further use as non-functional.
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Rabiat

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Quote from: DisaffectedBeta
*I really like the autotarget, but sometimes I have to aim past enemies in order to hit them when they're lurking around corners, and sometimes they can shoot me when I can't shoot them.  Wouldn't mind having THEIR autotargeting sometimes :)

That wouldn't be very helpful. Aiming through walls is caused by a rounding problem, which occurs for the player and monsters alike. Sometimes, you can't hit a monster by auto-aim while it can hit you, sometimes it's the other way round.

Quote from: Aerton
I think most people aren't aware of the run command because it doesn't work on the first level. I imagine them trying it there, getting a failure and immediately discarding it from further use as non-functional.

Also, a run command is usually helpful in confined spaces. Most RLs have narrow, twisting tunnels where running saves a lot of time. Contrary to most RLs, DoomRL levels consist mostly of open areas such as rooms or caves.
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DisaffectedBeta

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Re: Color Blind options and other minor tweaks
« Reply #10 on: July 10, 2007, 01:52 »

Aerton:

I don't understand what you mean about the autorun not working on the first level.  Especially on the harder difficulty levels it just gets me to the building a bit faster.  I usually run into my first shotgun on U difficulty and we're off.  If you mean that you tend to overshoot the entrance because there's nothing to stop you, then I understand.

I was being whimsical about the monster's pathing to me, is all. 

But I can see a reverse targeting which begins from the monster and works backward to me as the proper targeting if the forward doesn't work.  Not sure how targeting is run in game, but in my limited programming experience, reversing things for your guy if the reverse works for the other guy usually did the trick.  Still, I can see some strategies emerging from taking tactical advantage of one-way aiming, so maybe people wouldn't want to part with it even if there was some way around it.
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Aerton

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Re: Color Blind options and other minor tweaks
« Reply #11 on: July 10, 2007, 20:18 »

I don't understand what you mean about the autorun not working on the first level.

The first level is covered by some red tiles instead of the usual floor and run stops there instantly. Or did the tentacles fix it in last version?
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BDR

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Re: Color Blind options and other minor tweaks
« Reply #12 on: July 11, 2007, 02:34 »

Actually, I complained about it in this topic and so it was implemented. :)
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Aerton

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Re: Color Blind options and other minor tweaks
« Reply #13 on: July 11, 2007, 05:02 »

Actually, I complained about it in this topic and so it was implemented. :)

Mea culpa. I hadn't played recently so was unaware of the fix...
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Star Weaver

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Re: Color Blind options and other minor tweaks
« Reply #14 on: July 17, 2007, 23:41 »

I don't know the limitations of roguelike designs, but I wonder if there could be a feature that would dump a buffer of keypresses if the character gets wounded.  Maybe I should just change my playing style, but when I'm running across a board to get to the unexplored area, and some enemy has sneaked into the explored zone and starts rapid-firing, I get to watch helplessly as my buffered commands get carried out while the enemy fires.

A few thoughts on running:

The game should not use an input buffer, IMO. OTOH, I have my key repeat maxxed out and haven't noticed continuing to run many steps after I let up the key personally, so, I'm not sure. Will have to experiment with that.

Shift+dirkey running would be REALLY NICE :D.

Since, as someone noted, the game is not primarially tunnel based, this might be better: Shift+dirkey moves you N spaces, where N is configurable (possibly even adjustable in game with + and -), unless you see an enemy or something happens.

This would let you "hop" across the map in discreet chunks, allowing for player reaction while not being much slower than holding down the key.

I'd use it :D.

Also, Hi. Been following the game on and off for a few years, this is the first version I've stuck with for long (the last one was the first one I won, but then there were the player data bugs so I stopped). *Waves*

St@r Weaver
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