some suggestions after playing a bit.

[Minsc]

ok, i know it's my first post, but that doesn't mean i'm a noob

 

• the text written on the bottom of the screen (you know like "your attack missed" or "you opened the door") disappears too quickly. It would be good if we could either make it appear for more or less time trough prefs. or have a log where we can access the history of what was written here.

 

• picking up items : instead of having to drag the item to the inventory, shouldn't a simple click be enough?

 

•journal : possibility to have manual entries. for example: "there's a locked door soutwest of "thistown", i should remember to go there when i have enough skill" (of course, you can just use pen and paper )

 

• apple-Q should auto-save and quit the game. (you know, sometimes you have to quit a game really fast )

[Kelandon]

Quote:

Originally written by Minsc:
• the text written on the bottom of the screen (you know like "your attack missed" or "you opened the door") disappears too quickly.

If you press T, it comes back.

Quote:

• picking up items : instead of having to drag the item to the inventory, shouldn't a simple click be enough?

No. I like being able to choose which character it goes to. I think GF did this for a while and it was really annoying.

Quote:

•journal : possibility to have manual entries.... (of course, you can just use pen and paper )

Yes, just use pen and paper.

Quote:

• apple-Q should auto-save and quit the game. (you know, sometimes you have to quit a game really fast

No. Sometimes I want to quit without saving. I like having the choice.

[Synergy]

To most efficiently pick up and drop stuff, try this:

 

To pick up, while in a PC's inventory screen, click on the item, type 1-4 and it will be dropped into the inventory of the PC with that number. You can do this while in combat, even, have one PC next to something pick up an item and drop it onto a PC ten spaces away from him...occasionally very convenient.

 

You can also move, equip, and unequip items while in buy/sell mode. Just click on the item instead of the little coins to move it instead of sell it.

 

To drop something, just click on it while in a PC's inventory, and press "a"--it will drop onto the ground, just as you can type a, b, c, etc. to pick up items lying around when you press "g" or "i" to bring up a PC's inventory. I find this in particular very convenient when hoarding thing like heavy iron bars or bags of meal for later transport and sale.

[NowAndAgain]

Command+Q enterenterenter seems to quit and save pretty quickly last time I checked, couldn't imagine it quitting and saving much faster.

[Lattan]

Quote:

Originally written by Synergy67:
To drop something, just click on it while in a PC's inventory, and press "a"--it will drop onto the ground.

With "a"? You can do it with "d" too, which makes me wonder if there's yet another keyboard shortcut for it. "D"(rop) makes sense to me, but "a" not so much.

[Alorael at Large]

It works with any letter A through L. Those correspond to the 12 slots on the ground from which you can get stuff. When you press one of the letters, a ground slot is selected, and if you have an item selected the item is dropped. If you don't, an item in that slot is picked up.

 

—Alorael, who is just glad to see that pressing A with an item selected doesn't swap it with the item in the A slot. That would imply that pressing A is the same as clicking the A slot, like targeting in A1-3, and that design was always singularly nonsensical.

[Lattan]

Quote:

Originally written by Ytterbium-Enhanced Razor:
It works with any letter A through L. Those correspond to the 12 slots on the ground from which you can get stuff. When you press one of the letters, a ground slot is selected, and if you have an item selected the item is dropped. If you don't, an item in that slot is picked up.

Well, that makes sense in a strange kind of way.

Quote:

—Alorael, who is just glad to see that pressing A with an item selected doesn't swap it with the item in the A slot. That would imply that pressing A is the same as clicking the A slot, like targeting in A1-3, and that design was always singularly nonsensical.

I agree swapping the item with the ground's "a" slot would be wierd, but are you saying you didn't like classic Avernum targeting?

EDIT: I apparently still suck at this UBB Code.

[Alorael at Large]

I liked it, but notice that if monsters are on hills and their letters overlap, pressing B can in fact target or untarget A and do nothing to B. Jeff programmed it to simulate clicking, which makes absolutely no sense.

 

—Alorael, who missed targeting by letter only a little bit. He has bad memories of accidentally pressing the wrong buttons and wasting powerful spells on inconsequential foes, or more direly wasting healing on the healthy while leaving someone to die a painful death.

[Lattan]

Oh, yeah. I only noticed that in a few battles, but it did indeed suck.

Something he could have fixed for this engine!

[Synergy]

Well, it is fixed in the sense that no elevation means no more overlap for lovingly selecting the recipients of your affections. For A5, I do think Jeff needs to find a way to reincorporate elevation. Area spells won't be affected. A way to pick out the right individual target with an arrow or fireball on the backside of a hill will be necessary.

[Icshi]

Talking about elevation: I think Jeff should incorprate a shifting-view feature similar to that in Stronghold; i.e., the graphics are the same, only the arrangment of them on the screen changes in relation to each other.

 

Granted, there were some graphics in Stronghold that did look different from different angles, but the majority of them were exactly the same despite the angle. Hence, no huge number of alternate graphics for any item, person, or terrain.