Boss Intro Splash Screen!

[ToxicChicken]

this seems unnecessarily bombastic.

Agreed.

[Sirrocco]

Also if you don't like it, like many things that don't affect the gameplay balance in any way, it should be toggable.

Agreed!

[supermini]

And its not a cutscene, its a splash screen that takes one click to dismiss. There's a reason that a wide range of games over the years, from jrpgs to Metal Gear Solid introduce a boss- its a marker of progress, adds drama and excitement for an encounter that marks the end goal of a given area and represents progress. Bosses shouldn't just mosey on the screen with no fanfare- that just isn't boss-like at all. After going through level after level of the tower, I walk into a random room and...oh hey there's The Master. No! It should be announced.

This isn't a jrpg or Metal Gear Solid. Fanfare and artificial drama and excitement is something that's best left for games that rely on such things.

For new players, it lets them realize what it is they're up against and respond with caution and tactics, instead of going "Hey, I wonder why this one is purple" and getting smacked down.

They SHOULD get smacked down. The whole point of roguelikes is getting smacked down by something nasty and learning from the experience.

Like I said, hand-holding is a bad idea. When you see a boss/randboss, you want to check out its talents, defenses, and such, and start thinking about how to fight it, not look at a useless splash screen. By distracting the player with flash, you're promoting bad behavior - paying attention to graphics rather than the imminent danger.

There's lots of things that are not bosses that can kill you quite easily if you don't pay attention. You don't want to be training new players to pay attention only when there's a splash screen. That was the whole point of my argument about randelites.

For the people that would get tired of this- there's no need to wish to be able to turn it off- we could just put it in the options. I wouldn't do it as an add-on because I believe that this should be the default behavior for the above reasons.

I think it should be an add-on. It doesn't have any gameplay value, and roguelikes are not about flash and fanfare.

[Grillkick]

...Fanfare and artificial drama and excitement is something that's best left for games that rely on such things.
...By distracting the player with flash, you're promoting bad behavior - paying attention to graphics rather than the imminent danger....I think it should be an add-on. It doesn't have any gameplay value, and roguelikes are not about flash and fanfare.
...

Well in this case I would expect the default settings of ToME to be ANSI mode, no music & sound effects, no particle effects, and no story art. There! Now it's not about flash and fanfare, in fact its just like every....other....roguelike. Part of ToME design so far has been going outside of the box of what people have come to expect from the genre and offering a complete experience as opposed to a minimalist purist one. We're not sacrificing one for the other, we get everything.
Our disagreement aside, you've probably made the best case against boss intros. I'd like to hear what Darkgod thinks about the idea

[supermini]

Well in this case I would expect the default settings of ToME to be ANSI mode, no music & sound effects, no particle effects, and no story art. There! Now it's not about flash and fanfare, in fact its just like every....other....roguelike.

Really? That's your argument? You're going with a false dilemma, that we can only choose between two extremes.

Part of ToME design so far has been going outside of the box of what people have come to expect from the genre and offering a complete experience as opposed to a minimalist purist one. We're not sacrificing one for the other, we get everything.

That doesn't mean that every idea that makes it different is a good one.

You haven't really responded to any of my points (about interrupting action, about hand-holding, about the need to check enemy talents instead of watching a splash screen, about it becoming boring after the 10th time), you just took a bunch of things I said out of context and tried to reduce them to absurdity.

I'm really not interested in arguing just for the sake of it, so lets just drop it, shall we?

[bricks]

This is probably the most heated argument ever held over splash screens. How is showing a little artwork hand-holding? I suppose the same could be said about tactical borders. I don't interpret the suggestion as "automatically opens up your browser to the online guide's page for Prox the Mighty." Hell, we already have some nice artwork that pops up at certain points in the game, how is that any different?

[Grillkick]

@ Bricks- that's exactly my line of thinking as well.

@ Supermini- Hey, I was just making my case -I never intended to upset you and I regret if I did. We can absolutely agree to disagree brother

[Grey]

The repetitive thing is a good point. Maybe only for certain specials like The Master?

[Grillkick]

I honestly don't think that it would get repetitive- especially if we put a button in the splash popup that goes directly to Inspecting the boss, that would actually be a bit functional.
If I'm wrong and it *does* end up being too repetitive, then that's a good idea, Grey. I'm not sure what bosses we would limit it to though. The Master of course- maybe the crypt necromancer, Bill the Troll (Although he already has a warning before his stage), maybe the end bosses of the prides, Epoch, the Weirdling, not sure who else.

[bricks]

Assuming that it uses the same mechanic as lore, the Sher'tul fortress should prevent most repetition.

[Grillkick]

@ Bricks- You know, you've just made me realize how to implement this to where everyone is satisfied. Upon *first* encountering a boss, we get the splash box popup. Upon subsequent encounters with the same enemy, by default there is no splash screen. We can have a toggle in the options for players like me that would like the splash screen to always pop up. Of course for randbosses there would always be one- but that's really only encountered in farportal runs, so no big deal.

@ Supermini, do you think that this would be a good compromise?

[supermini]

@ Supermini, do you think that this would be a good compromise?

As long as there's an option to turn them off it won't bother me, but I'm not the one you need to convince we need this in game.