Nekarcos's Quality of Life 07: Visible Size Categories

[nekarcos]

Here is the release of Quality of Life #07 (Visible Size Categories). You can find it riiiight... HERE!


To summarize what it does: This simply makes character tiles bigger/smaller based on their size category-- An effect quite similar to the Huge Sandworm Burrowers in Sandworm Lair. Additionally, it also realigns the tiles so that characters are always head-to-toe when side-by-side, making their size differences even more visible!

You'll be surprised when you find out that Huge Ancient Turtles aren't quite as large as they seem, or that Trolls are toweringly huge! See Eyal in a new light-- You'll never look back!


Any questions? Ask away! Any reports? Do it here! This one is definitely under *strict* review, so tell me about any niggling problem you might have with it!

[tabs]

Is the small tilesize on the worldmap intentional?

[rexorcorum]

@ tabs: It can be switched off from the Game options menu. And maybe for 1.6 I'll do something for the worldmap - if I'll come with an elegant solution, that is. Having all the actors on the worldmap with smaller size is very nice from a thematic point of view, but it impairs the visibility and ease of play to a certain degree.

@ nekarcos: Another great addon nevertheless ! I was afraid that the zoomed tiles will be too blurred, but it plays quite nice. Haven't encountered huge dragons yet, but playing with an ogre was a delight. Definitely an addon that will stay always on for me (and maybe even more ).

Regarding the worldmap view - the tiles are at 50% atm as far as I can tell. Maybe make them around 66 - 75%? Me and DG have considered making the same, but weren't fully happy with the result and scrapped it for 1.5. As far as my ideas for improvement go - they range from making new tiles just for the worldmap (very unlikely to happen in this life ), using the scaled down tiles with a new tactical frame that will be easily recognizable, having a banner on the toons, having some kind of particle effect (something like a rotating particles circle will be do, I think). I would be happy to hear other ideas as well .

And one more thing, that can be a bit annoying (and it is actually *my fault*, not yours) - many tiny creatures, especially poison vines are very hard to spot or are even completely hidden when behind taller trees (so, my fault really ). I don't have an easy solution for that, apart from tweaking the scaling numbers in the options menu. If you happen to think of something that can be of help, that would be great. DG said that making the trees semitransparent when there are actors behind them is kinda impossible with the current code, so there's that.

[nekarcos]

@tabs
Yup, definitely intentional. It's a game option (like rexorcorum said).

@rexorcorum
RE: Huge Dragons
Oh man. I started testing this add-on around the same time that the new graphics for Venom Dragons came out. I was AWESTRUCK. It... It was the most INCREDIBLE thing! I... I absolutely *LOVE* the way Venom Wyrms look now!!

RE: World Map shrinkage
I had a feeling the world map shrinkage would be really obnoxious (especially for spotting patrols-- Or worse: Agrimley...), so I left an option to disable it. Unfortunately though, they will remain small once they've been made small, so it's still a bit flawed at the moment. I have a very good solution in mind (update every character after changing settings), but I'm not too bothered yet (since this is the early stages where I expect people to find problems and report issues). I'll fix everything at once as soon as I've gotten enough feedback. Changing the shrinkage to "66%" might be best, as you said.

RE: Stealth Shrubs
There is actually commented-out code that forces the tactical frame to remain a "normal" size no matter how big or small a character gets-- But I felt it "defeated" the point of "visible size categories" if you couldn't measure two characters at a glance by comparing the size of their frames. For example, with this code on, Huge Sandworm Burrowers would be ENORMOUS, but there would be this tiny little box around the bottom-middle of their body. Kinda defeats the purpose of a "frame" if it's not surrounding them, hm?
... Also, yeah... I had the VERY same problem with-- Say... Poison Ivy lurking behind a tall tree-- Or even more nightmarish: A Venus Fly Trap spitting poison at you. I wonder what an "elegant" solution for this is...


Edit: Also, another significant issue-- Because the frames tend to be larger than normal, two frames might overlap with one another, and reading their "life total" becomes... "confusing". Yet another issue that needs an "elegant" solution-- Besides changing the framing style...

[rexorcorum]

... Also, yeah... I had the VERY same problem with-- Say... Poison Ivy lurking behind a tall tree-- Or even more nightmarish: A Venus Fly Trap spitting poison at you. I wonder what an "elegant" solution for this is...

The usual are partial/full transparency of the terrain features or pc/npc outline when in LOS.

[Kamani]

This is great with possessor, where your size changes all the time. I would absolutely recommend it.

[Steven Aus]

Even though this is a "cosmetic" change, I can't rate it too highly and it really improves the game, simply by making you enjoy the enjoy the game more (it feels more realistic even though it doesn't really have much "official" gameplay effects). It's pretty funny when a smallish Sawbutcher goes and mows down a whole lot of huge monsters too.