WIP Navy Character: communicate restrictions to player better

[Levis]

Maybe we should consider adding some interface message or something like that when playing as a navy character because i see A LOT of questions regarding that...
You do get a special questbook entrie explaining things at the start already right?
Anything more?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Maybe we should consider adding some interface message or something like that when playing as a navy character because i see A LOT of questions regarding that...
You do get a special questbook entrie explaining things at the start already right?
Anything more?

We've written it on the Wiki and in the "Build Info.txt", but of course nobody is ever going to read that.

Other than that, there is the custom "Naval Officer" starting dialog and also the custom Questbook entry.

 

[Levis]

We've written it on the Wiki and in the "Build Info.txt", but of course nobody is ever going to read that.

Other than that, there is the custom "Naval Officer" starting dialog and also the custom Questbook entry.

Ah but nothing besides that ... hmmm .... that gives room for improvement

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Ah but nothing besides that ... hmmm .... that gives room for improvement

It does indeed.

I wonder if @Grey Roger could suggest some text changes that would clarify it.
That would save us the trouble of adding a "tutorial" of sorts again, because that would be far more work of course.

 

[Levis]

We could for example add a book to their inventory to explain it, but nobody would ever read that too.
What I was thinking is adding something to the shipyard dialog. The first time you talk to the shipyard owner he will explain to you, you can't buy ships. That should probably fix a lot already...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

What's wrong with working it in with the Dialog and Questbook texts that already exist?

 

[Levis]

What's wrong with working it in with the Dialog and Questbook texts that already exist?

Those are only used for the custom start now rigth? Not for the specific attribute, which might be set for other characters also right?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Those are only used for the custom start now rigth?

Yes.

Not for the specific attribute, which might be set for other characters also right?

Exactly. A specific attribute that you can only get BY using that custom start.

It might become different once you can join the navy in mid-game. But until somebody bothers to add it, that is not possible.

 

[Levis]

Yes.


Exactly. A specific attribute that you can only get BY using that custom start.

It might become different once you can join the navy in mid-game. But until somebody bothers to add it, that is not possible.

Say someone wants to add another character with this attribute but an other questbook entry. Or for example hornblower who also has the attribute set ...

 

[Grey Roger]

At present, if I read this correctly, naval officers get their introduction via "Robert Fletcher_dialog.c", which only has one line from Malcolm Hatcher disguised as your senior officer and one line from you in return. It would need to be expanded if you want a more detailed introduction.

In fact, it occurs to me that all the one-line introductions for special player types need a bit of work. This is because I've recently been warned of the pitfall of hard-coding dialogs and what that means for anyone trying to translate the game into another language. "Robert Fletcher_dialog.c" has a lot of hard-coded dialog which would perhaps be better put into "Robert Fletcher_dialog.h", then it can be more readily translated into, say, Spanish.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Say someone wants to add another character with this attribute but an other questbook entry.

They they can worry about explaining it.

Or for example hornblower who also has the attribute set ...

He's a special case anyway.
@Grey Roger can decide what he wants to do there.

At present, if I read this correctly, naval officers get their introduction via "Robert Fletcher_dialog.c", which only has one line from Malcolm Hatcher disguised as your senior officer and one line from you in return. It would need to be expanded if you want a more detailed introduction.

Indeed.

In fact, it occurs to me that all the one-line introductions for special player types need a bit of work. This is because I've recently been warned of the pitfall of hard-coding dialogs and what that means for anyone trying to translate the game into another language. "Robert Fletcher_dialog.c" has a lot of hard-coded dialog which would perhaps be better put into "Robert Fletcher_dialog.h", then it can be more readily translated into, say, Spanish.

As I said: Since I need to be extremely careful what I spend my time on, I have stopped bothering with that ages ago.
Working with .h files is far more cumbersome. I would definitely appreciate anyone who corrects on my "laziness" there though.

 

[Grey Roger]

I am not going to convert the whole lot. Someone who needs it done for the purpose of translation may want to do the work.

But here are the files with the naval officer briefing revised, expanded and transferred to "Robert Fletcher_dialog.h". As yet untested...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I am not going to convert the whole lot. Someone who needs it done for the purpose of translation may want to do the work.

My thoughts exactly.