The Veins of the Earth development feedback BETA 13

[Avagart]

I know it`s the engine`s fault (same in TOME proper) but very annoying anyway: item description stays on even when your pointer moves off the item icon,  covering most of other slots

Can you provide screenshot? If I understand correctly, you encountered problem which doesn't occur for me.

[akeley]

Can`t post scr$ at the moment...nowhere to upload...what`s a good host that is not imgur or dropbox?

maybe my description was rubbish, try again
- go to inventory
- hover over the paper doll`s slot that has an item in it - a description should appear
- now move the mouse cursor off the item slot - in my case the description will stay on the screen until you hover over another item.

And another , old thing mentioned before - going up/down staircases produces weird floor numbers. As in: current level 1 - go down, current level still 1 - go down again, level is now 3, go up: level 1, go up: level 2 and so on. What`s up with that? maybe it`s a portal, not a staircase?

[Avagart]

Ouh, yes, you're right. This doesn't bother me in most cases, so I thought you have in the mind something else.

[Zireael]

Some more random observations:

- when I select Random at character creation it randomizes my name as well, though I chose it earlier...it`d be nice to be able to keep it
- saying "No" to Tutorial every time you start anew is annoying
- it`d be helpful if item description pointed out that you can`t use it for lack of proficiency - say, change the colour to red and/or disallow equipping it
- "paper doll" - I know it`s the engine`s fault (same in TOME proper) but very annoying anyway: item description stays on even when your pointer moves off the item icon,  covering most of other slots
                      -also, can`t move an item in between slots - has to go back to right panel and then I can put it elsewhere

Less clutter on toolbar to start with is a great move. But...
- both Skill  and Spell menus are called Talents...confusing
- it`d be great if only available talents were displayed...as it is I always have Mount or Polearm ability for example  (same on the "m" screen")
- Spellbook needs to show descriptions when hovering over icons
- the numbers on said icons are often hard to see...choosing spells is a chore
- when scrolling mouse wheel up/down over the spell list in Spellbook spells are added in addition to scrolling

and...Some Things That Are Probably In The Manual...
- how to use a wand?
- I can craft items out of nothing?

1) point taken
2) I have no way of tracking if you as a player have refused tutorial earlier... alas.
3) the tooltips should tell you already and the entry is highlighted red in the inventory
4) that is indeed an engine problem - I will ask DG if there's a way to change it, as ToME 4 uses IDENTICAL code
5) talent menu ideas are noted down
6) I will look at the scrolling thing but no guarantees (I don't have a mousewheel here) - as for the numbers, what colors would you prefer? the spell icons vary wildly in coloring, too.

As for the rest:
1) you use the wand the same way you drink a potion or a vial
2) yes, for now it's out of nothing, just like in Incursion. I am researching various crafting systems, for now I'm thinking of something similar to old Star Wars Galaxies (you can find/monsters can drop ingredients which youu then use, and said ingredients come in different rarities and varieties)

[Zireael]

Akeley: "weird" numbers shouldn't happen anymore and the name is no longer randomized if you already chose one.

Right now looking to make NPCs more chatty, not only in terms of dialogue but also "emotes" (that overhead text ToME 4 does) for attacking, fleeing etc.

[Zireael]

I think I mentioned torches changing the map tint as an idea some time ago, it's now done:


I've been tinkering around the chat screen, here's the latest addition:

[akeley]

Akeley: "weird" numbers shouldn't happen anymore and the name is no longer randomized if you already chose one.

Nice one, should I download again or wait for the next release?

I can see how the thing with numbers over icons can be tricky to adjust, what with all the different colours... one way would be to put them under the icons but then it would all get messy and time consuming I suppose. Well, it`s not such a big deal anyway. However that hover tooltip over spell icons could be really helpful - atm unless you know what particular icon means it`s impossible to use this to choose spells. And when you use the right side with names, the scroll thingy messes it up often.

Also I wonder how to add spells or other things to toolbar. Is it possible? Another thing the shortcuts don`t seem to work (eg: I press 1 for "attack" menu and then have to scroll to the particular action like "shoot")

When I choose the "look" option I can only move the main cursor with shift+direction. Any chance I could use this with numpad as well?

Is there a really real permadeath mode where I can only save & quit and if not can we have one?

Big request - some sort of high score table (least I missed it, as often happens :) As it is, it`s an infinite dungeon so no win conditions...but it would be nice to have something to die for...

[Zireael]

I have no idea when the release will happen - I'm looking for a job atm so I can't make any plans. So it's your call whether you want to wait for the next beta or not.

1) I will look at the spell names list getting messed up by scrolling. The tooltip is on my wishlist, it's even mentioned in the code comments, but it's a PITA to implement (and will probably be buggy, requiring magic numbers to make it match)
2) I will check how it works and get back to you.
3) No idea about the numpad, it's all governed by the engine
4) You have the option to quit and save when quitting the game.
5) The engine takes care of the high score table - look for "View High Scores" on the main menu or in the Esc menu while playing. Currently the score is a placeholder, based on your total kills.

[Zireael]

The answer to 2 is you can now drag talents to hotbar out of the generic talent menu (m key) or the button menus.

The button menus also now ignore all the unusable talents per your wishes.

EDIT: All that requires you to re-download the bleeding edge data, though.

[akeley]

Okay...got that master and the changes are great.

I was trying to test the staircase thingy though and got into a right mess straight away. This happen twice in a row so maybe you could reproduce:

-tried to go > straight away on the first staircase (one you spawn on) and got "down" I think two levels (number still said "1"  thou) and then the game sort of went into  a time trap - clocks started accelerating, screen flashed, status Starved appeared and I couldn`t do nothing, presumably dead (it felt like being in the original "Time Machine" film and I half expected some Morlocks to appear)

[Zireael]

You tried to go down on an up staircase? Well, in that case the game should have told you 'there is no way to exit the level here'. I will look at the code again, thanks for the report.

In other news, I've managed to port (a version of) Angband's dungeon generation, so the dungeon areas should now be more interesting.

[akeley]

What I`ve done is copy the github files into the moddb versions VotE directory (deleting what was in there first). Maybe that could cause problems?

[Zireael]

No, it shouldn't, it's the default way to update until a new beta is out.

Anyway, bug fixed. T-Engine has a habit of placing the player in hammerspace if the player is not assigned x and y beforehand. And x and y tend to not get assigned for a slew of reasons. DG himself is battling this bug intermittently. Let's hope the fixes stop the bug.

[Zireael]

Beta 11 is now out!

Bad news: next beta is likely to come out no earlier than March (I'm starting a job Dec 1).

This doesn't mean development is stopping completely, but will be slower as I figure out what to do to avoid code bloat while adding more content.

[getter77]

Congrats on the new job!      Surely things will sort themselves out in terms of a release pace that works for you.