Initial Thoughts

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fireinme
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Initial Thoughts

Post by fireinme »

As a person who has just picked up the game and and played the game for at least a few weeks. I've been keeping notes on some initial thoughts/suggestions/feedback/perceived bugs as a new player. I'm sure some of the "bugs" may be already noted, but just in case not. I mostly focus player interface and experience. If something needs explained further let me know. Hopefully I am able to contribute to this project more in the future.

OS: Windows XP 64
Client: 0.0.29.1 (eAthena)
  • Login Screen:
  • The login screen's progress bar at the bottom left, it would be nice to have it appear more as "communication" instead of "progress" By either having a tick bounce back and forth inside the bar or fill up one way and then fill back the other, possibly with different colors. So it isn't a let down when the bar fills and the text hasn't change and you still aren't logged in. and it starts to fill again. (dysfunctional progress bars are a personal pet peeve)
  • Hitting cancel at the character selection should only log you out, and go back to the login screen again. Not quit the application.
  • A player should recharge ~25% health and mana for every 30 minutes they are logged off. So if a player is logged out for more than two hours, when they log in they don't have to sit and wait to heal.
  • Character Selection:
  • Can not delete a character (Error, Failed to delete character). Bug? Am i not doing it right?
  • Zeny doesn't properly display with initial character display screen.
  • Keyboard:
  • Alternate/Secondary Keys so I can easily switch between a right hand and left hand play style without reassigning keys. Or have a key/option that rotates through multiple presets.
  • Being able to copy and paste text to and from the client would be AMAZING!
  • Quests:
  • An active quest list would be nice. So I can see what goals I have to achieve and who I'm doing it for. Possibly show current Monster points also
  • Monster points:
  • Not sure how that exchange on that really works. It seems to take a random number around ~160 points per 1 items but it doesn't seem to be a consistent point value. Having that shown in the text would be great ie 150pts -1 item, 300 points - 2 items etc...
  • Stores
  • Some stores truncate my money's digits ie "22285" is what my status screen says, the shopping menus says "2285"
  • Magic System
  • The magic system has a very steep learning curve. I like the 'type the spell name to cast' aspect of it but that could be streamlined a bit. Have an "apply for apprenticeship" quest where you at least do 1 lvl up in a spell set so the mechanics get explained. (if there is already, make it easier to find) Also some of the following...
  • Have a visual cue for when you can cast a spell again after the delay such as the mana bar recharge/change from white to blue.
  • Having a menu/list of "known" spells for your character with requirements and effect summary show up after you complete the mana seed quest, and be able to drag and drop the spells to the short cut menu. When they are used from the shortcut menu it types in to the chat field giving it text focus so you can hit enter or type what you need to complete the spell. And on the short cut list the spell would show how many possible castings you have left before you run out of spell components. The list works so that a spell gets added with its description of effects when the npc tells you about it but its grayed out and becomes active, filling in the requirements to cast and other info, after the first successful cast. (you could have spells that don't have descriptions because you casted them without being told about them)
  • Items/Equipment:
  • Having items show or notate that they disable a players ability to use magic, took me two days to figure out why i couldn't cast spells was because i had a shield equipped.
  • Also have items note their equipable location(s).
  • The Equipment screen is a bit difficult to follow. Having an outline of a body and the equipment box hovering over their respective locations, or have a hover over/text in the boxes saying what equipment spot that is "head, neck, off hand, etc"
  • Be able to reorder items in the inventory and possibly sort them by type "Equipable defense, equipable weapon, edible, quest items, spell components, etc"
  • Maps:
  • When entering/exiting certain areas there are issues about it not loading to the new area when standing in the door/entrance.
  • Some maps have elements on them that look like door or entrances ways but aren't. So I spend several moments trying to walk in/through only to no avail (due to the inconsistency of certain doorways loading properly), it would be nice to have them look "blocked" or just not there, I presume they are probably "future" locations and just waiting to be built, but in the mean time its confusing. Even a prompt of "this area isn't finished yet come back later" However, if its just to give a location a bit more graphical variety, I'd prefer consistency over variety.
  • Pressing the "F" key (Show path to mouse, which highlights obstacles). Have it also show where the map change zones are, so a player can see entrances and exits relative to them. (having their location be colored also, and mobs/npcs/items be colorized too would be helpful.)
  • Combat
  • Being able to target dropped items.
  • Having items/monsters show through scene elements i.e. if they are behind a tree (particle effect? silhouette?)
  • When using the attack key on a targeted mob that causes my character to move to be in range to successfully hit the target. (melee specifically)
  • Have an "action" key instead or in addition to the "attack" key so the player will do whatever the default action is to monsters (attack), items (pick up), players (trade)/(Attack if in PVP), npcs (talk).
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Jaxad0127
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Post by Jaxad0127 »

fireinme wrote:Not sure how that exchange on that really works. It seems to take a random number around ~160 points per 1 items but it doesn't seem to be a consistent point value. Having that shown in the text would be great ie 150pts -1 item, 300 points - 2 items etc...
Each item costs one more point than the last one.
fireinme wrote:Having items show or notate that they disable a players ability to use magic, took me two days to figure out why i couldn't cast spells was because i had a shield equipped.
It's a threshold thing. Some items decrease magic ability, other increase it. You have a base magic ability from level and int. When it reaches 0, you can't cast.
fireinme wrote:The Equipment screen is a bit difficult to follow. Having an outline of a body and the equipment box hovering over their respective locations, or have a hover over/text in the boxes saying what equipment spot that is "head, neck, off hand, etc"
Waiting on graphics.
fireinme wrote:Be able to reorder items in the inventory and possibly sort them by type "Equipable defense, equipable weapon, edible, quest items, spell components, etc"
Not possible.
fireinme wrote:When entering/exiting certain areas there are issues about it not loading to the new area when standing in the door/entrance.
Lag.
fireinme wrote:Some maps have elements on them that look like door or entrances ways but aren't. So I spend several moments trying to walk in/through only to no avail (due to the inconsistency of certain doorways loading properly), it would be nice to have them look "blocked" or just not there, I presume they are probably "future" locations and just waiting to be built, but in the mean time its confusing. Even a prompt of "this area isn't finished yet come back later" However, if its just to give a location a bit more graphical variety, I'd prefer consistency over variety.
Example?
fireinme wrote:Having items/monsters show through scene elements i.e. if they are behind a tree (particle effect? silhouette?)
WIP.
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fireinme
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Post by fireinme »

jaxad0127 wrote:It's a threshold thing. Some items decrease magic ability, other increase it. You have a base magic ability from level and int. When it reaches 0, you can't cast.
Is there a way to tell how close you are on this?
jaxad0127 wrote:Waiting on graphics.
Where is the thread for this task?
jaxad0127 wrote:Not possible.
Not even to manually rearrange items? :(
jaxad0127 wrote:Example?
Entrance to Art comparison
Entrance to Art comparison
vs.jpg (173.51 KiB) Viewed 2982 times
One goes somewhere, the other does not. There are multiple examples on that map, there are doors to buildings also (Who locks a door in a video game?)
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Jaxad0127
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Post by Jaxad0127 »

fireinme wrote:
jaxad0127 wrote:It's a threshold thing. Some items decrease magic ability, other increase it. You have a base magic ability from level and int. When it reaches 0, you can't cast.
Is there a way to tell how close you are on this?
The magic attack stat in the status window. Note that raising is delayed to prevent abuse, while lowering is instant.
fireinme wrote:
jaxad0127 wrote:Waiting on graphics.
Where is the thread for this task?
http://forums.themanaworld.org/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7370
fireinme wrote:
jaxad0127 wrote:Not possible.
Not even to manually rearrange items? :(
No. The server currently used does not support this. Adding support for it would likely get very messy and leave the server unstable. The new server already supports it. We might add client-side sorted views, though.
fireinme wrote:
jaxad0127 wrote:Example?
vs.jpg
One goes somewhere, the other does not. There are multiple examples on that map, there are doors to buildings also (Who locks a door in a video game?)
Feel free to provide maps for the insides of those buildings and more caves to connect to those. Or cover those cave entrances with the spiderweb.
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drewtoma
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Post by drewtoma »

Ok for the progress bar thing how about having a spinning wheel like macs have to keep you occupied while you wait. Its easier to code. :mrgreen:
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Jaxad0127
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Post by Jaxad0127 »

Those bars aren't in the next release.
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drewtoma
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Post by drewtoma »

If I make a spinny bar OR loading bar will it be considered for the next update so I dont wast my time. :mrgreen:
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Jaxad0127
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Post by Jaxad0127 »

See if the dev client does what you want. If not, provide a patch against it.
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drewtoma
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Post by drewtoma »

Ok thanks ill look it up. :mrgreen:
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Re: Initial Thoughts

Post by drewtoma »

Mhm ok we need smiles that look like slimes.
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