[solved] funny game, one little request though

[Lord Farquaad]

Hi,

Funny game, throwing bombs as a Wyr is fun.

There is one little thing I find annoying though, the cursor is kindy dark. Often I cannot see it (mostly in space battles). Kindy deteriorates the view and my aim (and it doesn't help that my aims was already bad to begin with :P ). So JabberwockyX, could you make the cursor more bright, maybe bright white? It doesn't have to be very big, just a little lighter would be enough.

[JabberwockyX]

Just to verify - you're talking about the "+"-shaped aiming crosshairs?

The current color scheme is designed to reflect the hostility of what you're aiming at (red for hostile, green for friendly, blue/grey for neutral, etc). Is there a particular one of these colors which is difficult for you to see? You're not color blind by any chance, are you?

[Lord Farquaad]

Yes it is the crosshair. I am not color blind, I think it has to do with that the crosshair has the same color as the background sometimes (or almost the same). While aiming it a friendly (green), I can almost always see it sufficient, the problem is neutral (blue/grey) in both land and space and in space enemy (red).

As a programmer myself, I have personally found out that using bright (and sometimes light) colors helps alot, or an outlining (like a white cursor with a colored dot in the center). Here are some simple but practical cursors examples that I personally like:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GSwX9jMgZpE/Uew6QOIFyeI/AAAAAAAAC1A/6MZRiLiL9YA/s1600/4.jpg

http://www.markshan.com/knightmare/images/kmq2_doom3hud1.jpg

http://i37.servimg.com/u/f37/14/37/50/51/screen61.png

[JabberwockyX]

Gotcha.

I think Salvation Prophecy is particularly tricky because, especially in space, the background goes from very dark (black space) to brightly colored (nebulae).

What I can do is provide some sort of option or method of easily modding the crosshairs colors, so you can tune it as you like. I'll look into that for the next update. Thanks for the detailed response!

[Lord Farquaad]

Yes thanks alot, that will be a good fix :).

[JabberwockyX]

The newest build has some new options which should help, my liege.

If you open options.cfg, you can add/modify these settings:

Originally posted by options.cfg:

hostile crosshairs color=0.85 0.1 0.1
friendly crosshairs color=0.13 0.8 0.13
neutral crosshairs color=0.13 0.13 0.8
no faction crosshairs color=0.6 0.6 0.6

crosshairs scale=1.25

This allows you to change both the color and the size of the crosshairs.

The color options are RGB format, with values between [0,1]. So for example:
hostile crosshairs color=1 0 0
Would make the crosshairs pure red while pointing at a hostile target.
For your problem in particular, you might want to try some brighter colors, and maybe a larger crosshairs if needed (via the crosshairs scale option).

The option.cfg file is in the same directory as the SalvationProphecy.exe executable, which is probably somewhere like:
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\SalvationProphecy\bin\release
or
C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common\SalvationProphecy\bin\release

... depending on which windows OS you're using.

[DedZedNub]

JabberwockyX, is that what the latest update for today was, just for the crosshair colors, brightness, and contrast? I did not see a post that was on the update.

[JabberwockyX]

It was the crosshairs, plus a couple of bug fixes for certain hardware/OS combinations:
This one
And this one

[DedZedNub]

Excellent, all the three most recent issues solved in one fell swoop. I figured I'd ask here, since this thread was the most recently active. Patch notes tend to increase a games visibility as does any update via Steam. Might want to create a separate patch notes thread or perhaps via the Announcements section, although since many devs don't use that, I get the feeling it might be a bit arcane to use.

Some games seem to use Announcements to highlight patches, but that takes you off the main forum, where most gamers go. Some use a separate Technical Issues forum, witht he same negative. Some use Stickies at the top of the forum, which is used so often, although old-school, that most, but not all, know to check there. Some wait for the "What the Latest patch about?" thread and then use a sticky too. Some devs seems to get the News section to include some patch notes. Some get the game to work on the Recently Updated section of Steam, with the notes.

There isn't as clear a rhyme or reason to it as a player might like. But I am under the impression that some parts are easier to use, in the Steam framework, than others.

You have already stickied most of the key issues, so the suggestion is just to have a latest patch notes thread, perhaps with just the posts for the various iterations of the patches with their notes. But you may have another idea or about to update the forum anyway.

Thanks for the update, JabberwockyX.

[JabberwockyX]

Heya Ded -

In principle, I agree with you 100%.

For any game which is still finishing its features or fixing major bugs, highly visible patch notes (via announcements, etc) are critical.

For a maintenance patch like this, which only affects a tiny fraction of players, I think it's best to just update the threads where the issues are reported and discussed. Some new player interested in checking out the game does not want to see an announcement about rare hardware compatibility fixes on the store page (where announcements show up). That would distract from the interesting stuff, and may even hurt sales.

For my next game, I am very much considering an early release model (early access or something like it). This whole "make the game with people watching" thing is a pretty new phenomenon. There are aspects of it I really like. Most of all, I'd enjoy the extra connection with the community of gamers. In a dev scenario like that, absolutely - I'd be shouting the new features from the mountain tops as they were implemented. :P

[melkathi]

Though having to climb up and down the mountain every time there is an update would seriously cut into dev-time. Especially if it is a tall mountain and you need to reast for two days afterwards...

[Lord Farquaad]

Thanks JabberwockyX for the patch. But I can't find these lines your talking about in the options.cfg, do I need to add them at the very end of the cfg file in notepad? tia

[JabberwockyX]

short answer - yes.

long answer
options.cfg is meant to be changed by the player. Because of this, game updates won't overwrite this file.
For fresh installations, those lines will be there. For existing users, they'll have to add them manually, if you want to change the crosshairs.

[JabberwockyX]

Originally posted by melkathi:

Though having to climb up and down the mountain every time there is an update would seriously cut into dev-time. Especially if it is a tall mountain and you need to reast for two days afterwards...

I live in the prairies. We consider anything over a 3 foot bump a mountain.

[melkathi]

That is usefull. You can then make a custom mountain in your front yard for shouting purposes.

[Lord Farquaad]

"That is usefull. You can then make a custom mountain in your front yard for shouting purposes.", haha :D

"short answer - yes.", okie thanks. One thing though, can I add a line that the prevents the crosshair from dissapearing while targeting nothing? Now I can only see the crosshair when I target something, I would prefer to see it all the time.