Feature Requests for Rogue Touch

[CommanderData]

OK, I've been a bit derelict in my duty to respond to the feature requests thread!

RE: Message display history- I agree that it would be nice to go back and see something you missed. Right now once the text is drawn into the scrolling area, it becomes part of the image and the original text is discarded. Maybe there is a way I can continue this idea and still allow you to see the previous 5 or 10 messages if that sounds like enough? I'd imagine some of you might like to see the entire history, but I have to be realistic if I want to make this function within the original design

You can presently tap in that message and icon area for upwards movements in the normal touch mode of play. We'd probably want a way to distinguish the message request. Maybe a two finger tap/hold or "pull down" gesture with the two fingers would then bring up the full display of the last 5-10 messages?


RE: Difficulty in determining motion in large rooms or straight hallways- I absolutely agree this is a problem, I tend to watch the mini-map when running in a big hallway to see the forward progress! Adding a slightly different floor tile in a checkerboard pattern would probably do *a lot* to fix that, so kudos to corhen for the idea on that one!


RE: Exiting to the title screen. I've been thinking that maybe this could be accomplished with that same "etch-a-sketch" type shake of the accelerometer. There is a downside to this, and it could be big. Enabling and watching the accelerometer is costly on battery life! If we did that it could make your play time shorter, and I don't know if that's a fair trade. Right now we're pretty efficient on battery usage. Maybe another way, using a gesture or something?


Some other tidbits- I think all the monster stats will probably go into the FAQ/Strategy guide text, that way people who want it can have it, but it won't be immediately visible in spoilerific form for those that don't want the info! Having access to all of the current and future web pages of data in the info link at the title screen is definitely possible. If you want regular access to it in-game it might get a bit hairy due to the memory usage of the webview screens (which is why force-quitting Safari or rebooting is recommended from time to time)!


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This thread is getting pretty out of hand in number of posts so I agree it's tough for everyone, including me, to be sure that something was not missed here. Jhawk suggested, and if enough people agree I may archive and retire this thread upon the next release and then we can have a new request thread started.

Let me know what you think!

[Shumby]

I dug around through this thread to try and not be repetitive. It looks like some of these suggestions have already been made but I don't mind parroting...

- return to title function ... maybe in the inventory screen?
- different sprites for the secret characters
- maybe a selection of sprites to choose from when you just pick the default character. .... maybe you could earn new sprites by completing the game x amount of times? I personally love games where I can grind to earn goodies like that.
- more sounds! (clang clang! squish! arrgg!!!)

That's all I've got for now. I'll try to join in more of the conversations than just blabbering my useless opinions as I walk in the door.

[Mooch]

That sounds really good CD but I still have one question. What is with those skeletons? Ty for any help:)

[LordGek]

I dug around through this thread to try and not be repetitive. It looks like some of these suggestions have already been made but I don't mind parroting...

- return to title function ... maybe in the inventory screen?
- different sprites for the secret characters
- maybe a selection of sprites to choose from when you just pick the default character. .... maybe you could earn new sprites by completing the game x amount of times? I personally love games where I can grind to earn goodies like that.
- more sounds! (clang clang! squish! arrgg!!!)

That's all I've got for now. I'll try to join in more of the conversations than just blabbering my useless opinions as I walk in the door.

I too would really like some sounds and you could keep it pretty simple at first.

-Generic Trap Springing SFX.
-Generic Melee Weapon Hit SFX.
-Generic Melee Weapon Miss SFX.
-Generic Ranged Weapon Hit SFX.
-Generic Ranged Weapon Miss SFX.
-Generic Wand Firing SFX.

The beasty stuff might be a bit more involved but I'll bet you can break them down to a few basic animal growls, bird calls, slither sounds, and some bubbling for slime.

All of these combat sounds would kick in only at the point of attack, no sound effects for moving about at first.

Also if you want to get really cheesy, as was done way back as a mod for the Amiga Nethack, you can have these sounds triggered by text phrases, so, for example, when the text, "The Snake hits" is generated it cues the slither sound effect.

[CommanderData]

I dug around through this thread to try and not be repetitive. It looks like some of these suggestions have already been made but I don't mind parroting...

- return to title function ... maybe in the inventory screen?
- different sprites for the secret characters
- maybe a selection of sprites to choose from when you just pick the default character. .... maybe you could earn new sprites by completing the game x amount of times? I personally love games where I can grind to earn goodies like that.
- more sounds! (clang clang! squish! arrgg!!!)

That's all I've got for now. I'll try to join in more of the conversations than just blabbering my useless opinions as I walk in the door.

The return to title screen will be an ongoing discussion I think. I'm starting to lean towards a "gesture", like drawing an "X" on the screen, as that would preserve our good battery life (unless I can prove the accelerometer does not zap too much juice, I have heard that it can drain you about 20-25% faster than normal just by using it). I would need to work on gesture recognition a bit though

Unique sprites for all secrets: 1.5 definitely paved the way forward, as we created the female avatar and the code to swap in other images. Now we just need to define what they all will be, and perhaps get some artistic assistance in creating them.

I like the "unlockable" sprites for normal players idea too. That needs some serious consideration!!

Simple combat sounds would be pretty cool. If we added sounds I think we need at the minimum:
1) Melee hit (thud of some sort)
2) Melee miss (swoosh?)
3) Arrow/Projectile swish through the air
4) Magic staff zap
5) Potion glass shattering
6) ???
7) Profit!

(Edit- I see LordGek has made a list too while I was composing! Consider both of them!)

Once you get into monster noises things get complicated because you'd really need different noises for each one. A dragon isn't going to grunt like an orc, a bat is not going to screech like a kestral, etc... Once you add in that many sound effects the file size starts to bloat enough that we might exceed 10MB. This taboo line crossing means you can't update over EDGE or 3G anymore, and would need WiFi or iTunes to grab update (or buy a copy)!

Good starter thoughts though, and welcome to the forums!

That sounds really good CD but I still have one question. What is with those skeletons? Ty for any help:)

Hi Mooch! The skeletons are re-animated bodies of your former game's character

When you die (I had to resist the temptation to say "If you die" because we all know it happens regularly) a corpse is placed in the game for you to find on your next playthrough. When you find it, you might be able to walk over the bones and simply collect one of your items you were carrying in the last game. OR, it could jump up and attack you!

Watch out if you do get attacked, as they are based on the power of your previous character with a bit of extra juice thrown in! They can be killed though, and if you do kill one it will drop a LOT of goodies from your previous game. I killed myself ( ) in a game and got about 7 new items that dropped when the skeleton bit the dust!

[Shumby]

I like the "unlockable" sprites for normal players idea too. That needs some serious consideration!!

Thanks! I'm happy to help with the sprites. Could you post the original two avatars so I can work from there? Maybe use another sticky for the community to post into?

Simple combat sounds would be pretty cool. If we added sounds I think we need at the minimum:
1) Melee hit (thud of some sort)
2) Melee miss (swoosh?)
3) Arrow/Projectile swish through the air
4) Magic staff zap
5) Potion glass shattering
6) ???
7) Profit!

Dead on exactly what I was thinking... oh! instead of #6... what about a "huwh!" sound when you search? What game had that? Wolfenstein? Doom?

Watch out if you do get attacked, as they are based on the power of your previous character with a bit of extra juice thrown in! They can be killed though, and if you do kill one it will drop a LOT of goodies from your previous game. I killed myself ( ) in a game and got about 7 new items that dropped when the skeleton bit the dust!

Oh brutal! I didn't know that! Good idea!

[Mooch]

Thankyou for the response CD that's a great addition into rogue but sadly I can never kill myself lol I'll get it one of these days. Thanks again

[LordGek]

I love how it is such a fiendish way to balance things with folk playing with a lot of Secret Characters since, even if you then try to play legitimate, you'll have some pretty nasty ghosts waiting for you.

[Mooch]

I agree completely it is a pretty fair system lol

[gregban]

How about a new screen after you die (after the killed by *** screen) that identifies all your items? I miss this from the "old" nethack/rogue clones since I usually have more items that I did NOT identify and wished I used. Just to make me feel better about losing.