Re: [Adonthell-general] Re:Inventory/Items

[Kai Sterker]

On Wed, 29 May 2002 10:25:18 +0200 Nils Fohrbeck wrote:

> Now ssome comments on alchemy. I was also thinking about how to store
> the spells ect. In case of alchemy this is easy, the Alchemist's
> Cookbook is a good idea. All the recepies could be stored in there. We
> could even call it Inventor;s notebook and include recipes (Alchemy)
> and (construction) plans (mechanics) in it. As far as their usage is
> concerned we could just have a mortar (the mixing thing , not the
> weapon :-))as an usable item in the players inventory. Whenever used a
> dialogue window giving all the options as to which potions could be
> brewed comes up. That way a character can make potions on the road,
> but we do not have to make each recipe useable or define a new kind of
> book.

Hm. I thought of these books as a special part of the inventory, or
maybe something that is seperated from the inventory. It serves two
purposes

The first is the same for all races. It simply is a reference that
contains what runes/recipes/songs/spells the character knows, what they
do and require. So each of them is merely a page of the book. It would
contain an icon of the thing, a name and the description. (So each thing
could be a normal item, but displayed in a special way).

Apart from the reference character it would also be the interface to
runes/recipes/... . As you said, a human might need a mortar. Using that
mortar would simply bring up the book, where he can switch through the
pages and activate the thing he wishes to brew. But he could also open
the book directly and do some mechanics or potion if he has the proper
equipment.

For the song and spellbook it would work similar. Open the book and
'activate' a page to cast that spell. But a song or spell can also be
assigned to an action-button in the same way you'd assign a potion for
example. In that case, the icon of that spell or song would appear in
the top right corner of the screen, as cirrus described.

For a dwarf it is exactly the same. He can just open the book and
directly activate runes that only require a goldsmith set (in case he
has one with him). Using the goldsmith set, or the anvil would also
bring up the book and he could select a rune and 'activate' is to
enhance the equipped weapon.

The feats could be just another section of that book. They'd come with
an icon, name and description, requirements, etc. like any other item.
They'd be used like spells with the exception that they can only be
assigned to an action button.


Maybe we could extend that book to a general diary with more sections.
Automatical notes about quests and characters, a section with maps you
may find or buy, maybe a section that allows the user to enter his own
notes. Also some statistics about kills and such, and (why not?) the
character stats themselves. And the game options! And loading/saving and
...

Then we had covered a lot of different things with the same interface.
And I think that is what makes a good GUI design.

You could either directly jump to the different sections via hotkeys, or
open the table of contents and go to the proper section from there. (In
case of gamepad control). As I said above, using a mortar or anvil would
directly open the book at the proper section.


Kai