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[Sylverone]

Note-taking: It seems to me that many games that would benefit from it don't allow the player a way to make notes of important information that they may wish to remember, which means you must use Notepad or something (or a real notepad), requiring extra effort. Some roguelikes have a way to add a note to the log, and I think I know of at least one that will let you see a list of all the notes you've made (either DCSS or ToME, maybe). So, either add it to the log and have a way to call it up, or use a special window.

Location labels/markers: Locations the player considers significant can be displayed on the map (displayed and hidden via intel panel). Maybe also allow a short text input that could display upon mousing over the icon. This text could also be added to the log:

Code: [Select]

Location marker created.
Location marker created with text: "1,000 Pests - stay away!"
Unit labels:So, when a labeled unit comes into view, it will flash a special color or symbol or have a glow or scan effect around it for a moment. A slight glow or flashing icon could follow them as they moved around, so you could tell them out of a crowd. Text could be useful for this, too:

Code: [Select]

Identity memorized.
Identity memorized with text: "The hauler that took me legs!"This would reduce the need for players to manually check the ID of robots to find a specific one, if that feature is implemented. Possibly terminals could also create some labels, if this creates any good development ideas.

[E.I.G.]

*looks over to open Notepad++ file with personal notes, mostly good hack targets* Well so far my games have been short so anything that isn't meta-knowledge becomes outdated fairly quickly.

Terminal hacks actually cover a lot of the kinds of location info, stockpiles, current bot locations, ect. The map is also very dynamic for anything that wasn't there when you started, and there are mechanics for losing that info.

I probably wouldn't use it, but I have two computers in front of me and the one I play the game on is not the one I take notes on.

[Kyzrati]

Interesting ideas in here. I'd agree with E.I.G. in that these might not be beneficial enough to warrant the investment, though others can chip in with specific needs based on previous encounters/situations.

Other roguelikes that use annotations are those with persistent unchanging worlds in which you also might do a fair amount of backtracking. On the contrary, Cogmind has very little backtracking and the world is changing dynamically. This is why most intel markers obtained from Terminals are only useful for so long. Any notes would suffer the same problem.

Even tagging a certain robot would be of minimal use. Taking the Recycler tagging example, realize that after they collect parts they take them to be recycled, so the next time you see them (once they've gotten away the first time), it's likely they're not carrying what you wanted anymore. Other thoughts?

[Sylverone]

Other roguelikes that use annotations are those with persistent unchanging worlds in which you also might do a fair amount of backtracking. On the contrary, Cogmind has very little backtracking and the world is changing dynamically. This is why most intel markers obtained from Terminals are only useful for so long. Any notes would suffer the same problem.

Even tagging a certain robot would be of minimal use. Taking the Recycler tagging example, realize that after they collect parts they take them to be recycled, so the next time you see them (once they've gotten away the first time), it's likely they're not carrying what you wanted anymore. Other thoughts?

Fair enough. Since I'm new and I've been messing around with terminals, I've probably been spending way too much time on levels. I'm tending to think that camping will become less viable in the future?

Edit: Whoops, hit reply early. Anyway, on recyclers that's a good point also. I might have put that together... if I had.

I guess my only thought is something I'm sure you're already thinking about: How to tell a specific enemy out of a crowd at a glance? Motion trails will help with seeing where things are going, but I'm guessing those won't be much help in a big crowd. I noticed some others wanted this feature for either targeting or keeping track of a single hauler in a crowd. I made a comment in the relevant discussion, here:
http://www.gridsagegames.com/forums/index.php?topic=17.msg1027#msg1027

[Kyzrati]

Camping is pretty much a deathwish for much of the game, until perhaps you are really, really good. That practice happens to be somewhat sustainable in the first few floors to be easier on beginners, but once you hit the Factory the idea is to always keep pushing forward or the odds of losing to accelerating attrition start to rise.

Feel free to come up with note-related suggestions as you get better, though!

[Sylverone]

Edited my previous post before I saw yours.

Ah, okay. I'm glad you mentioned it as I was considering making a comment about making camping harder, based on my limited play and some reading of the forums. Maybe the early levels are *too* easy on the beginner, to the point of giving them the wrong idea and encouraging tedious play by, erm, "susceptible" people like myself? I actually kind of like the idea of having scouts (are there other patrols?) systematically check rooms along their patrol, just popping in maybe just to the first square inside the door and immediately leaving, enough to spot someone in most parts of the room - it would give us a reason to hide behind those big machines sometimes. Should I put this idea in a new thread?

Anyway, I'm going to hold off on making too many suggestions until I have more experience. I'll log them as I have them and weed them out as they are shown to be irrelevant. 

[Kyzrati]

Yeah, a number of ideas will become obsolete once you discover other features/behaviors in the game, which can take a little while. Plus there are the ideas I have planned and haven't added yet, but you guys don't know about those until they're brought up directly or indirectly by some discussion topic. I only have more "general" ideas listed on the roadmap, but there are various other elements that fit in between it all.

I'm glad you mentioned it as I was considering making a comment about making camping harder, based on my limited play and some reading of the forums. Maybe the early levels are *too* easy on the beginner, to the point of giving them the wrong idea and encouraging tedious play by, erm, "susceptible" people like myself?

Probably the main problem with the early game in Alpha 1 that promotes tedium is that I forgot to restrict the ability to hack schematics and analysis records. I honestly thought the harder ones would be impossible to hack towards the beginning based purely on difficulty, but I didn't test that theory and apparently they're not. That system will be getting an overhaul, but other than that I don't otherwise see much of anything that promotes tedium.

My design philosophy is to remove tedium altogether wherever it exists, because a number of players will naturally choose that route to achieve optimal results, and which I agree is pretty unethical.

I actually kind of like the idea of having scouts (are there other patrols?) systematically check rooms along their patrol, just popping in maybe just to the first square inside the door and immediately leaving, enough to spot someone in most parts of the room - it would give us a reason to hide behind those big machines sometimes. Should I put this idea in a new thread?

Sure, though some players might hate you for it =p. It's kinda nice to know there's always a chance that passing scouts won't check a room you're in.

[ironpotato]

Notes are the reason I play on linux! Multiple workspaces. It's nice to just ctrl+alt+left arrow key, jot down a note in a different workspace and ctrl+alt+left arrow to get back to playing.

Anywho, I'm just saying I wouldn't really use in game notes. Things change way too fast for that to even matter generally.