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[Petit Batman]

Hi there


Just discovered Cogmind a few days ago, and so far loving pretty much all about it.
The art style is just amazing (so is the UI !), and the gameplay is really refreshing the genre good job dev.


Still, I have to say that reading in this game is a real torture to me ..

I tried on two different configurations, a 32" 1920*1080 TV (max font 18) and a 15" 1366*768 (max font 12).
- On the small laptop (which I'm very used too for using it all day at work) I just can't play at all (I have to put ma face way too close to the screen it is ridiculous).
- On my TV I'm able to read (and to play) at approximatively 80cm from the screen. It is doable, but no more than half an hour..


So here is my concern :

- Can't we imagine an option allowing us to reduce map height below 50 ?
I understand that scanner have a 25 range, but I would rather prefer having to move the map in order to see further than not being able to see anything !
- Keeping the map size this time, can't we just increase the text in the green windows ? There is plenty of space I don't understand why everything has to be so small.



Thanks by advance, hoping the best for my poor eyes  !

[Kyzrati]

There is definitely a portion of players in your situation, and it's been discussed on the forums and many times on Reddit. The only way to enable the larger font sizes (which currently go up to size 36) is to have a physically larger screen.

I have to say that a true fix for this will turn out to be a massive, massive issue, like an entire month or more of work for this one feature alone, and the result would be a worse game :/. I'll be writing a blog post that examines the problems in more detail.

UI width isn't the problem, as the game was designed for a 4:3 ratio and most screens are now 16:9, so the limiting factor is height. This

- Keeping the map size this time, can't we just increase the text in the green windows ? There is plenty of space I don't understand why everything has to be so small.

is impossible without reduction of information. It only appears that there's plenty of space because you've just started out. Once you can reach later areas of the game, you can fill every row in the main HUD with information. And assuming we can reduce the height of the HUD (which turns out to be the easiest part!), there are other more serious issues: Several of the UI windows no longer fit the screen and need a redesign. The help/commands screen and most all of the game menu windows won't fit--the status window, the various data windows...

(The map of course would have to get smaller, too, and as you've already realized some scanners can reach out to a range of 25, but that is less of a sacrifice.)

So there really is no space to work with. When you design an interface that requires dividing the screen vertically into 60 rows, everything is based on that foundation. We can have larger fonts (and do!), but no matter what your screen height will be divided by 60 in order to show the results. Any less and you start to lose rows.

To be honest, this issue is one of my top priorities, but it's such a massive deal that I'm not yet sure it can happen. The coming blog post will explain all this in more detail.

Thanks for your concern, and sorry about this!

[Petit Batman]

Aïe ok, I guess I will have to hurt myself a little then..
And what about a scroll in the right side ?

Thanks for the quick (and exhaustive) response anyway, and most of all thanks for this terrific game :* !

[Kyzrati]

Sorry for being so exhaustive; for now I'm using this post as one of the more lengthy answers to this kind of question (today there was yet another mention of this same issue in addition to your own!) until I can get to the next blog post, which I believe will be covering this topic.

If at all feasible I really want to find a solution to this, just too bad it can't come quickly (if at all, but there is still much investigation to do before confirming that!).

And what about a scroll in the right side ?

What specifically is this referring to? Do you mean as a suggestion to reduce the height of the HUD? I wouldn't want to use scrolling as a solution, but again that's not too big a problem since I have a better way to shrink the HUD. The problem is all the other temporary windows that cannot be shrinked without a complete redesign.

[Petit Batman]

Don't apologize for being exhaustive !
That's the kind of answer that make you feel listened it's very much appreciable

I was considering using scrolling as a solution yes (sorry my english isn't that good), but I agree there must be a better solution.

That being said, and in order to clarify my post a little, I also want to point out the fact that I prefer knowing you working on the game itself rather than on this problem (at least for now).

I mean fontsize really bothers me, but I don't wan't this issue to stop you developing THE new roguelike !

[Kyzrati]

Heh, thanks

It's an important long-term issue, for sure. I wish I could just snap my fingers and have a UI that works better on smaller screens, or fix it up in a week, but addressing this, whenever it does happen, will require quite a lot of time. I originally thought/hoped it could be a quicker project, but on closer inspection some time ago I realized it's much much bigger than that.

We'll see how it turns out. Hopefully something feasible can be done! Stay tuned for the blog post that discusses this issue. It'll probably be the next one.

[Kyzrati]

I've just posted an analysis of this issue on the blog, along with a proposal for what might be done about it. Input appreciated. (There's also a forum thread for discussing this post here--continue any discussion over there, as this thread will be locked.)