Question at devs/testers: Active and inactive skills in 2.2

Discussion in 'General' started by Metalhead, Oct 20, 2008.

  1. Metalhead

    Metalhead Member

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    In 2.1 you can change your skills everywhere on the battlefield, but they are only applied if you respawn or if you change them inside a barracks or armory. I remember that it took me quite a while until I figured that out and it's a bit confusing for new players.
    Did something change in the GUI of 2.2 so that you can see that the newly selected skills aren't active yet? I was thinking about solutions for this, but I don't want to waste my time if the problem is already solved.

    So, what is the current status?
     
  2. Deiform

    Deiform Member

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    Unchanged unless the devs are secretly working on it, but it hasn't been mentioned.
     
  3. ScardyBob

    ScardyBob Member

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    This was kind of frustrating, but I have no good ideas on how to improve it.
     
  4. Jephir

    Jephir ALL GLORY TO THE JEPHIR

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    Only allow skill changing at valid locations.
     
  5. Kylegar

    Kylegar Specstax Rule

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    You can only change skills when you update your class, either by respawning, or by going to a barracks or armory.
     
  6. Kamber

    Kamber Member

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    I think having the skills grayed out when not in a barracks, armory or flag would solve this problem but its up to the devs to decide whether it needs fixing or not.
     
  7. dizzyone

    dizzyone I've been drinking, heavily

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    If you check the dev blog sticky, you will notice that the new HUD shows your skills. New HUD is still being worked on and is not featured in 2.2.
     
  8. manbeef

    manbeef Member

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    This drove me nuts when I first started playing. I could never upgrade my turrets or revive people, and I didn't know why.

    I think it would help if when you changed skill not in a spawn, the skill would become greyed-out with "AVAILABLE AT NEXT RESPAWN" or something stamped on it. Perhaps a little blurb would appear below the skills to mention you can change at a flag/rax as well.

    This also isn't mentioned in the wiki, so people yelling RTFM at you when you ask for help doesn't really do a lot for you.
     
  9. BumGravy

    BumGravy Member

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    Or amessage that pops up when you hit "accept" saying changes will only take effect the next time you respawn.
     
  10. McGyver

    McGyver Experimental Pedagogue

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    Just put this sentence into the skill select menu.
     
  11. Empty

    Empty Member

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    It's in the manual.
     
  12. manhunt0r

    manhunt0r Member

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    yea, we all know that everyone reads the manual first when they dl a mod.
    srsly just add a single fucking line to the selection menu and close this thread.
     
  13. -Mayama-

    -Mayama- MANLY MAN BITCH

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    OMG hes alive D:
     
  14. manhunt0r

    manhunt0r Member

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    never was to far away, just didnt see a point in logging in and posting since there werent even any threads with the need for gigantic swastikas made of win
     
  15. Metalhead

    Metalhead Member

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    I think the problem is that most people won't even read this. It should really be made more intuitive.

    I've thought about greying out the skill too, but you would not see your current skill anymore and that isn't the perfect solution. Having two icons in one (don't know how exactly) could solve it... but maybe it would just look more confusing than helpful.
    I can't do anything at the moment if I don't know exactly how the new UI currently looks.
     
  16. manhunt0r

    manhunt0r Member

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    graying out or painting a lock on the skills are solutions but since someone might squeal about coding i just went with easiest way to do things, and if you cant read that fucking much on the screen you are directly interacting with you should just take some 9mm aspirin
     
  17. Solokiller

    Solokiller Member

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    Or we could just have a hint pop up when you first try to choose skills. We could just as well add them to most of the menus, but that's for another release, it's too much work to add in now.
     
  18. manhunt0r

    manhunt0r Member

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    uhm just to be sure, did you just say it is to much work to add a line of text, or were you referring to your popup idea?

    point is make a good improvement with almost no code involved and i do not think it can get any more efficient than kylegars text.

    for all i care you can make a shitload of popups in later versions but relative to this case that would be polishing and it would take a retard to put a small but working feature on ice because it will be available later on in a cuter version.
     
  19. Metalhead

    Metalhead Member

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    Popups are the source of EVIL!!
    Seriously, what I mean is that popups delay the game and they should not be used if there are other ways to do it. We should find a way that does not need any text to make clear how it works. Sure, we maybe need a text that describes where the skills can be changed, but the user interface should make it clearly visible if they are inactive and we should not need a text for showing this.
     
  20. Empty

    Empty Member

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    Uh, I can't think of anything more simple than a small piece of text saying 'You must refit your class at a barracks before new skills take effect'.

    You don't need to dumb everything down, surprising as it seems, people are generally literate in PC games.
     

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