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[Mike Mayday]

This is a quick idea for allowing a more coherent display even with ASCII- please consider making it possible to change the default background of a tile from the default black into whatever is the colour of the floor it's standing on- so for dolomite floor it will be bright gray, for obsidian floor- dark gray, for grass- bright or dark green, for mud- brown. Perhaps the background should be somewhat darker to make the tile "pop out" more.
I have a tileset with borders around the symbols making this look really nice and readable.

I'd really like to have this as an option in the game. Not only will it let me create a pretty good pseudo-graphics tileset for my friends who find the game intriguing but refuse to play due to the display, but it will also provide additional info about what's on the map.

[ November 24, 2007: Message edited by: Mike Mayday ]

[Align]

So instead of periods . marking floor type you'd have the square filled with the color?

[Dae]

Nope, he'd like to keep the periods "." "," and ";" BUT to change their background color from black to other, depending on what kind of tile it is.

I actually don't know how it'd look like. Not sure it'll be better than it is now.

[Fire Tempest]

like what I did to part of the screen here?  http://homepage.mac.com/arcangel_c/test.jpg
not sure if it would look that much better, but it would be a lot easier to tell what has been dug out. I should have kept the holes just black I guess, no need to color them.

[Bumber]

Bumber gestures!
The thread shudders and begins to move!

This would make the game much easier on the eyes. It's currently possible to have a translucent background using a png tileset, but these are always the same color as the tile, making everything somewhat difficult to read at a glance.

There might be some difficulty discerning walls (especially ores) from floors, so one of them would have to be rendered slightly darker or something.

[Robsoie]

Would be easy on the eyes too to have the rendering stuff using the tiles transparency when multiple objects are on top of each other instead of the constant switching between tiles that is happening.

That flickering has been toned down since the old days as it was even worse but it's still a pain to the eyes in some conditions still in current version (paved roads in fortress are horrible for this)

[Bumber]

Would be easy on the eyes too to have the rendering stuff using the tiles transparency when multiple objects are on top of each other instead of the constant switching between tiles that is happening.

That flickering has been toned down since the old days as it was even worse but it's still a pain to the eyes in some conditions still in current version (paved roads in fortress are horrible for this)

How would you even tell what you're looking at if they're all layered over each other?

[Robsoie]

If they're ordered correctly (like a transported item would be on top) there should be no problem,

By example that dwarf :


transporting his fish


that ingame has the render constantly switching between both tiles, could give something like this :



As other 2D presented games do to represent multiple sprites on the same location

[Bumber]

If they're ordered correctly (like a transported item would be on top) there should be no problem...

That's fine for 2, but what about 5+?

[Robsoie]

Some indicator on the tile (a symbol or a color in the background) to tell the player there's more than 2 items on that tile and then it's left to the player to check what's there with k or t, the same as you would do on a stockpile or on a container or a workshop/trade depot, or press v and i to check what are all the cloth/weapon/armor items a dwarf is wearing.

Do you really need dozens of tiles flickering on top of each other to tell you there's a dozen of items on top of each other ?
I don't think so, by the time they're all finished flickering you would have had been faster to simply press k and see what are those dozen of items.

[Dirst]

Some indicator on the tile (a symbol or a color in the background) to tell the player there's more than 2 items on that tile and then it's left to the player to check what's there with k or t, the same as you would do on a stockpile or on a container or a workshop/trade depot, or press v and i to check what are all the cloth/weapon/armor items a dwarf is wearing.

Do you really need dozens of tiles flickering on top of each other to tell you there's a dozen of items on top of each other ?
I don't think so, by the time they're all finished flickering you would have had been faster to simply press k and see what are those dozen of items.

A single icon for "a bunch of items" would suffice, especially if the list pops up naturally with 'k' or the mouse.  Said icon could even be superimposed on a creature when it is carrying stuff.  No need to indicate stuff that the creature has equipped.

[Robsoie]

Yeah, it would work too, anything that does not have this annoying constant tile switching would be great.

[Muddy Mudstone]

Do you really need dozens of tiles flickering on top of each other to tell you there's a dozen of items on top of each other ?
I don't think so, by the time they're all finished flickering you would have had been faster to simply press k and see what are those dozen of items.

True, but it's a cute effect on the trade depot when you see random pants and barrels and fish emerging and disappearing again amidst the huge pile of goods. Lots of "pile of things" symbols there would be a bit less amusing to look at. Also in that one particular situation, generic pile symbols that you have to interrogate individually would give you information less readily than a constant cycling through everything. Old style: "Did they bring any wood? Yes, I just saw some for a second there." New style: "I don't know, let me check the other 20 tiles."

[Dirst]

Do you really need dozens of tiles flickering on top of each other to tell you there's a dozen of items on top of each other ?
I don't think so, by the time they're all finished flickering you would have had been faster to simply press k and see what are those dozen of items.

True, but it's a cute effect on the trade depot when you see random pants and barrels and fish emerging and disappearing again amidst the huge pile of goods. Lots of "pile of things" symbols there would be a bit less amusing to look at. Also in that one particular situation, generic pile symbols that you have to interrogate individually would give you information less readily than a constant cycling through everything. Old style: "Did they bring any wood? Yes, I just saw some for a second there." New style: "I don't know, let me check the other 20 tiles."

Could be a toggle, like revealing engravings... which is an eyesore of a completely different kind.

[Putnam]

All that sorta requires the game to be able to display more than one thing at once on a tile.

Which, all in all, would be incredibly helpful.