General Discussion

[Jubal]

This is for discussing the game generally - playing tactics, what features you'd like to see, and so on. Feel free to splurge out and make your own threads too. 

[comrade_general]

THROW THERMAL POD!

[Jubal]

Thou wishes to THROW THERMAL POD? That thou canst not do! 

[Death on Wings]

I don't know if this is the place to put my initial reactions to the game (which is good overall, sorry if I sound very critical of it), but here goes:

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# Rather than:
name = input('What is thy name, stranger?')
# Putting in a space after the end of the sentence so that it leaves a gap after the question, making it look better:
name = input('What is thy name, stranger? ')
It's also fairly hard to work out the actions you can do. For example:

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elif actionfixed == 'GO DOOR' or actionfixed == 'LEAVE':
# this seems fairly obvious, except that when I was playing through the game I tried "go out door", "go to door" and "leave tavern",
# none of which worked despite seeming like the things to do... Similarly,
elif actionfixed == 'TALK MAN':
# perhaps might be better if it was changed to:
elif actionfixed == 'TALK MAN' or actionfixed == 'TALK TO MAN':
I understand it would take a while to go through this though, perhaps if you gave better instructions in the help section?

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print ('GO to... go places. I mean, duh.')
I understand the word to is in lower case, but it's not particularly clear still. Perhaps examples would help?

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elif actionfixed == 'GIVE BEGGAR FOOD':
# But not:
elif actionfixed == 'GIVE BEGGAR BREAD':Sorry for being nitpicky here, but... Perhaps a guide or something to tell players the commands that are likely to work in most situations, or something?
This would also have been useful when I wanted to re-equip my awesome sickle (being left wing, I automatically jumped on the opportunity to get one) when I'd bought a saw and found myself using that... Perhaps having somewhere to sell things as well?

Oh, and the gambler in Dorudor tavern is more likely to lose money than gain; the only reason I didn't end up with loads of money is my hand was getting tired. On average you gain a sorin every three games, so it's not much but enough. You could fix that by not giving back the stake if the player wins to make it even if you want.
On the subject of the cups minigame, the code looks a bit untidy.

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# rather than:
        n = 1
        while n == 1:
            k = input ('text')
            k2 = str.upper(k)
            if k2 == 'LEAVE' or input == 'QUIT' or input == 'EXIT':
                n = 0
                return 0
# Couldn't you use:
        while 1:
                k = input ('Text')
                k2 = str.upper(k)
                if k2 == 'LEAVE' or input == 'QUIT' or input == 'EXIT':
                        return 0
                        break
# Or am I being a noob?I'd also prefer to use random.randint rather than using non-integers then turning them into integers, but your method works I suppose.

[Jubal]

Yeah, I appreciate that lack of multiple commands was a big problem with the beta - I've made some fairly big improvements since, though a better help section is still needed and I've a big list of particular points like Xastor and the bread (though other food will do!) where I need an extra option or two. The go/go to issue I hadn't realised how confusing the help guide obviously is for, so thanks for that. 

The current version I've got has a CHANGE WEAPON command, but not sure that's in the beta. A DROP command is high on the implement list for those who get overzealous with their logging   

The gambler was de-implemented when I made the current UI and the game stopped being quite so structured around a massive set of loops, I need to redo all that code anyway.

Many thanks for the feedback, any and all is helpful and any more particularly confusing bits would be helpful to have flagged up/any ideas for additions would be useful to have - also welcome to the site, do make yourself at home etc! 

[comrade_general]

I couldn't figure out how to give my logs to the bridge repairman.

[Jubal]

What commands did you try?

[comrade_general]

I don't remember seeing anything in the help unless I read over it. That's another thing; when lots of text jumps up it is easy to lose one's place.

[Jubal]

GIVE LOG is the right command for that situation; there's not going to be a help for absolutely everything, for some you'll just have to work out the right command.

Do you have a suggested solution for the issue of lots of text jumping up? Have less text at once, or?

[comrade_general]

Can you have each line on a couple-second delay or something?

[Jubal]

That might be really annoying in some cases, like when you're starting a new game as an experienced player, though. :s

[comrade_general]

I mean for the really big blocks of text, and then for experienced players it should only do it at the very beginning since they shouldn't be hitting HELP later on.

[Jubal]

I'm just wondering if I can simply cut down on the size of the HELP text to begin with as AFAIK that's the only one that big.

[Tom]

If you could structure the commands so that they're more uniform maybe? Say for example you want to give someone something, just have give then the name of the equipment which could cut down your help section. In Nations, as far a I've come with it that is, I've tried to keep commands as simple as possible to make them more universal e.g. Leave, attack, cast etc
By making your commands more universal you could cut down on the help section, when I played AoS I struggled to work out the commands. :/ it is good fun to play though so keep up the good work

[Jubal]

Which commands aren't currently universal - and more to the point, which did you struggle with? If I know which specific ones are the problem I can just add more options to the parser, which is probably the best solution and very easy to do.