Scrolling the Objectives screen

[grayman]

I have a suggestion for the Objectives screen.

 

The screen shows 5 Objectives at a time.

 

To show more, the screen allows scrolling.

 

Currently, hitting the scroll button once shifts the list up one. If there are 10 objectives (say) it takes 5 button hits to see the last one.

 

My suggestion is that hitting the button should shift the list up five, so you're paging, and not scrolling, through the Objectives.

 

Going back would behave the same.

 

This makes more sense to me. Oftentimes I find myself forgetting which button scrolls up and which down, and I end up wasting a bunch of time going back and forth through Objectives.

 

IMHO, with this change, a longer list of Objectives is easier to read.

 

Comments?

[New Horizon]

Sounds great to me.

[Obsttorte]

This sounds reasonable to me.

 

But even if some find it good and some not, you can make this changes for yourself. Although the specific gui file says that you should not fuzz around with it, doing so does no harm (I've already done so ).

 

In the end I guess the best solution would be to make the amount of objectives that gets scrolled a variable, ranging from 1-5, which can be adjusted in the settings menu, for example under gameplay.

 

What I also think it that it would be worth allowing to change the amount of objectives shown per page, or at least make this resolution dependent. I only have a small screen (reso = 1280x1024) but for people with larger screens, and there seem to be some, the size of the text there must be annoying.

 

I also think that the main problem here is the amount of objectives shown. If for example an objective gets shown once another one is completed, the completed one could also be hidden. A simple example: An objective tells you to find a specific knd of information, e.g. read a readable, and once you've done so you are able to use the information provided to do something else. In this case the objective number one, "find information XYZ", could also be hidden, to keep the amount of objectives shown low.

[gnartsch]

Total agreement !

Also, I would appreciate if the keyboard could be used for both briefing & objectives.

Just like when flipping through the pages of a book.

Edited October 1, 2013 by gnartsch

[grayman]

I've always used the scrolling keys to move backward and forward, mainly since they're also used to move through readables and inventory.

 

I just realized that using the mouse wheel also scrolls the Objectives screen, which is a much smoother way to use it than through keys.

 

I have no objection to leaving wheel scrolling as it is (one objective at a time), but I'd still prefer to see key scrolling do 5 at a time.

 

@Obs: While your suggestions make sense, scrolling isn't a feature I'd advocate changing per mission. It's rather core to the interface, and expecting a player to learn new scrolling behavior per mission is too much to ask. I don't know how hard it would be to tie the number of objectives to screen resolution, or if a large number of people are complaining about font size. I can understand hiding completed objectives, but we'd probably get into a "this camp likes to see the feedback of crossed-off objectives" vs "this camp only wants to see what's left to do" turf war.

[gnartsch]

I've always used the scrolling keys to move backward and forward, mainly since they're also used to move through readables and inventory.

Weird, scrolling through the briefing & objectives via keyboard doesn't work for me... and never did.

The keyboard works for books, though.

Is there some special config needed? Can't find anything in the UI.

[Obsttorte]

I can understand hiding completed objectives, but we'd probably get into a "this camp likes to see the feedback of cross-off objectives" vs "this camp only wants to see what's left to do" turf war.

What I'd meant was that mappers may have to consider doing this if the amount of objectives is quite high. I didn't meant this should be automized by the game.

[Obsttorte]

windowDef ObjectivesScrollDown
{
   rect        265,POS_OBJ1_START_Y+310,22,22
   background    "guis/assets/objectives/nextpage"
   visible        ("gui::ScrollDownVisible" == 1)

#ifdef OBJECTIVE_SCROLL_BUTTONS_SENSITIVE
   onAction
   {
       set "gui::NextObjectiveRequest" 1;

       set "cmd" "play sound/meta/menu/mnu_select";
       set "cmd" OBJECTIVE_SCROLL_DOWN_CMD ;
   }
   onMouseEnter
   {
       set "background" "guis/assets/objectives/nextpage_lit";
       set "cmd" "play sound/meta/menu/mnu_hover";
   }
   onMouseExit
   {
       set "background" "guis/assets/objectives/nextpage";
   }
#endif
}

windowDef ObjectivesScrollUp
{
   rect        295,POS_OBJ1_START_Y+308,22,22
   background    "guis/assets/objectives/prevpage"
   visible        ("gui::ScrollUpVisible" == 1)

#ifdef OBJECTIVE_SCROLL_BUTTONS_SENSITIVE
   onAction
   {
       set "gui::PrevObjectiveRequest" 1;

       set "cmd" "play sound/meta/menu/mnu_select";
       set "cmd" OBJECTIVE_SCROLL_UP_CMD ;
   }
   onMouseEnter
   {
       set "background" "guis/assets/objectives/prevpage_lit";
       set "cmd" "play sound/meta/menu/mnu_hover";
   }
   onMouseExit
   {
       set "background" "guis/assets/objectives/prevpage";
   }
#endif
}

// Event Hooks, responding to various game events
onNamedEvent prevWeapon
{
   // Set the flag, this is picked up by the update routine in the SDK
   set "gui::PrevObjectiveRequest" 1;
}

onNamedEvent nextWeapon
{
   // Set the flag, this is picked up by the update routine in the SDK
   set "gui::NextObjectiveRequest" 1;
}

onNamedEvent inventoryPrevGroup
{
   // Set the flag, this is picked up by the update routine in the SDK
   set "gui::PrevObjectiveRequest" 1;
}

onNamedEvent inventoryPrevItem
{
   // Set the flag, this is picked up by the update routine in the SDK
   set "gui::PrevObjectiveRequest" 1;
}

onNamedEvent inventoryNextGroup
{
   // Set the flag, this is picked up by the update routine in the SDK
   set "gui::NextObjectiveRequest" 1;
}

onNamedEvent inventoryNextItem
{
   // Set the flag, this is picked up by the update routine in the SDK
   set "gui::NextObjectiveRequest" 1;
}

This is the part of the gui, which handles the scrolling. As you can see, there are seperate parts for button scrolling, mouse-scrolling etc...

 

So at least it is possible to stick to the mousewheel = 1-objective-scroll; button = 5-objective-scroll philosophy.