solved Feature idea: Able to disable difficulty selection and skip difficulty screen entirelly

[datiswous]

Currently mappers can't edit the objective screen gui.

1. But let's say you create a mission where you don't want any difference in difficulty, or set it in a different way, then I think you should be able to remove the 3 difficulty selections from the objective/dificulty screen.

(Edit: Not possible yet, but objectives could be set in mission briefing and then difficulty selection screen can be skipped, See below.)

2. Also, maybe you don't want to list the objectives on an objective screen before mission start. Maybe you want to have a mission briefing, start the mission and after that give the objectives somewhere during the mission. Or maybe you want players to select difficulty inside the mission in some way. In this case there's no need for the objectives screen and you might as well skip this screen.

(Edit: Already possible with #define ENABLE_MAINMENU_DIFF_SELECT 0 in mainmenu_custom_defs.gui )

 

Update 03-2025:

On 7/10/2023 at 11:33 PM, datiswous said:

Sotha's next/forward button briefing gui doesn't use those states. A lot of missions depend on that.

Sotha's next/forward button briefing gui got updated and now has an MM_STATE_FORWARD for the skip briefing (cross-button), so it should be possible to make the skip briefing button to skip the objectives screen and load the mission directly. I have not tested this.

Edited March 17, 2025 by datiswous

[stgatilov]

I think there is a define for difficulty selection screen in custom_defs which can disable the difficulty selection.

But to be honest, I don't know what would happen with difficulty-dependent things in this case...

 

[datiswous]

Oh ok, I looked for that, but couldn't find it.

[thebigh]

I can definitely see this being useful for campaigns. In that case the difficulty from the previous mission should carry over to the current one.

[datiswous]

15 hours ago, stgatilov said:

I think there is a define for difficulty selection screen in custom_defs which can disable the difficulty selection.

You're right, sorry I didn't notice. This skips the whole objectives/difficulty screen:

#define ENABLE_MAINMENU_DIFF_SELECT 0

I tested it on multiple missions though and it throws you back to the main menu. Is there something else mission outhors have to do to make it work propperly?

Edit:

Setting:

#define ENABLE_MAINMENU_BRIEFING 0

will load the mission, but currently it seems it's not possible to have a briefing and skip the difficulty screen. At least on some missions (For example Mandrasola, Who wathes the watcher, Thief's Den). Other missions (for example Accountant 1) load fine.

Edited July 7, 2023 by datiswous

[stgatilov]

On 7/7/2023 at 11:45 AM, datiswous said:

will load the mission, but currently it seems it's not possible to have a briefing and skip the difficulty screen. At least on some missions (For example Mandrasola, Who wathes the watcher, Thief's Den). Other missions (for example Accountant 1) load fine.

Perhaps you look at missions which explicitly specify MM_STATE_OBJECTIVES as the state to switch to in their customized GUI code. You cannot simultaneously disable a screen and switch to it

As a rule of thumb, only MM_STATE_FORWARD and MM_STATE_BACKWARD should be used to switch screens. This approach should play nicely with disabling states.

[chakkman]

On 7/7/2023 at 12:52 AM, thebigh said:

I can definitely see this being useful for campaigns. In that case the difficulty from the previous mission should carry over to the current one.

In the original Thief's, you could still choose the difficulty for every mission. It stuck to the difficulty you chose for the previous mission though.

Well, you probably know that anyway, just thought I'd mention it.  I like the difficulty choice. IMO, it gives the player a challenge and goal to aim for, especially when objectives are added on the higher difficulties. The only absolute no-go for me are no K.O. objectives. Those don't make the slightest sense.

Edited July 10, 2023 by chakkman

[datiswous]

3 hours ago, stgatilov said:

As a rule of thumb, only MM_STATE_FORWARD and MM_STATE_BACKWARD should be used to switch screens. This approach should play nicely with disabling states.

Sotha's next/forward button briefing gui doesn't use those states. A lot of missions depend on that. Thief's Den uses an old mainmenu_briefing.gui that doesn't use that state. I guess that makes it clear.

 

[datiswous]

1 hour ago, chakkman said:

I like the difficulty choice. IMO, it gives the player a challenge and goal to aim for, especially when objectives are added on the higher difficulties.

Well I can see a situation in which a mission can have a general mission objective, but then do the different difficulties in a different way. But I guess it's a corner case and you could put the objectives in the mission (text or video) briefing (where you have control over it's design) and then skip the objective screen.

[stgatilov]

21 hours ago, datiswous said:

Sotha's next/forward button briefing gui doesn't use those states. A lot of missions depend on that. Thief's Den uses an old mainmenu_briefing.gui that doesn't use that state. I guess that makes it clear.

Yes, these states were added during the big main menu refactoring.
At that point I supported skipping states because of well-known "how to skip GUI briefing after video?" issue (also Grayman asked to skip something like success screen).

Of course, dozens of old missions still target explicit state.
They do work as intended.
If you want to modify them to skip something, better fix their GUI to new conventions first.