Monster list window -- Improvement suggestions

[Evilpotatoe]

Trying Vanilla again was for me the occasion to discover the "monster list" window, and I must say it's GREAT

yet, I think it could be even greater, at really little cost. Got two ideas :

1. Reading through sleeping 30 monsters to find the vortex and the 3 hounds is really painful when scouting vaults (especially if you try to do it every few turns)
   Would you mind adding a flag, color, or other easy mean of distinguishing awaken monsters ? (displaying uniques as purple is an excellent example).
   Putting "(asleep)" before the monster's name, or aligning it to the right would probably be enough
   
   
   
2. Also, what about colouring (or flagging) dangerous monsters ?
   Well, "many can be", for sure (and big OOD are already), but the kind I speak of is those one-attack killers, with mana storm/bolt, or breath.
   
   The concept is simple :
   For every listed monster, take the highest known nuke-possible-damage after resistances are applied (typically mana attacks or breath. Maybe wounds or balls too -- I doubt I'd care to consider bolts or arrows). The method might even already exist
   If this kills a full HP @, flag the monster as *DANGEROUS*
   
   Numerous variations could be imagined, like also flagging as *dangerous* monsters having attacks with "significant" damages (40% ? HP warning treshold ?), or using current HP instead of max HP for the measure.
   
   The display can be either via colouring, CAPITALS, flag(s)...
   I think 2 or 3 chars for flags on the left of list wouldn't hurt, for statuses like "asleep" & "speed" (this space might even be shared to display hold / confused / slowed, if relevant).

Going (too much) further, another option could even be a "monster dangers" display (new window content).
Depth, max single attack damages, speed, and nasty things, like a list of dangerous [unresisted] elements and stat drains.
(one row per thing, one line per monsters, ordered identically as MonList).

Well, I'm not expecting that much, of course, but I do think making monsters list more readable would be a big UX improvement, and help noobies like me a lot when trying to spot actual dangers among the mass.

or even venerable players, providing they quaffed too much !oAmnesia


----
Btw, if I should have posted that in Dev or elsewhere instead, don't be afraid to move my Thread.

[Ingwe Ingweron]

The list already does a great job, I think.

1. It separates out "you can see" (meaning in-line of sight) from "you are aware". That is far more valuable information than awake/asleep. The awake/asleep information is still there, but I don't think it should go before the monster's name or be prioritized above the line-of sight distinction.

2. Monsters are already ordered in the game's determination of "danger", within their line-of-sight and aware categories.

3. The latitude / longitude is given, except for group monsters, in which case the mechanic would be unwieldy. (The lat/long for monsters was my idea, by the way. )

[Evilpotatoe]

@Ingwe
Thats a cool idea you got here, indeed.
I first wondered if this lat/long of monsters was designed for people using screen readers or for everyone.
I'm not using it much (used to shift M), but fully agree it's worth the space it takes.

Not finding something when you're looking for can be soooooooo annoying !


About groups, I was actually a bit disappointed it doesn't show.
I think something could be added to that too, like giving "↑↓→←" clues, if all monsters of the group share some relative position. (or another rough but useful info, like "NNW")

[Ingwe Ingweron]

About groups, I was actually a bit disappointed it doesn't show. I think something could be added to that too, like giving "↑↓→←" clues, if all monsters of the group share some relative position. (or another rough but useful info, like "NNW")

Considering lat/long wasn't even there before, I'll take what I can get. To be fair, trying to code for multiple monsters of the same type would be horrific. They might be a group, they be just multiples, they might be a mix of both scattered individuals and groups. And once they start moving... Even if it were coded, the processing time would slow the game. Definitely not going to ask Nick for anything like that.

[Evilpotatoe]

Yeah, I more or less thought the same about the work it could represent.
Looks like "just a few loops" at first glance, but I'm not that sure.

And while computers have ridiculously high processing capacities by our days, having to reprocess it every turn might indeed have impacts.

But I think many other cool improvements could be quick easy to implement. (My main focus is generally UI/UX.)


Making the "sleeping" status more readable is one example, but I just came back here after wondering :


Is the items list sorted in any way ?

Looks like both unaware items and high-value ones are NOT shown on top.
Of course, this means I'm aware of this stupid +0/+0 crossbow, but may forget about that axe of westernesse. (or unknown rod).


In my personal use, the biggest benefit I see for this list currently, is not forgetting about unaware stuff.