My Unangband wish list (0.6.4a)

[VRBones]

- Room messages hide on next step. I miss most of them and need to look them up in the log. Some way to make them stay for a few more turns would be nice. (Maybe even until a new message pops up, or until the room is left.)

I'll typically set up a main window that covers about 75% of the screen, and then open up many side windows around the top and right-hand side of the play area. One of these windows shows the flavour text of rooms / corridors / things 'l'ooked at / etc. I think this setup would help you gain a bit more context, although I'm sure the game ought to be played fine with only one window (eg: through a terminal)

- Running in a dusty corridor ends up with a big pile of "The floor is thick with dust" messages that all pop up at once when running stops.

I have another window sitting directly above the message area that shows the previous 10 or so messages (more with scrollback). When repeat messages occur they come up as a "The floor is thick with dust (x13)" compactor that keeps the whole list more readable. Once again, though, the game should still be enjoyable without windows, and it would make sense from the protagonists perspective that they wouldn't need to keep being told that they are trudging through dust once you've made the decision to continue. Maybe additional text on cumulative milestones to keep the user informed but not harassed? x5 = "Still dusty ..." x10="*Cough*cough*" etc.

[Hajo]

These extra windows seem to be more important than I expected. I'm using a single window SDL based display frontend, so at the moment I can't open additional windows. I'll look into the SDL code if it's possible. Old memories from when I worked more with SDL say that at least the early SDL library versions were limited to one window. Maybe that changed meanwhile.

The compacted message format "The floors is thick with dust (x10)" looks very handy. I think I saw such in screenshots from MUDs, too. Might also work with combat messages like "The apprentice warrior hits you. (x2)" and reduce the number of "more" prompts.

[takkaria]

These extra windows seem to be more important than I expected. I'm using a single window SDL based display frontend, so at the moment I can't open additional windows. I'll look into the SDL code if it's possible. Old memories from when I worked more with SDL say that at least the early SDL library versions were limited to one window. Maybe that changed meanwhile.

The V SDL port just has its own 'fake' windows inside the one SDL window. It's pretty important functionality for a lot of players.

[Hajo]

Maybe I can borrow that functionality and port it to Iso-Unangband. It looks very useful.

[Adley]

Addin' a request : No The the when unique body parts are burnt, acidified and in general destroyed.

[Omnipact]

Maybe I can borrow that functionality and port it to Iso-Unangband. It looks very useful.

For some reason the SDL frontend is not with UnAngband, although you could probably drop it straight into UnAngband and it will work. (with some edits to main.c)

As for borrowing that functionality, most of the code in main-sdl.c is the gui and window handling code, probably only 20-30% of the code is angband-specific.

So it may be best to port Iso functionality into main-sdl.c.
Each 'window' has it's own sdl surface, making the process relatively simple.

[linlem]

For some reason the SDL frontend is not with UnAngband, although you could probably drop it straight into UnAngband and it will work. (with some edits to main.c)

I tried that -- it doesn't work. There are larger changes needed to integrate it properly.

[Omnipact]

I tried that -- it doesn't work. There are larger changes needed to integrate it properly.

There is a bit of hackish chicanery in main.c to get SDL to compile, admittedly, but as long as the z-term files are unchanged it shouldn't be that complicated.

I know I got it working with FAAngband easily enough, and I'm pretty sure I got Un to work as well. (2 or 3 years ago when I written it)

[Nick]

Here is an SDL enabled version of Un064. It did take a bit of hackery.

EDIT: I may not have used the most recent version, but copying over main.c, main.h, Makefile.std and main-sdl.c into a more recent version should work.