labeling items

[bobthecowboy]

So I'm playing through Serpent Isle, and by the time I've got to Moonshade, I've got a couple dozen keys. Aside from that I have the normal bunch of unique items.

Anyway, my point is wouldn't it be nice to be able to label items? "Columba's Brush Key", "Filbercio's Sex Hut Cave", etc? How possible is this in Exult? I know there's a keyring or something eventually (maybe thats silver seed?), but I still think it'd be a nice feature...

Bill

[drcode]

Seems like a good idea. Not sure how hard it would be, yet.

[wjp]

Shouldn't be too hard if we do it while redesigning the save format anyway

Any ideas on how exactly you would attach a label to an item in the game interface?

[painful]

Put the labelled information either inplace of or behind the existing mouse click information that you get when you click a key and it says 'key'. If there's a saved label, let it show up, if there isn't let the normal information show up. Best way to get a label set to an item, would be once you pick it up, and physically place it in your inventory, it gives you a prompt to put information in. That way you can't go around labelling items in towns, just the ones in your bag.

[drcode]

Maybe this feature could be part of a journal. You drop an object onto the journal to see or edit your description of it.

[painful]

That'd be a handy feature. Could get really indepth even though it'd be a lot of work, and make a section in the journal, each time you pick something up, it adds a new item entry to that section and you can go back to edit it whenever you want.

[artaxerxes]

or it could be hardcoded in Exult, like the rest of special objects are. So when you used the key for the time on the right lock, a sorta 'met' flag is triggered so it gives the description, like 'Columna's chest' instead of 'key'. That might even be the easiest solution.

Artaxerxes

[Daemongar]

Might be nice if you did what Origin did in U8 - the patch put a keyring in (memory failing...) the first barrel or in the top area of Mordea's castle for key management. You can only get a keyring from the commander in the SS.

Wouldn't be bad to label the keys, but I would guess more people would just want less clutter and giving the player a keyring quicker (maybe add it to the Avatar's inventory at the start or have Thoxa give it to him/her) might make things less clumsy.

I always wish I have a keyring when I do the Knights Test, and how would you label those, I wonder...

[The Viking]

Not to mention:

Putting a keyring in the chest of supplies for the Avatar at Lord British's Castle

[artaxerxes]

Patrick McGinley wrote:
> I always wish I have a keyring when I do the Knights Test,
> and how would you label those, I wonder...

Isn't Alt-K doing the job for you?

Artaxerxes

[Daemongar]

Artaxerxes - ALT + K is great - I couldn't play without it! But there are non-mechanical reasons I prefer the keyring. I don't like all the clutter, the first couple of keys you have to juggle in your off hand until you get the bag (In the knights test, and not a lot mind you) By the time I fight the wolf, I usually have about, hmmm, 10 or so keys in my bag.

I think the keyring earlier would enhance playability, and I suppose I could just hack one in, but if it enhances the game without causing unbalance in playablity, I feel there is no need to make a player wait for it. I have in the past rushed to the Serpent Gate to get to the Silver Seed, but then I have to wait a week or finish it to return to Serpent Isle.

I'd feel the same way if there was a potion belt, a la Diablo/U9 that would be nice too. Or maybe If potions stacked? Or serpent Venom. Or scrolls just added text to a book, and were stacked that way. Just my nature, I guess.

VIKING - That would be fantastic - I don't even remember if there was a Keyring in U7. As a plot device, they could also have Sentri (or was is Shamino) say "Hey, Here is your watch, you left it next to your keyring here..." and give it to the player that way.

[The Viking]

To my knowledge, there never was a keyring in Black Gate. At least I never found it, and none of the walkthroughts I've seen have any mention of it.

[painful]

There isn't one in BG. All you have to do to find out is go through the item list in Exult Studio to find that out.

How easy would it be to move items from SI to BG? Like, how much usecode would it encompass, and how hard would it be to get it all working?

[Dominus]

I still think of adding a keyring to BG in the future, but not just by having it handed to you right away. That would be too easy. No, it should be added through the SF-Island patch or a similar quest.
But for this to work all the work planned by Dr.Code in enhancing the savegame format must be done and a way to actually make a keyring work in BG.

But apart from that the keyring is not the solution for the labeling.

[drcode]

You know, allowing > 1024 shapes for 'moveable' objects would be fairly easy. These are the ones stores in the IREGxx files. It's the landscape and buildings that would be harder.

[cyberfugue]

In Black Gate, there is no keyring - but there is a skeleton key in one of the abandoned houses on an island, that will act as an infinite & unbreakable lockpick.

[lanzzz]

how hard would it be to hack the pre-existing quills in the game to be usable, and using them on any object would allow labeling it? it seems nice and natural arrangement to me.