Real-time inventory/map/dialogue

[Tes96]

Will OpenMW allow for the feature of no game-pause during inventory, journal, book-reading, map or dialogue? One thing I like since I started playing TES Online is that time continues to go and the world still continues despite what you're doing. I don't like that you can't pause, and thankfully we can still pause Morrowind by hitting the ESC key or the console key.

This should be something that is optional, of course. A lot of times in battle, playing a pure mage, I take a while to choose what spell to use next. Real time gaming would make that so much more difficult. And while I would love that, a lot of players might not.

[Mistahtokyo]

This would be a great post 1.0 option imo, though chances are it'll be mod-added. The menus work like that in Dark souls 1&2 and it forces you to be aware of what's going on around you while you search for health potions to chug, etc.

[Tes96]

This would be a great post 1.0 option imo, though chances are it'll be mod-added. The menus work like that in Dark souls 1&2 and it forces you to be aware of what's going on around you while you search for health potions to chug, etc.

Sounds like something I would very much enjoy. Thanks.

[Tes96]

Something else that I noticed that is annoying is the limitation of text in the dialogue box. You know how in some large conversations you have to use the "Continue" choice in order to see what else the NPC has to say? Will OpenMW allow for unlimited text (or at least a very very long line of text) in a single conversation so that we don't have to use that "Continue" choice any more.... for future mods, any ways. The vanilla dialogue that has "Continue" will remain as is unless someone changes it.

[Chris]

Will OpenMW allow for unlimited text (or at least a very very long line of text) in a single conversation so that we don't have to use that "Continue" choice any more.... for future mods, any ways. The vanilla dialogue that has "Continue" will remain as is unless someone changes it.

Honestly, I think if the text is long enough that you're using "Continue" to break it up, it's a bit too long IMO. It's turning into an info dump and interrupting the gameplay. Instead, you should think about providing actual dialog responses for the player to pick, to keep them involved and making choices (even if they're mostly superfluous options).

[Sslaxx]

Ever played Skyrim? Ever had a dragon or vampire attack in the middle of talking to someone? Had them be killed in mid-conversation? It's annoying.

[raevol]

Ever played Skyrim? Ever had a dragon or vampire attack in the middle of talking to someone? Had them be killed in mid-conversation? It's annoying.

+1.

[Tes96]

So OpenMW is still going to keep the limit on how much text can be entered?

[Chris]

Ever played Skyrim? Ever had a dragon or vampire attack in the middle of talking to someone? Had them be killed in mid-conversation? It's annoying.

For me, it's only annoying because you'll miss out on what they say. You break form dialog, and the game then registers that you've already talked about whatever you were talking about at the time, and often they won't say the same thing again. That, and NPCs should be smarter about automatically breaking from dialog when you're hit (and not forcing dialog when you're under attack). Other than that, I like that dialog doesn't pull you out of time and put you in a protective bubble.

So OpenMW is still going to keep the limit on how much text can be entered?

I don't see any reason to have an artificial limitation. I'm just talking more from a design perspective, that (IMO) you shouldn't have long clumps of dialog without keeping the player involved in some capacity. Not only is it not fun, it makes the dialog come across as unnatural.

[Zini]

I don't see any reason to have an artificial limitation. I'm just talking more from a design perspective, that (IMO) you shouldn't have long clumps of dialog without keeping the player involved in some capacity. Not only is it not fun, it makes the dialog come across as unnatural.

I agree on that. The defining aspect of a game is its interactivity. If you make it a habit to interrupt this interactivity excessively (be that though lots of overly long text or massive use of cutscenes) this will result in a weaker gamer. That is a lesson that apparently many game developers of today have forgotten or never learned.

However that is only my personal opinion on game design (and that of some other people too, apparently). We are not in the business of forcing our ideas about good game design on people. If someone wants to use overlong text in a mod or a TC running under OpenCS, then they are free to do so.

As far as I can see the arbitrary response text limit never made it into OpenMW (or OpenCS) in the first place. But we can't try it yet, because the code for saving info records from OpenCS hasn't been written yet.