[P] Unskippable Text on First Viewing

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Pickle Moe
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[P] Unskippable Text on First Viewing

Post by Pickle Moe »

At the moment, AAO allows users to click the ">" button on the second screen while a character is talking in order to display all the text at once instantaneously instead of having to wait for it to display normally.

This results in the act of using the pause effect not really being all that viable since I've had moments where the people playing my game instinctively click the button before the text has finished displaying. It can also be a bit annoying to structure the pacing of a set of frames around a big reveal alongside the music only to realize that the moment got sullied due to someone front-loading the whole textbox before it could load - whether it be due to a miss-click or otherwise.

That is why I'd like to suggest the ability to prevent players from skipping text by pressing the ">" button on the second screen twice when it is initially being displayed for the first time and move the default way AAO currently handles text to another toggle-able option under the "Settings" tab. Doing so would allow this feature to be retained for people who don't want to wait for all the text to display w/o using the "Instant-Text" setting, and it would allow case makers to have more control over how their case is experienced.

Please let me know what you think of this idea.
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Enthalpy
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Re: [P] Unskippable Text on First Viewing

Post by Enthalpy »

I'm empathetic to both sides on this. On the one hand, I've missed frames as a player due to clicking too fast. On the other hand, I've played cases that are far too verbose, and where I need speed-clicking to get through them.

I'm inclined to say "no", but I'll give a chance for others to comment, either way.
[D]isordered speech is not so much injury to the lips that give it forth, as to the disproportion and incoherence of things in themselves, so negligently expressed. ~ Ben Jonson
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ThePaSch
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Re: [P] Unskippable Text on First Viewing

Post by ThePaSch »

Enthalpy wrote:On the other hand, I've played cases that are far too verbose, and where I need speed-clicking to get through them.
Hence, why OP proposed putting a toggle for this into the player settings. I'm not inherently opposed to the idea, and I can see the issue OP has brought up. I am concerned, however, that it might become a setting that everyone will just set back to "default", or the way things are done now; in fact, I more often find myself actually sorely missing the ability to skip overly verbose stretches of text in the official games than I find myself ruining a moment or accidentally skipping frames in AAO cases.

The other option would be to default this new setting to the current behavior; in which case, however, the added benefit of being able to orchestrate scenes more intricately without having to worry about the player skipping through would heavily diminish.
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Pickle Moe
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Re: [P] Unskippable Text on First Viewing

Post by Pickle Moe »

I am concerned, however, that it might become a setting that everyone will just set back to "default", or the way things are done now; in fact, I more often find myself actually sorely missing the ability to skip overly verbose stretches of text in the official games than I find myself ruining a moment or accidentally skipping frames in AAO cases.
That is why my post is proposing:
The other option would be to default this new setting to the current behavior;
All I ask is that the default behavior of AAO allow for text to be unskippable on first viewing and the ability to front-load text before you've seen it be treated like a setting similar to "Mute" or "Instant-Text." If your fear is that it's a setting everyone will just set back to "default," then I could argue that this same fear should be extended to people setting the text to "Instant" since that also breaks sequences in AAO in a more extreme fashion to how the default functionality of the trial player does. The same can be said with using the "Save" feature, since you can sometimes break the animation loop on some custom gifs depending on how frequently you save-scum with it or not.

But, despite the potential drawbacks to these options, Instant-Text and Saving are extremely useful features for specific scenarios in cases, whether it be quickly trying to playtest a sequence of events to see if your flags are working properly or if want to quickly reload to avoid sitting through the "failed" conversations. They're both very convenient, I wouldn't dream of getting rid of them, they all have their uses in playing cases, and they're all toggle-able/optional.

The question behind this is: is it possible for the same mindset be extended to implementing a feature that makes the game play similarly to the original games, allows for more complex speech patterns to be implemented like pausing before continuing a line or multiple sfx's in 1 box, and to allow the default way AAO currently functions to act as another one of these conveniences that are completely on the player to use and are totally useful?
theimortal1974
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Re: [P] Unskippable Text on First Viewing

Post by theimortal1974 »

having opening "cutscenes" with unskippable text like in the main game series would be cool.
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