Author Topic: [GAME OPTIONS] Remove some "Advanced Options"  (Read 4248 times)

Offline clownagent

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[GAME OPTIONS] Remove some "Advanced Options"
« on: May 01, 2014, 01:00:15 pm »
I consider many optional features are usual a good thing. However the "Advanced Options" menu seem to be cluttered a bit and looks confusing, because the list is simply too long.

Some of the options can just be activated and removed from the menu without game change. For example  "Alternate Movement" just enables strafing by using the Ctrl-key. This can be always enabled and removed from the menu. If you don't want to strafe just don't use Ctrl-key.

The same is true for other options, and I suggest to just enable them and remove them from menu, for example the following:
- Force Craft launch
- Airborne Transfers
- TFTD manufacture rules
- Alternate Movement



Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: [GAME OPTIONS] Remove some "Advanced Options"
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2014, 09:50:06 pm »
Maybe so. I think these features are desirable enough to be made non-optional, with the exception of strafing; this is big enough to have a significant impact on the gameplay, so I'd leave it alone.
What about the other options mentioned by Clownagent? Well, there should be an option to turn them off, for the vanilla fanatics. However, we can simply roll them into one switch, named "Disable Openxcom improvements" or something to this effect, which would take care of all the small stuff like airborne transfers and so on.
However, I would like to add that in my opinion the list is not so bad, especially after it was divided into categories. I have no problem with keeping the options as they are.

Offline Tarvis

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Re: [GAME OPTIONS] Remove some "Advanced Options"
« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2014, 11:09:05 pm »
I think Airborne Transfers is fair to keep on. Force Craft launch and Alternate Movement do change the balance of the game however, so they should not be forced enabled. (The latter allows soldiers to move 50% farther each turn, as Ctrl-Moving enables a sprint mode that uses less TU but more Energy)

Things I think should be always enabled are things like "Inventory Extra Stats" (!!!), "Tilted Globe Lighting", "Enhanced Soldier Sprites", "Suppress Panic Messages for Aliens" and "Custom Initial Base"
« Last Edit: May 01, 2014, 11:13:51 pm by Tarvis »

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: [GAME OPTIONS] Remove some "Advanced Options"
« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2014, 03:04:52 am »
Things I think should be always enabled are things like "Inventory Extra Stats" (!!!), "Tilted Globe Lighting", "Enhanced Soldier Sprites", "Suppress Panic Messages for Aliens" and "Custom Initial Base"

I'm not using half of these options, so I beg to differ. :P

Offline Tarvis

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Re: [GAME OPTIONS] Remove some "Advanced Options"
« Reply #4 on: May 02, 2014, 05:19:56 am »
I see no reason not to use "Inventory Extra Stats" at least. Why would you not want to know if you are overloading your soldier??

Offline Gifty

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Re: [GAME OPTIONS] Remove some "Advanced Options"
« Reply #5 on: May 02, 2014, 06:58:10 am »
As essential as many of the tweaks may be, I think maximum flexibility is still preferable. By leaving everything optional, there's no possibility of any contingent of the community being left out.

Offline Tarvis

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Re: [GAME OPTIONS] Remove some "Advanced Options"
« Reply #6 on: May 02, 2014, 06:28:31 pm »
Agreed.

Offline SupSuper

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Re: [GAME OPTIONS] Remove some "Advanced Options"
« Reply #7 on: May 03, 2014, 03:18:13 am »
We're always looking into how to improve the options experience for people and reduce confusion and annoyance (we keep a keen eye on playthroughs to see how people react), but it can be very debatable and polarizing to mess with them.

We tend to use this general rule regarding options:
- Is it a gameplay-impacting / significant UI change? It should probably be an option.
- Is it an easily-ignorable UI change? Then it's probably fine.

There's other considerations of course. We're trying to bring more improvements to the front by making them "on by default", but we gotta be careful as a lot of people aren't sure what is vanilla and what isn't, and it could send the wrong message if they just jump straight into the game. Stuff like the "extra movement" mode could be left out, but then nobody would ever find out about it because most people don't read anything outside of the game. Etc.

Options are a complicated business. :P Everytime someone says "just make it an option" you're actually tripling the problem, not making it easier.