Currently Online

Latest Posts

Topic: fast forwards until next notification

knarf
Avatar
Topic Opener
Joined: 2024-01-03, 20:20
Posts: 45
OS: Debian
Ranking
Pry about Widelands
Posted at: 2024-01-03, 22:41

Hi,

I only played the tutorials and one campaign, and this suggestion is obviously only for single player mode, but what I missed (or did not find) was:

A possibility to fast forward until the next notification. The speed of the fast forward does not necessarily need to be "maximum", but could maybe even be configurable. The nice thing come now: once a new message comes in (or I deactivate it by hand), the speed should automatically revert to whatever it was beforehand. One possibility to get that into the GUI would be inside the notification window. Another would be a configurable hot key.

What I currently do when I do find myself waiting for something is turning up the speed using Page+Up, but once a/the message arrives, it takes me some time to turn down the speed again, and during that time the game still blazes away much too fast.

What do you think?

Edited: 2024-01-03, 22:41

Top Quote
hessenfarmer
Avatar
Joined: 2014-12-11, 22:16
Posts: 2714
Ranking
One Elder of Players
Location: Bavaria
Posted at: 2024-01-03, 23:38

I don't understand this completely. The messages are not triggered by time but by game achievements. So increasing the time woulkd not make necessarily the next notification to appear faster but the Ai having more time to build up as the players actions would be slower in relation to gametime. Furthermore in the more advanced scenarios there are multiple objective streams each having there own messages. So please clarify what is the intention here.


Top Quote
knarf
Avatar
Topic Opener
Joined: 2024-01-03, 20:20
Posts: 45
OS: Debian
Ranking
Pry about Widelands
Posted at: 2024-01-04, 10:20

Thanks for your response. I fear I did not quite explain well enough. Consider this: You are in the middle of a game that at the moment is quite slow because nothing much happens: you wait for things to complete or whatever. So typically you speed up by increasing the speed. This I think (hope) has nothing to do with the AI, as this speeds up as well. Now something happens, so typically you want to go to normal speed again, and do so quickly, as you want to react quickly. Also, often this is connected to a notification. Thus, it would be nice to tell the game in some quick way (one key or button press) to speed up until either a notification comes in, and then to automatically go back to normal speed, in an instant. Equally nice would it be to stop this fast speed by one action as well (could be the same key/button as when starting it).

Assuming you could do all that, it would additionally be nice to be able to set the value of this 'speedup', as different people and/or games likely require different 'fast forward speeds', ideally next to the button to start this, to be able to adapt without going through menus. As this would be tied to notifications, I could imagine this inside that menu (but it could be someplace else as well).

Edited: 2024-01-04, 10:20

Top Quote
tothxa
Avatar
Joined: 2021-03-24, 11:44
Posts: 454
OS: antix / Debian
Version: some new PR I'm testing
Ranking
Tribe Member
Posted at: 2024-01-04, 11:23

Are you aware of Ctrl+PgUp/Ctrl+PgDn to change the speed in steps of 10? Also the Pause key (except in multiplayer), which pauses the game without forgetting the desired speed. You can even change the desired speed with PgUp/PgDn while the game is paused, so the new speed will be used when the game is resumed. And Shift+Pause resets the speed to 1.

Edited: 2024-01-04, 11:23

Top Quote
knarf
Avatar
Topic Opener
Joined: 2024-01-03, 20:20
Posts: 45
OS: Debian
Ranking
Pry about Widelands
Posted at: 2024-01-04, 11:58

I was indeed not aware of Ctrl+PageUp/Down, nor of the Pause key - probably because my (laptop) keyboard does not have that key. Thanks for the hint, I will just use another key for that. While this does not quite solve my issue (reset speed at new notification), it goes lengths towards more comfortable fast forward.


Top Quote
Nordfriese
Avatar
Joined: 2017-01-17, 17:07
Posts: 2010
OS: Debian Testing
Version: Latest master
Ranking
One Elder of Players
Location: 0x55555d3a34c0
Posted at: 2024-01-04, 21:40

Another possibility would be to allow changing the game speed even when a modal story message box is open. So if the message pops up while the game is at 50× one can conveniently slow down again before dismissing the box and resuming the game.


Top Quote
SandJ
Avatar
Joined: 2015-05-08, 21:46
Posts: 9
OS: Linux
Ranking
Pry about Widelands
Posted at: 2024-08-11, 11:48

I wish for the same thing.

At the start of a map, and when exploring round a continent, I sometimes want a "Just keep doing what you're all doing, until something interesting happens" function. That is, run at a high speed until there is a message, then either go to 1x speed or Paused (I'm undecided which would be better, probably Paused).

Benefits: I don't get bored waiting. I do not waste time when suddenly finding other tribes. I can address "Out of rocks / wood" issues straight away.

I would not want this to replace any existing speed-related functionality, but be in addition to existing functionality.

So, if I press <something>, the game goes to 10x or 50x or some such until a message appears, then it goes to Paused or 1x speed (depending on consensus, or a config option?)

I want to do this many times in a game, so it is not an unusual requirement.


Top Quote
kaputtnik
Avatar
Joined: 2013-02-18, 19:48
Posts: 2501
OS: Archlinux
Version: current master
Ranking
One Elder of Players
Location: Germany
Posted at: 2024-08-11, 12:30

So for every new message the game should be set to pause (or 1x speed)?

On big maps where you have a big economy this means the game will likely very often slow down. On such maps messages come very often … which means a lot of changes between high speed and slow speed.

The AI doesn't cope very well with high speeds.

Sometimes the game is running fine without user intervention, but from my personal view this is the time where you can watch your workers how they are doing their work, or to optimize your network of roads, or, if you overlooked a message, check your mines, and so on. The time to enjoy the game face-smile.png


Fight simulator for Widelands:
https://wide-fighter.netlify.app/

Top Quote
Nordfriese
Avatar
Joined: 2017-01-17, 17:07
Posts: 2010
OS: Debian Testing
Version: Latest master
Ranking
One Elder of Players
Location: 0x55555d3a34c0
Posted at: 2024-08-11, 13:08

I have uploaded a simple plugin add-on "notify-speed.wad" that does what you request. If the plugin is enabled, the arrival of a new inbox message reduces the game speed to 1× if the game was running faster than that, within half a second realtime after the message arrives. This can be temporarily disabled via an entry in the main toolbar's plugins dropdown.

No need for C++ changes here. The only thing is that plugins currently can't have keyboard shortcuts, but that's on my to-do list for when the backlog of other plugin-related PR branches clears up.

This is the cheap work of half an hour of scripting. Comments and suggestions welcome.


Top Quote
SandJ
Avatar
Joined: 2015-05-08, 21:46
Posts: 9
OS: Linux
Ranking
Pry about Widelands
Posted at: 2024-08-11, 13:48

Nordfriese wrote:

I have uploaded a simple plugin add-on "notify-speed.wad" that does what you request. Comments and suggestions welcome.

Brilliant! You get it! And you made it! And I installed it! And it works! Thank you. face-smile.png

I had a tooth extracted yesterday, and I've been feeling sorry for myself. Your half an hour of scripting has turned my weekend right around. You made a difference for someone today. face-smile.png


Top Quote