I am fuzzy on how menus have to be built, so I’m not even sure it’s possible, but I have a few requests for menu updates.
Can we get the Trade process updated so that you can include all of the items in one transaction? For example:
If I want to trade 3 wheat flour and 1 tomato to Vudon in exchange for a Philly, I could give him one or the other of the items I have available, but not both, and he would give me a sandwich. But that leaves us with an incomplete trade, so I’d have to close out the trade to give him the tomato. Or if I’m feeling particularly mean, I could close out the trade, and he’s just out of luck for the other item. As it stands currently, the Trade feature isn’t nearly as useful as it could be, since it is limited to a one-stack for one-stack trade. And that being the case, it could be eliminated entirely, since it could be accomplished easier with both parties using Give. The main attraction of Trade is that it allows the exchange of goods instead of coins, and it allows the security of doing a simultaneous trade. The limitation makes it more rational to use coins and a vendor.
It probably deserves its own topic, but it’s related so let me add a potential update to all menus that give, store or retrieve items… It would be nice to be able to do multiple stack types in single transactions, in order to avoid going through the menu multiple times. That way I could put everything in a chest or a vendor at one time, rather than going through one stack at a time. Yes, yes, I’m lazy, but it would still be nice. Probably more complex than it needs to be, though, since the user would have to specify how many in each stack.
Can we get a Back button? I’m good at hitting the wrong button, and especially as we get more item categories listed (and more potential places for an item to hide–is it a tool or a weapon? A drink or an ingredient?) it would be good to not have to start over. Most of the menus could benefit from a Back or Main button, actually.
It’d be interesting to see if the whole trade process can be handled through our Unity/WebGL process giving both players a visual representation of the trade as it happens…
If you do the Unity/WebGL for the trade window, is it possible to make it take a bit less screen real estate? It’s not really a problem for cooking, and it probably wouldn’t be for trade, but it would still be nice if it could be smaller without becoming illegible. Nah…I’m not asking for much.
I’ll look to see if they do what I’m picturing. I haven’t played with them much. I see them on Vu’s screen when he’s cooking and it takes up pretty much the whole window. That could just be his setting.
What I was (fearfully) picturing as the downside of it was having two windows, one to show each side of the trade simultaneously, that were at or near the size of the cooking HUD I was seeing on Vu’s system.
What I hope can happen is that you can have two windows (or some other arrangement that shows both halves of the trade) in something the size of the blue dialog the caspervend puts up when it wants to update something, or smaller.
The size isn’t critical to me. I’m not even sure why I want it smaller, to be honest. It just bugs me for some weird reason, and as noted it could just be the setting I’ve seen on his screen. The most critical factors for me would be readability and ease of navigation to add inventory to the trade. There’s also some half-formed idea about being able to negotiate on a limited basis inside the HUD, but I don’t know how that could possibly work.
We will see what we can do. But whatever occurs will still be better than the current menu process which is more time consuming and harder to see item names longer than the button size and so forth with no real visual representation if what is occuring.
You should be able to see live what is offered on both sides, including any coins from either side and a check in place to make sure an offer isn’t changed before completing an order.
