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Equip Menu: Get it Right, Get it Tight.

So every now and again I wander around and fiddle with my Menu screen. Right now it's functional, but I always want to improve it, because interface is important, right? Here's what I got now;



As you can see, because of the 640x480 resolution, there's a lot of empty space, something that I'm not really feeling. I'm working within the confines of Yanfly's Equip script, which is fine, but it's something I have to be cognizant of when I'm modifying things. Right now, the most immediate thing I can think of is adding more Parameters to the right side, which is something that I'm working on as soon as I figure out. But other than that, I'm wondering what I should do with it. Oh yeah, don't worry about the description being cut off, the description text scrolls.

This menu draws a little inspiration from menu's such as FFVI, as you can see a little here.




I'd love it if it were tighter like that one is, but considering the layout is different, I'm still left with the dead space at the bottom. Ultimately, this is one of my favorite layouts because it shows you almost everything you need to know about what you're equipping. The only flaw is that you can't see detailed information about what you're equipping, such as absorption and whatnot.




The older FF's do it completely differently, as you can see. The biggest issue I have with these, though, is that they don't have room to show enough information about the stat changes and the various parameters.

And of course, here's (roughly) a pic of the original engine equip scene as a reference.



What do you guys think?

Posts

Pages: 1
If you just keep piling in more stuff, you run the risk of clutter. That's worse than empty space. In it's current form, your equipment menu says "Here is the business" and the player gets down to it.

Speaking of which, why are there "Optimize" and "Clear" options? I've never used them, and can't imagine a game that makes effective use of them and remains fun. In FF6, it was new, it was novel. It was also useless past the earliest stages of the game. They're just another button to click if you ask me. Worse so if you do it accidentally, and have to re-equip your meticulously chosen gear.
author=Dyhalto
If you just keep piling in more stuff, you run the risk of clutter. That's worse than empty space. In it's current form, your equipment menu says "Here is the business" and the player gets down to it.


I agree! The issue is the half screen of total emptiness under 'Accessories' due to the resolution. In the original resolution, the screen ends at Accessories and it looks nice and compact. Here, it just looks barren. I'm less worried about the right side, because as soon as I figure how out to add in the x-parameters, that's what's going there. I don't want fluff, and I'll leave it empty if that's what it comes down to, but I'd like to avoid dead space, either.

author=Dyhalto
Speaking of which, why are there "Optimize" and "Clear" options? I've never used them, and can't imagine a game that makes effective use of them and remains fun. In FF6, it was new, it was novel. It was also useless past the earliest stages of the game. They're just another button to click if you ask me. Worse so if you do it accidentally, and have to re-equip your meticulously chosen gear.


You can make a serious argument about the 'Optimize' function, because the more unique equipment gets, the less need there is to 'Optimize' based on stats alone; FFVI: Brave New World got rid of it entirely. However, the 'Clear' function does have its uses, especially in FFVI, in a game with a large amount of characters, sometimes you really do need to do a total wipe of equipment when you're not using that character for a while or you need to swap things around on a large scale.
I have two questions:

1) Why are you limiting yourself to five equipment slots? Why not 4+Accessories/Relics? Why not 5, for that matter? Perhaps the thing I dislike the most about newer RPGs is the trend away from equipment management. The more the merrier, I say!

2) How realistic do you want your armour to be? Like, RPG realistic (not at all) or what? I know you've put a lot of effort into weaving a rich, believable narrative, so I'm just wondering what path you're going down in that regard.
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
Always good shit, man. Sorry I can't be more constructive than that ha
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
helps to have a MAP

i think that optimize/clear are fine and i use them in a lot of games, especially large-party games. they're fine =P

one option is to just go through your menus and shorten the windows that can be shortened. you'll be able to see a bit of map underneath, which is kind of neat?

since you have sooo much room, you could even add a second row with a short description for each item, like

Weapon_______->--- Broad Sword
_______________+5 ATK, -4 WGT
Hands

Armor_______/{==}\ Hardened Leather
_______________+5 DEF, +2 EVA

It's really easy to add more parameters on the right-hand side. PM or FB me if you want me to point you in the right direction.
author=Kaempfer
1) Why are you limiting yourself to five equipment slots? Why not 4+Accessories/Relics? Why not 5, for that matter? Perhaps the thing I dislike the most about newer RPGs is the trend away from equipment management. The more the merrier, I say!

I wholeheartedly agree with the latter part! It's not too late for me to add more equipment types (greaves, gloves, bracelets, helmets, boots, etc), and I have fun doing it and writing them in, so I just may, and I can easily accommodate the gameplay for it. The reason why I'm conservative on the accessories however is because accessories are especially powerful, granting potent bonuses; I want the player to strategically think about what they should equip and what to not equip.

I may add in more armor equip types, though. That, I don't mind.

author=Kaempfer
2) How realistic do you want your armour to be? Like, RPG realistic (not at all) or what? I know you've put a lot of effort into weaving a rich, believable narrative, so I'm just wondering what path you're going down in that regard.

Sort of in the middle. Think Tactics Ogre/FFT/Witcher/Dragon Age. Enough to not be ridiculous, but so you can safely suspend your sense of disbelief about some fantasy elements, too.

EDIT: Just saw your post, Craze, getting to you shortly!
InfectionFiles
the world ends in whatever my makerscore currently is
4622
I like Craze's ideas, either some screen showing(which I personally love) or the other option which I like to do alongside flavor text or in lieu of it.
Craze
why would i heal when i could equip a morningstar
15150
the issue with having so many equipment slots is that it makes things way more obnoxious to balance, because if they all add meaningful stats then you have like 6 sources of stats or w/e. i mean they could all just add to DEF (lol boring), but if you have all kinds of variations of hands and heads and w/e then you can wind up with wild stat swings that break the game or make it unplayable (basically adding false choices you might not even realize exist while testing it yourself).

that's not to say that it can't be done -- blizzard does it by just making stats meaningless and just fall into amorphous lump sum DEFENSE and DMG_DUMPSTAT and shit.... but you don't want that.

have you played path of exile? that game gets it right. there are a ton of armor slots, but they follow easy-to-understand patterns that mirror the rest of the game (and its 6 primary archetypes) while also not totally screwing you over until the latest-game if you have some off-spec splashes of stats (in fact, because of the materia-esque skill system, you might even want some extra off-spec core stats). that's probably a lot of babble right there but srsly the new update is great, play path of exile if you want to get an equipment boner

edit:
Feldschlacht IV
EDIT: Just saw your post, Craze, getting to you shortly!

BEHOLD, A SECOND POST TO PROCESS
sorry not sorry
author=Infection
I like Craze's ideas, either some screen showing(which I personally love) or the other option which I like to do alongside flavor text or in lieu of it.

I didn't know the former got people hot. I'll check into it!

author=Craze
helps to have a MAP

i think that optimize/clear are fine and i use them in a lot of games, especially large-party games. they're fine =P

Yeah, I'm not so worried about Optimize, many players still use them, and I made the case for Clear, so hey, they ain't hurtin' nobody, right? I'm still open to discussion on it though, because hey, it's fun!

author=Craze
one option is to just go through your menus and shorten the windows that can be shortened. you'll be able to see a bit of map underneath, which is kind of neat?

It will? I was under the impression that unused menu real estate equals a black screen, like so;



If there's a way to like, avoid that, I'm game.


author=Craze
since you have sooo much room, you could even add a second row with a short description for each item, like

Weapon_______->--- Broad Sword
_______________+5 ATK, -4 WGT
Hands

Armor_______/{==}\ Hardened Leather
_______________+5 DEF, +2 EVA

That's something to consider!

author=Craze
It's really easy to add more parameters on the right-hand side. PM or FB me if you want me to point you in the right direction.

Expect one soon!

author=Craze
the issue with having so many equipment slots is that it makes things way more obnoxious to balance, because if they all add meaningful stats then you have like 6 sources of stats or w/e. i mean they could all just add to DEF (lol boring), but if you have all kinds of variations of hands and heads and w/e then you can wind up with wild stat swings that break the game or make it unplayable (basically adding false choices you might not even realize exist while testing it yourself).

that's not to say that it can't be done -- blizzard does it by just making stats meaningless and just fall into amorphous lump sum DEFENSE and DMG_DUMPSTAT and shit.... but you don't want that.

Yeah, exactly. If I have slots of all kinds of armor, and they ALL just add DEF, then I've fucked up. However if I overextend myself and they all do wildly different shit, then yeah, I've also fucked up. I'd like to keep the equipment boner nice and manageable so you can have an equipment erection in a reasonable way without having to call your doctor.

Currently, I have it set up so that main Body equipment is Light, Heavy, and Medium with different weight classes effecting defense, evasion, and MP regeneration when you defend. Gloves effect parrying/critical (for now), so I'd have to worry around that.

author=Craze
have you played path of exile? that game gets it right. there are a ton of armor slots, but they follow easy-to-understand patterns that mirror the rest of the game (and its 6 primary archetypes) while also not totally screwing you over until the latest-game if you have some off-spec splashes of stats (in fact, because of the materia-esque skill system, you might even want some extra off-spec core stats). that's probably a lot of babble right there but srsly the new update is great, play path of exile if you want to get an equipment boner

Added to the list.
You're not going the bog standard route of Leather/Chainmail/Plate Mail, I hope. The main character is pretty obviously wearing a leather jacket. You better spin in some vaguely logical equipment that reflects the dieselpunk(?) aesthetic!

edit: if you need any help with figuring out what materials are good for what or what things actually existed, let me know (if you even care) I am a BIT OF AN EXPERT edit edit: I should have said materials for armour, but I am bad at posting
author=Kaempfer
You're not going the bog standard route of Leather/Chainmail/Plate Mail, I hope. The main character is pretty obviously wearing a leather jacket. You better spin in some vaguely logical equipment that reflects the dieselpunk(?) aesthetic!

Sort of, but I always try to keep it creative!

The main character wears his armor under the jacket, and some of the art I've had doodled for the game reflects that. His design was partially inspired from some of the 'under jacket' armor you see in things like Fallout.

stuff
like
this

I've been tossing around with making his white 'undershirt' looking thing another color to reflect that.

author=Kaempfer
edit: if you need any help with figuring out what materials are good for what or what things actually existed, let me know (if you even care) I am a BIT OF AN EXPERT

I'll keep that in mind, man!
Pages: 1