Archived Transmissions

[Jamz]

Just wanted to make a suggestion regarding Archived Transmissions in a map.
From what I know and what it seems, the Archived Transmissions only plays back the initial dialogue at the beginning of a map but doesn't play back any other dialogues that happen after. Sometimes as part of the story or for further details of the map, Lia in Arc Eternal may say something, or quite often we happen to pick up Message Artifacts. And especially in Colonial Space where many creative map makers are using CRPL thingies to make new units and enemies, they like to place message artifacts that give us extra detail instructing us on how to do things which seems like a nice and fairly obvious thing to do. Unfortunately though, if we didn't quite understand things on the first read, or we were just wondering "what was that little thing again", then we're kinda screwed.

So suggestion is simply, could you make it such that in some future update we can view all transmissions in a map (provided that they've obviously been viewed first.)
I was thinking maybe what you could do is put 2 buttons on the left of the dialogue box, one which says Next Trans. and the other which says Prev Trans (see pic below). Then, if for example there are a total of 5 different transmissions in a map, then provided that 2 or more transmissions have been seen or activated, the Next Trans and Prev Trans buttons would appear on the dialogue box and allow players to view said transmissions and any others provided they have been seen in the map first.



Of course, this is just an idea my puny brain could come up with. Not suggesting it has to be done in this particular way. :p


Apologies if it seems like I'm suggesting something insignificant but I just feel that there may be an increasing need because of all the innovative maps appearing on Colonial Space which requires explanation in the maps by way of extra dialogues and message artifacts.

[planetfall]

May I suggest, then, if this is added, that there also be a ShowConversationNoArchive command, so that things like the output of my "scanner" (which can be pulled up again at any time) doesn't get stored along with one-time info.

[Grauniad]

Sometimes as part of the story or for further details of the map, Lia in Arc Eternal may say something, or quite often we happen to pick up Message Artifacts.

These are event-driven, the dialog at specific time instants in Arc Eternal repeats every time you play hte mission. Every time you pick up a message artifact, the message displays again.

I cannot talk to CRPL message events, but it should be similar.

[planetfall]

Sometimes as part of the story or for further details of the map, Lia in Arc Eternal may say something, or quite often we happen to pick up Message Artifacts.

These are event-driven, the dialog at specific time instants in Arc Eternal repeats every time you play hte mission. Every time you pick up a message artifact, the message displays again.

I cannot talk to CRPL message events, but it should be similar.

Yes, but suppose the artifact or a one-time CRPL event includes necessary information -- say, the weak point of a boss. There is no way to view the message again without restarting the mission or reloading a save.

CRPL can be modified to display conversations multiple times. "Vanilla" message artifacts cannot.

[Grauniad]

CRPL can be modified to display conversations multiple times. "Vanilla" message artifacts cannot.

OK, I am a little confused here. "vanilla" in game message artifacts as far as I can tell display their messages every time they are picked up. I just tested that and it works.

Can you show me a map with a vanilla message artifact that does not display a message every time the map is restarted and it is picked up?

[teknotiss]

CRPL can be modified to display conversations multiple times. "Vanilla" message artifacts cannot.

OK, I am a little confused here. "vanilla" in game message artifacts as far as I can tell display their messages every time they are picked up. I just tested that and it works.

Can you show me a map with a vanilla message artifact that does not display a message every time the map is restarted and it is picked up?

i think you misunderstand, he's suggesting you shouldn't have to reload or restart to view artifact messages, once you have collected them, instead he'd like them to show up in the archive once collected

[Grauniad]

I could claim historic precedent and say that in no prior version of CW were messages retained. But I see his point. Guess it's Virgil's call if he wants to figure out a way to do this.

[Jamz]

i think you misunderstand, he's suggesting you shouldn't have to reload or restart to view artifact messages, once you have collected them, instead he'd like them to show up in the archive once collected

^^^

I could claim historic precedent and say that in no prior version of CW were messages retained. But I see his point. Guess it's Virgil's call if he wants to figure out a way to do this.

That is true but saying that it wasn't there in previous games doesn't mean that there's no need for it in later games.
This game is a lot more advanced and innovative than the other 2 and so naturally at times, there are more things going on in a map which require explanation.
Again, the main storyline, ie Arc Eternal isn't that much of a problem. There were only a couple times when I wanted to re-read stuff especially during the final battle with the long conversation between Skars, Aliana and the Loki. However, I do agree that it wasn't too hard to get back to that point by simply replaying the map.
What really made me feel that this might actually be a little more necessary was after playing some of the Colonial Space maps. Some of these maps can be really tricky and I usually dont feel like having to restart a map to read something again. One map which particularly frustrated me a bit was this one here: http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=15506.0 . As the clues in the message artifacts were quite cryptic and as I increasingly began to notice that there was something very strange going on, I felt I needed to read them again but couldn't and I really didn't want to start again because it took quite a bit of effort to get to those first couple of artifacts.

Anyway, it probably is still a rather insignificant suggestion, but a suggestion is all I'm making. If virgil wants to he can, it's not something I'm really trying to push for. I guess if it really would've been useful, then other people would have also suggested by now.