Suggestions for CW-next

[Mr.H]

Could we have an in-game clock. Perhaps with a little beeper or something, small and in the corners but there so you don't willfully spend too much time on CW3. This way it helps improve people's health and gives them a way to check the time without alt-tabbing.

Also has anyone ever considered 'themes' of the UI. Perhaps in the settings, this way you can customize the colors and display to what you prefer. Could be compatible with color blind folks as well.

[Chawe800]

I would find a small clock in the corner extremly helpful.

[Ronini]

Could we have an in-game clock. Perhaps with a little beeper or something, small and in the corners but there so you don't willfully spend too much time on CW3. This way it helps improve people's health and gives them a way to check the time without alt-tabbing.

Also has anyone ever considered 'themes' of the UI. Perhaps in the settings, this way you can customize the colors and display to what you prefer. Could be compatible with color blind folks as well.

I'd like to see both of these.

[Grauniad]

Could we have an in-game clock. Perhaps with a little beeper or something, small and in the corners but there so you don't willfully spend too much time on CW3. This way it helps improve people's health and gives them a way to check the time without alt-tabbing.

I would find a small clock in the corner extremly helpful.

As a matter of curiosity, do you know of any games that displays clocks/alarms as part of their User Interface?  For one, I'd have thought it would distract from the in-game environment, also not be universally used and only of (limited) use when people play in full-screen and cannot use alternate displays on their desktop.

[Chawe800]

World of Warcraft is a great example. It hides the clock right under the mini-map which is great because it reminds players and doesn't get into the way. I do have to admit World Of Warcraft has a ton of AI interface. Adding it within the other buttons in the corner would be great  ;D

[lurkily]

I prefer actual alarm countdowns to be out-of-the-way - something the player can seek if they want it - and have a more visceral indicator that they're running out of time - things that ratchet the tension up.  Speed up the music, set off air-raid sirens, shade the edges of the screen redder as time runs out - things like that.

Many PoP games have time-trial segments of some sort - sections of a map where you somehow die if you don't complete the precise and challenging acrobatics required in the limited time available, but a timer would just be distracting and panicky.

PoP:The Warrior Within chased you with a massive monster.  You had to escape to safety.  If you fell behind, you could see tentacles licking at the edge of the screen, reaching for the Prince. (PoP is a third-person game franchise.) 

In PoP: the Two Thrones, the prince had a dark side that consumed the sands of time that gave him his abilities.  But if he ran dry of sand in that form, he would die.  The health meter was integrated with the display of your inventory of sand, so your 'time until death' was in the same place you were looking for your health all along.

[Chawe800]

A discussion on alarms would be interesting but that's not what we're discussing. We're talking about a small clock in the AI Interface that would remove the need to tab out of CW to check the time.

Alarms would be a cool concept to incorperate though.

[lurkily]

I was thinking more in terms of spore countdowns, I admit.  I was replying specifically to Grauniad's question of other games using timers/alarms.  Your suggestion that things be kept unobtrusive played into my picking out examples of games that use visceral means to indicate time constraints.

Honestly, I don't often need a real-time clock . . . I have a watch, and I keep one-time alarms on my phone if there is actually a time deadline that I have to make. 

[ShadowDragon7015]

I'm not sure if anyone actually did or did not mention but 3D would be kind of cool for in game play.

[lurkily]

Gameplay is already 3-dimensional, having width, height, and depth.  Display being 3D might be a nifty gimmick, but I'm not sure it's worth the time investment it would require to do the code.

[4xC]

Only if CW was much more distinguished world-wide than it is now would it seem possible to have that enhanced 3D bit if you ask me.

[lurkily]

I think it's less dependent on recognition than on the needs of the game, the design, and the dev.  For instance, CW does not render in ways that are particularly friendly to modern video cards - 3D might not help that.  In addition, it might confuse the player's viewpoint.  Most games have discrete units, but CW has blobby amorphous oceans in which depth and surface height must be measurable at a glance.

I think these things have probably impacted the choice to render in 2D more than mere recognition.  I think V has enough cred to make his games to look like whatever he wants and be able to market it.