Few notes
(I'm not up to date on sfall, nor do I know all it's functions (it's very big), so I may be off etc. Anyway this is some feedback which may or may not be useful)
A Quadruped/Robotic creature is called by gender normally “He/She looks unhurt/wounded/almost dead.” or “He/She has crippled limbs.” But when using the Awareness perk it switches to neutral “It has 10/10 HP.”
I noticed this when checking deathclaw eggs, which should always be referred to as “it”. Funny difference. Normally, this doesn't matter as much as most creatures (scorpions etc.) can be called he/she, it's even a nice touch, really. The eggs are an exception, though. And robots actually... And Spore Plants... (And Floaters/Centaurs/Aliens... maybe?)
I checked proto.msg and it has a third line for “neutral gender”:
{524}{}{It looks: %s }
but it doesn't seem to be used apparently... maybe because the engine checks “gender” of the proto file which has only two states (male/female)?
The awareness perk should use:
{525}{}{%s has %d/%d hps.}
which does pull the “he/she/it” from somewhere (not sure where... it is not in proto.msg).
Seems as if the default messages use “gender” to differentiate, while the Awareness perk uses “body type” followed by “gender” to decide how to call the critter. [Note: I'm pretty sure, as I once had a human critter who got called “it” with Awareness perk as his proto had him falsely set to “Body Type: quadruped”. Also floaters are “he/she” (body-type: human) while centaurs (quadruped) are “it” with Awareness perk. So I don't know the engine but I've been out there...]
Not sure, but maybe “kill type” could be utilized to decide on gender? Would not cover eggs, though, but they shouldn't be kill type deathclaw anyway. Still, that could be a neat option that allows more accuracy, the moder could then set “kill type” in the proto and assign each kill type a gender in sfall (i.e. none (uses “it”), else (it defaults) to using gender (male/female) of proto). [And if unhappy, about a special robot being “it” there would be the option to make that robot its own kill-type, FoT did that for some legendary creatures. And Fo2 for Horrigan, it seems.]
Not the biggest of deals, but if “kill type” can be swapped in easily to fix some critters (robots, eggs and plants) but not every single quadruped animal, it would make a neat fix.
[Btw, I wouldn't be surprised if this had been suggested/discussed by someone else previously. I don't claim originality. As said, I only stumbled over this when I was recently faced with deathclaw-eggs having a gender, and checking if I can do something about, which I don't think I can.]
Can't this:
sfall said:
;Set to 1 to use the expanded world map interface
;Set to 2 to skip correcting the position of entrance markers on town maps
;You can use resized FRMs in 700x682 for town maps in the expanded world map interface
;Requires High Resolution Patch v4.1.8 and a new WORLDMAP.frm file in art\intrface\ (included in sfall.dat)
;The resolution of hi-res patch must be set to at least 890x720
ExpandWorldMap=0
Check the current resolution and if below 890x720 turn itself off?
That would help, as currently I'm hesitant to set this as any low resolution seems to crash when entering worldmap. Which is problematic when players can chose their own settings. And having this up in the air with a “if you use x, then turn off y” comment is too vague and demanding. People will phone this crash in all the time. And moders may not even be able to diagnose it (i.e. crash is too set up related and inconsistent).
Is there a reason why this is not on by default?
sfall said:
;Set to 1 to boost the maximum number of script names from 1450 to 10000
BoostScriptDialogLimit=0
It seems like something that could be always on?
And the following could mention that the “replacement background FRM” means “WmTabs.frm”
sfall said:
;The number of slots available in the locations list panel of the world map
;Set to 0 to leave unchanged. 17 is default.
;Setting this greater than 17 requires a replacement background FRM, or you'll get glitched graphics
WorldMapSlots=0
Maybe after “...a replacement background FRM (WmTabs.frm) large/long enough for the assigned slots, or...”
I also failed to find this for a while. Think I was looking for “town”, found it eventually by accident (ended up in the line before and noticed 17, which at that point I had figured out was the limit). In general, the main problem I have with ddraw is finding things, and then understanding what they mean. For example, the above is called “Worldmap TownMarker” in intrface.lst. I would also call them labels rather than slots or slots for town labels. Maybe “;The number of slots available for “Worldmap TownMarker” in the locations list panel of the world map”.
Anyway, all details really.