An option to turn off bolding/underlining of keywords in conversation?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by The One True Nobody, Feb 3, 2017.

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  1. The One True Nobody

    The One True Nobody Avatar

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    Is there a way to shut off the underlining of keywords in dialogue? It was a handy feature when the conversation window was also the basic chat/log window, but with this dedicated conversation display (which is a really nifty thing and I implore the developers not to change how it works ever again, by the way, even if I think it'd benefit from a stylization upgrade at some point!), underlining the keywords seems like a visually-distracting redundance with the possible keyword selections listed out below. I do appreciate having some other clickable thing within the dialogue itself, that's actually a functionally great thing to have, but perhaps an option to have them still-clickable without being bolded and underlined would be a good idea here. Players could just mouse over the words to see which can be clicked by the color of their cursor, without the need for the words to call attention to themselves, and when they want to see which words are DEFINITELY keywords, they can cycle through the list at the bottom.

    I'd like this option as an immersion feature, since reading overly obvious bolded words has been a pet peeve of mine since old-school comic books where every time someone wanted even the slightest bit of emphasis on a word, stuff like this would happen. Perhaps, if you're feeling fancy, you could even implement a keyword-underline toggle switch into the top corner of the conversation window itself, so that players can change the setting on-the-fly while navigating an NPC's conversation.

    I still think a nicer-looking fantasy-style text font for conversations would be super nice to have, but I could live with the simple aesthetics we've still got here if I could just turn off the bolded underlines.

    [​IMG]
     
  2. yarnevk

    yarnevk Avatar

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    NO because preserving hypertext links keep things in context whilst you are reading. The web has been this way for decades so it is not really a problem. The list is more for after you have read it so you do not have to scroll back, but you risk choosing the wrong topic because you lost context.
     
  3. Bowen Bloodgood

    Bowen Bloodgood Avatar

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    This shouldn't be an issue at all. Just pay attention to what you read.. not everyone wants help with conversations and it would be a simple matter to toggle whether hints are given or not. In fact, this has been a feature as early as Ultima IV-VI which predates the Internet. Besides, allowing someone to turn the hints off will not effect anyone who prefers to leave them on.
     
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  4. yarnevk

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    The picture shows why you do not want to do it, the keywords that are bolded in the text are not the same as the keywords showing in the list. So for every new line of text you have to scroll thru the list to see if any new keywords popped u, the list is not solving the problem of showing you the keywords!. Although if that the list was a taller vertical list then it would not be a problem, they have decided not to copy Morrowind which was done that way for that reason.

    Having an option to toggle underlined/bold off and keyword list off is indeed OK, but they have stated they want a fixed UI in alpha to minimize user configurations.
     
  5. Bowen Bloodgood

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    We're not talking about just alpha. We're talking in general as an option that would exist post-commercial launch when all that other stuff may be entirely irrelevant to those who don't want the hints given away. It's not being asked as something that has to be in the next patch or goes away after beta.
     
  6. The One True Nobody

    The One True Nobody Avatar

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    I thought the point of this game was to make an RPG that emphasized role-playing and minimized hand-holding? The double layer of handholding just seems overbearing to me, in this case. Not to mention, visually distracting.

    I don't need help "keeping things in context" while reading, that's what reading comprehension is for. Half the time the keyword doesn't even relate to its in-sentence context, anyway. Each keyword has a specific application for a given NPC, but the text automatically underlines that word wherever it appears, even if it appears in a context that is unrelated to what the keyword triggers as a response. That image actually shows a really basic example. "His name is Lord British." You can click "name" there and it will just do the same thing it does every time you use the "name" keyword: it assumes you want to ask the person you're talking to their name.
     
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  7. Lum the Mad

    Lum the Mad Developer Emeritus Dev Emeritus

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    I'm pretty sure we do in fact have an option to do this already, but I haven't tested it to see if it still works with the new UI window. It should, though. I'll check in a bit and report back.
     
  8. The One True Nobody

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    I've gone through the options and must have missed it, then. Although I admit my current rig has difficult playing Shroud for extended lengths of time and I mostly just pop into the game to get a feel for how far along it is.

    Anyway, I don't see any options that look like they might be what I'm looking for here. There's an option to hide unlearned NPC names. There's a "show hints" checkbox for new feature tutorial help windows. There's an enable/disable toggle for conversation close-ups. And there's the "show chat bubbles" toggle. There's no keyboard toggle for it, and nothing under other options, either. I don't see any publicly-available options that would affect this. If such an option does exist, are you sure it is not in the config files themselves, with no in-game option that will affect it yet?
     
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