Feature - Implemented Include "meat in closet" indicator on Main page

[fronobulax]

I have been running meat-challenged characters with a high degree of automation. I have been closeting meat so that the automation does not drain me dry and thus force me to farm before buying skills or necessary items such as the fake ID documents. But sometimes I have more important uses for the meat and I forget it is there.

So the request would be for some kind of indicator on the main status bar (with stats, adventures left, etc.) that told me there was meat in the closet. I would not mind an additional line with the amount of closet meat although I can see that would make things cluttered after the first million. Using a different font, or color, for the existing meat display would remind me there was something there or perhaps something as simple as an asterisk after the amount if there is meat in the closet.

Thank you.

 

[Camber]

perhaps something as simple as an asterisk after the amount if there is meat in the closet.

This.

 

[fronobulax]

This.

Easy change and I have made it locally. I'm going to live with it for a bit, make sure I have not violated coding conventions and give people a chance to tell me not to do it before I commit.

 

[Spiny]

The proposed image above shows your in-closet meat in the location that on-hand meat currently is.

Preferably it would show both on-hand meat and in-closet meat:

HP: x/X
MP: y/Y
Meat: #
Meat*: #
Adv: #

The only downside of this is for people, like myself, who closet meat in an effort to save meat by not seeing said meat actively. Out of sight, out of mind sort of thing.

 

[slyz]

The asterisk only indicates that there is meat in the closet. The amount of closet meat is not shown.

I think the asterisk is a little too obscure (people will wonder what it means, as the link with the closet is not obvious at all). Maybe having

Meat: #
Closet: #

or something like this would be clearer (Closet would only be shown if the the amount is not zero).

 

[fronobulax]

My intent was to have a visual indicator that there was meat in the closet. If the asterisk is present, as in the screen shot, there is meat in the closet. If it is not, there isn't. Any indicator would require some user education so I went for the asterisk rather than changing fonts or colors.

For "out of sight, out of mind" reasons, I would prefer to take some additional action to know how much is in the closet but that is me.

I'm not looking at the code right now but my recollection is that adding a new line is a touch more difficult than adding a character to an existing line. There are listeners that update the status pane and I'm not sure whether a new line means a new listener or not.

At least I'm sitting on this change for a while

 

[Theraze]

Personally I prefer the current (non-published) change. The * isn't visually distracting and doesn't lead to temptation to spend it in advance, but lets you know that something's there if you need it.

 

[fronobulax]

Plan B attached. Note that the line with ClMeat will appear even if there is no meat in the closet. Making the line appear and disappear is more trouble than it is worth to me.

Options would seem to be:

• Add (and remove) an asterisk to the Meat line to indicate closeted meat.
• Always have the line ClMeat with the closeted amount, possibly 0.
• DON'T DO IT FRO!!!!!

 

[Theraze]

Still prefer the asterix. It's less messy, less tempting, and cleans up after itself.

 

[fronobulax]

Still prefer the asterix. It's less messy, less tempting, and cleans up after itself.

I do too, but sylz had a good point. Is it intuitive enough that we will not be deluged with bug reports and questions along the lines of "WTF asterisk?" Is there a way to roll out the change so people will know what it means or so that the people answering the question can be a little self-righteous when the response is RTFM or FAQ?

 

[Theraze]

Regardless of what you do, people will be confused. If closet just has a number, are we convinced that there won't be a single person out there that banks 40 gold or something like that, then decides that the Closet: 40 is the count of items stored in there?

Bottom line is, someone out there will misinterpret. If the unofficial guide ever got updated, I'd suggest that being there... unfortunately, we don't have an updated manual or guide, so unless they actually pay attention to the change reports or check our forums here, they're going to get confused... and if they do pay attention to those, they wouldn't be asking the questions. Only thing we can do (regardless of the choice) is to be aware that it might not be completely intuitive and not snark when people ask.

 

[jasonharper]

Another, less intrusive option would be to have the closet meat amount as a tooltip for the current meat amount.

 

[Spiny]

Another, less intrusive option would be to have the closet meat amount as a tooltip for the current meat amount.

That sounds good to me.

 

[Theraze]

Asterix visible, tooltip on mouseover?

 

[Darzil]

Asterix visible if meat elsewhere (Closet or Hagrik's), Mouseover shows Meat, Closet Meat and Hagrik's Meat ?

I know as a HC person who often has stuff on the Store gradually selling, being able to quickly check the meat would be nice.

 

[slyz]

Mafia can't track the changes in the Meat in Hagnk's without extra server hits, so I don't think that part is a good idea.

 

[Theraze]

Yeah... unless it checks Hagnik's for connection for possible pulls and saves the value as a variable, skipping out on that would probably be a good idea.

 

[Camber]

Asterisk visible, tooltip on mouseover?

I like this idea a lot. Simple, elegant, and solves the WTF? problem. And would be quite handy too.

Another idea... Could the asterisk be a link to the Meat Manager? Would we want that?

 

[fronobulax]

I like this idea a lot. Simple, elegant, and solves the WTF? problem. And would be quite handy too.

Another idea... Could the asterisk be a link to the Meat Manager? Would we want that?

OK. I'll see what a tool tip requires of me. Link would be way cool but I'm not sure that is at all possible.

 

[fronobulax]

Update: Updating the tool tip to explain the asterisk and closet meat is more work than I am interested in doing considering the amount of effort I have spent trying to avoid Java Swing. It would be good for me but I just have not blocked out the several hours I expect I will need to understand what to do, do it and then convince myself that nothing was broken.

I suppose what I am waiting for is a groundswell of support demanding the feature in one form or another ;-)