I have realized that the pValues system needs revision. There’s no point in recording pValue[one character][another character] because only the protagonist gets to make decisions regarding the other characters. Those pValues will never be used. The only pValue that matters is pValue[one character][Arthur]. Therefore, I must collapse the pValues to a single value just like the regular intrinsic values. One other trick will be that pValue[Arthur][Arthur] will represent the group pValue towards him.
I have been working primarily on adding encounters, but for the last three days I have been building the runtime code, which I am calling “The Theater”. That’s where the action takes place. I am also including some debugging information.
The Theater is turning out to be a bigger job than I had anticipated. I have to carry out all the runtime calculations, including the changes in pValues resulting from the player’s decisions. One particularly troublesome problem arises from the display of the reaction to the choice of an option. This is important feedback to the player, so the player needs time to digest it. But it requires an extra click. That is, the player selects an option by clicking on the option rectangle. This highlights the option and executes the effects of the option, including the display of the reaction. When the player releases the mousebutton, the engine proceeds to the next encounter. Is this acceptable? Wouldn’t it be better to require a second click? The first click displays the reaction; a second click is required to move to the next encounter. But what does the player click on? Do I need a separate button? Here’s a screen shot of the current layout:
Some changes are obvious: I must reduce the height of the first text area to open up more space for the stuff below. I must increase the font size of the option text and include some margins. But once an option has been selected, where does the button for proceeding go? Underneath the options? Should I eliminate the unchosen options to open up space for that button? If I’m going to eliminate unchosen options, should I not also eliminate unavailable options?
I think that I should add the “OK” button in the space cleared up by the unselected options. Unfortunately, this makes the input sequence phased, so I have to turn on and off various inputs at different phases. Yuck!
