gameflorist/dunedynasty

Feature Request: Optionally re-enable intro autoplay + classic menus for building and vehicle construction

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blam666 commented

First of all, thank you so much for going on with the work on Dune Dynasty. To me, it's the very best port of Dune II and I appreciate very much the basic concept of preserving looks and feels of the original game while setting it up with reasonable optimizations for current systems.

I'd like to propose two simple features that would bring back classic DOS Dune II techniques and gameplay even a bit more. Would it be possible to

  1. add an option to make the program start with the intro movie? I appreciate that Intro Replay is already re-enabled in the main menu of the new 1.6.0, and I understand totally that the majority of users will prefer this to an automatic start with the intro movie, because it's faster. But personally, I'd like to have the original way of the game's starting routine optionally preserved. Optionally, as in easily turning it off or on in the configuration file or in the game sub-menus. It's possible for Dune Legacy, but I never found that option in Dynasty (or was too dumb to find it).

  2. Would it be technically possible to merge the old way the menus for constructing vehicles and buildings work in-game with the new, technically easier and more comfortable way? I sometimes miss taking a look in-game at the bigger building/vehicle graphics and the info about the size (Dumb of me, but I also tend to forget some of buildings sizes when I return to the game after a longer break). Of course the graphics are also preserved in the main sub-menus and the mentat menu, it's really mostly about just getting closer to the old game usage feel of the original.

The idea is to be able to both use the side menu bar for fast and easier building and queue, but still get into the classic building menu by clicking the main icon for the factories above. And then of course making this re-implementation optional (some may get confused or click into the classic menu by mistake and not like that) by configuration or sub-menu choice.
Of course, I don't know if that feature is still technically possible with the code of Dune Dynasty.

Thank you very much!

codeflorist commented

thanks a lot for your suggestions! these are actually both features i was already thinking about.

  1. autoplay introduction: i have already implemented this and it will be in the upcoming v1.6.1 release. i've made autoplay the default behaviour to keep the behaviour of the original (and to entice players to watch that still absolutely awesome intro!). but one can disable it via the Skip introduction video option in the in-game options as well as the skip_introduction flag in the config-file.

  2. i fear, that re-introducting the old construction screens would be a larger amount of work, since as far as i can see a lot of code changes went with removing them. but i totally agree, that the structure-layout/size is an integral information, that should always be available. this is actually already displayed in the sidepanel on smaller scales at the top right of a structure's thumbnail. but it is not visible on larger scales (where the costs are displayed right of the picture). i've just commited a change, that will display the layout where the costs were before, and the costs are displayed at the bottom left of the picture (as they are with smaller scales). this will also be in the upcoming v1.6.1 release.

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blam666 commented

Ok, I already considered shoehorning the classic menus back into the port's code is maybe not as easy as me just talking about and imagining it. But making the size displayed in the graphics along with the prize is a good compromise for the next update.

And having the option for the game starting with the intro already in the next DD version is fantastic. Thanks a lot! I'll be following close for the further developments of the port.

codeflorist commented

i've just released v1.6.1. bask in the greatness of the Westwood logo when you start it! 😄

https://github.com/gameflorist/dunedynasty/releases/tag/v1.6.1

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blam666 commented

I just noticed there is a new version ready and uploaded that does the intro routine exactly as I requested.

That's really awesome, thank you so much for all your work!

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