Dungeon Master
Posts: 1531
Joined: Saturday, 5th March 2011, 06:29
Saturday, 5th March 2011, 18:24
Holding down key on message history
So, I *know* holding down keys is dangerous. I stopped doing this, ever, after about my 3rd or 4th death that way 
Then it happened unexpectedly. It was just after a fight and for some reason wanted to check back through the message history for some reason or another. Can't remember the exact scenario, but I had a feeling there was something I'd missed and the related message had scrolled off the display.
So I clcked on the message window and was pressing "up" for a while scan-reading through a few pages of messages and couldn't see what I was looking for. Decided I must have missed it near the bottom so held "down" to scroll back down.
Big mistake - the message history gives no indication when you're near the bottom of the list and suddenly it jumped me back out into the game, and my Wizard tried ran downwards head first into something minor which chose that moment to appear from around a corner. Needless to say I was dead in a split second - on an occasion when I wasn't even remotely in any trouble.
Obviously this ties into other issues of holding keys down. However for just the message history to use the movement keys for scrolling up and down is actually really dangerous when there is no pause or prompt or quitting the message window by scrolling to the bottom. I've since discovers this applies to other screens, for instance the identified items display, as well as the Memorise Spells menu when you're sat on a suitably big pile of books Probably other places too.
I'd resolve this by making ESC the only way to leave such scrolling information screens. If you scroll to the bottom you just get a prompt saying "Press ESC to return to the game". That way there's no possibility of accidental movement just from scrolling down too far.
Then it happened unexpectedly. It was just after a fight and for some reason wanted to check back through the message history for some reason or another. Can't remember the exact scenario, but I had a feeling there was something I'd missed and the related message had scrolled off the display.
So I clcked on the message window and was pressing "up" for a while scan-reading through a few pages of messages and couldn't see what I was looking for. Decided I must have missed it near the bottom so held "down" to scroll back down.
Big mistake - the message history gives no indication when you're near the bottom of the list and suddenly it jumped me back out into the game, and my Wizard tried ran downwards head first into something minor which chose that moment to appear from around a corner. Needless to say I was dead in a split second - on an occasion when I wasn't even remotely in any trouble.
Obviously this ties into other issues of holding keys down. However for just the message history to use the movement keys for scrolling up and down is actually really dangerous when there is no pause or prompt or quitting the message window by scrolling to the bottom. I've since discovers this applies to other screens, for instance the identified items display, as well as the Memorise Spells menu when you're sat on a suitably big pile of books
Probably other places too.I'd resolve this by making ESC the only way to leave such scrolling information screens. If you scroll to the bottom you just get a prompt saying "Press ESC to return to the game". That way there's no possibility of accidental movement just from scrolling down too far.
