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Author Topic: edit: link combat log to personal creature file  (Read 1240 times)

brolol.404

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edit: link combat log to personal creature file
« on: May 17, 2019, 06:09:41 am »

Spoiler: post before edit (click to show/hide)
edits made after discussion:
edit: clicking enter on a specific combat log line jumps to that creatures personal file (like 'v') or directly to that
creature (like 'u' -> 'z')
« Last Edit: May 17, 2019, 10:24:50 am by brolol.404 »
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FantasticDorf

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Re: Combat report shows names not profession
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2019, 08:32:42 am »

[TRAINED_WAR] and [TRAINED_HUNTING] have their own profession name strings, so you can apply it to sets of trained animals generally on the creature file.

PROFESSION_NAME:profession token:name singular:name plural

Code: [Select]
creature.txt.
[CREATURE:DOG]
etc.
[PROFESSION NAME:TRAINED_WAR:war hounds:war hounds]
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brolol.404

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Re: Combat report shows names not profession
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2019, 08:50:08 am »

[TRAINED_WAR] and [TRAINED_HUNTING] have their own profession name strings, so you can apply it to sets of trained animals generally on the creature file.

PROFESSION_NAME:profession token:name singular:name plural

Code: [Select]
creature.txt.
[CREATURE:DOG]
etc.
[PROFESSION NAME:TRAINED_WAR:war hounds:war hounds]

I am suggesting using names instead of professions for the dwarves and animals: from "The woodcutter attacks" to "Venomblood attacks". So it is easier to see who is attacking what in the combat log (and also giving individual pets including strays nicknames "fluffy" would be cool)

And, in that example for each dog name rather than only for trained creature professions: "Fluffy bites!" "Spot attacks the..." "Old Yeller the hunting cur scratches."

but that is a great idea for my mod. thanks. I will incorporate it :)

Shonai_Dweller

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Re: Combat report shows names not profession
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2019, 09:08:49 am »

If anything that's a lot more confusing. I'd rather see at a glance that a farmer is being attacked and my militia captain is weilding his socks in battle.

With names, unless you've nicknamed every single dwarf in the fortress, it becomes "random name who could be any one of my 300 dwarves, is fighting another random name. I have to judge by the names alone if it's a fight with an invading dwarf, an invading goblin, one of the goblin tavern dancers, the mayor, etc.
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brolol.404

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Re: Combat report shows names not profession
« Reply #4 on: May 17, 2019, 09:20:17 am »

That's a good point, but during a seige with 20+ hammer dwarves it's hard to tell who is doing what. You can basically just look at the kills after the battle is over and the dwarves you have assigned custom professions to. Everything else is just some hammer dwarf did something cool. Maybe a way to click enter onto the combat log line to give you more info on the specific creature? I think it would be cool to see exactly who did that thing.

FantasticDorf

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Re: Combat report shows names not profession
« Reply #5 on: May 17, 2019, 09:24:44 am »

If anything that's a lot more confusing. I'd rather see at a glance that a farmer is being attacked and my militia captain is weilding his socks in battle.

I agree, more confusing because randomly generated names are DF's most difficult to understand aspect without context, there's very rarely a discernable 'feat' when a animal or sentient has a intelligible historical nickname. All the instruments are completely incomprehensible what they are without actually seeing them first, stationary/handheld and type.

its not like they're called 'Toadslayer' clearly showing they're famous for squashing historical giant man-eating amphibians. It'll be a bunch of unintelligable names fighting that need to be cross referenced really hard. Thumbs down from me.

That's a good point, but during a seige with 20+ hammer dwarves it's hard to tell who is doing what. You can basically just look at the kills after the battle is over and the dwarves you have assigned custom professions to. Everything else is just some hammer dwarf did something cool. Maybe a way to click enter onto the combat log line to give you more info on the specific creature? I think it would be cool to see exactly who did that thing.

Thats seperate to what you were asking the OP, i could definitely support jumping to the creature personal file or following them like we can do from the v screen or some other fortress UI screens, but its only charged with logging actions where they happen abstractly to write to file.

All announcements & battle data can be found in gamelog.txt for the purpose of being read back
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brolol.404

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Re: Combat report shows names not profession
« Reply #6 on: May 17, 2019, 10:01:37 am »

Thats seperate to what you were asking the OP, i could definitely support jumping to the creature personal file or following them like we can do from the v screen or some other fortress UI screens, but its only charged with logging actions where they happen abstractly to write to file.

All announcements & battle data can be found in gamelog.txt for the purpose of being read back

How hard do you think it would be to implement a way to jump to the creature personal file or follow them from clicking into the line in the combat log? Would this require an extensive rewrite of how the logs work now?

Edit: Also edited OP to continue discussion
« Last Edit: May 17, 2019, 10:25:26 am by brolol.404 »
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voliol

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Re: edit: link combat log to personal creature file
« Reply #7 on: May 17, 2019, 11:10:02 am »

What about a compromise of "the hammerdwarf Urist Rathendok"? That way we get both to know their profession and their names, and it is also consequent with how they are referred in the prior screen.
Actually, why don't take the compromise even further and have a toggle* for swapping between it only showing the professions, it only showing the names, and it showing both the names and professions? That would somewhat solve the issue of some names being really long (eg. "the forgotten beast Sponsmöst Abyssache the Fish of Bewilderment") when written in full form, and allows players to choose what information they deem relevant.

*On TAB maybe? As a similar toggle is found in the stocks screen.

Pillbo

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Re: edit: link combat log to personal creature file
« Reply #8 on: May 18, 2019, 03:18:45 pm »

I agree with voliol, a togglable option would be best. I'd rather have names than professions, I prefer using DF-Log to view combat in real time,  but in battle you can't tell who is doing what when you get a hundred "The Marksdwarf ....". It also would make seeing FB battles interesting and not just pages of "The Forgotten Beast ..." with no other context.

+1 for combat logs jumping to a creature screen to see wounds or whatever.
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