Usability

[Poxky]

I have just a few suggestions that deal with the usability of the game.

I really liked the options for the different subjects that you could bring up, but it's always kind of daft trying to select something small with a large thought bubble. If when in a conversation the cursor could change to a regular cursor, or if the subject your cursor is floating over would be highlighted that would help a lot in ease of play.

When selecting where to go on the map it was kind of odd when I clicked on the Sacred Isle and the ship didn't go there. I had to click in multiple locations to get it navigated over there. Also, I thought the footprint cursor wasn't the best choice for navigation of the map. It would make more sense if when an island is selected the ship goes directly there, and perhaps a ship cursor could be made for the map, but that's just a stylistic preference.

A small issue I had when playing the game in a window was that the cursor was trapped in the window. In other games that play in a window, if you escape to the menu then you can take the cursor out of the window without alt tabbing and thus easily access other programs or move or minimize the game play window. As it is right now there are no minimize or close buttons on the window menu bar, and if you try to move the window the cursor disappears behind the window and once you are done moving it you are trapped back inside the window.

The last suggestion I have deals with the conversation with the dockmaster. It was odd how Graham asked who would want to travel in times like these then immediately ask to use his ferry. I also got the impression that Graham was wanting to take his boat because the dockmaster was violently opposed to Graham using his boat. Why doesn't Graham just ask to hire his services then the boatmaster would ask for fair compensation. At which point Graham would give him the money which wouldn't be enough then the coin could be used to convince the dockmaster to give him passage.

That's all I have. I think there have been some great suggestions so far and it's good to see fans and game makers working together. I'm looking forward to the full release.

[Yonkey]

Excellent suggestions!   Please fill out three separate issue reports for paragraphs 1, 2 and 3 in the Technical Support forum.

Regarding 4, I'm not sure, but I think Hassan isn't really in any mood to travel due to the tragedy.  It is obvious that Graham needs to use the Ferry, but it is not obvious that he may have already picked up the coins, so I can see how there's a flaw in logic there.  What we should do is make the Ferry topic hidden until Graham has the coins.  But I know that there was some other faulty conversation logic with Hassan, and maybe this was already reported.  Have a look through the Hassan-related issue reports to see if any relate to this.  If not, please fill out a report for this as well.

Thanks again!