Plead to change shop UI

[Timo Pietilä]

Hello from a long hiatus. I just recently started playing 3.4 beta release and again did a mistake in shop like I have made about zillion times before: I buy the first item into list. In normal game I would just sell them back, but this is no-selling game.

This mistake is because of very simple UI change in shops compared to everything else in game. In shop sequence is item-action. Everywhere else it is action-item.

So could someone please change shop interface back to how the rest of the world works? At least put that as an option (now that Takkaria is no longer in control, this should not be a problem).

I also noticed that mini-keyhelp for certain commands like targetting and look are gone (from info line). With this break in playing I don't remember which keys did what so I bet newbies are a way more confused than I am. You need to read help to see which key switched between targets, which to use to look at specific grid instead of jumping around etc. It seems that with look-command you can no longer look at any position, you have to jump around. Targetting at least allows me to look at the wall (to see if it is permanent wall for example.

[Magnate]

This is a really thorny one. IIRC takkaria's position was that item-action was the way the game was going, and the shop UI was first but eventually everything would work that way. That was 3.1.0, and here we are staring down the barrel of 3.4.0 and it hasn't gone any further.

Blubaron has done the most UI work in the last couple of versions - mainly on mouse support, which is inherently item-action (you click on the item and get an action context menu). Blubaron - how much work would it be to convert the main UI to item-action? Specifically, would it be more or less work than putting in an option-dependent shop UI (which sounds terrible!).

[Blue Baron]

Originally Posted by Magnate

Blubaron has done the most UI work in the last couple of versions - mainly on mouse support, which is inherently item-action (you click on the item and get an action context menu). Blubaron - how much work would it be to convert the main UI to item-action? Specifically, would it be more or less work than putting in an option-dependent shop UI (which sounds terrible!).

The inventory command already uses item-action. Is there another command that it is appropriate for? (with the other item commands the action is implicit in the command, so would always be action-item.)

for instance, in a store, item-action for selling only makes sense if the players inventory was already on screen.

the only area I see that can use an item-action interface is a generic "interact with terrain" command, but I might be missing something.

Purchasing in a store:
Lets say the player wants to buy item 'f'. the current way is by pressing "f,p". the old way is by pressing "p,f". Adding an if block that would ignore the current selection and pick another letter in the buy and examine commands would be easy to do.

It would also be possible to make it so that any of "p,f", "f,p,f", or "f,p,enter" would work, by adding another confirmation prompt between the purchase command and the actual number prompt/buy confirmation.

BTW, I prefer the old way, and also make purchase errors, but that preference is not very strong. Any of the four ways (current, old, option, or hybrid), is fine with me. I am willing to go with/implement the consensus, but as usual, I don't know when I will get to it.

[Malak Darkhunter]

I get used to the shop ui, but i dont much care for it, can be kind of aggravating, i prefer the old way, very simple, but if the changes where meant for something greater then by all means have at it.

[buzzkill]

I've mentioned this about a million times before but it never gets any traction. In a no-selling game, double-tap to buy is superior to any other store option I've ever played. Want to buy the item in the a slot, just type aa. Want 6, just type aaaaaaa. It's hard to screw that up. To examine the item in slot a, type al.

[Malak Darkhunter]

Originally Posted by buzzkill

I've mentioned this about a million times before but it never gets any traction. In a no-selling game, double-tap to buy is superior to any other store option I've ever played. Want to buy the item in the a slot, just type aa. Want 6, just type aaaaaaa. It's hard to screw that up. To examine the item in slot a, type al.

Im glad you prefer to do things that way, but i dont, but hey to each is own

[Nomad]

Originally Posted by buzzkill

Want to buy the item in the a slot, just type aa. Want 6, just type aaaaaaa.

What if you want 99?

[ghengiz]

Originally Posted by Nomad

What if you want 99?

probably he has hired a monkey to press the key repetitively

[buzzkill]

Originally Posted by Nomad

What if you want 99?

I don't know if I've ever done that.

One could always type aa, then respond to prompt for quantity, then respond to prompt for confirmation, which BTW is the way the current DAJ implementation works. IMO, that's more clunky than what I described. I never buy massive quantities, usually 20 max. I was just hyping the system I prefer then tweaking it further to suit my preferences. I could see it being cumbersome for heavy shoppers.

[Blue Baron]

This has been implemented in the latest nightly. Please try it out and make sure it works as expected.

it is the hybrid option I talked about before. To use the same example as before, {p,f} works to buy item f, but if item f is already selected, {p, enter} works as well (that is {f,p,enter} works, or {f, p, f}, or {a-z,p,f})

it is the same to examine a store item.

One problem is that pressing escape at the new prompt does not abort the purchase, a fix for this will be in my next pull request.