Invoking a potion locks up UI

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david
  • Views 7.480
  • atnaujinta
  • Not a Bug

Version 1.6.3 - 16GB Ram - When selecting a potion, there does not seem to be a way to exit (if you don't want to use the potion). This is a real hassle when combined with game delay and cursor lag.

Game Version:
Steam Public
Platform:
Windows

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anonymous
  • Not a Bug

You should be able to place the potion back on the potion stand as long as you haven't started brewing another potion.

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david
If it's not a bug it just shows how ignorant your devs are about gameplay UI and user interface issues.



David Lieder

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david

If it's not a bug it just shows how ignorant your devs are about gameplay UI and user interface issues. Right-click should cancel potion placement, just like in many other cursor actions in the game. I already left a negative review on Steam.

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Lee "Noontide" Moon Designer & Community Manager

Hi David,


There's actually functionality to return a potion which is held in your hand via the UI and via the game world. Firstly you can simply return an unused potion direct to any empty cauldron in the game world or right clicking on the Cauldron icon in the potions UI. This allows you to return the held potion to any empty cauldron within your Dungeon.


I can understand your frustration with regards to this as it's an unusual paradigm for many RTS players to grasp and I agree that the UI is not particularly clear on this functionality and should perhaps make it more obvious what your options are. This is something I'd like to see us improve if possible and I'll bring it up when we come to working on the next major update but I can't make any promises as it would be considered quite low priority and we are a team with extremely limited resources.


As potions unlike spells, rooms, defenses, constructs and rituals are a physical object that exists in the game world their paradigm is more similar to that of a living unit than that of a selected spell. When you pick up a potion you do just that, you grab the physical object and place it in your hand. To follow the paradigm of any picked object right clicking in the game world within your territory then causes the object to drop into the game world this is a UX paradigm that has existed throughout nearly all god games.


This is consistent wherever an object is picked up and it is not possible to cancel it through right click. Rather than viewing this as "placing" an object imagine instead you are holding one if you drop a glass vial it is natural that it would shatter upon colliding with the floor.


I hope that helps to explain the mechanics and why certain decisions have been made with regards to the UI. We'll take your feedback on board but I can confirm this is not a bug and is consistent within our UI and UX principles that are prevalent throughout the game and other games of this genre.


Cheers,


Lee

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david
I appreciate your kind response, but I've played many, many God RTS games for 20 years and Overworld is not consistent with them. In AOE and AOM, for example, selecting people or anything allows you to right-click and unselect. Since you've added a new feature of actually "picking up" things instead of just guiding them, you've hijacked old functionality and broken it. God games usually don't let the God pick stuff up. Therefore, your company isn't thinking clearly on this, and you've broken the normal way that right-click works, and caused a situation that also freezes the player, especially when the game is lagging. So the player is supposed to find a cauldron? When the mouse is barely moving and a battle is going on? Do you even play your own game? Sometimes when picking up a minion, for example, it won't drop, even in a valid room. This is probably because of all the heavy CPU scripts going on. So there should be a quick method to cancel. I've never had this issue with other God games.


David Lieder

USA) +1.919.386.9871
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Lee "Noontide" Moon Designer & Community Manager
Quote from david
I appreciate your kind response, but I've played many, many God RTS games for 20 years and Overworld is not consistent with them. In AOE and AOM, for example, selecting people or anything allows you to right-click and unselect. Since you've added a new feature of actually "picking up" things instead of just guiding them, you've hijacked old functionality and broken it. God games usually don't let the God pick stuff up. Therefore, your company isn't thinking clearly on this, and you've broken the normal way that right-click works, and caused a situation that also freezes the player, especially when the game is lagging. So the player is supposed to find a cauldron? When the mouse is barely moving and a battle is going on? Do you even play your own game? Sometimes when picking up a minion, for example, it won't drop, even in a valid room. This is probably because of all the heavy CPU scripts going on. So there should be a quick method to cancel. I've never had this issue with other God games.


David Lieder

USA) +1.919.386.9871

Hi David,


I'm sorry for the confusion, by referring to the genre of god games I'm not referring to games like AOE or AOM.


Age of Empires and Age of Mythology are not God Games but RTS games. God Games are a sub-genre of RTS where the player is placed in the role as a god-like being with no direct control over their units some examples of this genre are:


  • Populous
  • Black and White
  • Dungeon Keeper (Our inspiration) - Now known as the Dungeon Management Genre (a mix of RTS and God Game)

Although not all of these games feature the ability to pick up objects from the world the first game to do so was to my knowledge Dungeon Keeper, the game which we are most heavily inspired by. This feature would then make it into other games such as Black and White and other God and Dungeon Management Games. Our behaviour is consistent with these games which is why I said it can be unusual if you are a RTS gamer who has not played God games before.


In any case the big thing that separates RTS and God Games are the lack of direct influence or straight orders and often characterized by "units" behaving under the propulsion of their own AI, but also that the "God" interacts with the world in an abstract unusual manner. Rather than issuing orders he interacts directly through spells and powers.


As I mentioned in my above post it is not necessary to locate a cauldron to return the potion to one. Simply right clicking on the "Crackpot" icon on the potion bar while a potion is in hand will return the potion to any free cauldron in your dungeon.


I've attached a video to demonstrate this behaviour:


I've not seen a case where a unit wont drop in a valid location but we'd love to investigate if you can show us a case where this occurs. We're always happy to address bugs where we can.


Cheers,


Lee


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david
The "units not dropping" occurs because the CPU slows to a standstill. No other games do this on my machine. I own about 250 in Steam and have played maybe 40 on this machine. As a programmer myself, don't tell me that Overworld is just so much more advanced than 10 million-dollar-budget games, that it slows the CPU down. I know that's not true.


David Lieder

USA) +1.919.386.9871
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david
The map is 125x125. The larger size I'm sure does not help.


David Lieder

USA) +1.919.386.9871
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Lee "Noontide" Moon Designer & Community Manager

Hi David,


Unfortunately we've never seen this issue for ourselves or seen a report similar to it. Is it possible for us to get the system specs of your rig so that we can look into what kind of system we might need to replicate? Its possible we might have something of a similar tier available to us in our office or in our network of users.


I don't see us getting much further on the discussion regarding WFTOs system requirements vs that of other games, I think we'll have to agree to disagree. All I'll say in that regard is we'll continue to hunt for places to optimise as we work towards the upcoming major patch. I believe one of our coders already has some thoughts for where the BT might be improved. So we'll see what can be done in that regard.


Cheers,


Lee

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david
I'm a game dev so I have no problem disagreeing with you on these issues. Please don't contact me again. I sent you the save file, along with a list of seven definite bugs, and that does not include dropping things or potions.


David Lieder

USA) +1.919.386.9871

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