Faruq
02-27-2001, 07:57 AM
Alice needs work. (Work, incidentally, that I'd be willing to do for free if someone at Skotos would actually respond to my email.) Here is a short list of features I'd like to see added (in no particular order):
1) Multiple input fields. I can't even begin to count the number of times that I've accidentally lost a long entry I was typing because I had to respond to something that was happening on-screen and hit "Delete" instead of "Ctrl-X". Allowing me to click on another input field to enter something, keeping the first untouched, would be a big help.
2) MACROS! MACROS MACROS MACROS MACROS MACROS MACROS. MACROS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! These are dirt-trivial to implement, and are available in the Java client. Why aren't they in Alice yet?
3) Multiple commands per line. I'd like to say something like "nod politely to Cassilda ; sit on armchair ; turn to Cassilda" as one line, not three separated by network lag times. It allows me to group related actions together and "fire and forget" while I concentrate on conversations and the like. This works especially well together with macros.
4) Related to macros, it would be nice to have a button cluster of customisable buttons for things that you do a lot. In duels, for example, it's very easy to mistype "guard" after a "rest" because it's such an awkward word to type. Then you're left wide open for your opponents' attacks while you take the time to recognise the mistake, scramble to undo what you're typing at that moment (in my case usually "slash") and retype "guard". (And God help you if you screw it up a second time!) Having an array of buttons would make things much more precise and less prone to error. And, like macros, it would be trivial to implement.
5) Related to this, it would be nice if that compass rose in the frame could be used to navigate by clicking on it.
6) Logging... well, logging sucks the way it is. The actual logging facility is fine (although the formatting needs a bit of work), but the interface to it is just short of terrible. This is big enough to be its own list of problems.
a) You should be able to append to existing logs. This way I don't have to have logs like "27-Feb-2001a.txt", "27-Feb-2001b.txt", "27-Feb-2001c.txt", "27-Feb-2001d.txt" and so on ad infinitum when CM is in a pissy mood and boots me off every few minutes.
b) Speaking of that, why do I have to manually turn on the logs every time I log in? How 'bout an option to always turn on the log (in append mode, of course!) as soon as Alice launches?
c) Even nicer would be something that allows me to put a string like "%D" in the log file name to get today's date or the like. That way I could have logs always turned on and organized by date without the dreadfully tedious (and therefore error-prone) manual mechanism currently available.
d) Timestamps. There should be an option to put a timestamp at the beginning of each log entry. Why? Because sometimes the time of an event is important.
1) Multiple input fields. I can't even begin to count the number of times that I've accidentally lost a long entry I was typing because I had to respond to something that was happening on-screen and hit "Delete" instead of "Ctrl-X". Allowing me to click on another input field to enter something, keeping the first untouched, would be a big help.
2) MACROS! MACROS MACROS MACROS MACROS MACROS MACROS. MACROS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! These are dirt-trivial to implement, and are available in the Java client. Why aren't they in Alice yet?
3) Multiple commands per line. I'd like to say something like "nod politely to Cassilda ; sit on armchair ; turn to Cassilda" as one line, not three separated by network lag times. It allows me to group related actions together and "fire and forget" while I concentrate on conversations and the like. This works especially well together with macros.
4) Related to macros, it would be nice to have a button cluster of customisable buttons for things that you do a lot. In duels, for example, it's very easy to mistype "guard" after a "rest" because it's such an awkward word to type. Then you're left wide open for your opponents' attacks while you take the time to recognise the mistake, scramble to undo what you're typing at that moment (in my case usually "slash") and retype "guard". (And God help you if you screw it up a second time!) Having an array of buttons would make things much more precise and less prone to error. And, like macros, it would be trivial to implement.
5) Related to this, it would be nice if that compass rose in the frame could be used to navigate by clicking on it.
6) Logging... well, logging sucks the way it is. The actual logging facility is fine (although the formatting needs a bit of work), but the interface to it is just short of terrible. This is big enough to be its own list of problems.
a) You should be able to append to existing logs. This way I don't have to have logs like "27-Feb-2001a.txt", "27-Feb-2001b.txt", "27-Feb-2001c.txt", "27-Feb-2001d.txt" and so on ad infinitum when CM is in a pissy mood and boots me off every few minutes.
b) Speaking of that, why do I have to manually turn on the logs every time I log in? How 'bout an option to always turn on the log (in append mode, of course!) as soon as Alice launches?
c) Even nicer would be something that allows me to put a string like "%D" in the log file name to get today's date or the like. That way I could have logs always turned on and organized by date without the dreadfully tedious (and therefore error-prone) manual mechanism currently available.
d) Timestamps. There should be an option to put a timestamp at the beginning of each log entry. Why? Because sometimes the time of an event is important.