message display improvements

[DaviddesJ]

I'd like to be able to use more than one line at the top of my main window for messages. This would make it much easier to keep track of everything that happens each "turn", without having to hit "more" all the time. With a 60 line window, surely I can afford more than one line of space for messages.

Related, in the side window that has all of the messages, I'd like to have some way to break up visually what happens each "turn" (i.e., since my last explicit action). One idea would be to just insert a blank line in that window every time I act. Another idea would be to color-code the results of my actions differently than the results of monster actions or passive events. Yet another idea would be an option to explicitly clear that window each time I act, so the message window only contains the stuff that happened since my last action.

[Big Al]

Unangband has an "easy more" option which displays more than one line of messages if necessary. It's slated to be added to vanilla angband in the next release.

[pav]

What about drawing a thin red line below the last message every turn?

[DaviddesJ]

Originally Posted by pav

What about drawing a thin red line below the last message every turn?

Sure, that would work too. I still think, of all the choices, displaying the messages in different colors would work the best. You could display messages generated by player attacks in one color, messages generated by monster attacks in another color, messages generated by other player actions in a third color, background events (e.g., resistances expire) in yet another color, etc.

Maybe I will try prototyping this and submitting a patch. It seems like it wouldn't be hard.

[roustk]

Originally Posted by DaviddesJ

You could display messages generated by player attacks in one color, messages generated by monster attacks in another color, messages generated by other player actions in a third color, background events (e.g., resistances expire) in yet another color, etc.

Maybe I will try prototyping this and submitting a patch. It seems like it wouldn't be hard.

You may want to look at the code connected to the message.prf file. It provides hooks for coloring messages based on MSG_* constants in defines.h. Most of those MSG constants tie into sounds, but some are designed for messages.

Kevin

[pav]

I have experimented with coloring the messages, and only change that really helped a lot was to color the 'monster is dead' message orange.

[DaviddesJ]

Originally Posted by pav

I have experimented with coloring the messages, and only change that really helped a lot was to color the 'monster is dead' message orange.

Hmm, don't you find it difficult to look at the long list of messages and see what is new since the last player action? I thought that was why you were suggesting a red dividing line, but you could achieve the same effect with message coloring.

[MKula]

One that always bugged me was the level up message. Since it's white too, I sometimes miss it and don't notice that I've been "Welcomed to level XX". IMHO, some of the 'key' messages (level up, monster dead, light growing faint, etc.) should be color coded for clarity.

[pav]

The fact is that I never used secondary window for messages. So my comment was purely about the first line on a main window.

[DaviddesJ]

That makes sense. I think the message coloring is much more useful in the message window than when looking at the single line of message text in the main window. (It would also be useful with the idea of displaying multiple lines of message text in the main window.)

I will work on coming up with a sensible scheme of message colorings.