GD: gather requirements for a message/dialogue notification system

As Backfire is story driven, we will at times interact with the player through the use of messages/dialogues/notifications accompanied or not by corresponding sounds. Please run through the existing design doc and extract the requirements for such a system so that we can start analysis and design phase.

Basic message system requirements:

display text of various colors and at certain on-screen coordinates (set from the editor; variable colors could aid the player in identifying sender, eg. white text is local/ship dialogue, blue is unknown, green is friendly, red is enemy - just an idea, might prove to be annoying or tiresome)
the text is contained in a box that has selectable fill and border colors (you can set border color and fill color independently), as well as transparency
the text should have at least some formatting options (such as line break and leaving blank lines between paragraphs, but more options could be useful, like weight and italics)

Additional features:

play a sound whenever a new text is displayed
display text using a telex (rtty) effect (or in a different manner, like displaying one line at a time; working on some demos)
depending on the text effect, play a "cursor" sound when characters appear (remember the Nostromo computer in the 1st Alien movie?)

Dialogue options --- IF WE DEEM IT NECESSARY:

the player may receive questions via the message/dialogue system to which a response should be registered, eg: "Using the special weapon will help you to destroy the boss quicker, but we won't be able to salvage any tech afterwards. Do you want to use the SW?" [Y/N] or maybe "We're about to enter a debris field. Would you like to boost the shields at the expense of firepower?" [Y/N]
if the player won't respond in a limited amount of time, the default action will be selected (ie not using the SW or no boosting the shields); I realize that this could be tricky to implement, so I'm willing to discuss it further with you :bowtie:
these inquiries should be accompanied by a distinct and repeating sound alarm to make the player aware that his finger action is required

Text effect tryouts for the message system - some really bad quality examples (low res & poorly executed), but hopefully some kind of a starting point: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S15koy5EU08 .

Thank you for the great samples there! I started implementing the needed support for the message/dialogue system and what I would further need from your side would be some use-case descriptions, things like:

[ ] when and how we'll want to trigger the dialogues?
[ ] by which mechanism will they disappear once they are done? by themseles/fading out/simply disappearing/conditioned by something/when we say it's time

The messages will be triggered by places and events.

Example 1 - places: the player travels through a quiet stretch of space; the msg/dialogue system comes alive "The radar is sensing a large object at 12 o'clock. Caution is advised."; soon the player approaches an old ship-wreck just floating through space; when the wreck is halfway passed, a new message is displayed "There's no sign of activity on board. It could be floating out here for centuries. This design does not suggest Auroch origins."

so in this case the message is displayed when the player ship gets to a certain point of the sector which triggers the playback

Example 2 - events: the player is engaged in a boss fight; the moment the player manages to kill the boss (we cannot predict the exact moment when that happens), the msg/dialogue system displays something like "I managed to get some valuable insight in Auroch behavior and tactics. It will prove useful when designing new upgrades."

in this case the msg/dialogue system is triggered by the death of an enemy ship

Questions, challenges and notes:

how could we trigger a message to pop-up when an entity dies, for example? is it doable? I mean how do we link the message system to entity events? should each entity have a set of tools in the editor for this purpose? :confused:
what happens if we need to display a longer message? we split it in two messages, triggering each and spacing the triggers so that the messages come up exactly when we need them?
will there be a way to format the text in terms of line break and paragraph? what about text wrapping? I figure we shouldn't have text that stretches too much horizontally - we need to confine it to a column of x characters wide.
what happens if the editor-guy gets careless and triggers a second message before the first had a chance to disappear? just for the argument's sake, I know this situation should be ironed-out well before `shipping' the product.

This basically is a demo sector script with focus on messages and dialogue.

Summary:

differences between messages and dialogues - how dialogues are handled
font color customization depending on who is transmitting - using colors to help the player quickly infer who's talking (even if we tag each message)
rhythm - using pauses to create a sort of tension and flow

Messages Messages do not require player action and are played either on a scrolling or static background. They are coming from the ship AI which aids the player with the mission, from allied forces, from unknown parties and even enemies. They are always displayed in the same place of the screen (lower right, for example) and can be displayed in various colors, depending of their source.

Dialogues Dialogues always require player action. They always happen with the game frozen in the background, awaiting for the player to make a decision before resuming the game (or displaying more dialogue options). They will be displayed in the same color and in a special place on the screen (centered, for example).

START OF SECTOR The Player enters the sector on a static screen (no scrolling and no ship controls). The ship comes from the bottom and moves forward through a Jump-gate and stops past the gate, somewhere at 1/3 of the screen height (normal starting position from S1). The Jump-gate disintegrates behind the Player. The Player can control the ship now, but the screen is still static.

A message appears from the ship's AI (SAI for short) [all messages from SAI are in neon-blue text color]

SAI (message) "That was unexpected. [short pause] The gate system was our only means of traveling back home. There is no point in staying here. If they know about the gate, they'll also want to know what happened to it. Let's gain some distance."

The text stays on for a few seconds, as specified in the script, then disappears. Same happens for all messages.

Scrolling starts, but for the time being we just travel through space, nothing else happens. After a few quiet moments we get another message.

SAI (message) "I plotted the course in the direction of a faint signal, similar to the one we have picked up earlier, when we were nearing the Jump-gate. It's our best bet for the time being. [short pause]

"We are in uncharted territory. I will try finding our location by comparing star patterns."

Nothing else happens for a few more seconds (10-15), when yet again the AI tells us something.

SAI (message) "Enemy ship signatures detected." [short pause, 3s] "Incoming!"

A few waves of enemy ships appear. Once they are dealt with, a short breather follows (scrolling continues, but nothing happens).

A succession of messages are then displayed (scrolling on, no entities besides the player on screen).

SAI (message) "Incoming unknown transmission..."

UNKNOWN (message) [text appears light gray] "ARGHAUL X'TAK GLUUM IM ARAYA..."

SAI (message) "Decoding..." [short pause, 2s]

"WE ARE BROUGHT TOGETHER BEFORE ONE GREAT COMMENCER" [pause 4s] "BURN WHAT LIES BEFORE, SPARE WHAT LIES ADJACENT." [medium pause, 6s]

SAI (message) "There's a slim probability that we've just made some friends. The signal came from very close..."

A moment later two invisible ships appear next to the player (one near the left side of the screen, the other on the right, at 1/3 of the screen height), flying in the same direction and at the same speed as the player. After a few seconds they accelerate and exit through the top of the screen.

SAI (message) "Their ships were nothing like the ones we've seen so far. Wait. [pause, 2s] Incoming enemy ships. Something big."

We're about to encounter an enemy boss, but before we get to it we see the wrecks of the two invisible ships from earlier and a blinking module. The wrecks and the blinking mod scroll down.

SAI (message) "Acquiring..." [pause] "I collected some sort of EMP weapon from the wrecks. It could come in handy."

As the message disappears, the Boss ship enters the screen. Behind the Boss there's another Jump-gate. The scrolling stops and the screen freezes. No input is registered from the player. A dialogue with the AI takes place. All dialogues happen over a frozen game and they require player input to resume the game.

SAI (dialogue) [font color is orange] "We can use the EMP weapon collected earlier against this alien ship. Doing so will prevent me from salvaging any useful tech later, but it will improve our chances of survival. Would you like me to use the EMP? [Y / N]"

Until the player picks an option the game is frozen. If the player choses to use the weapon (Y), the Boss ship loses a significant amount of health (say 3/4), then the game goes on normally. If the player choses to not use the weapon (N), the Boss enters the battle with full health. Upon the death of the Boss, the player receives the "Science freak" achievement and the game continues normally. The EMP weapon is discarded when passing through the Jump-gate. (other special weapon usages and mechanics are to be discussed in another thread)

Once the Boss is dead, the player can pass through the Jump-gate, finishing the sector. END OF SECTOR

rdemoparty / stardust

GD: gather requirements for a message/dialogue notification system #27