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Sleuth Admin
Sleuth Admin
Tale Spinner

Apr-25-2015 00:35

Our Friend YetiFace has been hard at work again improving Sleuth.

He's moved the icon toolbar around on the map page. More importantly, townie locations relevant to solving cases are now linked to each other with their own toolbar. So you shouldn't have to jump back to the map screen as often.

Yeti's working on a few other similar improvements that should help take a lot of the tedium out of Sleuth, and reduce the opportunities to make silly mistakes while you navigate.

Tell us what you think!

Replies

Secret_Squirrel
Secret_Squirrel
Safety Officer

Apr-26-2015 03:18

I wonder whether just utilising the space next to the suspect list to create 7 columns (alibi + 4 evidence + 2 WE) which auto-filled when you visit a suspect, like how sleuth-helper works, wouldn't be the most expedient solution. It wouldn't solve the case, but it would give you all available information on the one screen for you to make your deduction from. It's not like a 'case note book' hasn't been banged on about from way back.

My caveat on that would be that it would cost X skill points to buy and you couldn't get it until you hit AI cases.

:)

Pidgeot
Pidgeot

Apr-26-2015 04:07

I received an e-mail from Lady Jas, asking me to pop in here. I did *not* expect my little program to have that big of an influence, especially not 8 years later :)

Sleuth Helper relies on finding specific strings in the HTML, so restructuring the layout is very likely to break it. For the map page, specifically, it looks for links between "<b>Interview Suspects</b>" and "</td>" in order to fill out its evidence list.

A very quick way to fix this case is going to be hiding those strings in HTML comments, such that all the suspect links are between those comments - the helper is just looking for those plain strings, nothing more.

However, as it so happens, I have some extra spare time these days. If you're willing to cooperate, I'd be willing to bring the helper out of retirement and release some updates to accomodate these changes as you make them.

I'd need access to the new HTML, of course, but as long as I can get that, it shouldn't take too long to make the necessary changes before it goes live; generally 24 hours should be sufficient.

I can also, if you prefer, send you a write-up of what exactly the helper is looking for on a given page, or you can try to read the source code and hack it with HTML comments, which is included as an option in the installer (and can be sent via e-mail to non-Windows users) - all the important stuff like parsing is done in the file Unit1.pas.

I'll check back here over the next couple of days, but the fastest way to get a response from me is going to be with e-mail (put michael before the @, and birdiesoft.dk after the @).

Sophie4
Sophie4
Gopher to the Sleuth Gods

Apr-26-2015 04:43

I like the idea of S.S., especially having everything on 1 screen. I'm not married to SH, I just don't want to have to use pen & paper to play.

Daenerys Targaryen
Daenerys Targaryen
Bibliophile

Apr-26-2015 09:49

Same here :D. I've always wanted some kind of helper to be a part of the game itself.

Lady Jas
Lady Jas
The Chosen One

Apr-26-2015 09:55

Mobil friendly is good. I could play on Ipad or my android when I'm not on my computer..but could there be a way for SH to be mobile friendly as well?

That would help me when I'm away from home..

Lady Jas
Lady Jas
The Chosen One

Apr-26-2015 09:58

And thank you Pidgeot for being so kind as to respond :) Very much appreciated.

Yeti Face
Yeti Face
Pinball Amateur

Apr-26-2015 11:56

I'd originally intended for this update to be in a bundle with two other updates. It was my interface update, and it was designed to allow all players to play without needing to use a pen and pad, not just those who have downloaded extra software onto their computers. As Ben has mentioned this will ultimately help everyone when the Sleuth site becomes mobile friendly, and as Secret Secret said it'll mean we don't need to worry about the impacts future updates will have on software not developed by us.

You've mostly all had a chance to see what the navigation bar change does, a change which unfortunately perhaps didn't get the most favourable judgement due to its impact on Sleuth Helper. It should however make solving cases significantly less tedious, allowing your detective to walk straight to check an alibi from a suspect's home for example without having to fly up to a bird's eye view of the city you're in first. If however you'd rather your detective cracked out their map first and selected the townie that way, the buttons to achieve that will still be in place.

The second change, which I've just about finished work on, is one to how suspects are listed when you wish to check them against a piece of physical evidence. If your detective has identified a note as being written by a right handed person, for example, and you've visited a suspect and found they're left handed, they'll be crossed out of the suspect list when you go to check that right handed note. In addition, if you check the note against someone who is right handed and they do not match, they'll then be crossed off the list as well. This is how it'll look:

http://s18.postimg.org/f0h398ne1/new_physical_evidence.png

Yeti Face
Yeti Face
Pinball Amateur

Apr-26-2015 11:57

The final change, which I wanted to start work on soon, involved listing the suspects below the map in a number of columns, for example how they're listed in the case file. The suspect information would read something like this:

Brendan Chluffle
Alibi: Butcher (REAL)
Right Handed Note
Straight Hair
Hair
RULE OUT SUSPECT

Only the physical evidence they could potentially match will be listed underneath them (so no right handed notes listed under a left handed person). When you've checked a piece of evidence against them, or else identified a piece of evidence as matching another, it'll be crossed out from the list. A form of this page will also appear when one visits a townie to check a piece of evidence.

RULE OUT SUSPECT will be a check box or a button which will tell Sleuth you've written that suspect out of the running as murderer. They will then no longer appear as an option when trying to seek witness evidence.

I hope this post alleviates some players fears and even leads to some level of excitement, though I know it's not a content update. That's coming up after this one, I promise. If anyone would like me to go into more detail about anything in this post, has any suggestions to add, or even hates everything in it, please let Ben and I know so we can do something about it before this hits the game proper. :)


Ebony Villanueva
Ebony Villanueva
Nomad

Apr-27-2015 01:04

I'm all for the permanent map toolbar on suspect pages. :)

Bela Talbot III
Bela Talbot III
Con Artist

Apr-27-2015 03:09

The second and third changes sound great, and if there is any way to prevent a question being re-asked (it happens a lot on a slow-ish connections), that'd be great! Also, I thought suspects who didn't match a certain piece of PE wouldn't figure in the list at all, but crossing them out is a lot better.

I don't know if we really need the first change; it might be a god-send when the game's slow, but it'd take a lot of time to get used to the rearrangement. That is the only thing I have against it, and if we really need it, I'm sure we'll get used to it.

I'm all for making the game mobile-friendly; the more the merrier :)

In response to Ben's question, if these other changes Yeti's mentioned are made, we wouldn't really need the Helper (the only thing missing would be the colours, I think? I can't believe I'm saying this, but I can live without the colour). I'd like the in-game changes to be made.

And Yeti, would the suspect list on the (column-changed) map look completely different from the way it does now? Like,

Suspect #1 (being a link to him) Suspect #2 (link to #2)
Alibi: Butcher (REAL) Alibi:
Right Handed Note PE
Straight Hair PE
Hair PE
RULE OUT SUSPECT RULE OUT SUSPECT

Suspect #3... Suspect #4...

Could we have something (eventually, if not in this immediate batch of changes) that could record the twist during a VH? If not all twists, could we have a section called "Notes" in the case file where the significant twists at least might be recorded? The ones that affect faction standings are the only ones we find out about during the case now.

Notes:
You were offered a bribe to quit this case.
Scarf-y tried to kill you (this type can be skipped - it doesn't really affect the case).

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