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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

Daenerys Targaryen
Daenerys Targaryen
Bibliophile

Apr-25-2015 16:03

An afterthought: there is a game of great potential which cries for improvement. Its name is Sleuth: Shades of Mystery.

Sleuth Admin
Sleuth Admin
Tale Spinner

Apr-25-2015 17:16

Hi all. Thanks for the great feedback.

We've rolled back to the previous version for now while we give it some more thought.. I still like the idea permanent toolbar, but we'll put a little more work in and try to find something that works better.




Lady Jas
Lady Jas
The Chosen One

Apr-25-2015 17:47

Thank you Ben for replying. All the Sleuth Helper players thank you as well.

Lady Jas
Lady Jas
The Chosen One

Apr-25-2015 17:49

Now Bela and Tyrion, come get us!!!! *grins*

Secret_Squirrel
Secret_Squirrel
Safety Officer

Apr-25-2015 18:18

yawn... yay, I gign't even have to do anything. I love it when things happen in US time whilst I'm asleep :)

I might also add that the sleuth helper app is a third party piece of software and it isn't beholden on Ben and Yeti to make changes to the game to suit an app that wasn't created by them.

!!I wouldn't like to think a 3rd party piece of software is going to hold the game back!!

However the Apple / Borg approach is always helpful. When threatened... assimilate.

Peter Guillam
Peter Guillam
Assistant Librarian

Apr-25-2015 22:04

Thanks Ben for reverting Sleuth to its previous version. By the way, I completely agree with Daenerys' reflections on the game's atmosphere.

Sleuth Admin
Sleuth Admin
Tale Spinner

Apr-25-2015 23:31

Yeah, I think it's reasonable for folks to have different opinions about how much work is required to maintain story narrative vs just getting down to the basic game mechanics. There is always the balance between "Ain't broke don't fix it" vs not changing something just because we're used to it the way it is... regardless of whether it's really better this way.

As for continuing to support Sleuth Helper: considering the fact that it's not being actively maintained, I'd rather find a way to bring the most important elements into the game and possibly make them optional. But, my feelings aren't that strong on the matter.

One thing I do think is very important is to make the interface more mobile friendly. It's 2015 and Noir is a game that really lends itself well to playing on the go. I'd personally play much more often if I could do it easily on the bus during my commute.

In order to do that, we really need to modernize a lot of the front end code. We can do it in such a way that's independent of how much (or little we alter the game flow) but it may be difficult to keep it compatible with Sleuth Helper.

So, here's my question for you all.

If the changes we make to make the interface work better on mobile devices were to break Sleuth Helper... would you rather that we integrate some convenience features into the game itself (i.e. prevent you re-asking a question or asking about an invalid suspect-evidence combination), or would you be OK moving forward without SH?

Thanks all.




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.

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