[Brainstorming] Improving the Battle sections

[macce2]

Hi to all Ambermoon players there!
I decided to start this new thread,
regarding the battle sequences of Ambermoon
& Ambermoon Advanced in general;
because I have a couple of requests,
suggestions & ideas improving those.

First, I'd like to focus on the messages appearing
while on battle field:

While fighting some Curse wasps on the Forest moon,
you may get the following messages:
"curse wasp has deflected the spell (X)" and
"curse wasp is Immune to this type of spell"
successively.

If we assume that "curse wasp is immune to spell X" is true;
then the other sentence "curse wasp has deflected the spell (X)"
is totally useless and additionally kind of illogical.

So, why don't we simply remove those extraordinary sentences
and thus maybe even free up some memory for other things ?!

The second "issue" is a small request:

while using the inventory screens during battles;
it would be nice if the character that had last been
investigated / used on the inventory screens,
would be activated automatically while returning
to the battle sequence screen.

Maybe I or someone else would like to add something to this thread
in the future, so please don't close this one yet, please !

[Pyrdacor]

I agree that not both Messages should appear together. But you still need both as immunity is based on a flag on the monster (or the element) and the deflection is a dice roll against the Anti-Magic attribute.

However if the monster is immune, the dice roll is not necessary and should not be performed.

The active player selection in battle might be useful. But I am not sure if someone who knows the original might get confused.

[macce2]

While fighting some curse wasps near Kire's dwelling in Don Kiredon;
I was astonished by the Dungeon background appearing on the
battle screen.
When confronted by the other insects in Don Kiredon,
the background was the city view, just like it should be there.
I think this must be fixed.

Additionally, IMHO there's some places in Ambermoon where
the background graphics of the battle screens should be changed;
or ideally, totally re-made.
Some examples:

The bandit's house (the cellar part might be ok)

ManyEyes' Castle, the roof level

Ruined tower, roof level (located on the Forest moon)

etc.

Maybe this request should be moved to Ambermoon Advanced repo..!?
I do know that there propably isn't too many, if any graphicians
available for this Ambermoon project(-s) right now;
but I thought I Must write this because "the issue" has been
bothering me a considerable time;
and I even decided to start doing some sketches for some
new battle backgrounds, but then i had plenty of other things
to do and also thought that maybe im not good enough an artist to do those.
I used to do some drawings when i was younger,
but haven't been drawing since those days.
Maybe we could find someone talented out there, huh..!?

[macce2]

Sometimes there seems to be a minor screen refresh problem
with the appearing messages (LP:s ; "X has detected the spell" etc)
when hitting enemies.
So, there may be little too long a delay between those messages,
relatively to the recent actions on the screen.
I'm not sure if this does only occur on "faster" machines (!?);
but I have noticed this problem earlier;
especially when fighting many ("complex to draw") enemies.

[macce2]

[Feature request] Limit the usage of potions etc. during battles to a closer range

This one might not work without doing more comprehensive modifications
to the LPs of enemies, weapons, spells etc. but I decided to write this
because this feature might make the battles somewhat more realistic
and the idea is generally taken from the game Perihelion and if I
remember right, it does also concern, to a certain degree, Ultima 6.

Ok in short, the idea is this:

You could only use potion(-s) and everything like that
(herbs etc) to a party member that is located physically
close to the user.

[macce2]

[Feature request] Make enemy bosses appear as different coloured etc
on battle map screen

There are some types of enemies that have "chiefs" among them
(not to be mistaken for the likes of Luminor etc);
IMHO it would nice if these chiefs would appear uniquely,
compared to the "common ones" on the battle map screen;
maybe different coloured or anything like that.

[macce2]

[Request] Please move this whole thread (issue) to the Ambermoon Advanced section !?

[macce2]

Excuse me, but IMHO I do assume this thread should better be moved to the AA
Issues section.
However, that's up to Robert, eventually.

I must tell You all that I began working on
some new additional battle Backround pictures;
hopefully I will have something
(very alpha lol !) to show in the near future.
Hopefully I will get something finished and that You all
will think them to be good enough to maybe
even be used in the upcoming versions
of Ambermoon Advanced !

[Pyrdacor]

Actually it's mostly related to the original as well. So I would leave it here. I don't have much time lately for adjustments and bugfixes but I will come back to it at a later point for sure.

[macce2]

Please consider completely re-making several
special 2D sections with battle elements
(Bandit's House; the Madman's cellar in Spannenberg)
in 3D (Ambermoon Advanced, Ambermoon.net).