Highlight useful items for your class (on [C])

So, I often see how people don't notice useful materials/ammo for their classes. And it usually happens on the battle field: a lot of corpses, hearts, ammo don't allow you to see useful items for your class (fire arrows, bombs, bomb arrows, gold etc.).
Maybe it's a stupid idea, but here is a "prototype":

Spoiler

Edit: Ok, now it looks more balanced and more beautiful (like pickup). Screenshot in spoiler.

Spoiler

Items won't be highlighted, if lighting level (luminance) is less than 30 (255 max).
What is highlighted:

• Wood, stone and gold for a builder.
  
• Fire arrows, water arrows and bomb arrows for an archer.
• Bombs and water bombs for a knight.

--- Double Post Merged, Oct 29, 2017, Original Post Date: Oct 28, 2017 ---

Ok, the final version is here:


GitHub: https://github.com/transhumandesign/kag-base/pull/45

 

This idea is flawed in multiple ways:

• Performance: Your implementation is horrendous performance-wise.
  
• It'll make nearby blobs (out of range and blocked) seem as if they're inside the pickup range.
  
  

That said, I personally dislike it because:

• I like the aspect of spotting useful blobs (without this kind of help).
• It clutters the screen with flashing blobs - especially when there's a lot of blobs.

 

Thank you for your report. Now hightlighted items have an outline only when they are in pickup range. Made fading less annoying too.

 

Post from geti on github:

Here's a summary of things that the idea implies so far:

• The highlight appears only when [C] is pressed.
  
• The highlight appears only if the area is bright enough. If you can't see an item, you won't see its highlight, so you cannot see items hidden in tunnels.
• The highlight brightness depends on the area brightness.
• Materials are highlighted if you are a builder, special arrows are highlighted if you are an archer, bombs are highlighted if you are a knight (kegs probably should though?)
• Highlighted items have an outline only when these are in range, but the highlight brightness does not vary.
  
• The highlighted items show on top of other things, including other materials, grass, trees, and players.

What can be implemented:

• Fade out the effect depending on the distance.
  
• A switch to disable the effect (which would require to be done engine-side).
• Make the highlight effect more subtle for out of range items (which I did suggest, but Diprog says he would rather test the highlight in its current state and then tune it).

Performance is hardly a concern. It runs only when pressing [C], and only looks for blobs in the view (which is not yet pushed on github). It's not like it's iterating over a couple thousand times. Feel free to profile it though.

 

Tested it on sandbox with around 10 - 20 blobs.
It came in last after a few pick-ups.

 

Optimized down by a lot, ~1 minute test with a crapton of gold dropped:

Code:

[12:13:16] [0.083s total, 0.00005s avg]  1815 calls - void onTick(CSprite@ sprite):highlightitems.as
[12:13:16] [0.085s total, 0.00005s avg]  1815 calls - void onRender(CMap@ this):sandbox.as
[12:13:16] [0.098s total, 0.00005s avg]  1815 calls - void onTick(CSprite@ this):builderanim.as
[12:13:16] [0.105s total, 0.00006s avg]  1815 calls - void onTick(CMovement@ this):runnermovement.as
[12:13:16] [0.138s total, 0.00008s avg]  1815 calls - void onTick(CSprite@ this):runnerhead.as
[12:13:16] [0.196s total, 0.00011s avg]  1815 calls - void onRender(CRules@ this):markplayers.as
[12:13:16] [0.348s total, 0.00019s avg]  1815 calls - void onTick(CBlob@ this):drawhovermessages.as
[12:13:16] [0.942s total, 0.00052s avg]  1815 calls - void onRender(CSprite@ this):builderhud.as
[12:13:16] [1.067s total, 0.00059s avg]  1815 calls - void onRender(CSprite@ this):defaultactorhud.as
[12:13:16] [2.662s total, 0.00147s avg]  1815 calls - void onRender(CSprite@ sprite):highlightitems.as
[12:13:16] [3.519s total, 0.00194s avg]  1815 calls - void onRender(CSprite@ this):standardpickup.as
[12:13:16] [6.330s total, 0.00349s avg]  1815 calls - void onTick(CRules@ this):mechanismsserver.as
[12:13:16] [20.245s total, 0.01115s avg]  1815 calls - void onTick(CBlob@ this):standardpickup.as

 

If this becomes a thing, at least give us the option to turn it on/off in options settings. I personally don't like it but i can understand how it can help newer people who play the game.

 

Pretty much totally agree with the getster on this one. Could be a wonderful accessibility feature if done right. Recognising the items on the screen is not a main focus of the gameplay either, so I wouldn't say it detracts from that. That said, the option should definitively be toggle-able as it will probably annoy newer players. I trust Asu with performance, he knows his shit

 

You say it'll be of assistance - especially to less able players. I doubt this. I foresee it'll become another "random" feature that nobody (unless those who implemented it) notices or takes active use of - much like the "marking" system. It's not like these materials lie around everywhere. To expect less able players to take active use of this system is unrealistic.

Keeping it minimalistic and simple will benefit newcomers much more.

 

i suspect this will benefit pros more than newbies. newbies might not know about it. basically this would be a nice trick that, when you learn it, makes your life easier. so it widens the gap between total nub and uber pro. but i also think it will help "middle tier" players more than pros, that are already on a constant lookout for useful items

 

It's redundant in that way. Anyone who's on "constant lookout" would spot them either way.

 

do it before para becomes a better waifu than foxy again

 

Yeah seems like a neat idea, I always notice unused bomb arrows just lying around, but what FoxyLady said. Make it an option if it is implemented.

 

Honestly, I think this would be a great idea for the sake of new players. I persuaded a couple of my friends to buy KAG a long time ago and they didn't really get into it, and I truly think that reason was because they never quite got past the learning curve. Obviously this isn't the case for every new player, but I think everything would be a little less daunting and chaotic for a newbie if class-specific items are highlighted. Anything to help them ease into understanding how the game works. (but yeah I definitely support the idea of being able to turn this feature off for experienced players)

And one other thing on this topic --- you know how in a lot of video games (Dark Souls, some Zeldas, etc.) when there is a loading screen, an image of an in-game item will be displayed, along with some brief information/stats about it? Could that be something else fairly easy to add in during the screens when you're connecting to a server? This could further help new players. Just a thought.

 

What is that?