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Hacking This Game
http://dynamic-designs.us/d-dforum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=587		 Page 3 of 7
Author:  Garrett [ Fri May 30, 2014 9:36 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Hacking This Game
Yeah, I'm not gonna worry about that main dialogue right now. All the misc text and menus use that compression that I did a bypass hack for. So I'll have some screens when I get more than a few screens done.
Author:  Wildbill [ Sat May 31, 2014 6:15 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hacking This Game
Garrett wrote:
Yeah, I'm not gonna worry about that main dialogue right now. All the misc text and menus use that compression that I did a bypass hack for. So I'll have some screens when I get more than a few screens done.
Yep, no worries. The new dialogue space you are providing alleviates concerns about chopped speech and narrative, although it could have still been worked with fewer bytes. A writer simply condenses the story without losing coherence (creates a Reader's Digest version, if you will).

Frequently, I use a technique I learned in advanced creative writing classes of re-outlining scenes (from the translation for RPGs), and then I apply the basic concept of "economy of words" around that. Another way is my own invention for RPG stories only. I fall back on the primarily journalistic rule of "inverted pyramid". Here I simply list the impact or most climatic statement first, then follow down to the least important. I carve off those least significant bottom segments until it fits, then I rearrange everything until I regain the drama and suspense as best I can.

Follow-on editors tinkering with a writer's story can really screw it up after this point if they don't know or consider the whole body of work. One slight change can have a ripple effect and cause major disconnects all down the line. In Ro3K, however, the story is the story and it never changes. What happened as recorded in history IS the only story. DoaE is really an easy write once research notes are assembled and tabbed, scene outlines penned, the raw translation is lying side-by-side, and I have the Chicago Manual of Style handy. Much of this I'm able to record inside my head and not be shuffling papers constantly.

The real mystery to me about DoaE-GB has always been how the warlords/generals will work in menus. Will Pinyin (English transliteration) fit the space allowed for ideographs (the Mandarin). Or will we need to leave some of the Chinese like we did in DoaE-II?

Actually, leaving one set of the Chinese instead of repeating Pinyin on the same menus worked out pretty well in DoaE-II. Doing the name in Pinyin twice would have been overkill, and people had an opportunity to compare and maybe learn a bit of Chinese. We also left the ideograph for "gold" or "money" 金 (Pinyin: jin) in the menus. Nice touch, I always thought.

Finally, my biggest worry is the archaic ideographs in the names of some warlords. Multiple readings can create a mess of confusion for us humble translators. Our call on some generals may please a group in Hong Kong while upsetting others in Singapore! I'm not sure about Communist China. Their ordinary citizens might be barred from receiving material on the internet from the free world. But that is where artifacts from the Han Dynasty are currently being unearthed at the ruins of the former Han capital at LuoYang. I would love to see this place if I was not barred from traveling to Red China.
Author:  Garrett [ Fri Jun 06, 2014 11:15 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Hacking This Game
I've been slowly chipping away at the menu's. Here's my current progress.

ImageImageImage

The biggest change is the reworking of the main menu. Styles/personalities can be a max of 6 characters now. I've just finished relocating all the names to another bank in the expanded space and am planning a few hacks for them. I am planning two different display hacks. For most of the name displays, names will be displayed on 2 rows of 6 characters each. This will work for 95-99% of all the names without having to use squishy tiles. Only the longer names like Yellow Scarves will need some squishy tiles. I will also have the names displayed on 1 row for the upper right part of the menu. Maybe I'll finish the name hacking this weekend.
Author:  Wildbill [ Sat Jun 07, 2014 5:57 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hacking This Game
Garrett wrote:
I've been slowly chipping away at the menu's. Here's my current progress.

ImageImageImage

The biggest change is the reworking of the main menu. Styles/personalities can be a max of 6 characters now. I've just finished relocating all the names to another bank in the expanded space and am planning a few hacks for them. I am planning two different display hacks. For most of the name displays, names will be displayed on 2 rows of 6 characters each. This will work for 95-99% of all the names without having to use squishy tiles. Only the longer names like Yellow Scarves will need some squishy tiles. I will also have the names displayed on 1 row for the upper right part of the menu. Maybe I'll finish the name hacking this weekend.
This is beyond exciting! You'll have this game playable in no time. Then I'll peck away at formatting the story once our partner vets Akujin's raw trans. Squishy tiles and such are fine with me if this fleshes out names.

Speaking of which: what's the max name length on the Strategist menu? Do we have room for the second "i" in Liu Bei? Can we indent into that blank space to the left of the "L" for longer names such as Zhuge Liang and Pang Tong? I'm not sure if that pair is featured in this game version, but they were two of the top tacticians of the latter Han Dynasty who were allied with Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei - the brotherhood.
Author:  Garrett [ Sat Jun 07, 2014 9:05 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Hacking This Game
Indenting the names would require 7 characters for the second row, which would reduce the bottom row ultimately to 5 characters max. The screen space is tight in the battle mode.
Author:  Garrett [ Sat Jun 07, 2014 11:18 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Hacking This Game
Image
Author:  Wildbill [ Sun Jun 08, 2014 3:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hacking This Game
Garrett wrote:
Image


Nice! Money can be Gold if that frees up a letter for something else.

Oh, and Strategist can be Tactician, one less letter.

And Soldiers can be Troops
Author:  Garrett [ Tue Jun 10, 2014 10:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Hacking This Game
Nothing much going on. Still plenty of menus left to hack.

ImageImageImageImage

Whatever this menu text says is immaterial. It can be changed to whatever.
Author:  Wildbill [ Wed Jun 11, 2014 3:10 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hacking This Game
Garrett wrote:
Nothing much going on. Still plenty of menus left to hack.

ImageImageImageImage

Whatever this menu text says is immaterial. It can be changed to whatever.
Well, it's certainly shaping up. And, as people say a lot to the troupe in Aretha-I, "Don't work too hard!"
Author:  Garrett [ Sat Jun 14, 2014 2:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Hacking This Game
ImageImageImageImageImage

So I suppose it's pretty obvious I've made a dent in the menus. Based on my initial impressions, most of the main menu stuff is done aside from various small tweaks. I've got one more thing to do before I call it quits for now. Afterwards, I'll be taking a break and waiting for the title screen to be designed. Then I'll pick things up again.
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