Make an Event Log

[Listen1]

I would like to suggest making an event log.

After you right click in the letter of an event or see a minor event (A chunk of spaceship has fallen nearby) it just dissapears from the game, having no way to see it again. My suggestion is to make this events appear in a log that you can click on the menu (like History or Research). In that you would be able to see the sequence of events and what happened more easily.

__________________________________
I*Event 1 I Event 1                                 I
I Event 2  I This event Describes something I
I             I that killed you without mercy     I
I             I Happened year 5501, Fall          I
I             I day 11                                   I
____________________________________

Main use I can think about: Step by step tutorial for begginers.

You can actually make a tutorial that will explain the step by step to make your colony start, In the letter/event type. This will allow you to reach a more in depth tutorial that will help newcomers. You could do that right now, but if someone right clicked it the event would be lost.

It will also allow you to see the consistency of event easier, this can also be a tool for devs/modders to balance their events and Storyliners.

[SpaceDorf]

I would like this too, the history tab is sadly not informative enough for the daily colony news.

After a message went away ( why they are deleted when I click on goto, I don't understand ) there is no more possibility to recheck what it said.

Also a log for the small infos on the top left would be awesome. Sometimes when many of those infos pop it passes to fast to read.

[Listen1]

Yeah! Major events and minor events.

it's good utillity

[JDCAce]

This is a wonderful idea. To build on it, perhaps let the events be "clickable" and have the click function as a "go to" like in the letters. It's great for when a cargo pod drops during a raid and you can't bother to go pick up the stuff; just go to your log, click the event, and find the goods again. Of course, sometimes it would be silly, like clicking on a Raid event in the log and being shown an empty square on the edge of the map.

[Listen1]

No problem going to a blank square, of even if the log dosen't show where the event happend. You will be able to see what happened and in what order.

[DariusWolfe]

That'd be fairly easy to solve by having the go-to functionality having an expiration period.

I'd also love to see this function dumped into a text file alongside the save file, for reference outside the game.

[SpaceDorf]

That'd be fairly easy to solve by having the go-to functionality having an expiration period.

I'd also love to see this function dumped into a text file alongside the save file, for reference outside the game.

Rather than a time based expire, I would prefer to have the event coordinates deleted after a fitting ingame event.

In case of an attack the coordinates are with the leader and either get deleted when he is incapacitated or leaves.
In case of a drop event the coordinates get deleted either when the player unforbids the items, the dropped item get destroyd or dies. A dropevent is classified from mechanoid parts over escape pods to supplies.


----------- OT RANT ---------------

On another matter I just have to put it out there.
It feels really weird that I could finish nearly every description of a solution with ".. like DF"
And I don't understand whats the fuzz about how hard or bad the interface is .. everytime I think about how a similiar game could do something better it ends in ".. like DF"

Its like playing Starcraft purely with hotkeys. No Info or Action is more than three clicks away and the actual difficulty does not come from the interface itself but from the complexity of things you can do with it.

Playing for nearly ten years now, I still love this thing

[Listen1]

I wish that a UI guy would opnion on this, because to code this you will only take the informations that already appear on the screen and store it in an event. Should be relatively easy.

As for the Rant, it's a game that drawns inspiration from DF, many things will be compared to DF and said "DF did it better, or you should do it like DF" That's not a bad thing, so no worries.

[SpaceDorf]

yeah, the rant was more amazement about how effective DF is in what it does, while everybody is complaining that it looks like something notepad would cough up if you shake it long enough.
And I actually don't want to point it out everytime. But the thought is always there.

----- END OFF OT RANT -----

Back on topic of the event log ..

The event log of Dwarf Fortress is actually pretty amazing
Its just A ( no i believe it was q .. I can't write the key combinations .. its like typewriting .. the hand remembers )
click away, fully accessible from beginning to now, it distinguishes between Work Events and Combat ( and hunting/training )
has a exact ingame timestamp, colorcodes and is accessible as file

Also autopause is configurable for every event.

What I don't get in Rimworld A14 is why the time is not slowed down when raiders arrive but it continues in high speed ..

[skullywag]

All major events like this are somewhat recorded (as Tales) anyway as they are used for Art. So if anyone wanted to try their hand at modding, check out the Tale based code, its all saved in there.

[Listen1]

I can't code, so I won't be able to do that.

If it isn't much to ask, how can I acess this data on the "data" Folder? If it is easy to find I may ask it on the mods subforum.

[skullywag]

tales are saved in your save/world file. (cant remember which) So someone just needs to load that data to get a semi decent log set up.

[BlackSmokeDMax]

All major events like this are somewhat recorded (as Tales) anyway as they are used for Art. So if anyone wanted to try their hand at modding, check out the Tale based code, its all saved in there.

Is that possibly the section that is bugged where some art reports events from the year before you arrive? Most notably that I remember, it says some/one of your starting pawns were recruited the winter in the year previous to your arrival on the planet.

[Listen1]

Code Select Expand

</li>
<li Class="Tale_SinglePawn">
<def>LandedInPod</def>
<id>2</id>
<date>-1</date>
<surroundings>
<worldCoords>(114, 22)</worldCoords>
<temperature>9.603981</temperature>
<weather>Clear</weather>
<roomRole>None</roomRole>
</surroundings>
<pawnData>
<pawn>Thing_Human385</pawn>
<kind>Colonist</kind>
<faction>Faction_9</faction>
<gender>Male</gender>
<name Class="NameTriple">
<first>David</first>
<nick>Scottish</nick>
<last>Reid</last>
</name>
<app>Apparel_Jacket</app>
</pawnData>
</li>
<li>
<def>RaidArrived</def>
<id>3</id>
<date>-1</date>
<surroundings IsNull="True" />
</li>

It's probably this you are talking about right Skullywag? It's on the Save-file. I can't see much content, the Date and ID might have other codes imbued.