Very small Hotspots, the little niggles thread!

[Gemmalah]

Here is a thread for all the little niggles in AGS games, (just so I know what to avoid)

The most annoying thing for me is very small hotspots, my mouse for my computer is not that good and I miss them, anyone share my opinion?

Tell me is it acceptable to have a small picture of say a rubber and make the hotspot larger than the picture? Because I played one game where you had to click on the wall next to the object to pick it up. how annoying.

Oh on a techical note how do I make object hotspots bigger, It's a fork and tiny on screen. thats all

[m0ds]

You could always place a hotspot around an object, making the area on screen bigger. That way, if the object is taken/picked up you can just turn the hotspot off.

One of the things I most dislike is one of those GUI's where when you're mouse is over a hotspot, you don't know about it. You just have to click everywhere trying to find out what's useable etc. @MOUSEOVERHOTSPOT@'s aren't that hard to implement!

m0ds

[GarageGothic]

Can't you turn off pixel perfect detection and just have a few invisible  pixels on all sides of the object, padding out the clickable area?

[Alynn]

It also helps for people to have an actual pointer... I know that doesnt work for everything, but when the pixel you are using at the point for the pointer is right in the middle, it isnt at nice as a definate point... which I understand is not always possible... which is why for my little moving walk icon i put the point in his head...

Personally, a hotspot should be at least 5X5 pixels on small resolution and 10X10 on high... and just because you have a T shaped object (like a tap on a barrel) doesnt mean the hotspot has to be T shaped too.. nothing wrong with a square....

I guess in some ways its balancing between user usability and hardness of the puzzle (IE that tiny crack in the wall you may miss that holds the great key of winning)