Adventure Game Studio

AGS Support => Beginners' Technical Questions => Topic started by: lapsking on Sat 17/12/2022 05:32:13

Title: I don't want Look At to highlight when cursor moves over hotspots (PROBLEM SOLVED)
Post by: lapsking on Sat 17/12/2022 05:32:13
Hi, I'm making a game with Tumbleweed verbs template. I have changed the default verb from Walk To to Look At since it's a first person game and there isn't much use for Walk To.

My problem is whatever verb the player selects and then moves the cursor over hotspots or objects, Look At verb which is default verb highlights. I want to change that. I want the selected verb which shows in action bar to be kept highlighted, not only cursor moves over hotspots or objects but as long as it's selected, till another verb is selected. As you can see in the picture Pick Up verb is selected but Look At verb is highlighted.

(https://lapsking.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/adventuregamestudioforum.jpg)

Thanks for any help.
Title: Re: Instead of default verb, I want selected verb to be highlighted
Post by: Khris on Sat 17/12/2022 13:14:03
I'm not offering a solution, just an explanation/comment: you can set a right-click action for every hotspot, object or character.
The default right-click action is "look at" ("talk to" for characters), so the player can simply right-click stuff.
You can even set a dynamic extension, like "open" or "close" for doors, depending on the door's current state.
The default verb is shown to the player by highlighting it while hovering a hotspot.

This is how the 9-verb GUI has worked for the last 30+ years, and this is what players expect when they play a 9-verb GUI game.

If you still want to go ahead with this we can probably come up with a solution.
Title: Re: Instead of default verb, I want selected verb to be highlighted
Post by: Snarky on Sat 17/12/2022 14:08:11
Compare this thread: https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=59181.0

Title: Re: Instead of default verb, I want selected verb to be highlighted
Post by: lapsking on Sat 17/12/2022 17:36:20
OK, thanks for explanation Khris, now I had a flashback to Lucas Arts games and yes you are right and it makes sense in 3rd person games. But this feature is mainly useless in my game. Lucas Arts games were 3rd person and by default it was Walk To so to right click to Look At something could save time. But my game is 1st person and there is no player character on screen to Walk To anywhere or anything and I replaced Walk To with Look At by default. If you know what I mean. And to be honest there won't be so many characters to Talk To in my game.

Thank you Snarky that topic was exactly my issue and by reading Khris explanation on that topic I changed 'l' and 't' to 'n' so now Look At and Talk To won't highlight anymore.

But I think I don't want the selected verb to be kept highlighted as long as it's selected, so I gave up that idea, it's a bit kitchy. The selected verb already appears in status bar so why even bothering with highlighting it. Problem solved. Thank you Khris and Snarky.