Inconsistencies between graphics and ASCII

[Al-Khwarizmi]

When I see a health bar, my mind puts it into one of a few categories. I don't think I really consciously tell between a 55% health bar and a 50% health bar. So I don't think lack of health bars in ASCII mode is very unbalancing, especially if a few more categories are created as _Ln_ says.

[Silfir]

The point of introducing health bars to ASCII mode isn't balance, it's convenience. Keeping track of everything with the 'l'ook command is a major pain that no one actually wants to go through.



ASCII mode and tileset mode are never going to play and feel the same. There are lots of minor inconsistencies that simply aren't worth worrying about. Since we're trying to get on Steam, the focus should be to make the graphical mode the best game it can be and adapt ASCII to fit wherever we can. Mimics for instance; if tileset mimics actually work as intended and aren't distinguishable from real items at first glance, we should make that the norm in ASCII mode, too. If ASCII mode is "graphical" in nature, it should be possible to add health bars as well. Can't stress enough how much I love health bars.

[Al-Khwarizmi]

Well, here we have to distinguish between pure ASCII mode and NotEye ASCII mode. Pure ASCII mode (i.e. the one used on the server, for example) just can't have health bars for technical reasons (it cannot have anything outside of console characters).

In NotEye ASCII mode I think health bars are fine, but I was thinking about the pure ASCII mode in my previous comment.

[Silfir]

Well, certainly we can't hold off on including new features because they wouldn't fit with pure ASCII mode. We can only go so far with accomodating it.

[Raray]

Another inconsistency: Keethrax wears "a white robe" in the ASCII version, while his sprite in the graphical version wears black, even though he still "wears a white robe".

[jt]

Another inconsistency: Keethrax wears "a white robe" in the ASCII version, while his sprite in the graphical version wears black, even though he still "wears a white robe".

Krys already updated the images so the robe color now matches the description.