Esoteric Update #332 - Tooltip Triumphs

Right, so this week went smoothly, and I got a lot done, but across several different areas.

Starting with character creation, I'm happy with the interface for the Language step and most of the interface for the Appearance step (though I'm still refining a few details, such as word order and grouping). However, for both, I've moved on to working on how they are used during actual text generation when you are playing. This is a refinement of the previous approach, and I'm experimenting with a few features that I don't want to discuss or make any promises about at this time. The point is that I'll show this when it's ready. I've also been thinking about the final Background step. Most of it is relatively straightforward, but there are a few things I need to test.

Additionally, I've put some significant effort into the tooltip system. Specifically, what was previously (and still is) referred to as "terms". While the core concept remains the same, the implementation has undergone significant changes. As I previously mentioned, the data is now partitioned, which makes it faster/more efficient, allowing for more terms to be added without slowing down the game. That's already nice. But the core of the changes is in the UI.

There are some interesting solutions here regarding the actual implementation, but let's focus on how it looks for the player. The old version had issues with stacking hierarchical tooltips, and while the dynamic implementation I'm currently using already helps with that significantly, I went a bit further. All tooltips are now non-interactable... but you can do something else:

In essence, if a term has subterms, you will be asked to Shift-click, but only if the terms are marked. If terms are not marked, you can still proceed and view the terms internally; however, the informative section at the end won't be visible. This makes it much easier to navigate tooltips without the messiness of a stacking, hierarchical, mouse-over style layout (which can also "run away" off-screen from you).

Like I mentioned, there's also a lot more happening in the HTML here, which solves other technical problems that tooltips used to have. This is particularly important for dialogue lines, but I'll explain that more later (as a reminder, tooltips in dialogue previously did not work correctly; they will now).

Oh, by the way, the styling for keys is a change related to the colour scheme. Keys look different on dark and light themes:

Anyway, this last week has generally been pretty good, and I hope things will continue this way, allowing me to get as much work done as well.