Esoteric Update #281 - Locomoting All Over

Update time? Yeah, seems to be update time. Last week was pretty productive, too.

So, starting with the lesser rabble. I did some writing (two new pieces of erotica are available for reading on our Discord), some bug fixing and some refactoring of the code. I've also had a bit of a manic episode due to my medication I, uhh... allowed myself to make some changes to the code of the engine that would enable programmatic, runtime changes to the code loaded into memory. I have no use for this right now, but I just wanted to add it. What can I say? It was a manic episode.

Most of the week, however, I've been focusing on combining all of the work I've done before to enable the node map functionality, and I've currently managed to get a good number of things working. However, the narration is just a placeholder. Quite a lot of it is written or ready (in the case of the more dynamic elements); I've just not had the time to begin linking everything together, and I will likely not do so until I finish out a bit more of the mechanics (I'll get back to this later, by the end).

What we have here is based on the data I mentioned last week. The functionality includes:

• Ability to move to adjacent nodes (either using the narration window or, if you are feeling lost, from the map screen for a more visual selection);
• The basic line of sight functionality (moving will reveal the map; however, accommodations for mutable map elements aren't there yet);
• Movement rate (you can choose between three different movement modes, each with a different use);
• Generic movement actions (it's essential for specific options not to be modal so that when they appear, the player isn't instantly alerted that something must be done in a given spot);
• Generic speech actions with speech modes (you can yell into the darkness, indeed).

Let's look at how it's presented in the game.

We start out at the entrance to the cellar. You can note that you have a clear view of the lower left quarter of the room, as well as the upper right (though the shelving unit), but the upper left is obscured. You will also note that you have a navigation marker, which you can click to move to that spot. But let's also look at the menu below.

Here, we can see a whole frame dedicated to movement, with the movement rates and the two currently added generic actions. Below that are the same movement options as on the map. In our case, it's just the one option to move to the wineracks. Let's move a little bit, but slowly.

You might note that the map area grows to accommodate the part of the map you've explored. This was always the case, and our view here (having just stepped out of a secret passage to a separate structure) demonstrates why: if the frame was always the size of the same map you'd know where things you've not yet discovered should be. Now, let's make some noise.

There's only one line right now for testing (there will be many lines and random line variants later on; that's why it's relegated to a sub-menu), but when we select it with shouting, note that the result is very lightly modified. We can do other tricks with dynamically altering text here, too*.

*) In the intro, it's possible to lose your composure while trying to confront the driver, resulting in the line you've selected "fizzling out".

The next thing I have to take care of are doors. Doors have been a problem for a while, and I'll try to explain what the issue is next time with a working solution.