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We need a more organized Character Select screen!

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Blitzzo

Blitzzo

It's Mr. Computer!
Whenever I download extra characters, I'm always thinking about how when people put their characters in the Character Select screen, they just place them willy-nilly into the MAINCFG lump, giving them character IDs that conflict with other characters, and positions that overlap others' in the list.

I propose we get a more organized system. Like, now. I know I'm a bit like JTE when it comes to this stuff, but you've got to admit, when you load all the characters at once, the list is just all junked up and you can't access all the characters because they overwrite each other. So I think we should have a list that works like this:

Character 0 (Sonic) - Position 0
Character 1 (Tails) - Position 8
Character 2 (Knuckles) - Position 16
Character 3 (FoxBlitzz (My character)) - Position 24
Character 4 (Amy) - Position 32
Character 5 (Shadow) - Position 40
Character 6 (Mario) - Position 48
Character 7 (Nitemare) - Position 56
Character 8 (Metal Sonic) - Position 64

Yeah, I put my character in as number 3 because Donnyku left that slot open for me.

Anyways, I feel that any new character WADs should follow this rule. It makes for a much tidier system. I mean, the way it is now, Shadow stuffs itself above Sonic, and Amy changes the positions of the three default characters for no reason. When loading the five extra characters, Amy disappeared, I could not find Nitemare, Mario was way down there, and Metal Sonic was INSIDE the Knuckles text, except it wasn't in the right character order, making things even worse. See where I'm coming from?

Feel free to discuss your opinions here, as well as voice suggestions and reserve places in the list for your character. I admit that there isn't a lot of room in there, but we can decrease line spacing if needed.
 
... all I know is that you can check the characters you want without getting it mixed up. I think it doesn't fix the overwriting problem.
 
See, you didn't include Schoolhouse, which used Slot 6. Mostly because I wasn't 100% certain anything else was using it. Good evidence of the problem right there.

I think the descriptions should instead be handled by skin name instead of number. That way, you can load the skins up in ANY order and still be able to access them all in the menu. Now, for 1Up boxes it'll STILL be a mess, but it's a step forward, innit?
 
That sometimes happens if you don't have enough characters filling the slots inbetween. If there's one or two empty slots between characters, it seems to work, but if you set your character's slot number to, say, 999, then it won't let you select it.

Hmm, yeah. I'd say we're better off with JTE's system. It's nice that others have taken a better menu into consideration though. I'd hate to be a loner here. :P
 
Eh, sorta. We're adding some of his stuff and crediting him as a programmer, but he isn't a developer in the normal sense of the word.
 
Heh... Yeah... I don't get to vote on any secret polls as to what SSNTails ruinates next or anything like that... I've just come across so many things I wanted to fix while making SRB2JTE and sectioned them off seperately from it so they can be easily added/removed/whatever...

My character select screen system automaticly organises the list so that the most characters can fit on the list, the limit is currently set to 15 'cause I'm not so sure exactly how many would fit on the list... It automaticly generates the menu positions when you open the character select screen so no more crazy Shadow on the top of the list and Amy screwing around the bottom and whatnot...

The main reason why I made this, however, was to fix the problem with wads overriding eachother's menu entrys. Making it compatable with all current wads was just an added challenge for SRB2JTE, though. How it works... Well, it's somewhat complex... The number you tell it for Character is the slot it's in normally. If you choose a slot that is already taken and try to change it or anything, though, it sends you to the next available empty slot. So we'll probably want to all use slot 3 or something.

HOWEVER... If a mod like SA-SRB2 comes along and wants to replace the 3 main characters on the character select menu, we want to be able to do that, right? I've allowed you to disable a menu entry's status without getting sent to a new slot (Though enabling a menu entry which is already enabled will send you to a new slot anyway, of course)... And because of this, you can tell SRB2 that you are purposely modifying an existing slot by first disabling it and then reenabling it so you don't get sent to a new slot. Therefore, no functionality is sacrificed other then the menu position, which would be rather screwy since you don't know which slot you're in anyway.
 
That's it. If 1.09.1 is delayed ANY further, I'm going to esssplode.
 
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