Monkey Island 4 - no mouse control?
Andrew Zhilenko
Is there a way to do thing in "good old" style with the mouse, how it was
in MI 1, 2, 3?
WBR, Andrew
infoghost
iG
Andrew
--
Regards,
Andrew
rumb...@bigfoot.com
"Andrew Zhilenko" <and...@nextra.com> wrote in message
news:3A27B4BF...@nextra.com...
Sinjin
commands into the parsar like the old Sierra Games.
pick up sword
swing sword at pirate
get gold
north
west
open door
what is a grue?
WhatMeWorry?
"Andrew Zhilenko" <and...@nextra.com> wrote in message
news:3A27B4BF...@nextra.com...
> Hello!
>
> Is there a way to do thing in "good old" style with the mouse, how it was
> in MI 1, 2, 3?
>
> WBR, Andrew
Obviously you missed the hidden option under the Options menu. You have to
select "Multiplayer options" about exactly 58 times, and _immediately_ press
UP, RIGHT, DOWN (and have a pointy party hat in your inventory). The screen
will go black. Now tap M,O,U,S,E. And voila. Believe me it works! Away with
the tyranny of gamepads and the keyboard!
TJ at night
"Sinjin" <nos...@msn.com> wrote in message
news:3a2cbb08...@news.concentric.net...
> No kidding - first they take away our mouse. I bet in MI5 we have to type
> commands into the parsar like the old Sierra Games.
>
> pick up sword
> swing sword at pirate
> get gold
> north
> west
> open door
> what is a grue?
That brings back amusing recollections in a quite lighthearted way. In OTHER
words, LOL! Can't remember if it was that involved to exit those games.
TJ
Jenny100
news:3a2cbb08...@news.concentric.net...
> No kidding - first they take away our mouse. I bet in MI5 we have to
type
> commands into the parsar like the old Sierra Games.
>
> pick up sword
> swing sword at pirate
> get gold
> north
> west
> open door
> what is a grue?
I just hope MI5 isn't console only. :厚
Ysabell
finish, as I've always been a huge fan of Doug Adams) had type in commands,
though you used the mouse for movement.
Sarah
"WhatMeWorry?" <ab...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:90ahd6$i0n$1...@nntp.itservices.ubc.ca...
Jason T.
> No kidding - first they take away our mouse. I bet in MI5 we have to
type
> commands into the parsar like the old Sierra Games.
>
> pick up sword
> swing sword at pirate
You know, I'd almost rather type commands into a parser then use the
retarded and severely unintuitive interface of MI4.
I don't know why they changed. The scumm interface with nine verbs
with which you could construct nearly any logical sentence you could
think of with the objects in the game world was near-perfection. I
grumblingly accepted the dumbed-down FULL THROTTLE interface, because
at least you could put away the keyboard, sit with your mouse and
figure out the story.
I'm honestly not sure how they arrived at the idea that piloting
Guybrush around like a frictionless remote-control car is fun. Sure
fine. Oh...I need to have my left hand near the shift key at all times
because he WALKS SO FREAKING SLOWLY!
I started with the arrow keys, which I remember being sufficient in
GRIM FANDANGO. But I also have to use U, I, L, pageup and
pagedown???? This COULD work if they had you move with a, s, d, w, and
x, I suppose, but no. Finally I figured that if you turn numlock off,
you can use the keypad. Ah...much simpler, okay it's controllable with
one hand plus the shift key. Then I hit an object I can't make do
anything. Hey...six options come up for me to choose from...Oh for
petes sake, page up and page down...I have to look down to reorient my
hands. Okay. I mapped action choice up/down to 7 and 1 so I could do
it with the right hand. Aughhhh...SOMETIMES up/down works to scroll
through dialogue choices, and sometimes only 7 and 1 will work. Okay
fine. Why can't I use this object? There's a use key??? I've been
playing for an hour and NOW I'm supposed to *u*se objects? If this is
supposed to be an invisible interface, WHY is it okay to clutter up the
screen with twelve individual variations of "use fish with pole" but to
actually "use" something I have to hit "U"???
This interface makes it impossible to combine objects, so obviously I
won't be doing that. Oh no, wait, the hint guide says I have to mix
perfume from the objects I have. Lessee...is it "c" for combine?
Should I hold an object then go back into my inventory and "u"se it?
No...no...I have to look up in the manual disguised as jewel case art
that it's U on both objects.
I love the game. It's giving me that piratey feel that MI1 did in
places, but lord help me if I can pay attention to the story because
I'm so busy getting Guybrush caught in blind alleyways and remembering
which button under my right hand is supposed to open the inventory.
Not only do you have to hit hotspots to cover guybrush with twelve
meaningless option sentences besides the one you need, but you have to
turn to the correct ANGLE to access the hotspots. It's not this hard
to walk around a fountain in real life. BRING BACK THE VERBS! BRING
BACK DOUBLE CLICK TO EASILY WALK TO A HOTSPOT. SCUMM barely needed a
manual, because it was *intuitive*. Can we repeat this everyone in
game desgin? INTUITIVE. There can be a learning curve, but it
*should* get easier and make sense the more you do it. SYSTEM SHOCK
had the worlds most complicated interface, but once you realized how
you could do *everything* with a mouse, you barely even thought about
moving because it became automatic. This is IMMERSIVE and lets you
live in the gameworld.
The only possible reason I can think of for abandoning the mouse is
that they wanted the game easily portable to Playstation. Wrong wrong
wrong.
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
Kasper
<jayct...@my-deja.com>) wrote:
>I started with the arrow keys, which I remember being sufficient in
>GRIM FANDANGO. But I also have to use U, I, L, pageup and
>pagedown???? This COULD work if they had you move with a, s, d, w, and
>x, I suppose, but no. Finally I figured that if you turn numlock off,
>you can use the keypad. Ah...much simpler, okay it's controllable with
>one hand plus the shift key. Then I hit an object I can't make do
>anything. Hey...six options come up for me to choose from...Oh for
>petes sake, page up and page down...I have to look down to reorient my
>hands. Okay. I mapped action choice up/down to 7 and 1 so I could do
>it with the right hand. Aughhhh...SOMETIMES up/down works to scroll
>through dialogue choices, and sometimes only 7 and 1 will work. Okay
>fine. Why can't I use this object? There's a use key??? I've been
>playing for an hour and NOW I'm supposed to *u*se objects? If this is
>supposed to be an invisible interface, WHY is it okay to clutter up the
>screen with twelve individual variations of "use fish with pole" but to
>actually "use" something I have to hit "U"???
<snip>
You do realize you can redefine the controls, right?
Kasper
----
E-mail: rbb at rocketmail.com
Jason T.
> <snip>
>
> You do realize you can redefine the controls, right?
Yes I do, and that's a good thing. However, I do also think that the
default control scheme should be playtested and should be nearly the
best possible configuration for the game. I have no problem
reassigning some keys if there are more logical, comfortable ways of
getting things done, but it's obvious they didn't choose keys that
would be intuitive nor easy to remember without taking your eyes off
the screen (and ruining the immersion that is so important in adventure
games.)
This isn't so much of a problem in an action game such as HALF LIFE
where accomplishing physical tasks and "learning" how to use your
weapons and survive is more a part of the game. But even HALF LIFE
realizes that the mouse is much more intuitive than keyboard alone. In
a good action game, I'll spend time practicing and honing my movement
ability, and even tweaking the keys because movement is so much a part
of the experience in a shooter. There's even a training course in
games like this to get you used to the controls and give you a chance
to change them without pressure of plot and game world. With MI4 I was
just starting to appreciate the atmosphere of the newly-realized Melee
Island when the experience kept getting interrupted because *I* knew
what I wanted to do, but I didn't actually know how to accomplish it
without looking at the keyboard, going into configuration and seeing
what key does what, or (even more deadly in an adventure) having to
drop everything and pull out the manual in the case of combining
items. Yes, I know there are firm believers in "RTFM", but I expect
more from LucasArts, who in the past have designed the most intuitive
interfaces which are part of the game world and never gave me this type
of problem before.
I like this game. I like this game better than MI3, in fact. But the
fact that the movement and control scheme is so horribly implemented
that I'd rather check the walk-thru than waste time and energy figuring
out the puzzles on my own because I'd have to walk all the way across
an island to talk to the person who has the clues is a big big minus in
my book.
One more gripe is having to steer Guybrush. In the old system, you'd
click where you wanted to go, and he'd find his way there. No
problem. Now that you have to hold down the "move forward" key the
whole time AND keep him from getting turned around if he gets snagged
on a boundary, I (and undoubtedly others) always hold down the "run"
key. There is no combat in this game which should necessitate a run
key! The only reason it's there is to avoid tedium, but when you run,
Guybrush moves like a frictionless electron particle in a maze covered
with grease. Obviously they saw the need for a run key, so why
couldn't they replay the old games to figure out why run wasn't
necessary?
If I could redesign the controls, here's what it'd be. Click anywhere
to make Guybrush walk to a location. Double click to make him run.
Cursor on a hotspot brings up the name of the object. Right click
looks at the object. When Guybrush is close enough to manipulate an
object, text action options come up which are clickable with a mouse,
and change depending on what G is holding in his hands. Clicking on
guybrush brings up inventory, which isn't a TOMB RAIDER wheel of
annoyance, rather a grid overlayed onto the screen. To combine
objects, you drag and drop. Right click inventory objects for
description, double click to put into Guybrush's hands.
...Or, just bring back the SCUMM verbs. That'd do it for me also.
PS. I'm just getting to the Monkey Kombat section. I have no problem
with this puzzle, but it's an example of anti-previous LucasArts design
philosophy. Writing stuff down and making diagrams and maps is cool in
a CRPG, but in the previous games they did *so* much better at not
(once again) taking you out of the story. Nothing will beat the
original insult swordfighting combat system in the first game that they
have refused to exploit fully in these later games. I would *really*
like if you had to do that more...
But I digress. This is Lucasarts. Jojo should have given me a magic
monkey idol that records the stances and winning combinations, but not
alerted me to the fact that it does so and let me discover it. Or they
should have thought up another way of fighting that was more fun and
doesn't require so much away-from-the screen thinking.
I guess it sounds like I'm whining, but if I had my way, the games
wouldn't have voice support so the conversations could go on forever
like they did in the first game. I guess this is why I'm slowly
changing my gaming preferences to CRPG and strategy titles. And I love
a well-done adventure like FPS like SYSTEM SHOCK and HALF LIFE. That's
too bad, because Sierra has gone under, Lucas is eating their own tail,
and even Looking Glass (who made the best adventure-like action games)
has bitten it. Soon there will be no good titles.
Rikard Peterson
news:910m4t$p69$1...@nnrp1.deja.com...
> > You do realize you can redefine the controls, right?
>
> Yes I do, and that's a good thing. However, I do also think that the
> default control scheme should be playtested and should be nearly the
> best possible configuration for the game. I have no problem
> reassigning some keys if there are more logical, comfortable ways of
> getting things done, but it's obvious they didn't choose keys that
> would be intuitive nor easy to remember without taking your eyes off
> the screen (and ruining the immersion that is so important in
adventure
> games.)
What can be more logical and intuitive than L for look, U for use, P for
Pick up, I for inventory?
I also like O for Out.
> I like this game. I like this game better than MI3, in fact.
I have only played a bit into the second act, but so far I agree. I'd
even say it's the best MI. (Better than the first two!) Hopefully I
won't change my mind later.
> One more gripe is having to steer Guybrush.
I have no problem with that, but I'm not going to argue for it, since
most posters dislike it strongly.
/Rikard
Jason T.
> What can be more logical and intuitive than L for look, U for use, P
for
> Pick up, I for inventory?
Keys that fit under the left hand since I need the right to control
Guybrush with the arrows or numpad. Now with the experience of playing
the game, I should have configured a,s,d,w like HALF LIFE to move and
hit the u,p,i,l keys like a touch-typist. But I still have to have
access to a shift key...which I guess I can do with the right hand in
this case, but it's still less than optimal.
> I have only played a bit into the second act, but so far I agree. I'd
> even say it's the best MI. (Better than the first two!) Hopefully I
> won't change my mind later.
Puzzles are a little less elegant and involved, but so far it's nice.
I've had a couple of puzzles that I solved without knowing why, and
some that I never would have figured out without the walkthrough. I
very much like the movements for the 3d characters, which are quite
cool and gave them a range of expression not available with 2d hand-
drawn animation.
My favorite still is MI2, for the complexity of the game world and
conversations. Plus the fact that there were two difficulty levels
which were both worth playing through for very different puzzles and
dialogue...novel because your original approach to a puzzle would have
new twists thrown in. I never noticed enough difference between the
hard and easy games in to play very much further into it.
> > One more gripe is having to steer Guybrush.
>
> I have no problem with that, but I'm not going to argue for it, since
> most posters dislike it strongly.
>
> /Rikard
>
>