Heya,

This is taken from the bat News groups

> Hey all,
>
> Skills going to the battle window is a horrible, horrible, horrible idea.
>
> Maybe i was in a minority of one but I liked the way it was.
> Reasoning- Things I want to react to go to general window, information style
> stuff (sales channel, battle hits, map) goes to the windows I've arranged out
> of the way to the right.
>
> Now its in a strange state where I look at my inventory, use appraise on an
> item and the result comes somewhere else.
> Or that I watch my hps and the scan results on the general window yet have to
> look at the battle window to see when I should start reaver striking again.
> Or I see a monster on screen, con him and look over to the battle screen to
> see if I should attack or not.
>
> There is no method to that madness. Ugh.
>
> Askan

In the near future players can decide in which window(s) these messages go,
besides a default setup. This is something we need to do to get the game-side
functionality ready; we'll patch the client soon enough. Btw, someone
actually requested this, so not everyone thinks alike. Anyway, *we* thought it
would be better for the players to get to decide.

Everything isn't always what it seems to be in the first place.

Anyway, this discussion belongs to the web Forum (the forum itself is something
Favorit's been working on), there's a board for Batclient at:
http://www.bat.org/forum/index.php?showforum=16


Thank you for the clear description regarding your concern.

Amarth Shadowstring

Hey again,

First I'll add that I hated the battle window when I first tried the client. Then I started using the rounds script that comes with the client. All of a sudden I realised I never had to look at the battle window again. It was nothing but piles of text, interesting to read, but not required. Getting the battle messages out of the way made the game easier to play, I didn't have to skim over nearly as much text in order to react to messages on screen.

Now with skill outputs (and I suspect spells but I'm using the spell translation script as well so it does get directed to the general window) going to the battle window a player is forced to digest information from multiple screens at once in order to effect an appropriate response. This, in my opinion, is a broken design.
I can understand why someone thought it would be good if their pound went off next to their barbaric rending but I don't think they would have thought the results of the appraise skill going to the battle window would make any sense.


I think someone might have said this before but if we're going to have an option to control it then it would be better if everything is handled like a channel. No special windows, either the window clears text when it receives new input (ala the map screen) or it appends text to whatever is there (ala battle window).
Then you have channels for battle messages, round flags, pss, scans, skills, everything. That would be way cool. That way you could choose to put everything in one screen (for the old timers) or actually arrange your information overload based on "requires a response now"/"interesting to read" for us new age players.

Oh, and one more thing.
I think by default some of the scripts should be activated when someone downloads the client for the first time. The prots one is brilliant.


Cheers,
Askan

Hey again,

I've realised now if you close the battle window then all text gets sent to the general window.
This will tie me over to the spec_skill channel is implemented in the client.

Very happy!

Cheers,
Askan