Playing around with Cataclysm

J534 · 2013-08-18T17:37:38.000Z

Hi eveyone I just got started with Cataclysm and was wondering what people use for your font in your terminal emulator? I’m currently running Ubuntu and am using Sakura as my emulator… but I was wondering if there is a font that is as high as it is wide that looks good with Cataclysm.

Also I’ve been tinkering with the options menu a bit and was wondering whats the difference between static NPCs and random NPCs. One almost seems to be the inverse of the other. From a new player perspective the options menu is a bit overwhelming and was wondering if there is any interest in the dev community to have a basic options menu and an advanced options menu so new people aren’t too overwhelmed.

Sheb · 2013-08-18T17:40:43.000Z

Static NPCs mean the starting NPC that starts with you in the evac shelter. Random NPCs are random NPCs you meet.

J534 · 2013-08-18T17:46:08.000Z

If I disable Random NPCs will I never see any other NPCs except for the one in the evac shelter?

Sheb · 2013-08-18T18:04:44.000Z

Right.

J534 · 2013-08-18T19:32:21.000Z

…strange seems like it both should be enabled by default, no?

Anyways, how about fonts? Are there any fonts anyone is aware of on Ubuntu Linux where the length of the width is equal to the height of a character? That way things don’t seem stretched vertically.

Heclapar · 2013-08-18T19:40:18.000Z

They are not enabled by default because the NPC’s are currently heavily bugged.

KA101 · 2013-08-18T21:58:56.000Z

For instance, when I tried .71 Stable, my first character lucked into a Martial Artist static NPC. (JACKPOT.) I did the USB fetchquest, returned, and opted for Viper Style to go with my Muay Thai. BAM crash to desktop.

jimboblordofeskimos · 2013-08-19T01:46:07.000Z

Dunno if they still do it, I havent played with NPCs on in a fair while, but as well as the constant crashes they caused, npcs had a funny habit of giving you interesting presents, like activated mininukes and grenades sans pin.

i2amroy · 2013-08-19T04:49:32.000Z

jimboblordofeskimos:

Dunno if they still do it, I havent played with NPCs on in a fair while, but as well as the constant crashes they caused, npcs had a funny habit of giving you interesting presents, like activated mininukes and grenades sans pin.

We’ve fixed the NPC giving you active items problem. Right now (IIRC) the two biggest problems with NPC’s are that sometime’s they’ll give you weird stuff when you ask, and asking them to train you in martial arts results in crashes (due to them trying to give you the martial arts skill as an “item” when it really isn’t).

phaethon · 2013-08-19T06:10:40.000Z

J534:

Hi eveyone I just got started with Cataclysm and was wondering what people use for your font in your terminal emulator? I’m currently running Ubuntu and am using Sakura as my emulator… but I was wondering if there is a font that is as high as it is wide that looks good with Cataclysm.

There is a good thread on the forum about fonts here: http://smf.cataclysmdda.com/index.php?topic=269.msg34417#msg34417

My font preference: Vera Sans Mono 10pt. Don’t bother with making it perfectly square.

Longer explanation:
I think most people are on Windows and use the SDL version of the game. I’m on a Mac, and I prefer using the non-SDL version, though I’ve played around with both. I think SDL might be a little faster for me, but it doesn’t anti-alias fonts at all and shows up darker on my screen. So I don’t have a recommendation on a terminal app for linux (I use iTerm on Mac), but I really like the VeraMono font from the thread I mentioned above. I use 10pt Bitstream Vera Sans Mono. It’s not square, but the issue is that your character’s viewing range is big (like 103 characters wide during the day), and it’s hard to read any font below 10pt or so (you may be able to get some to 8pt, but then it’s hard to distinguish small things like what type of tires a car has). If I leave my font taller than it is wide, I can see the whole horizontal viewing area without scrolling. If I make it square, it doesn’t improve my vision vertically and just handicaps me horizontally. You can still use the compass in the corner of the screen to detect monsters outside of your screen but within the vision of your character, but it’s not as good as just seeing them on screen.