Season themed Main screen [suggestion]

[Fris0uman]

So I thought that the halloween screen was pretty neat, but it only exist because the game is constantly updated and can be set to halloween in one version and changed back in following updates.

So would it be hard, and would it interest poeple, to had a check for the Date at launch and display a theme that is linked to the actual season (christmas, easter, first day of spring, any national holiday …) ? With I guess the different relevant season and associated screen being defined in json.

[kevin.granade]

It would not be hard for at least a basic implementation*, and I’m thinking we might have an option for “title screen style” with values:

1. Time-based title screen. (will trigger seasonal or event-based title screens, and the default screen otherwise)
2. Default screen.
3. list of seasonal screens.

• A non-basic implementation would be time-zone aware so it can trigger and disable at precisely the right time, and maybe even locale-aware so it can display local holidays, but I’m inclined to just use UTC time and have seasonal screens display from before the actual holiday start to about 24h after it ends so that it covers the whole span.

[Eastwardrope91]

It should also be set in your settings I think so if you want Christmas cdda then you can have it or if you don’t want any of them just being able to disable it it would prevent people from getting upset by it or having major issues with it since they can activate and deactivate at will the seasonal screens.

[Theundyingcode]

It’s been awhile but I remember the only difference in getting the system time (utc) and whatever the user’s clock says being which function you call. (I didn’t work in c++ but it should be the same) While I don’t see any need for complex time logic, Time zone aware shouldn’t be any more difficult.

[Erk]

A Christmas screen wouldn’t have to have a glowing cross and Christmas tree… That even seems out of place. I’d assume it’d have snow and ice and maybe a dead, snow covered pine tree.

[kevin.granade]

It’s been awhile but I remember the only difference in getting the system time (utc) and whatever the user’s clock says being which function you call.

Getting the time is one thing, shifting to the appropriate date/time or doing any kind of math on it is totally different.

While I don’t see any need for complex time logic, Time zone aware shouldn’t be any more difficult.

It’s literally if( current_time > holiday_start && current_time < holiday_end ) vs “more code than that”. I’ll go for the lesser amount of code, thanks.

[Theundyingcode]

I thought you could just get the os clock which is already adjusted to whatever the local time is…

[Fris0uman]

I’m not sur how the interaction c++/json works
but I think we could have a json that defines dates and associated screen and the code would just check if current date is amongst the dates in the json and if so display the associated screen.

[TheZoneWizard]

I think the idea is sound. But keeping it off by default is a better one. The graphics for the Halloween one were mashed together in one big mess when I first started the exe in tiles. Everything clumps together to match the small windowed startup. Other folks had this problem too and unless you are familiar with the screen basic layout. You will make an awful mess of setting the game by pressing buttons and not seeing what you are doing.

I think if I see this as a noob. I’d shut it off and think “Pfft…wtf is this crap? People play this??”

Going to the forum to complain as a noob…just wouldn’t happen either. Seeing a garbled mess when the game starts first thing would make them assume why bother? Idea = good. Toggle = better.

[Fris0uman]

Yeah sure, obviously it would be an option and be off by default as it doesn’t fit that well with the ambiance of the game.