Return to Monkey Island

[Knight Owl]

The "Modified Dinky" Bar

[Vainamoinen]

1 minute ago, Staple Remover said:

I give them credit for showing restraint on changing the name of the SCUMM Bar to (New Engine Name) Bar.

 

Maybe the acronym now stands for something else? Like ... Script Creation Utility for ... Mimbleweed Mark?

[Laserschwert]

For Switch controls I'm hoping for walking with the left stick while browsing through hotspots with the right stick relative to Guybrush's position. Didn't MI2:SE do that?

[BaronGrackle]

8 minutes ago, Vainamoinen said:

 

Nah. That's not where 7000 lines of dialog come from. 😅

 

I think it's a bit more complex and versatile. The mouseover gives you a lot of things, but not full fledged commentary. It seems to oscillate between the simple verb plus noun, intent, fleeting thoughts and a bit of a questlog. I can be used for a lot I guess, but that's all with the left mouse button. If it still retains some of the key control principles of Delores, the right click is where the verb magic happens.

 

Maybe the little mouse icon only indicated a left click, but there were other clicks available?

 

For example, the Pirate near the door. I didn't see an indication of any other action than "Talk to pirate". That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's what it looked like to me.

[Knight Owl]

We've got a new image from Devolver promoting the thing tomorrow. Nothing new but it's interesting that:

 

A. The background has been changed slightly. Some color correction, additional lighting on the mast, and some beautiful new subsurface-scattering-esque red glows on the hull of the ship.

 

B. Finally, true confirmation that the silhouette is indeed a zombie chef. I'm guessing they kept it out of the original trailer purely to mess with us 😛

 

 

[Vainamoinen]

5 minutes ago, BaronGrackle said:

Maybe the little mouse icon only indicated a left click, but there were other clicks available?

 

For example, the Pirate near the door. I didn't see an indication of any other action than "Talk to pirate". That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it's what it looked like to me.

 

It was the only instance where we got a "clean" traditional verb plus noun. I guess that the left click now works in the same way right click worked in the old LucasArts games, it chooses the most obvious action. That's "talk to" in the case of people and "look at" in the case of objects like the scumm bar sign.

 

 

4 minutes ago, Knight Owl said:

We've got a new image from Devolver promoting the thing tomorrow. Nothing new but it's interesting that:

 

Looking at that image ... I get the impression ... Guybrush is going to try and hire on LeChuck's ship. 😆

Edited August 22, 2022 by Vainamoinen

[Laserschwert]

I'm pretty sure the lines connecting the hover text to the hotspots are a clear sign that the gamepad-controls won't simply have a mouse cursor you drive around with the right stick. Otherwise the position of the cursor would be indication enough what the hotspot is.

[BaronGrackle]

I used a bad example.  I meant iit looked like only left click was available to the objects we saw on these screens (though the image suggests other clicks might be available elsewhere), and that Guybrush enters the SCUMM Bar, or talks to the pirate, or presumably talks to the Pirate Leaders or enters the kitchen, or presumably comments on the sign or fireplace.

[KestrelPi]

6 minutes ago, Vainamoinen said:

 

It was the only instance where we got a "clean" traditional verb plus noun. I guess that the left click now works in the same way right click worked in the old LucasArts games, it chooses the most obvious action. That's "talk to" in the case of people and "look at" in the case of objects like the scumm bar sign.

Yeah, this seems more like it, but also they've added 'flavour' to a lot of it by framing the ovbious action in a lot of cases as guybrush's thoughts.

 

Thought: "Ah, the Scumm Bar"  Obvious Action: Make some comment about the bar

Thought: "Time to talk to the Pirate Leaders" Obvious Action: Go into the bar

Thought: "Smells good in there" Obvious Action: Go into the kitchen

Thought: "The Pirate Leaders are supposed to be there?" Obvious Action: Talk to whoever these people are.

 

The nice thing about this is that the hover over text can change, based on what Guybrush knows.

 

I saw a couple of replies from people worried it might make the game too easy but I'm not sure why - none of this seemed to be hinting at puzzle solutions or anything. Presumably Guybrush is thinking 'time to talk to the pirate leaders' because he's already said in the game that he wants to do that, it's not a puzzle.

Edited August 22, 2022 by KestrelPi

[Knight Owl]

The little animation Guybrush does when he says "I'm here to talk to the pirate leaders" is so good. I'm wondering if that's a bespoke animation for that moment or if it's just pulling from a library of animations he has. Either way it fits the dialogue perfectly.

[BaronGrackle]

8 minutes ago, KestrelPi said:

I saw a couple of replies from people worried it might make the game too easy but I'm not sure why - none of this seemed to be hinting at puzzle solutions or anything. Presumably Guybrush is thinking 'time to talk to the pirate leaders' because he's already said in the game that he wants to do that, it's not a puzzle.

I bet it becomes the hint system when you enable hints. Turn on hints, and I imagine the kitchen door starts with "Smells good in there" and with time turns to "I need to distract the cook" and "That white tablecloth looks pretty flammable", or some such.

[Knight Owl]

I hope if there'll be an option to have the mouseover text voiced, by Armato or a computer voice, for accessibility reasons.

[KestrelPi]

2 minutes ago, BaronGrackle said:

I bet it becomes the hint system when you enable hints. Turn on hints, and I imagine the kitchen door starts with "Smells good in there" and with time turns to "I need to distract the cook" and "That white tablecloth looks pretty flammable", or some such.

 

I hope (and think) not. Time-locked hint systems like that are annoying, and it wouldn't work for all kinds of hint. (like, how would that system work for the follow-the-shopkeeper puzzle, or the grog jailbreak, or insult swordfighting, or just generally knowing where to go next?). They also have a tendency to deliver me hints I haven't asked for, which is especially annoying when it's a puzzle I haven't even started to think about yet.

 

When I want a hint I want to be able to ask about the very specific thing I need a hint for, no more and no less - and for that Thimbleweed Park's hint system was nearly ideal (the only thing wrong with it was that it was easy to go to the wrong part of the dialogue tree and then you'd have to re-dial from the start)

[BaronGrackle]

9 minutes ago, KestrelPi said:

 

I hope (and think) not. Time-locked hint systems like that are annoying, and it wouldn't work for all kinds of hint. (like, how would that system work for the follow-the-shopkeeper puzzle, or the grog jailbreak, or insult swordfighting, or just generally knowing where to go next?). They also have a tendency to deliver me hints I haven't asked for, which is especially annoying when it's a puzzle I haven't even started to think about yet.

 

When I want a hint I want to be able to ask about the very specific thing I need a hint for, no more and no less - and for that Thimbleweed Park's hint system was nearly ideal (the only thing wrong with it was that it was easy to go to the wrong part of the dialogue tree and then you'd have to re-dial from the start)

You could easily be right with the hint system being something else.

 

But the concern with hints coming "too early" could be remedied by making you press a button to progress hints forward, instead of being time locked. Your examples could be resolved by it... hover on the storekeeper could show "Maybe I should follow him", hovering over an empty grog cup might show, "I need more than one to make it to the jail," etc.

 

But yes, true, "could work that way" doesn't mean it will.

 

EDIT: Ah, Eurogamer says Devolver confirmed the hint system isn't related.

Edited August 22, 2022 by BaronGrackle

[KestrelPi]

9 minutes ago, BaronGrackle said:

You could easily be right with the hint system being something else.

 

But the concern with hints coming "too early" could be remedied by making you press a button to progress hints forward, instead of being time locked. Your examples could be resolved by it... hover on the storekeeper could show "Maybe I should follow him", hovering over an empty grog cup might show, "I need more than one to make it to the jail," etc.

 

But yes, true, "could work that way" doesn't mean it will.

 

EDIT: Ah, Eurogamer says Devolver confirmed the hint system isn't related.

 

I'm glad, like you said with your examples, it could maybe sort of work... but I don't think it'd be a good way to do it. What if the reason I hovered over the shopkeeper was to get help with buying (or perhaps I thought I had to steal) the sword, but instead the game gave me a hint about following the shopkeeper. I think whatever they come up with will likely be more direct.

 

Ask a specific question, get a specific answer. I think that vibes with how most people experience needing hints - they go to the system because they are stuck, so they want to be able to say what they're stuck on, and then they want a hint about that and only that, and nothing else, and (this is more of a matter of taste I guess) sometimes they want the hints to start out subtle and get gradually more overt until they have enough information to figure out the rest on their own. In other words, the UHS model, which TWP basically does. I've never seen anything that works better.

[Rum Rogers]

1 hour ago, Staple Remover said:

I give them credit for showing restraint on changing the name of the SCUMM Bar to (New Engine Name) Bar. 
 

Delores Bar

[Jake]

The Delores engines name is Dinky afaik

 

Glad we saw a new feature and everyone has something else to freak out over. 

[Toymafia88]

I just noticed, the 'ask me about loom' guy isn't in the bar.

 

Makes me wonder if we return to Melee Island later in the game and the bar will change up who is in there.

[Thrik]

2 hours ago, Knight Owl said:

We've got a new image from Devolver promoting the thing tomorrow. Nothing new but it's interesting that:

 

A. The background has been changed slightly. Some color correction, additional lighting on the mast, and some beautiful new subsurface-scattering-esque red glows on the hull of the ship.

 

B. Finally, true confirmation that the silhouette is indeed a zombie chef. I'm guessing they kept it out of the original trailer purely to mess with us 😛

 

 

Man, our guesses were spot on.

 

 

…mostly…

 

[KestrelPi]

This new inner-monologue type of text is full of fun possibilities for them to joke around with, the more I think about it. I can't wait to see how they use it in the rest of the game.

[BillyCheers]

In the comments David Fox confirmed that the pc version will have controller support. So, if they did include that, the controls must be worth it to have them also on pc and not only on consoles.

 

I already liked what they did with the Sam and Max remaster, and I think this is gonna be even better.

[LowLevel]

6 hours ago, BaronGrackle said:

bet it becomes the hint system when you enable hints. Turn on hints, and I imagine the kitchen door starts with "Smells good in there" and with time turns to "I need to distract the cook" and "That white tablecloth looks pretty flammable", or some such.

 

"Just click here"

 

Anyway, we have no clue if these phrases are somehow influenced by the casual mode or not. I would say no, but who knows.

 

4 hours ago, Toymafia88 said:

Makes me wonder if we return to Melee Island later in the game and the bar will change up who is in there.

 

That would be really nice and I hope that they made Melee more lively by implementing NPCs walking around, like that feature that was cut from MI1.

 

 

 

 

[demone]

Random thought, but this game seems like a consolidation of the best aspects of all the games; the characters, music and iMuse, locations, voice actors, the classic humor, and returning to the original story thread while also incorporating the canon of the other games. The fact that Dom was in the studio recording with Ron overseeing it, presumably voicing the Secret no less, is something I never thought would ever happen. Whenever I really sit and think about this game, I still can't believe it's actually happening.

 

I'm so ready for tomorrow; c'mon release date please.

[Staple Remover]

I’m feeling foolish today, I’m predicting a surprise game drop tomorrow. 
 

Or at the very least, a release date. 
 

Or at the very, very least, more gameplay video. 

[Marius]

I predict a surprise game drop today and a release date trailer on Talk Like A Pirate day. 

Edited August 23, 2022 by Marius