Screenshot utility

[Ozymandous]

It's probably too late for this but...

It would be very nice if the expansion included some sort of screenshot utility.

We've all had games where something unexpected happened and we might have taken a screenshot. Unfortunately, the current method is to hit "print screen" then open another application, paste the screen, save it and then open the game back up.

This is a very bulky process that could be made much easier with the addition of two small things:

1. Have the expansion make a new folder called "screenshots".
2. Have the game automatically save the shot with a time & date stamp in the 'printscreen' folder when ever the printscreen button is pressed.

Even if the prints were .bmp files they could be sorted through later and either resized, converted or discarded.

I don't know how hard this would be to do, but it would make sharing tales from games much more fun and easier to do when the game captures take a fraction of the time they do now.

 

[Padma]

Originally posted by Ozymandous
It's probably too late for this but...

Probably?

It's a neat idea, yes, but I think it's waaaaay too late in the development process for something like this.

Besides, it's not really that hard to hit Print Screen, then the "Windows" key to pop up the Start Menu, select Paint (or whatever), paste in the screenshot, save, and Alt-Tab back to the game.

 

[warpstorm]

Some of us leave our paint program running in the background to make it even faster. A screen shot only takes about 10 seconds for me and most of that is naming the file.

 

[Ozymandous]

Originally posted by Padma
Probably?

It's a neat idea, yes, but I think it's waaaaay too late in the development process for something like this.

Besides, it's not really that hard to hit Print Screen, then the "Windows" key to pop up the Start Menu, select Paint (or whatever), paste in the screenshot, save, and Alt-Tab back to the game.

Gee, and here you just described the cumbersome, bulky proces we have to do *now* to get a screenshot.

You take 5+ screenshots a game? Have you ever played a MP game and tried to follow the process you describe? If you have done either you know how much of a pain it is to do any sort of screen capture now.

I don't care if *you* think it's hard or not to do the process you described. The fact remains that the process could be made much easier than it is now. It wouldn't be hard to incorporate a utility as I described, although I understand it's too late to get anything into the expansion at this time.

By the way, if it's too late to offer suggestions, then *why* is this particular sub-forum still open, hmm?

 

[Padma]

Granted, Oz, that I almost *never* play MP, and I have never even considered taking a screenshot when I have.

And it's never too late to make suggestions. Just don't expect any major changes in what they are finalizing for delivery. They might decide a suggestion is too good to ignore, and put it in a follow-on patch. Besides, this forum will be going on after Conquests is out, for "Requests, Fixes, & Changes".

 

[wilbill]

Originally posted by Ozymandous
It wouldn't be hard to incorporate a utility as I described, although I understand it's too late to get anything into the expansion at this time.

Are you a programmer? I'm not, so I don't really know how hard it would be to implement your suggestion. Even assuming it's easy, do you want Firaxis to pull one of the designers away from fixing MP to make it easier to take screenshots?
I know they don't have unlimited resources and I'd prefer they stick with making the game better. Screenshots I can deal with myself.

 

[warpstorm]

wilbill hit the nail on the head. In the grand scheme of things it isn't that tough. I could do it myself if I had the source code. The issue is that to implement it they'd have to leave something else undone. Since this has a reasonable workaround, I would rather they work on something else.

 

[Xen]

Originally posted by Ozymandous


By the way, if it's too late to offer suggestions, then *why* is this particular sub-forum still open, hmm?

It exists as a "safe place" (for now ) to get away from my all continuing crusade for Byzantium

and like Padma said, for suggestions- perhaps a patch one day can fix your screen shot woes...

 

[Ozymandous]

Originally posted by warpstorm
wilbill hit the nail on the head. In the grand scheme of things it isn't that tough. I could do it myself if I had the source code. The issue is that to implement it they'd have to leave something else undone. Since this has a reasonable workaround, I would rather they work on something else.

Glad to see the "it's not important to me so I'll minimize your idea" mentality is still alive and well around here. If they would just fix things like the player's rep being trashed because some stupid AI's fought each other and took a port city I'd be hapy but I guess that BUG won't be fixed either, eh?

I never said to take someone off something important, I said it would improve things for those of us who participate in SG's, MP or anything else where we like to take pictures and write up reports.

Ah well back to other, more friendly, places on the forums. Thanks for reading.

 

[warpstorm]

Sorry, Ozy. I didn't think I was being harsh or slamming you or your ideas. In fact, I said that it'd be easy to do. The sad fact is that they only have a little over a month to get everything done and there are things I 'd rather they spend the month on since there is a workaround (albeit a little slow) for this feature.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Only a month?

I didn't realize it was that close.

I wonder if they're going to get any sleep

It would be really nice if they could make a feature to make maps easier, but that would definately require more work your proposal, which although simple, would be nice if there was more time.

 

[Ozymandous]

Originally posted by warpstorm
Sorry, Ozy. I didn't think I was being harsh or slamming you or your ideas. In fact, I said that it'd be easy to do. The sad fact is that they only have a little over a month to get everything done and there are things I 'd rather they spend the month on since there is a workaround (albeit a little slow) for this feature.

No problem, it wasn't just you Warp, but the general mood of the "it's not a problem to me so shouldn't be one for you, after all you can do these 50 steps to do what you're asking to make easier" thing that happens on most game forums, even here, when someone suggests something new, even if it doesn't involve a game redesign to play more "my way."

Of course, since I was most recently involved over at the IGMoo3 forum, I may be a little more touchy on this mentality than normal, and I do understand they are in crunch time (hopefully), but anywho.

Maybe this will go into the third expansion if there is one, along with the fix to the player being blamed for an AI breaking a trade because they lose their port or some-such thing.

 

[drizzit_x]

try a program called ScreenPrint it is free and small go to
http://www.softwarelabs.com/
to get it I found it on downloads.com but it work good