[Scummvm-tracker] [ScummVM :: Bugs] #15687: AGI: KQ3: Pause on command textbox accepts fewer characters than required for spells

[ScummVM :: Bugs]

#15687: AGI: KQ3: Pause on command textbox accepts fewer characters than required
for spells
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Reporter:  antoniou79       |      Owner:  (none)
    Type:  feature request  |     Status:  new
Priority:  normal           |  Component:  Engine: AGI
 Version:                   |   Keywords:  pause, text input
    Game:  King's Quest 3   |
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 Tested with GOG's version of KQ3, English, on ScummVM 2.9.0 and also a
 recent daily build of 2.10.0git on Windows 10.

 This issue was initially brought up on the ScummVM forum here:
 https://forums.scummvm.org/viewtopic.php?t=17268

 Some of the spell preparation instructions (that the game makes a point of
 the user entering them exactly as typed in the manual, otherwise the
 spells go horribly wrong and it leads to an immediate game over) are not
 possible to be fully written as they are in the (English) manual in the
 textbox that comes up when "pause when entering commands" setting is
 enabled.

 Two things about this:
 - The "pause when entering commands" is a ScummVM feature. The game
 originally only accepted commands from the "command line" below the game
 screen, without pausing for the user to write them, as far as I remember.
 - The player *can skip* articles ("the", "a", etc) and the game will still
 accept the command entered for the preparation step as correct. The player
 has no way to know this of course, not from the game's manual anyway.

 Currently, the popup text box that comes up when entering a command with
 the "pause when entering commands" setting activated, accepts up to 35
 characters, while the original command line input below the screen accepts
 up to 38 characters.

 Reading from the game's manual, I could spot two instructions that require
 36 characters, and I believe those are the longest ones:
 - "Add a spoonful of powdered fish bone" (36 characters)
 - "Put the nightshade juice in the bowl" (36 characters)
 These are 1 character longer that what the popup text box can accept, so
 they cannot be fully entered.

 I also do not know if any (official) localized versions of the game exist
 that would required even longer typed instructions.

 The popup textbox could however accept one more character, if its behavior
 was modified so that the "waiting cursor" '_' is not blocking the last
 character to be entered and instead is replaced by that 36th character.

 Since the feature is not available in the original game, I'm submitting
 this as a feature request for consideration.
-- 
Ticket URL: <https://bugs.scummvm.org/ticket/15687>
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