Easier to read screens.

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AvG
Posts: 83
Joined: Wed May 04, 2005 8:13 pm
Location: The Netherlands

Easier to read screens.

Post by AvG »

I have now several hundreds of hours experience with WitP.
That should be enough to read all the screens in a glance (per screen of course).
But I still have problems with production screens.
Take a damaged oilpointscreen. Repair shows the Yes. What should I do? I know by experience that in this case the Yes must be visible so what you see is what you have.
Take any production screen. If you see Halt production is on. What you see is NOT what you have. It is what you get.
IMHO these problems would not exist if you stick to a system with Actions + one button (toggling ON<>Off).
In the production-screen you would have three actions: Expand, Production and Repair. Same as is.
For every production-type you still will have three buttons(On/Off).
The endresult is very much the same, with only one BIG difference. "ON" is easy to detect and means allways the same.
You don't have to think every time "what does it mean?". What you see is what you have.

I also think, if you agree that I am right, that implementation of this proposal is quite simple.
AvG

Edit: I placed this item first in the wish-list, but nobody seems to read it there. (25 pages)
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Anthropoid
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RE: Easier to read screens.

Post by Anthropoid »

I agree. The interface could certainly stand with a bit of improvement. I'd agree with you about the On/Off buttons, and not just for production. The Upgrade Allowed is similar, though in that instance it says something in the same window along the lines of "Upgrades are currently NOT allowed . . ."

An idea that I'd love to see transplanted from the Civ games (not sure how hard it would be code wise) would be a "show all _insert category_" on the map. For example a pull-down could divide choices between Land Units, Air Units, Naval Units, then there could be sub-entries for each of those by type (INF, ARM, etc.), as well as possibly categories like Marching, Defending (Defensive Stance with enemy land units in hex), Resting (no enemy in hex), Carrying Freight, Carrying troops, Empty, In Port, etc.

One other thing (again maybe impossible given the code) that would be way cool would be an "Assault Planning" screen in which you can specify a base that you are going to attack, and then can pull up lists of all eligible land units that can be set to prepare for that site.
The x-ray is her siren song. My ship cannot resist her long. Nearer to my deadly goal. Until the black hole. Gains control...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkIIlkyZ ... playnext=3
AvG
Posts: 83
Joined: Wed May 04, 2005 8:13 pm
Location: The Netherlands

RE: Easier to read screens.

Post by AvG »

Of course one can invent many things in WitP to make life easier. But be carefull with respect to the coding and testing effort.
I would not mix your ideas with the original ON/Off idea, because of the risk to hamper to original code.
The ON/Off idea however is IMHO real end of the line coding, displaying "ON" i.o. "Halt" and "Yes", "Off" i.o. "Repair", etc.
Sticking to this could mean sooner implementation.
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