Using "your" rather than "you're" is disturbingly prevalent; pretty clearly not simply a typo. Also 'to' rather than 'too' and 'it's vs its' and 'there/their/they're,' and just typos in general. Sometimes there's clearly missing phrases or words entirely. Sometimes sentences are repeated; or even cut off. Sometimes database statistics are repeated. Sometimes sentences are clearly written by non-native English speakers. (No judgement there. My German grammar sind scheisslich.)
Spell checkers and grammar checkers exist, people.
Some people may think this is petty griping. Pedantry. People make mistakes.
Yes. People make mistakes. THIS tho is egregious. I've been blowing all of these off for weeks now, but ... <sigh> I can't hold my tongue any longer. Seriously. This needs attention.
For such an expensive product, I would expect a very high level of professionalism and polish. This is not apparent in the text all over the game. And frankly a HUGE portion of this game is all about the text. (I'd almost swear I spend more time reading than actually simulating LOL. Between the DB and mission editor and etc. windows of text)
Perhaps you simply need an actual editor for all the text. I would be willing to take a crack at it for reasonable compensation. (Including simply campaigns/game content) I attempted to be a professional fiction writer and I have had a LOT of office jobs that involved that very thing, so I am very good at it. There is A LOT to go through tho, so I'm not sure a single editor would suffice.
The database. Thankfully I can use the Windows 'increase font size/zoom' feature (ctrl-mouse wheel; which also zooms the pictures, which is nice. Bonus!), but it doesn't remember the setting. Also, it only works in the lower portion of the window, not the upper ones. None of the windows that allow this feature remember the setting. It doesn't re-use windows that are open when clicking things outside the open database window. I'm sure some like this behavior, but I'd prefer to only open new windows when I tell it to. There's even a specific button to do just that. Perhaps a user-toggle option. The CW database entry for the Big Back radar is missing several statistics; and that's not the only one I've noticed between either one. (Perhaps I'll attempt to start keeping a list of faulty DB entries.)
Now, the UI.
- I've previously brought up font sizes being tiny and hard to read. I have since noticed I can use the Windows "increase/decrease font size/zoom" functions to make some windows more readable. (Awesome feature for web pages. I use it constantly.)
But not everywhere. Only in some dialogs. This needs to be fixed to be usable in all windows please. Some software doesn't allow it at all, so thanks for at least partially allowing it. And in split-region windows it usually only works in one section or none, such as the DB. It works on images too, so that's cool.
- Also simply the fonts themselves. The datablock font in particular I find hard to read, and the standard information box that's at your mouse or bottom of the screen can be a challenge. Both depending on the view layer being used. An outlined or drop-shadow font would likely help with that a lot. The darkened background on the info box is nice but doesn't always work. Some people like serif fonts, some don't. Some prefer fixed space fonts, some don't care. Me? Arial, all the way. Sometimes Console. Fonts are extremely important in this game due to all the reading needed. (At least the game is dark-themed.
)- Some dialog boxes are resizable while others are not. And yet they show the resizing arrow when you hover the mouse on the edges. In many split-region windows you can't resize the individual regions, but in some you can. Resizing columns in various "spreadsheet" entries doesn't always work as expected; particularly the first column. I often can't resize it at all, which causes cut off text. This is true in general of column format data display. The columns must be consistently resizable or information gets cut off; and you can't just scroll to see it. And some windows have a lot of data. So much that I'll sometimes stretch the window to span both of my monitors so I can see it all at once.
- Some places have drop-down box menus to select options, others appear to but nothing drops down. Some places would simply work more efficiently with drop-down box menus. (Flight plan editor speed and altitude I'm looking at you. Just the default options, and open the window to make custom changes.)
- Selecting units. We can shift-click individual units to select multiple, but we can't shift-drag to do that. For instance to select multiple groups in different areas, or use multiple selection boxes in crowded areas. Ditto with de-selecting units. (REQUEST: Function to drag a large selection region and then use a keyboard command or right-click option to de-select or only select all units of a certain posture(s). -- i.e - Drag-select a wide region, then do a 'de-select hostile units' or 'select only friendly units,' etc.)
- We can custom assign line colors for "clicked waypoint" flights, but not for "flightplan editor" flights. All the colors really need custom assignment. Sometimes colors simply don't show up against a view layer. Flight plans in particular can be quite hard to see well over certain view layers. Sensor and weapons ranges too. Even units and unit labels. I very much appreciate being able to custom-color reference points and waypoint-flightplans. Please implement that everywhere, as it's very useful but currently inconsistent.
- Window background colors can be incorrect. The Side Briefing window and Scenario Description windows for instance have a white background. Which is jarring on the eyes and in harsh contrast to the nice dark-theme background of all the other windows. It's inconsistent, and an eye strain.
Finally, explanations of various database things such a "SAM Plt/2 (NASAMS iii) -- Norway (Air Force), 2023, AMRAAM-ER, 2x + 1xMSP-500 pr plt, 3x pr Bty, 2x Bty" (An example from a different forum post by someone else asking about it as well.) Not to mention the acronyms all over the place. It would be ideal if these were all defined in the game somewhere (mouse hover option?), but at least in the manual is requisite. There's already a partial list in there, which makes the lack of the rest inconsistent. Assuming users already know what they all mean isn't really realistic. It assumes too much per-knowledge on the general user's part. And looking up acronyms online can be quite hit-or-miss. Of course, professional users almost certainly know them. At least most. But probably not all, so they'd likely find it useful too.
Anyhow ... I was playing the game, reading the mission briefing and referencing the database about the various mission aspects and trying to decide which map layer to use and I finally decided I simply had to say something about all this. Please take this as critique for improvement, and not simply as complaining.
To-wit I re-iterate: We could talk about me perhaps working on the text editing aspect, as I have done that professionally in the past. It is a huge job tho, and would benefit from several people.
