35 Interface Improvements/Problems

[Scott Barrie]

Thanks Taqwus, geoschmo, Jubala, and everyone else.

Here's the revised list, taking everyone's suggestions to date into account (downright plagerizing in some places). The suggestions were multitude, and to prevent the list from overwhelming Aaron I employed The Iron Fist (tm) to cut out:
A) - Ideas that bordered more on gameplay changes than interface changes.
B) - Ideas that I believed would require major reprogramming of the interface. Adjusting windows and drag-n-drop would be great, but I don't think they're going to happen.

Both criteria are clearly subjective. Many ideas I dropped with regret, since they would be excellent if done.

I'll wait a couple of more days before sending the final draft to Aaron. I'm hoping to send a large list of simple changes.


1. When renaming a ship, the Enter key can't be used to indicate completion. "OK" must be clicked with the mouse. The Escape key can't be used to cancel the window, "Cancel" must be clicked with the mouse.

2. If you don't change the ship's name and click "OK", you get an error that "That name is already in use".

3. The Enter key also can't be used when entering your password to indicate completion. "OK" must be clicked with the mouse.

4. Your password isn't masked while it's being typed - this is a problem for hotseat games.

5. You need to select a ship before selecting Scrap/Analyze/Mothball, but that ship is not automatically selected in the next screen. Either don't require a ship/unit/base to be selected, or use the item selected as the default item to be modified.

6. A ship cannot launch less than all possible units remotely in simultaneous turns.

7. There's an option to show Resupply Depots, Space Ports and Shipyards (R,S,Y) on the sector map, but no way to show other important facilities like Ship/Fleet Training Facilities, System Computers, Urban Pacification Centers or racial trait facilities.

8. In the Designs screen, the list scrolls to the top when "Hide Obsolete" or "Make Obsolete" is toggled.

9. In the Planets screen, the list scrolls to the top after the "Send Colony Ship" button is used.

10. In Enemy Ship/Units Designs window of the Design screen, a separate window for each race would be useful.

11. In addition to being able to view all the new constructions in the Log, it would be useful to be able to view constructions of Units, Ships, Facilities, Upgrades and Warnings separately.

12. "AI should not make changes to the empire during a simultaneous games" - change this to reflect what the option actually does (whatever that is). [Even better, include an option to do what that says- but that isn't an interface change.]

13. In the Planets screen, the ability to sort planets by colonization type would be useful.

14. In the Planets screen, the ability to view only the planets within your borders (the systems you've claimed) would be useful. It would be more useful than the current ability to exclude restricted systems from the list.

15. When changing the top item in the construction queue, display a warning only when the top item is partially constructed.

16. When deleting the top item from the construction queue, display a warning only when the item is partially constructed.

17. When deleting a project from the research queue, display a warning only when that project is partially researched.

18. When you "Recover Units Remotely" from the sector you're in, it doesn't include the "Move to" command. This is problematic if you want a ship to move somewhere, and then return to its original sector and recover units remotely there.

19. Sometimes when entering the "Set Construction Queue" screen from the "Construction Queues" screen, the "Set Construction Queue" screen starts at the top of the list. Other times it starts at the Last item selected when the screen was Last accessed. [This probably happens with other lists as well] [There is probably a trigger which causes the different starting points, but I can't determine it]

20. You can only trigger pods on independent ships, not ships in fleets.

21. When a space yard is emergency building, changing it to slow build disables the Emergency Build button. I don't see any gameplay reason for this - just don't restart the emergency time when toggling back (Maybe only disable the button if you leave the "Set Construction Queue" screen and return to the same spaceyard?)

22. Make the 'Repeat Build' option to repeat the Last item rather than the first.

23. Add an empire option to have the 'Next Ship' option skip minister-controlled ships.

24. When a minefield is detonated, tell how many mines were used up and how many are left. Right now, you only get told how many were swept.

25. The 'only one needed per system' message in the "Set Construction Queue" screen does not take into account facilities in build queues. (Maybe add a separate message "You have already arranged to build one in this system").

26. When selecting an enemy ship, indicate whether it is a known or unknown design. If known, somehow show the design (add a Design button where the Detail/Comps/Cargo/Ability buttons are on your ships?).

27. If an enemy ship is within Scanner range, and does not have scanner jammers, show any damagewrench/lowfuel/constructing/etc icons applicable.

28. Make the launch/recover button available in simultaneous move games. [There's probably a good reason for removing this that I'm not aware of, but maybe it's a simple change?]

29. Instead of immediately exiting the game, go back to the main menu/startup screen when canceling a just-loaded game.

30. Instead of immediately exiting the game, go to the main menu/startup screen when ending a turn in a simultaneous move game. [Maybe...]

31. In the "Scrap/Analyze/Mothball" window, add buttons to filter out anything that's in a fleet and anything that already has orders.

32. In the Construction Queues window, replace the unused "Ships" tab with a "Base SY" tab. Move the bases with spaceyards out of the "Ship SY" into the "Base SY" section. (Or just eliminate the "Ships" tab.)

33. In the Enemy Ship Designs window of the "Designs" screen, include the date an enemy design was discovered when viewing the design.

34. When an enemy ship is viewed with Scanners, add that design to your Enemy Ship Designs.

35. Remember/save the Last position scrolled to in the "Log", "Colonies" and "Ships" screens when you leave by selecting an item. When returning to the "Log", "Colonies" or "Ships" screens, start at that position.

[Jubala]

quote:

---

Originally posted by Scott Barrie:
24. When a minefield is detonated, tell how many mines were used up and how many are left. Right now, you only get told how many were swept.

---

Also, when a minefield is detonated and enemy ships are destroyed I'd really like to know what ships are destroyed, not just the number of ships. There's one hell of a difference between 12 destroyed Frigates and 12 destroyed Dreadnoughts and I really really want to know what was destroyed. List them kind of like in a battle report.

And for battle reports I'd really like a more detailed report, preferably in table format, with lists by class, size and name.

class size # in battle # destroyed # dagamed
Mauler (BC) 12 4 6
Grinder (BC) 8 2 4
Ripper (BB) 4 1 2

Total 24 7 12

size # in battle # destroyed # dagamed
BC 20 6 10
BB 4 1 2

And the listing we have now in which we can rightclick a damaged ship to see it's damage as we now it when the battle ended.

I hope that makes sense to someone somewhere.

Don't know if this one will classify as a UI change, but I'd really like to get reports of other players battles that take place in systems I have presence in. What went in and what came out, that sort of thing.

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

---

18. When you "Recover Units Remotely" from the sector you're in, it doesn't include the "Move to" command. This is problematic if you want a ship to move somewhere, and then return to its original sector and recover units remotely there.

---

Another point to do with remote cargo orders...

18b) Empty ships do not have the "Launch Units Remotely" order available. This prevents the user from issuing an order such as "move to Ikyak IV, load mines, move to sector (5,0), remote launch mines"

It is really annoying to have to waste multiple turns getting the ship loaded before you can issue repeat orders.

[JenMax]

re: construction queue: This may seem minor to some of you, but under patch 1.41 I seem to have lost the ability to rename bases with a name that matches the planet it is orbiting, and then an add on. Example:

Vorlon IX
Vorlon IX <space yard base name 0002>

I was able to do this before, and it made it much easier to coordiante production between planets and orbiting yards. Under patch 1.41, NOTHING seems to work to get the construction queue to display in this fashion. Would like it to.

quote:

---

Originally posted by JenMax:
I seem to have lost the ability to rename bases with a name that matches the planet it is orbiting, and then an add on

---

A simple naming convention I use is : (a-z)planetname-# or planetname(a-z)-#
for example wApeIII-01, wApeIII-02 etc. No spaces are needed, which might be the problem. I had a total of only five base designs as of turn 60 in my game so keeping track of what letter meant what was no problem. The list is sorted alphabetically in all screens. If you are going to have more than 9 of something, use 01,02,03 etc, otherwise you get 1,10,11,12,13,2,3,4 etc type lists.