Some minor UI gripes

st.patrik · #1 October 30th, 2003, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Leif_-:

quote:
Originally posted by Daynarr:
[QB] I'm having a Deja Vu here. Same proposals were made when we started beta testing game, but little later nobody cared. This game (and lots of others I've played) is played best using keyboard shortcuts and ESC isn't so much of a problem.

But Beta-testers has to stay with the program. Potential customers ("potential fellow addicts" to me) do not. Hot-keys are userfriendly, but they are not beginner friendly (two terms that are often confused) - especially when the documentation that came with the demo was completely insufficent and that there are no "hints" about what the hot-keys are (such as differently-coloured letters in menu names etc.) A game needs to be both user-friendly and beginner-friendly. Dominions 2 is not beginner-friendly at all.

As for my gripes about the UI:

All screens in the game are exited by the "esc" key, except the battle-view which is exited by the "q" key. Let "esc" also exit that.

Have to exit a report screen to open a new report screen. To look at two report screens I first have to press Fx for the first one, then escape to return to the main screen, then Fy for the second one and finally escape once again to return to the main screen. What I _should_ be able to do is to press Fx to go to the first report screen, Fy to switch to the second and then Esc to return to the main screen.

"Exit" buttons as the Last element of a scroll-list. You should never have to scroll to find an exit button.

The "Dominions candles" just doesn't give me the same quick overview as the "grey-scale map" did in Dom I. I'd have preferred to have some kind of translucent overlay on the map to show the dominion (and also things such as unrest, provinse defenses and tax-levels.)

Incidentally (as I don't have a working copy of Dom2 at work) is there any way to select a region using just the keyboard? I.e. not having to first point and click on it with the mouse.

Do you want any of this posted on the "MASTER LIST" of suggestions? It's a full list of all the issues that people have brought up, requested by Kristoffer. I think some might be on there, but go here and post a reply if you want stuff added.

Calanor · #2 October 30th, 2003, 03:32 PM

I wholeheartedly agree with Leif_- when it comes to the translucent overlay - in particular when it comes to the dominion, but also other types of information (including, of course, actual territory).

Psitticine · #3 October 31st, 2003, 04:33 AM

You can zoom to a province with the keyboard by typing # and then the province's number. The province numbers are in parentheses next to their names both on the map itself and in the Nation Overview screen.

LordArioch · #4 October 31st, 2003, 05:41 AM

The esc key really doesnt cause that much trouble, although I would like my right click too, and being able to directly Fx between say, magic research and gem income would be nice too. I often forget it doesnt work and try it anyway.

But in general the UI is very easy to operate. I go around hitting r,b,t,e and shift clicking like nobody's business.

And the ctrl-1 through 9 to save order setups is really nice too.

Daynarr · #5 October 31st, 2003, 10:10 AM

Number 0 works too.

Leif_- · #6 October 31st, 2003, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Psitticine:
You can zoom to a province with the keyboard by typing # and then the province's number. The province numbers are in parentheses next to their names both on the map itself and in the Nation Overview screen.

That's 3-5 key-presses for every single province you want to visit - that gets annoying real fast. You have to either remember the province numbers (which doesn't work for PBeM games which you'll only play a few turns of every week - intermixed with other Dominions 2 games.) or you have to open the nation overview to look them up, adding a minimum of two more key-presses (and a context-switch) - not to mention that you can't even scroll through all the provinces in the nation overview with the keyboard at the moment.

In UI design stuff like an extra keypress or context-switch matters a great deal.

Leif_- · #7 October 31st, 2003, 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by LordArioch:
The esc key really doesnt cause that much trouble, although I would like my right click too, and being able to directly Fx between say, magic research and gem income would be nice too. I often forget it doesnt work and try it anyway.

I really don't want to see the "right-click to close window" reinstated. One of my main annoyances with the Dominions 1 interface was the "right-click to get info only to be a single pixel off and close the window instead" phenomena.

[ October 31, 2003, 08:33: Message edited by: Leif_- ]