User Interface Improvments Wanted

I am not pro or con on the debate of not being able to disband. I have always found ways to either use or throw away those militia or flags. While I agree that that particular event is annoying (and has been reiterated time and time again) it is far from 'nearly useless' and at times they can be incredibly useful while others they are a major pain in the ***. I don't feel the solution to that is in particular adding 'disband' but the modification of that particular event.

And you can get them to suicide Arryn. Try not putting them by themselves, but in a massive squad of troops you have either shoring up a center or on a cavalry flank. You'll find that they won't break and can be killed quite efficently if you want them to, when put up against and sort of reasonable opponent/province.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Evil Dave:
Compare this to the Skull Standard, which comes right out and says "spell: Panic".

It says panic in that case because it allows the commander to cast the panic spell.

I'm just going to point out the changes I would disagree with.

Bug fix: Ritual spells and forge orders sometimes forgotten if leader looked at, or ritual spell or forge screens opened but cancelled.

That's to let you cancel the order if you change your mind.

Option to have all priests Call God.

Even those ones you have out doing other more important things at the moment?

If a unit can't move into a province, say why (not enough raw movement points, unfavorable terrain to move that far).

I'd definetly want to turn this one off right away.

Remember magic sites seen in provinces (when scouting or in provinces previously owned)

It already does this.

Show disease icon on provinces known to spread disease (magic site, Miasma domain)

Sites that are known to the player could show this. Miasma should not, as that would give you information on both what theme the C'tis player is using, and who the owner of the positive dominion is.

Show icons indicating why spell isn't available (more gems needed, more points in path needed)

A lack of skill is already indicated by the spells being grayed out.

Add disband row at bottom of screen; all soldiers placed here are disbanded at next turn generation.

I don't believe that there is any intention on the part of Illwinter to allow you to disband your troops. If you want to get rid of them, you have to send them on suicide missions in squads by themselves.

Make next turn work like single player: can submit turn then go back
and make other moves or look at battle movies.

It already works like this.

Add countdown timer showing time until next automatic host update, if autohost is being used.

This also already exists.

[PvK]

Originally posted by Evil Dave:
...
Why is it necessary to click on every solider in an army to find out which ones are experienced, afflicted, or cursed? ...

It's not necessary; you can click on one unit in a group, and then hit "W" to highlight/select all the afflicted ones.

As for flagellants, there were some people at one point suggesting they were an uber-unit, when blessed. They aren't cowardly at all if they have a priestly leader around to cheer them up with Blessing (+3 morale) Surmon of Courage, Fanaticism etc., and for pretenders who start out with magic paths at 4+, the blessings also give them other powers which can make them into pretty effective units, which I don't expect cost any gold to maintain (do they?), since they were volunteers.

PvK

[Evil Dave]

Originally posted by Graeme Dice:

quote:

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Originally posted by Evil Dave:
Compare this to the Skull Standard, which comes right out and says "spell: Panic".

It says panic in that case because it allows the commander to cast the panic spell.

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Right. So why can't everything have a concise description? I've gotten tired of the recent trend in games where the game-within-a-game is "guess what the moves do". There are times when the exact effect is either below the level of abstraction of the game or is intentionally random, but I can't see why a god with incredible magic powers wouldn't know what his spells or magic toys do.

Oh, and thanks, Zen, for the pointer to the reference. Still wish it was in the game.

quote:

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Bug fix: Ritual spells and forge orders sometimes forgotten if leader looked at, or ritual spell or forge screens opened but cancelled.

That's to let you cancel the order if you change your mind.

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Sure, but from an interface design standpoint, there's already a cancel option: defend.

quote:

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Option to have all priests Call God.

Even those ones you have out doing other more important things at the moment?

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It's an option. I don't mean that it should replace the one-at-a-time commands.

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If a unit can't move into a province, say why (not enough raw movement points, unfavorable terrain to move that far).

I'd definetly want to turn this one off right away.

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I think I like Zen's suggestion of displaying army movement limits with their commanders better than my proposal.

quote:

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Show disease icon on provinces known to spread disease (magic site, Miasma domain)

Sites that are known to the player could show this. Miasma should not, as that would give you information on both what theme the C'tis player is using, and who the owner of the positive dominion is.

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Oops. My mistake. I thought domain type was public knowledge, but I see that it isn't. That's a symptom of playing several sides at once to test stuff.

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Add disband row at bottom of screen; all soldiers placed here are disbanded at next turn generation.

I don't believe that there is any intention on the part of Illwinter to allow you to disband your troops. If you want to get rid of them, you have to send them on suicide missions in squads by themselves.

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Somebody is going to have to explain this one to me in small words. I'm playing a god. If I want Bob the afflicted, cursed, and otherwise useless fanatic to go back to his farm and fanatically till his fields, I expect him to obey.

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Make next turn work like single player: can submit turn then go back
and make other moves or look at battle movies.

It already works like this.

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Hm. Wasn't obvious to me. I may just be stupid.

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Add countdown timer showing time until next automatic host update, if autohost is being used.

This also already exists.

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But not in the main screen, where I'm spending most of my time. I tried a blitz game (five minute turns) with a few friends, and several of them missed turns because they simply didn't notice that five mintues had gone by. Since I had the server running in another window, this wasn't a problem for me.

[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Evil Dave:
I think I like Zen's suggestion of displaying army movement limits with their commanders better than my proposal.

This would be very useful.

Hm. Wasn't obvious to me. I may just be stupid.

Just click on the name of your nation again, and it will ask you if you want to continue or restart.

But not in the main screen, where I'm spending most of my time. I tried a blitz game (five minute turns) with a few friends, and several of them missed turns because they simply didn't notice that five mintues had gone by. Since I had the server running in another window, this wasn't a problem for me.

You could also put the server on quickhost, or hit the host button after everyone finishes, but I see the reason for putting this somewhere in the main interface.

[Saber Cherry]

I don't think "Disband" is necessary. Not for a god. The god should be able to snap its fingers and watch'em die... best for Ermor, who needs the corpses, of course

Note that a decent solution would be to make all volunteer units minimal upkeep (1/5 of normal, just enough to survive). Seems reasonable...

[ January 21, 2004, 05:09: Message edited by: Saber Cherry ]

[Arryn]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:
Note that a decent solution would be to make all volunteer units minimal upkeep (1/5 of normal, just enough to survive). Seems reasonable...

One-fifth would be acceptable to me. However, if we wanted to invoke that ugly term 'realism', they should cost no upkeep, as they should be considered to be a mobile variation of PD.