Some minor UI gripes - Page 2

st.patrik · #11 October 29th, 2003, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
3) A personal concern of mine. I got the black portrait thing at least. Light background is detrimental to my sprites, but works better with the map etc. I have no immediate solution to this one. What do you prefer (please be explicit)?

Thanks for the reply Kristoffer.

I think I see the problem here: you want the panels to be a light colour so that on the main screen you can opaque them and see more of the map. On the other hand it isn't good for the sprites, as you say.

My opinion is that the sprite issue is the more important, so my preference is that the background of the panels be made a much darker colour/texture. Honestly I thought that the predominant background colour in Dom I was about right; you could maybe go a little lighter, but not much.

Kristoffer O · #12 October 29th, 2003, 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PDF:
Well, I rather have many gripes with the new UI..
The game looks much much better now than Dom1, but overall I don't find the interface has been made much easier for the moment (but Ok I still have some adaptation time to get )

I agree on
- Dark background needed for identification of units - will try the transparency tip
- Not only unit stats should be aligned, but also Province stats..
Plus I have :
- Why has r-click been disabled to exit menus/windows ? Now I have either to scroll dooooooooooooown the spell list to click Exit button, or keep a finger near the Esc key..
- The hotkey list (key "?") should be accessible directly from the main screen - having to search what is the hotkey for the list kills the whole idea :eek !
- When typing keyboard isn't properly mapped but hardcoded in QWERTY mode - a pqin when you hqve q French keyboqrd Names have no Capitals either .. too bad for a Pretender God (a pretender god is way much feeble)
- There's no way to know from the main screen how many units your commanders have under their command ? (previous Shift-s key) ?
- Please make a real "end turn" button that ends turn in a click, and not 3 ! I know this has been done to have the same procedures in SP and MP, but frankly it's a bad idea.
99.99% of TBS games have a different "Save" and "Next Turn" buttons, why not have that ? This a real step backwards from Dom1 in SP (and whatever MP fans may say, 90%+ of players of any TBS only play SP..)

The r-click was removed as it seemed to be confusing to newbies. Now r-click is an info-click so to speak. We did like the old thing, but it was something that people complained about.

'?' availability seems like a good idea.

Keyboard things are beyond my knowledge.

Hmm, on the save thing. JK is probably pro as he didnt want to remove hotseat mode in the first place.

Kristoffer O · #13 October 29th, 2003, 04:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Pocus:

quote:
Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
3) A personal concern of mine. I got the black portrait thing at least. Light background is detrimental to my sprites, but works better with the map etc. I have no immediate solution to this one. What do you prefer (please be explicit)?

externalize all the targa you can, interface panels first. It will be easy to replace them with the texture of our choice, and everybody will be content.

I already replaced the wood texture with a plain black targa file. Sorry if you liked it

Nah, it's some kind of church bench. When it was black it felt so very black. Thats why we have it. I think I prefer the wooden stuff, but I do not mind you changing pics.

Externalizing pics should not be too difficult. Modding feature perhaps.

st.patrik · #14 October 29th, 2003, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
'?' availability seems like a good idea.

Keyboard things are beyond my knowledge.

Hmm, on the save thing. JK is probably pro as he didnt want to remove hotseat mode in the first place.

1st thing: Why not have the hotkey letter a different colour? so like 'Province Info' would be 'Province Info' or something to that effect, with the result that you wouldn't need to access the '?' so often.

2nd thing: Please don't change the way the save thing works! I really appreciate that it doesn't automatically process the turn! Public opinion is not all one way!

Honestly though I really do like that you can step out of a game via the 'end turn' command, go do play a different saved game etc., and then return to your original game. Not being able to do this in Dom I was an annoyance. So please consider leaving this functionality it.

Dekent · #15 October 29th, 2003, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by st.patrik:

quote:
Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
'?' availability seems like a good idea.

Keyboard things are beyond my knowledge.

Hmm, on the save thing. JK is probably pro as he didnt want to remove hotseat mode in the first place.

1st thing: Why not have the hotkey letter a different colour? so like 'Province Info' would be 'Province Info' or something to that effect, with the result that you wouldn't need to access the '?' so often.

2nd thing: Please don't change the way the save thing works! I really appreciate that it doesn't automatically process the turn! Public opinion is not all one way! Honestly though I really do like that you can step out of a game via the 'end turn' command, go do play a different saved game etc., and then return to your original game. Not being able to do this in Dom I was an annoyance. So please consider leaving this functionality it.

Make a multiplayer game and play it single player if you don't want it to auto process turns...that worked in dom1 too, and allowed hotseat games...

But SINGLE player should be SINGLE player first and foremost...or at least give us both options so everyone is happy ;p

PDF · #16 October 29th, 2003, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by st.patrik:

quote:
Originally posted by Kristoffer O:
'?' availability seems like a good idea.

Keyboard things are beyond my knowledge.

Hmm, on the save thing. JK is probably pro as he didnt want to remove hotseat mode in the first place.

1st thing: Why not have the hotkey letter a different colour? so like 'Province Info' would be 'Province Info' or something to that effect, with the result that you wouldn't need to access the '?' so often.

2nd thing: Please don't change the way the save thing works! I really appreciate that it doesn't automatically process the turn! Public opinion is not all one way! Honestly though I really do like that you can step out of a game via the 'end turn' command, go do play a different saved game etc., and then return to your original game. Not being able to do this in Dom I was an annoyance. So please consider leaving this functionality it.

Can't get your point : I ask for "End Turn" to be split 2 separate features/buttons :
1/ "Save Turn" : will only save the .2h file, for MP use mainly, but also usable in SP
2/ "Next turn" : will save the host .2h file, process the turn and display the turn report, as the Dom1 SP "End Turn".

You won't lose anything ...

st.patrik · #17 October 29th, 2003, 09:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PDF:
Can't get your point : I ask for "End Turn" to be split 2 separate features/buttons :
1/ "Save Turn" : will only save the .2h file, for MP use mainly, but also usable in SP
2/ "Next turn" : will save the host .2h file, process the turn and display the turn report, as the Dom1 SP "End Turn".

You won't lose anything ...

That would be ok - I just find it refreshing to not be thrust into the next turn after finishing the one that came before.

Would it scratch your itches to have the button labeled 'continue' instead of 'host'? I mean is one more click that big of an annoyance, or is it that it is confusing to new players?

Pocus · #18 October 29th, 2003, 09:40 PM

I concur with Patrik, I now find very useful the sub menu in single player, as it allows you to return to the main menu without quiting the game, and his was annoying in doms I.

PDF · #19 October 29th, 2003, 11:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Kristoffer O:

quote:
Originally posted by PDF:
Well, I rather have many gripes with the new UI..
The game looks much much better now than Dom1, but overall I don't find the interface has been made much easier for the moment (but Ok I still have some adaptation time to get )

I agree on
- Dark background needed for identification of units - will try the transparency tip
- Not only unit stats should be aligned, but also Province stats..
Plus I have :
- Why has r-click been disabled to exit menus/windows ? Now I have either to scroll dooooooooooooown the spell list to click Exit button, or keep a finger near the Esc key..
- The hotkey list (key "?") should be accessible directly from the main screen - having to search what is the hotkey for the list kills the whole idea :eek !
- When typing keyboard isn't properly mapped but hardcoded in QWERTY mode - a pqin when you hqve q French keyboqrd Names have no Capitals either .. too bad for a Pretender God (a pretender god is way much feeble)
- There's no way to know from the main screen how many units your commanders have under their command ? (previous Shift-s key) ?
- Please make a real "end turn" button that ends turn in a click, and not 3 ! I know this has been done to have the same procedures in SP and MP, but frankly it's a bad idea.
99.99% of TBS games have a different "Save" and "Next Turn" buttons, why not have that ? This a real step backwards from Dom1 in SP (and whatever MP fans may say, 90%+ of players of any TBS only play SP..)

The r-click was removed as it seemed to be confusing to newbies. Now r-click is an info-click so to speak. We did like the old thing, but it was something that people complained about.

'?' availability seems like a good idea.

Keyboard things are beyond my knowledge.

Hmm, on the save thing. JK is probably pro as he didnt want to remove hotseat mode in the first place.

About the r-click in Dom1, I honestly thinks that what was "unfriendly" to new players is that it was the ONLY way to exit, and not a standard one !
Now that there is standard "exit" buttons, r-click would only be a welcome additionnal easy shortcut to exit ... better than Esc key

Saber Cherry · #20 October 29th, 2003, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PDF:
About the r-click in Dom1, I honestly thinks that what was "unfriendly" to new players is that it was the ONLY way to exit, and not a standard one !
Now that there is standard "exit" buttons, r-click would only be a welcome additionnal easy shortcut to exit ... better than Esc key

I liked right-click exit. But it was unfamiliar... I don't like scrolling down a menu to find the exit button. Every exitable menue should have a big "X in a Square" in the upper-right corner, where you click to exit.