[Killing two cows with one stone]

The other part of the idea was that you can set an expiration date so there wouldn't need to be more markers on the board than there are now at any given time.

i got that. "fading to transparent" is just my idea of making them disapear. when they are 100% transparent, they can as well be removed. but inbetween, you can see very fast wich markers are newer(more opaque) and wich are older(more transparent).

[Killing two cows with one stone]

Well you already have to click on them as it is,

wich is bad enough, even with few markers. with non-auto-removed-markers, fading the older to transparent would be a must.

I'm trying to think of something that is at least somewhat consistent with how things already work.

i see. i would like to avoid the marker clicking at all. all the information(age, unit-type) could be represented by the marker graphics itself.

[Killing two cows with one stone]

Last seen markers would remain on the board, like they are now, but with a time stamp. What I mean is that when you click on it, you see in the info window how many turns old it is.

dozens of markers, and i have to click on all of them? not very user friendly. my idea:

the age of the marker schould be visualised directly by the marker graphics(fading to transparent or somthing like this). a pictogram showing the type of the unit would be much better, than the national-marking (i know whom i am fighting, from the briefing ).

but there schould be an realism option, to switch between realistic and auto-removed last-seen-markers.

[Unit Bases]

the bases are important, but they also mess up the optics. switching them off and on all the time is not sensible with shift+key.

what would be cool: an (additional) single key, that diplays the bases, while it is pressed (and hides them on release).

[Round Penetration Question]

sometimes i get penetrations with an bazooka, with no effect as well. is this realistic?

[CMBB: random maps - woods placing]

hi

what would be usefull for random maps, is a setting that defines the scatter-factor of the woods. in CMBO the woods on random maps where much too scattered. i have never seen woods in reality growing in such small chuncks. they are rather at least 100m x 100m. and between, there are hardly trees, but rather grass or crops.

the point is that with high tree-coverage + high scatter CMBO created a labirinth of woods, hard to navigate with vechicles.

[CMBB-offical site? better user interface?]

i agree on the hotkeys. my idea with the camera-mode was thought as an addition to the current controls. but there have to be hotkeys too, for top-down-view, selected-unit-first-person, goto-cursor...

numbers or OK. numbers + colors/symbols are better. colors become only distracting, if they are used to make it look more colorfull, without any meaning.

i liked the soilders faces in CC's unit panel. you could see very quickly what is left of the unit. in CMBO, after a quick look, i sometimes dont remember, if there where 11:OK 1:DEAD, or 1:OK 11:DEAD. i only know there wehre some 1's

[CMBB-offical site? better user interface?]

i have the impression, that the mouse-concept is very mac-oriented (one button, no wheel). in CMBO, after you choosed "attack" from the popup menu, it is not even posible to cancel by pressing right-mouse-button. you have to press "x-key".

IMHO there schould be a camera-key (for example "ALT" or "SPACEBAR"). when you hold the camera-key pressed, the mouse is in camera-mode:

- moving the mouse rotates(orbits) the camera

- moving the mouse + holding left button moves(pans) the camera

- moving the mouse + holding right button zooms the camera

when you relase the camera-key you are back to selecting/giving orders.

there schold be more color-coding. when choosing a target, the hit/kill % schould be displayed by colors, and not numbers only. maybe the LOS schould be colred (red=bad shot, yellow=medium, green=good shot) the same(!) colors schould be used for displaying:

- units casaulties

- units experience

- units morale

- units cover (terain, soft/hard building)

- units firepower (against soft and hard tagets)

- comander stats

...and other stuff.

well, this all has already been implemented very good in close combat 2+. the only thing in close combat, that was very good .

[CMBB-offical site? better user interface?]

is there an offical site for CMBB?

i read in a preview, that the info-panels will be improoved, and go more in the directon of close combat. will the camera controls be improoved too? just look at black&white: with 1 mouse button + mouse wheel you can: rotate, zoom and move the camera.

[Detonator 4 drivers]

is there any word from big time, if the will adress the win2k-nvidia-white=transparent-problem??? :confused:

[Dust Clouds]

Will (big) explosions throw some dirt

into the air and create dust clouds,

wich stay there for a while and affect

the sight? That would be not only better

looking, but also more realistic.

I saw the screenshots of the improved

smoke clouds. The same effects, with

a different color, could be used for

dust clouds.

That would make artillery impacts

and building colapses really cool.

[AI avoiding friendly fire?]

In the demo tanks wich are doing "area fire"

keep on firing, even if friendly units enter

the target area.

Will this change in the final version?

I also think that Target areas for "area fire" should be indicated, even if the firing unit is not selected.

[GUI suggestions]

I hope these points were not already discussed here. I think that the CloseCombat games had a good interface:

1) Moving the mouse over an unit, highlights it(with a glow), and information about this unit is displayed (without selecting the unit).

2) The information in the panels is well visualized, with color symbols, instead of numbers.

3) There is s selection panel with a button for each of your units. The buttons indicate the status of the units with colors.