Collective thread to improve usability

[Hawk66]

Hi,

I've thought, that it would make sense to start a thread to collect small usability improvements which could be implemented in patches.

- popups: focus of OK button is sometimes not set, so pressing the OK button does not work. Even using tab does not set the focus (Example: End of turn popup during WEGO)

[Mord]

A toggle to turn off unit bases.

A toggle to turn off ?s.

Mord.

[tankibanki]

A toggle to turn off unit bases.

A toggle to turn off ?s.

"Beautiful screenshot key" that turns off all ?s, unit bases, icons and "Pause" text.

[Mord]

Yeah, I forgot the pause text. It's gotten in the way of a few really good screens I tried to make.

Mord.

[The_Red_Rage]

Main gripe is switching between 4 different menus for firing/movement/admin and how using hot keys does not override what menu the unit is in. Currently if i press "I" to move quick while the unit is in Firing orders menu "Y" key presses for some reason, which is actually a Target Light order. It could be problems with my system, since i'm running CM under bootcamp and not all the keys function like they would in native Windows.

Double right click to zoom in on the unit would be very helpful.

Going back on Fire mission and air support menus. So, if i accidently chose "Heavy" instead of "Light" mission I'd love an option to go back without starting the whole mission over again.

[c3k]

Tooltips when you hover the mouse over the user interface.

A glossary of weapons with 3-D gameshots of the same as well as a paragraph or two about them. (If the tooltip tells me I'm looking at an RPG-29, I can look it up.)

Allow me to specify vehicle (coax) machineguns.

Allow me to specify special weapons to be used or not; ATGM's, flamethrowers, etc.

Thanks,

Ken

[Other Means]

Main gripe is switching between 4 different menus for firing/movement/admin and how using hot keys does not override what menu the unit is in. Currently if i press "I" to move quick while the unit is in Firing orders menu "Y" key presses for some reason, which is actually a Target Light order.

You know you can assign your own keys? Just edit the hotkeys file in the data folder. I use this one, if you have a look it will tell you what each key does - a for advance, t for target etc.

Feel free to use it, but back up your existing one - just in case.

BTW, I don't use the camera keys etc so I've assigned them to and all the ones I don't use to "#"

[The_Red_Rage]

But will assigning my own keys remedy the menu situation? Stock key bindings are fine with me - it is the fact that pressing one key in a "wrong" menu actually activates a different command under a different key binding that is bothersome. Much like the example with pressing "I" to move quick while in fire control menu will actually "press" "Y" (target light) unless switched to movement menu.

c3k,

Good idea with a small ecyclopedia/tooltip menu. Old feature from CMx1 would work as well - when pressing enter gave you all the unit stats, with armour and penetration values as well as effective ranges for infantry. Loved the fact that you could also view damage done by the unit in very same menu (I usually spent 10 mins after any given CMBO/CMBB/CMAK battle looking for particularly distinguished units).

[Combatintman]

Toggle to lose the info screen for capturing movies

[Other Means]

But will assigning my own keys remedy the menu situation? Stock key bindings are fine with me - it is the fact that pressing one key in a "wrong" menu actually activates a different command under a different key binding that is bothersome. Much like the example with pressing "I" to move quick while in fire control menu will actually "press" "Y" (target light) unless switched to movement menu.

It avoids the issue altogether by having one command per key, such as (extract from the file)

Command Keys Direct

// These will issue the designated command no matter what command panel is currently displayed

<E>F // move fast

<E>Q // move quick

<E>M // move normal

<E>S // move slow

<E>H // move hunt

<E>A // move assault

<E>R // move reverse

<E>B // blast

<E>N // mark mines

<E>T // target

<E>Y // target light

<E>V // target arc

<E> // NOT CURRENTLY USED... Do not assign a key to this function! It will eventually be the hotkey for Clear Target, but not yet properly activated

<E>O // face

<E>D // deploy

<E>P // pause

<E>U // hide

<E>L // dismount

<E>B // bail out

<E>- // vehicle open up

<E>I // pop smoke

<E>G // acquire

[Spindry69]

I think it would be really useful if the onscreen orders popup was colour coded like it was in the CM1 games, even with symbols before the text. It would greatly speed up finding the order you are looking for as it did in CM1.

[bodkin]

I'd like to see something that would really help WEGO players, that is a 'TARGET SHORT' command where you want a unit to only fire at a building for a short time say 30 secs rather than the full 60. This would help stop tanks and javelin teams using up an unecessary amount of ammo when you might only want them to hit it a couple of times.

Either this or make the 'PAUSE' command also apply to targeting.

[c3k]

bodkin,

Fantastic suggestion!

I was quite disappointed when I realized, after extensive testing, that PAUSE commands have no effect on firing.

TARGET SHORT sounds like the trick. Make it in discrete increments just like PAUSE: every press adds 10 or 15 seconds.

Thanks,

Ken

[dan/california]

What would actually be better is a "fire one round command" that could be queued with a movement orders. So a tank could appear from cover, fire one round, and reverse back into cover in a single set of orders. It would have a great many other uses as well.

[Chainsaw]

Another one:

CLEAR BUILDING command, making the AI do bounding overwatch with firing suppresing fire as they move thrue the building all by themself.

/Chainsaw