New player aid GUI with pic

[Vinnart]

I have read many good ideas for improvements on the game and decided to illustrate some in photoshop. Many of my suggestions I am sure have been mentioned before here, but now that I have the game I wanted to add my vote to those, and perhaps add some fresh suggestions. Not sure if any are moddable.

COLORED TEXT REPORTS: I read this on here, and I agree. I think this would be a good player aid similar to warning labels in Cmx1. Green +, and red X stays the same, but the unit text are as follows: White ok, Yellow would show a unit is in the yellow, red would mean they are in the red. Would be a quick way to get an overview of the status of the Units. Either this and/or icons that change to have yellow or red marks while in that status. I would also like to see unique colors for soldier status, Yellow=wounded, Red= casualty

WHAT FLOOR ON/PASSANGER STATUS. Same as in CMx1 telling if passenger status or floor on. Player aid to quickly see for sure where infantry are. Makes it easier, and quicker especially when many infantry squads are in a big building, or viewed from less obvious camera points. The text would only show when ALL the squad is on the same floor, or currently boarded as passengers.

MORE UNIQUE ICONS. Just like the flags make it easy to find command units, and the binos make it easy to find the forward observer. I think some of the other special units such as snipers could use a cross hair or something. In my icons pic I like the idea of having the rank insignia for the officers to quickly tell them apart.

MORE UNIT PORTRAIT TYPES:I liked how Cmx1 had different portraits for commanders, teams, regular infantry, tank crew, and tank commanders Just makes recognition and GUI more interesting. Gives more options for fun mods as I show Kelly in the pic.

AUTO SAVE would be nice. Found it very convenient in CMx1

DELTETE from Saved games would also be nice so you don't have to go to the folder to delete old saves. This was also very convenient.

DIRECTIONAL CONTROL POP SMOKE- Others have made this suggestion as well. I Have had a few situations where I wanted smoke to be thrown by infantry off to the side instead of the default to the front of the way the squad was facing. I did not want to re-face them as they had good cover mostly behind a wall. I can see it being fixed for vehicle facing, but it would be good to give infantry the capability to throw it anywhere within a 20 meter radius. Adjustable waypoints would solve this, but it is my understanding that has been hard to implement. The alternative to fix this would be to have pop smoke work like the target command with its freedom of movement. The difference would be that the cursor would be locked that it can not extend more than 20 meters, but can still be moved around within the radius. Special limitations would apply to vehicles if they can just pop smoke to the front.

PUASE TILL BOARDED - mentioned on here before, and would be great if added to the pause options. This would take some of the guesswork out of timing things just right when boarding. without wasting time, and prevented vehicles from driving off if not paused long enough for pick up.

TARGET ARC GRAPHIC, OR TOGGLE ARC OFF/ON- I am an artist by profession and I can really say aesthetically it is way over powering. I think Cmx1,s graphic was much less obtrusive, and the quick 180 degree functions were useful. Is this graphic moddable?

HIT TEXT- Said before on here. Another good player aid that made the combat more interesting.

ADJUSTABLE WAYPOINTS- Would be nice at least for turn base, but if they can't work it in for some reason it is what it is.

AFTER ACTION REPORT & STATS - (Enter key from CMx1) said before on here, would be nice. It was always interesting to check out the kills after a battle in Cmx1.

Separate commands for MOVE TO CONTACT and HUNT. Currently from what I have observed hunt acts like move to contact did in Cmx1 in that the units stop when contact is made. They do not continue on when the threat is destroyed as HUNT did in Cmx1.

MOVE TO CONTACT= Unit stops when contact is made and does not continue to move.

HUNT= Unit stops when contact is made, but moves on when threat is neutralized.

Since there seems to be a conflict between the FACE command and the COVER ARC COMMAND working together i think the solution may be to move the FACE to the Movement commands. Maybe if they were listed under different command panels one would be able to issue both orders for a final waypoint? Overall I prefer how the cover arc and rotate worked in cmx1 graphically with qiuck 180 degree functionally except that now you can do more per waypoint.

Graphicly the only thing that stands out as needing a bit improvement is the trees. I think adding some shrubbery around the bases would give them a more realistic look. Currently they look a bit pasted.

[hcrof]

I like these ideas - I would just throw in different types of question mark for soft/armoured vehicle and infantry.

Also, I think there shouldn't be hit text in iron difficulty, personally I like that moment of doubt when an enemy tank is hit and you dont know how much damage you did!

[Pandur]

i am strictly against more specific icons. it will create a single but big problem.

example, i play H2H and some lone rifle man pops of some shots, i spott him and by that i could already have the information that this single guy is part of the BTLN command.

guess what i as player will do with this totaly unrealistic information!? exploit it ofcourse.

you see what i mean? its not like these icons help just "you" but also the enemy. the generic "flag" is it is now is ok as is. after all you dont have too many leaders around and if you cant remember where they are, write it down on paper. simple as that.

all the other suggestions are fine but i guess steve has it already on the list, somewhere way down on the list though

[Skinnedpuppy]

Well the solution there is to have generic icons for spotted enemy units, I for one think vinnart suggestions are great.

This game seriously needs further player aids and feedback to bring it back to cmx1 levels ( not that I'm saying the improvments up to now haven't been good) but as it stands there's far too much going on under the hood that isn't explained or made obvious what is going on.

I suspect at this point however there will be no serious changes untill cm2 Normandy as this product is nearing the end of it's cycle...

Here's waiting to see what the Brit module brings.

[c3k]

Wow, those look good. I like the infilled graphics showing yellow or red status. It shows better than an appended exclamation point or an outline.

Thanks,

Ken

[Vinnart]

Sorry had to crop and resize this:

[pcpilot]

I like that list. It would be a real nice improvement to the game. I would add a moveable or directional dismount command too.