A GUI optimization: soldier info

[Niessuh]

This could be a good solution too, I hope someone at battlefront takes care about optimizing and reorganizing the interface, there is a lot of little changes that could be made to improve tremendously the interface. Learning to use the GUI is probably the main difficulty of CMBN for a new come player

[Santiago Plaza]

Nice idea Niessuh!

Hope they take it on mind

[Steiner14]

Why the ignorance about colors?

[Salkin]

Great idea !

[DaveyJJ]

Agreed, that's a great suggestion for a UI change that would enhance the game's usability tremendously.

[c3k]

You guys know I've been pushing for UI improvements for awhile. So, take this criticism with that in mind.

If, say, my BAR gunner goes down, this would show a red BAR icon. Cool. Now, someone from my squad grabs the BAR. What will the UI show?

- The one BAR icon in the hands of the guy who got it?

- No change; the BAR stays red, the guy who got it keeps his Garand icon (for example).

- We show TWO BAR icons; the red wounded guy's, and the green one for the guy who just recovered it.

Now, what happens when each BAR gunner, in turn, gets wounded and the next guy recovers the BAR? How many BAR icons do we end up with?

Ken

[Speedy]

Easy the guy that picks up the BAR gets a green BAR and the casualty gets a red whatever weapon the new BAR guy had.

That will tell you what you need to know, what weapons you currently have active and what weapons you have lost.

[Lt Bull]

This thread highlights another example of questionable UI design by BFC that just baffles me.

The reorganised UI design by Niessuh is supremely better than what we are currently offered in CMBN. Why BFC choose to instead do it the way they did, and across two titles, I just don't understand. I'm starting to think that they really just don't care too much about the UI and how it impedes/lessens/detracts from the players gaming experience.

I would even pay an extra $5 for a patch (one that really there should be no need of) that could implement just this one UI improvement.

While I am here, I may as well throw up another suggestion to go along with this UI improvement. It relates to the FLOATING ICONS. Despite being a significant feature in the game, when you consider the amount of OTHER information they could potentially transmit to the player, they really are being wasted/poorly utilised

Currently they indicate:

Organisational info:

-where a unit in on the map

-the side it belongs to (US circle/green, German square/grey)

-the type of unit (the black icon silhouette used)

-whether a unit has been selected (background colour blinks orange)

-whether unit has not been selected (dimmed background)

-other units belonging to the same immediate formation as the currently selected unit (background colour is a brighter shade of green or grey, or orange if also selected)

Unit state info:

-if the unit is taking casualties (background blinks orange)

-if the unit has "broken" and is out of control (semi-transparent background)

...and that's it really.

Why stop there? Why not allow these Floating Icons to show some more important information the player would like to know about the unit, mainly it's "state"?

These might include:

-the current morale state of the unit

-if the unit is firing/under fire/level of supression

-if the unit has spotted an enemy

-if a unit is hiding

-if a unit is moving

This could be achieved by a clever use of a combination of colours and graphic overlays over the existing cons.

Getting this information by selecting each and every unit and looking at it's unit info panel is extremely inefficient (seems to be common feature of much of the CMBN UI)...ah well.

I am sure the observations and suggestions in this thread have been discussed before elsewhere (they are so freakn blatantly obvious) but I am not going to make that assumption and risk not saying anything and giving the false impression that such observations, improvements and suggestions are of no interest to players.

[Frankster65]

@Lt Bull

You must be a RT player. I play WEGO only and have found the UI to be superb. I wouldn't change a thing.

[Lt Bull]

@Lt Bull

You must be a RT player. I play WEGO only and have found the UI to be superb. I wouldn't change a thing.

I'm no CMBN RT player. My comments aren't necessarily specific to WEGO or RT.

@Frankster65. So you would prefer that all the information communicated on Niessuh compact all-in-one interface and the way it is represented to instead by split up and spread out (for some still unknown reason) across two different parts of the game screen like it is now? Why do you prefer it that way? Do you like the way you have to look back and forth across those screen locations then back to the battlefield screen to access the state of your units?

[Vinnart]

I started a new thread that deals with showing passenger/floor/buttoned/open info by simplifying the expereince to fit into un-used box, and adds general color indicators back into the ammo section. Since it is in line with optimizing the GUI I figured I throw the pic up here for any that miss the more in depth thread on that specificly.

http://www.battlefront.com/community/showthread.php?t=97520