UI Improvement: Minor, easy, helpful

[Pak40]

Womble,

+1 to that! Unfortunately that's probably a bit more time consuming to program and sburke's fears start to come true, i.e. time spent on UI changes cut into improvement of the game engine, new features, etc...

I'd gladly take the quick fix for now.

[thejetset]

I made a post in the tech support subforum asking for this exact thing. It's SO easy to accidentally click the red button and once you do there is NO way to back out of it. Your only choice is "OK". Not even a Cancel option. And you don't even have to absent mindedly click. I accidentally hit the red button once because my mouse cursor ended up down there as I was clicking and dragging to move the camera (another peeve of mine). It's no fun to have to reload your PBEM and replot ALL of your moves from scratch because you accidentally clicked one button. Doing it in single player is even worse, because there's no way to reload the turn and do it over!

I honestly have no idea how this kind of UI implementation has remained in the game this long. I mean, CMSF has been out for, what, 5 years? You'd think a solution would have been implemented by now. Why show the VCR controls at all once the replay phase is over? They buttons are non-functional, so just remove the whole thing. Make the button green during the replay phase and red during the command phase and throw a Cancel option in there after the red button has been hit. Problem solved.

+1 Clark! I totally agree

[Steiner14]

I find the handling of units in woods quite cumbersome. Lot's of clicks.

Right now, we have the option to show the trunks of trees only in close proximity to the camera position, which i find extremely helpful. But what lacks IMO, is a solution for units further away behind trees.

My pixeltruppen much more often open fire on units behind trees, i can't see at all, because the graphical represetation of one single tree-texture blocks LOS for the player almost 100%.

Simple solution:

How about giving every tree texture a transparency-level (maybe user adjustable?), if units are close to them? (IMO this works very well for units in houses already).

I can imagine, that way the player will also get a better feedback how deep the visual blocking is: one tree is almost transparent and creates the feeling of quite some exposure, while more trees are needed that the player loses the unit out of sight.

A technically much more complicated solution:

Instead of a fixed transparency radius of treetops around a unit, the transparency behaviour would be made dependent on camera position (but i don't know, how difficult that would be to program):

Every tree between a unit and the camera-position would receive a certain level of fixed transparency (like described above) but instead of transparent (circles around the unit), there would be only a "transparency-corridor" from the unit directly to the player's camera. If the camera moves, the transparency of treetops moves accordingly.

[Steiner14]

Dedicated button for end of replay like in CMx1 to avoid accidentally clicking the RED-button: +1

[Steiner14]

To plot a path, it is necessary to select a command. But if a command is selected, then the left-click with the mouse plots the waypoint and camera-movement with the mouse is no longer possible without plotting a waypoint. :mad: Only the fastest movment is possible with the mouse cursor hitting the edges of the screen (wonderful at ground levels and when precise paths are wanted! :mad: :mad: :mad:), or the command must be deselected. But with all the problems afterwards: if i want to add a orientation-order, the last waypoint is no longer active. The orientation-order would be given to the unit's current position.

So zooming out, turning around, movement, searching the last waypoint, clicking it, ...

Pure UI-HORROR!

Solution:

A modifier-key, that allows camera-movement with the mouse and denys left clicking to plot waypoints, although an order is selected.

I.e. SHIFT.

You select the command you want to plot. But you can move the camera with the mouse without plotting when left-clicking: just hit SHIFT and navigate the camera as usual.

[Steiner14]

Select unit by clicking it's movement path.

The above function shows it's real beauty with this functionality:

Show all paths - should work, when no unit is selected.

[thejetset]

Originally I thought a "warning screen" or "confirmation screen" or some other verbal message might be good to confirm you want to switch between playing modes ..... however ....

I think a graphical confirmation would be MUCH cooler! ... There could be a "protective cover" over the big red button.

First, you have to flip open the protective cover to reveal the Big Red Switch ... then, you can press the switch or flip the protective cover back into its position.

I also think this would go a lot better with the war-like interface that Combat Mission games have.

[Steiner14]

To plot a path, it is necessary to select a command. But if a command is selected, then the left-click with the mouse plots the waypoint and camera-movement with the mouse is no longer possible without plotting a waypoint. :mad: Only the fastest movment is possible with the mouse cursor hitting the edges of the screen (wonderful at ground levels and when precise paths are wanted! :mad: :mad: :mad:), or the command must be deselected.

...

Solution:

A modifier-key, that allows camera-movement with the mouse and denys left clicking to plot waypoints, although an order is selected.

I.e. SHIFT.

You select the command you want to plot. But you can move the camera with the mouse without plotting when left-clicking: just hit SHIFT and navigate the camera as usual.

This is already implemented! The modifier key is CTRL.

[LJFHutch]

It needs a flip switch, you click the switch and then the button, it would be ideal I think if you had to click slightly higher to confirm, sometimes I've double-clicked and then gone "noooooo!!!"

[thejetset]

It needs a flip switch, you click the switch and then the button, it would be ideal I think if you had to click slightly higher to confirm, sometimes I've double-clicked and then gone "noooooo!!!"

Yep! I've found this to be a particular problem after 3+ beers!!!

[MOSwas71331]

A lot of these UI issues cause fundamental problems with simply playing the game. YOU may not think they are problems, but many, many others do. For instance, I generally play CMBN with two guys from work via PBEM. All three of us *constantly* gripe about UI problems. Fixing the UI is the #1 priority for all of us (even more than fixing hunt/move to contact, which is a HUGE pet peeve of mine). A close friend of mine is the biggest PC gamer I know, as well as being a WWII history buff and ex-military. He tried the demo and gave up on it. I went to his house, sat down with him, and guided him through how the game works (thankfully, I had enough experience with CMBN/CMBB that it was easy for me). He still couldn't get past the interface issues. He knew what he wanted to do, but simply got frustrated trying to figure out how to effectively do it. Another friend of mine was jazzed to try the game and gave the demo a shot when it came out. He gave up on it because it took too much time. Simply moving his units in the demo took so long that he determined he'd never have enough time to finish a game. My buddy from work introduced the game to his son, and his reaction was the same: It seems like it could be fun, but the controls are terrible and figuring out how to make guys do what you want is not intuitive enough.

These three guys aren't 14 year old twitch-fest FPS players. They're all between 30-40 years of age, historically inclined PC gamers. They should be right smack dab in the middle of the demographic that this game appeals to. But they ALL gave up on the game because the UI is...well...horrible.

All of the improvements that we want to see take time and manpower. But if BFC can't get people to buy their game they'll never be able to afford the cost/manpower to actually implement those changes. Steve has said that Battlefront ... doesn't need to market to the general population, but surely the guys I've described are people Battlefront wants for customers. It generates income for them, it generates opponents for me, and the whole community is better off for it. I don't think you can say the same about under the hood changes like area targeting.

I agree with many of Griswold's complaints, particularly "Simply moving units in the demo took so long that he determined he'd never have enough time to finish a game." Here are some of my peeves:

1. When I'm trying to give orders to my units, there are units I can't select by clicking on their floating icons. I can only get to them by clicking on another unit icon and using the + and - keys until their icons light up. (And I can't always get to them. Sometimes their icons never light up.)

2. My units which must deploy before they can fire don't always deploy after I order them to, and I can't tell when they will or won't. Deployments advertised as taking 20-odd secs can take more than 2 minutes. (I could understand this when a unit was under fire, but this can happen when no firing has occurred anywhere near the unit.)

3. Regardless of the state of the "show paths" toggle, some units to which I've given movement orders or fire commands don't show their paths or targeting lines or arcs.

4. I know of no easy way to tell which units have not yet been given orders.

[MOSwas71331]

I agree with many of Griswold's complaints, particularly "Simply moving units in the demo took so long that he determined he'd never have enough time to finish a game." Here are some of my peeves:

1. When I'm trying to give orders to my units, there are units I can't select by clicking on their floating icons. I can only get to them by clicking on another unit icon and using the + and - keys until their icons light up. (And I can't always get to them. Sometimes their icons never light up.)

2. My units which must deploy before they can fire don't always deploy after I order them to, and I can't tell when they will or won't. Deployments advertised as taking 20-odd secs can take more than 2 minutes. (I could understand this when a unit was under fire, but this can happen when no firing has occurred anywhere near the unit.)

3. Regardless of the state of the "show paths" toggle, some units to which I've given movement orders or fire commands don't show their paths or targeting lines or arcs.

4. I know of no easy way to tell which units have not yet been given orders.

I neglected to mention in Peeve 1 that I also can't select all of my units during the replay phase. I should be able to view the turn from the perspective of any unit alive at the beginning of the turn, yet CM:BN's UI won't allow me to do this. Why?:confused:

When I select a unit of mine to follow during the replay phase, it would also be nice to see that unit's assigned path and targeting. The difference between what I directed the unit to do and what the AI makes it do might improve my understanding of the game.