Interface wish list

[unmerged(6777)]

This thread is for suggestions/ideas/etc. re the user interface for CK. Since we really don't know what it will look like yet, let's stay away from the larger issues and concentrate on some of the nifty little things that would really appeal to us all.

From the latest developer diaries I have extracted...

Originally posted by Inferis
What's wrong with it? The general idea is okay by me, I guess. It certainly is a lot better than displaying whatever info in a statusbar or a separate panel.

The benefit of the tooltip is the proximity of the information. You don't have to switch from one part of the screen to another, and back.

That said, I'd like to see more advanced tooltips: not only text, maybe some graphical representation too?

Originally posted by kurtbrian
...as for the tooltip.

Eu II's breakdown of most values is something that I really really like.
As for ways of improving it, I don't know.

Maybe make sure its probably updated?

Perhaps add shortcuts to some other screens where additional info is located.

example from EUII:

you hover over your province income and you get the breakdown of the numbers and inside the tooltip there is a shortcut to one of the economic screens in the errrrrrh....the book thingie. (name escapes me at the moment).

Originally posted by Inferis
ledger.

The shortcut idea is fine, but depending on the interface, where are you going to then? The ledger is one of the only places to go to, as the other parts of the EU interface are "on screen" (meaning that they don't open additional window). This might post a problem if the CK interface is similar: you're viewing info, hover over an item, click on a shortcut in the tooltip and poof... the "original" info disappears to make place for another.

It might not seem too problematic, but since you don't have a back-button like in a browser, it might take some steps to get back to the original info after you reviewed to new information. Dunno, just thoughts. Might not pose a problem at all.

Originally posted by Sam Vimes
Nice, it's getting closer and closer

As a whole the EU2 tooltip system is fine, maybe for the more sensitive ones there should be a way to move them wery precisely with a +/- at one end.

Note: in the above one I assume Sam Vimes is refering to sliders rather than tooltips. The following was posted in response:

Originally posted by crazy canuck
The latest patch in HOI deals with this quite well. You're +/- is on either side of the bar and you can lock the slider with a right click - which is a great improvement because locking with the left mouse click invariably moves the slider.

Originally posted by Pishtaco
The information in tooltips in EU tend to lag a patch or two behind the changes to the game. I don't know how hard this would be, but how about having the tooltips read the values they display from the actual values used in the game, so that they are updated automatically.

Originally posted by Jinnai
The only thing i think would be nice that hasn't been said is a setting on how much info to give, minimal, FE, just the province name and owner, moderate, province name, owner, population, fortress level and units and verbose, all that plus amount of money produced (based on trade and taxes), anything that's being worked on, if you have a claim to it (not everyone's claims though).

Originally posted by Aetius
Adjustable time before the tool tip appears has been suggested by Mr. T at some point.

My response:

Originally posted by MrT
Yeah...I logged this as an "enhancement" bug for HoI but I've seen the request from members for EU2 as well. It would be nice to have it as a component in the settings.exe file but would probably need to be divided into two parts: "help" tooltip speed and "data" tooltip speed.

"Help" tooltips would be the ones that come up as advice for new players who are just beginning to play. The "data" tooltips would be the portion of a tooltip that actually gives necessary game data to the player. In EU2 these are currently reversed in order of priority in that the "help' part comes first and then, after hovering for a while, the "data" part appears. Ideally this should be reversed so an experienced player doesn't have to wait that extra time for the information he needs to make his next action, while the newbie usually doesn't mind waiting a little while longer for the explanation af what the data means to come along.

In my opinion this data-->tip order should be implemented whether you can also incorporate user-adjustable tooltip speeds or not. Making them user-adjustable would simply be a bonus.

Originally posted by Aetius
One thing that bothers me is that sometimes things are "lit" on right clicks but not possible. I logged a bug on this in Eu2 for manufacturies. Please make sure this it taken away. Another problem is to possibly remove impossible choices (unlit are not displayed). This is only a problem if there are many choices on a right click.

Originally posted by Ladislav
what i would appreciate is a clock option:

pause the game automatically at some future date. fex; pause game on 17.sept 1267. why you ask? in EU i often missed a alliance breaking and wasnt asble to woo the memebers into my alliance. and it would be such a problem to implement it, would it?

Originally posted by MrT
<...>another thought or two that come from issues I've fielded in the support forum...

If you're planning to use the binkplayer for the intro stuff could you make it a one-time only thing (plays only on the first load of the game) or have an option in the settings.exe to turn it off. In EU2 support and HoI support the binkplayer is the source of more than 50% of the users' problems. For some reason a portion of it seems to stay in memory and causes crashes shortly after launching the game. This is the case with Win9x, Win2k, WinXP and DirectX8.1 and 9.0.

Could you possibly arrange for a save game sort option? If not, could you consider having do a default sort with most recent save game at the top of the list?

Originally posted by Derek Pullem
One thing I would like would be if you double clicked on the tool tip you would go to the ledger as Kurtbrian suggests BUT.....


Please, please, please ensure that the ledger auto - stops the game when it is open. I find it very annoying when I get pop up messages when the ledger is obscuring the screen. Alternatively make it in a resizeable window.

Originally posted by Sonny
<...> the ability to delete save games in the scenario load/save screen would be nice.

Originally posted by jacob-Lundgren
not sure how others think but a hotkey to load last auto save might be nice if you want to reload to wake up the ai or if you were just curiuos about something or if your cat jumped up on the keyboard while you were doing something and you accidently declared war on an ally

it would just be nice to be able to quick load the last auto save without gonig through menus and so on

Sorry if I missed anything from that thread. Anyway...add your suggestions or wish list items here. Make sure they are related to user interface only...not gameplay etc...

 

[crazy canuck]

One thing that is very frustrating with small provinces in EU is that if there are troops in the province (for example malta) it is almost impossible to click on the territory (and avoid the troops) in order to access the commands for that province.

This may be a reoccuring problem in CK given the fact that some of the territories may also be small.

One solution may be to have a command that turns off the display of troops (or gives a territories on view) so that there is nothing obstructing the ability to click on the province.

With my luck there already is something like that in EUII and I am about to be hammered

 

[Inferis]

Originally posted by Quivis
It would be nice to have a possibility to check all screens while you receive an event. When I'm playing EUII and an event shows up I don't know which option should I choose just because I don't remember my country status. ( AND I can't check it !! )

True. But I always thought that this was on purpose: ie to avoid an choosing an event outcome depending on your sliders, ... Also, it forces you to "know" your policies.

 

[crazy canuck]

Originally posted by Inferis
True. But I always thought that this was on purpose: ie to avoid an choosing an event outcome depending on your sliders, ... Also, it forces you to "know" your policies.

If that is the purpose I think it is a bad one. The purpose of the UI is to make the game more not less manageable. I agree with the original post. I have also found the fact that you cannot check how your decision will effect matters to be very frustrating.

 

[kurtbrian]

crazy canuck, you can switch to political view and the troops are gone so its easy to click the province.

Another great thing in the interface would be something like, redefinable hotkeys.

Space bar is way more easier to hit than the pause button...


maybe some sort of filtering on the overview map.

Borders, troops(friendly and enemies), rebels...

a bit like the standard screen in EU II just also applied to the minimap

 

[Norgesvenn]

I'd like to be able to scroll the map using the mouse wheel.

Not a biggie, but one I'd really like.

 

[kurtbrian]

Originally posted by Norgesvenn
I'd like to be able to scroll the map using the mouse wheel.

Not a biggie, but one I'd really like.

What if you want to scroll sideways....

 

[Snall]

Im def for zoom in and out with mouse wheel for sure.

 

[Inferis]

Originally posted by Snall
Im def for zoom in and out with mouse wheel for sure.

Good idea. Wheel for zoom, scrolling by bumping into the sides.
Although, I like the SC4 model too: grab the land with the right button and drag.

 

[unmerged(485)]

Originally posted by kurtbrian
What if you want to scroll sideways....

You just hold the mouse sideways and roll the wheel.

 

[Norgesvenn]

Originally posted by Sonny
You just hold the mouse sideways and roll the wheel.

Or, seriously, use two bars along the map, one for horizontal and one for vertical scrolling.

 

[Valdemar]

Originally posted by kurtbrian
crazy canuck, you can switch to political view and the troops are gone so its easy to click the province.

Another great thing in the interface would be something like, redefinable hotkeys.

Space bar is way more easier to hit than the pause button...

Especially if you are on a laptop, where pause often coincides with other stuff and the buttoms are close together

V

 

[Owl]

It has to be the space bar this time. Please! I get a pain after sitting with my left hand crossed over the keyboard ready to hit "pause" when there's a flood of pop-up messages.

 

[crazy canuck]

I knew there was going to be something easy like that. Thanks.