RPS Interface MOD.

[rpstrategist]

This is little interface reshuffle. There's no special graphics, i only moved things around.
It is for Vae Victis or Gold (tested with v2.35).

To install, simply unpack it to your mod directory.

What's done:

- Moved recruit, build-ship, trade-route-creation and construct-building panels to upper left corner of the screen.
- Tweaked all close buttons a bit.
- Moved unit and battle panel to upper left corner.
- Rearranged units in battle and siege screen in logical order for me (light, heavy, ranged - foot/mounted). Check last link for visual.
- Scaled unit icons in battle screen so they wouldn't overlap each other. Check last link for visual.
- Changed siege screen and moved it on top of minimap (because it wanted to cover everything else).
- Outliner titles are now centred.
- Moved reorganise panel to the left and multiple-unit-selected button to the right (since unit panels start right from the top now).
- Changed disembarked unit button (so it wouldn't block alert banners in the new location).
- Shifted alert banners to the left a bit (there's no gab between them and unit panel any more). Check last link for visual.
- Stretched religion panel so all the religions are visible in first glance without the need for scrolling.

Any suggestions are welcome. If you have trouble with your localisation, then please post a screenshot.

What are in the works:
- Trying to fix diplomatic notifications so province panel wouldn't block them
- Trying to make siege panel look better
- Trying to find better button-texture for disembarked troops
- Trying to get modded graphics to work
- Trying to stretch military, army composition and rearrange panels

What i have found to be impossible:
- To add anything to top bar
- To move/add any button, text or window into another window (textures can migrate though)
- To change anything in the ledger
- To scale textures bigger - will ctd when hovering over with cursor

Here's a mediafire link to my RPS Interface mod. Enjoy!

 

[BBR91]

Hello rpstrategist. I have tried your mod last night and to be honest, I don't really like the changes. All this moving things around seems unnecessary for me. The only thing I liked was the stretched religion panel, that was actually useful. If you really want to move things around, I think you should move the diplomatic messages icons near the minimap, so that you can actually see them, and are not hidden by the province screen.

What I would also consider a huge interface improvement, but I don't think this is moddable, is to include pictures in the pop-up screens, like how HoI and Victoria 2 have, to give the event more importance. It's small aesthetic things like these that make Rome TW enjoyable. Even if it's not possible to include pictures in the pop-ups, maybe you can find a way to change the way pop-ups look, like replacing the background image for the writing, because they look ugly in my opinion. Also interface sounds need to be changed, as the vanilla ones are annoying, but I just replaced them with the ones from MEIOU and problem solved

Anyway, keep on improving the interface, it badly needs it, but also try to make it pretty.

 

[rpstrategist]

Hello rpstrategist. I have tried your mod last night and to be honest, I don't really like the changes. All this moving things around seems unnecessary for me. The only thing I liked was the stretched religion panel, that was actually useful. If you really want to move things around, I think you should move the diplomatic messages icons near the minimap, so that you can actually see them, and are not hidden by the province screen.

What I would also consider a huge interface improvement, but I don't think this is moddable, is to include pictures in the pop-up screens, like how HoI and Victoria 2 have, to give the event more importance. It's small aesthetic things like these that make Rome TW enjoyable. Even if it's not possible to include pictures in the pop-ups, maybe you can find a way to change the way pop-ups look, like replacing the background image for the writing, because they look ugly in my opinion. Also interface sounds need to be changed, as the vanilla ones are annoying, but I just replaced them with the ones from MEIOU and problem solved

Anyway, keep on improving the interface, it badly needs it, but also try to make it pretty.

The main reason i started this thing was actually completely different, which i found out to be unmoddable unfortunately. I moved things around to push them to the edges and to make some room to the centre. So i could have panel open while still being able to follow the map and events. The worst thing is the siege panel at the moment, which i changed to it's current state hastily last night because it was blocking other panels i didn't think of at first. Also i'm not very happy with the disembarked button.

There are few other things i would like to do, like stretching the military panel as well. I try to look into the diplomatic messages too - thanks for the advice.

Unfortunately i haven't found a way to change graphics without going after the original files, which would make few things bit easier. Adding a picture for the events sounds bit unmoddable though. I haven't even thought about sounds myself.

Even though this minimod isn't finished, getting feedback was the main reason i put this up here in he first place. Thank you for the reply.

 

[BBR91]

Stretching lists is good as far as I'm concerned, It is annoying to scroll around all the time. So the military panel, and perhaps even army composition screen stretching are welcomed.

Making the interface pretty involves modifying .dds and .tga files in the /gfx/interface folder, but I have no idea how to edit these, and even what program is needed as it involves alpha channels and it's pretty complicated for me.

Anyway keep posting updates and I'll try to give you feedback as I drop by this forum.

 

[rpstrategist]

Stretching lists is good as far as I'm concerned, It is annoying to scroll around all the time. So the military panel, and perhaps even army composition screen stretching are welcomed.

Making the interface pretty involves modifying .dds and .tga files in the /gfx/interface folder, but I have no idea how to edit these, and even what program is needed as it involves alpha channels and it's pretty complicated for me.

Anyway keep posting updates and I'll try to give you feedback as I drop by this forum.

Thanks. By "making it pretty" i thought was meant - not making it ugly, since originals are fine by me (scaled variants in wrong places aren't though). I could manipulate copies of existing files with my gimp+plugin but i can't seem to get them work in the mod directory. I even tried to manually change path from gfx to mod/rps_interface/gfx in the gfx file but that doesn't work either.

Update: found file where the diplomatic notifications are located. Now thinking what to do with the siege panel or if to move them (notifications/not siege) slightly below alert banners :unsure: ?

 

[BBR91]

I think the diplomatic notifications should be either next to the minimap or just under the top bar. I'm not sure what you mean by alert banners, are you referring to the icons under the top bar that inform you of important manners (revolt risk, unused trade routers, unoccupied offices etc.) ? The siege panel is fine in vanilla as far as I'm concerned.

If the interface files don't work in /mod you can just modify vanilla files after making backups. I wouldn't mind replacing vanilla files, I can always reinstall Rome pretty quick.

 

[rpstrategist]

I think the diplomatic notifications should be either next to the minimap or just under the top bar. I'm not sure what you mean by alert banners, are you referring to the icons under the top bar that inform you of important manners (revolt risk, unused trade routers, unoccupied offices etc.) ? The siege panel is fine in vanilla as far as I'm concerned.

If the interface files don't work in /mod you can just modify vanilla files after making backups. I wouldn't mind replacing vanilla files, I can always reinstall Rome pretty quick.

Yes, that's exactly what i meant by alert banners. I don't think they both would have room up there side by side (maybe under each other). Also, i am really pleased with the vanilla siege panel myself, only i definitely wanted to get the reorganise unit panel there but the siege panel was blocking it. So as a result you couldn't do that whilst having a siege. That was the only reason it got changed.

I'm not very comfortable replacing the original files but i'll look into that. Thanks.


*Edited:OK, what i tried didn't work. This is what i mean by blocking.

 

[BBR91]

This is what i mean by blocking.

I don't think I ever had this problem. I don't remember not being able to reorganize armies during a siege. Strange...

 

[rpstrategist]

I don't think I ever had this problem. I don't remember not being able to reorganize armies during a siege. Strange...

:blush: That's because i moved it there. I didn't like it much in the middle of the screen. If the siege screen wouldn't be so special, then it would be easy to get it under reorganise panel.

Also, the diplomatic messages seem to detect province panel being open, they just don't go high enough. Uncolonised provinces are small enough not to block them.

 

[rpstrategist]

Update:

Unfortunately i can't seem to be able to change the way diplomatic notifications show (don't show) in the game. Also, once i have made all the changes i want and can, i'll post a new version. It's isn't much but all the trying takes time. Thanks for your interest and patience.