Spectator/Caster GUI

Would also be nice if the mobile unit/factory count didn't include units currently being produced, and only included actual completed units.

Yes, now you mention it, in a 1v1 it would be fascinating to see. Like if a player going heavy on air scouts someone going heavy on naval, just as they discover all the naval factories... it'd be interesting to watch how they react and see their production change over time.

I agree, this would be a lovely bit of graphical polish to the game. It can be jarring to watch sometimes.

Didn't even know that it included units in production!

I wish I could like this an infinite number of times

So I agree, empowering casters with good casting tools would have a massive impact in the quality of the commentated replays. The only suggestion I have that hasn't been mentioned would be to add a few tactical indicators like Pings (area-variable pings, arrows, lines...) for casters to be able to visually show what's going on or discuss possible strategies.

A drawing tool, that shows to other selected spectators. Perhaps branching this further to allow spectators to draw and ping players so they can mentor. Although this should have restriction options on visibility to stop spectators cheating.

There should be an option to highlight units so they can quickly evaluate unit compositions and numbers rather than just guessing by sight. As far as I know you can currently only highlight over individual units.

A quick snap to comms, that have been hot keyed or something to see attacks. Also an on screen interface with current comm healths.

Also, an option to increase text sizes, mainly the economies and unit counts. I'm fed up of watching twitch and casts where I cannot read these values. It'll be useful especially when people cannot cast or video in 1080 or above resolutions.

Anyway, these are just a few from the top of my head after watching literally hundreds of PA vids and are welcome to criticism.

A drawing tool would be great, really good for casters to explain the game to non players (which is of course key to making it a viable spectator sport).

Maybe the implementation was clunky and not the concept in itself?

I guess it really depends on how the caster thinks about the game, some of us really think relying heavily in pictures and visual feedback, maybe others tend to verbalise all the information they try to convey... simply different styles of casting, so the drawing tool could be useful for some.

Not always, I think sometimes a quick bit of drawing on the screen would go much further and reduce the amount of words needed to explain the situation (especially to a non-player).

You have a hell of a lot of experience casting the game though! Perhaps you are not looking at it from the perspective of a new/inexperienced/non player though?|

And it sounds like you just didn't like mod because it was 'clunky and time consuming'. A slick drawing interface might be much more useful to you.

I just spectated the end of the 20 player FFA I hosted earlier, and I was hankering for some of the features in my original suggestion. Who has anti nukes? Who has an orbital factory? How much metal and energy does each player have stored and how many fabbers do they have? It helps you figure out which player has a certain edge. One player had an enormous airforce and the other had no airforce at all, but it was still a close finish. Features like that would help a caster find out relevant information to the current gameplay.

In my opinion one of the biggest issues is that the notification spams you with so much stuff no one cares about that its attempts to tell you about the important stuff goes completely unnoticed.

Yes @Quitch, those notifications (vehicle factory complete!) are totally redundant :/ Noticed this a lot yesterday watching Evil Twins.

Anyway, @sorian pointed out last night that the GUI is moddable and I should be able to tweak the GUI a bit. I was thinking of coming up with a 1v1 specific UI that changes the way eco and army info is displayed, to be more compact etc.

I'm poking about now looking at live_game_players etc but some pointers from all of you seasoned modders would be most welcome! I have HTML/CSS skills, been making simple websites for ages now, albeit infrequently so I always have to brush up. But I'm familiar with them. JS less so but it seems to be very C like so I should be ok. Anyway, help would be appreciated! Thanks

I agree completely @zihuatanejo , an improved caster UI will help so much. I have been tinkering with camera controls for example (smooth transitioning from fixed to free camera in order to show some cinematic events in a game can add a lot but it is currently only possible if you use the "control group trick" i.e. making a control group for the units engaged in some interesting confrontation, set the camera free and then double click the control group recall key to keep the units in-screen by following them smoothly) and this is currently only possible in-game as a player, not as an espectator. This together with the lacking displayed info tab makes for a very limited caster UI/view.

Another limitation is the number espectators that can join in a 1v1 game. 3 is ok for any sorts of games in general but for competitive 1v1 or 2v2 3 espectators are a bit too few: 4 or 6 will be ideal so more than one casting team can be casting the same match in several channels.

I'd say spectators need to be able to select the units in game so they can easily see the numbers of the armies walking around the planet

Right! Also to be able to have the PIP follow a moving unit i.e. to keep tabs on a wandering comm or something else highly strategic.

I want army count less than I want army metal value.

Any modders want to tell me if this is possible to calculate?

I am using something very similar as an example of a tutorial I am writing on UI modding. Give me a day or so.

Mod code for live_game_players.js

Code:

    model.armyCount = ko.computed( function()
    {
    
      var total = 0;
    
      _.forEach( model.spectatorArmyData(), function( value, index )
      {
          total = total + value.army_size;
      });
    
      return total;
    
    });

I don't understand.
How does that add up the metal value of the army?