[WIP] [CLIENT] Better Alerts with Spectator / Caster Mode

Discussion in 'Work-In-Progress Mods' started by mikeyh, July 5, 2015.

  1. mikeyh

    mikeyh Post Master General

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    This is a work in progress client mod that makes the following changes for spectators, casters and players:
    • improves alert filtering to remove the noise and show only noteworthy events
    • improves alert display to make better use of screen real estate with clearer information
    • improves alert preview handling
    • improves stats display to show as overlay over live game

    Alert Filtering


    Alerts are now filtered to show:
    • first event for each unit type of each army on each planet
    • after first only show events for:
      • advanced units
      • nukes & anti-nukes
      • halleys
      • catalysts
      • teleporters
    • show damage & death events if nothing shown for over 30 seconds for each army on each planet
    Currently the same alert filtering is also applied to players.


    Alert Display


    For players and spectators:
    • prioritises ping and commander events so the appear first on the left
    • increases linger time to 20 seconds for pings, first contact, arrivals and projectiles (default is 10 seconds)
    • changes all alerts to full version with text description and preview hover
    • increases size of X close button to full height of right side
    • adds a + button on left side which increases linger time by 30 seconds for each click
    • prevents alerts showing a preview from closing
    • updates alerts in place without a shuffle when a new event is received for same unit
    • increases width of army colour
    For spectators with no build options:
    • moves alerts to bottom and make full use of available screen width
    For players:
    • enables spectator alerts once defeated

    Alert Previews

    For players and spectators:
    • changes preview hover clicks to use orbital zoom (see to do below)
    • adds camera captures when clicking previews to capture the current camera position as 0 and the new camera position as 9 so you can easily swap between them
    • changes PIP follow alerts to show only commander and ping alerts

    Stats Display

    • changes the stats view to use opacity so that live games are still visible when viewing stats

    Players List (top left)
    • adds right click show commander in PIP
    • changes show commander to orbital zoom
    • updates commander location based on commander arrival, damage, allied death or death
    For spectators:
    • enables show commander for spectators

    To Do
    • fix show commander for spectators
    • review event filtering for players
    • add modifier keys on preview click to specify zoom level
    • add jig destroyed checks
    • preload stats graphs to avoid delay and flat line on first open
    • ignore catapult alerts
    • throttle PIP follow alerts
    • replay camera sequence
    • integrate with new PTE world view APIs to provide:
      • accurate last known commander locations
      • army factory and unit composition stats eg mix of air, vehicle, navy, orbital, T1, T2, etc

    Other Ideas

    • unit selection composition once spectator selection enabled in future PTE builds eg mix of units attacking, defending, trading, etc
    • shows names in alerts
    • filter death events for defeated armies
    • show previews above alerts
    • look at first event handling based on areas of planet or distance from main base ie to catch early proxy bases
    • replace top left players view with mini graphs

    Quick Reference for Casters

    Alerts

    • preview alert: hover over alert
    • keep alert: click left side of alert with + to keep alert for another 30 seconds
    • close alert: click right side of alert with -
    • copy to main: click in middle of alert and toggle between with alt-0 (zero) and alt-9
    • copy to PIP: right click in middle of alert
    Players
    • show commander: click player icon if known (blue border)
    • show commander in PIP: right click player icon if known (blue border)
    Note: commander locations are not always up to date (fixable in PTE).
    Last edited: July 18, 2015
    tunsel11, Planktum, Nicb1 and 3 others like this.
  2. g0hstreaper

    g0hstreaper Well-Known Member

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    This,this looks nice
  3. mikeyh

    mikeyh Post Master General

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    Updated with the following:
    • reworked alerts integration and filtering to update in place without a shuffle when a new event is received for same unit
    • prioritise ping and commander alert so they appear first on the left
    • increased size of X close button to full height of right side
    • added a + button on left side which increases linger time by 30 seconds for each click
    • fixed alerts not showing text summaries
    • fixed PIP follow alerts to only show filtered alerts
    Last edited: July 7, 2015
  4. mikeyh

    mikeyh Post Master General

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    Added quick reference for casters.
  5. ViolentMind

    ViolentMind Active Member

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    This mod seems to be conflicting with another mod. I see the following in the player drop down window whenever I have it enabled while I'm playing a game (this shot was from a 2v2 AI game, but it shows the same glitched screen when playing against humans). It basically shows me as the only player in the game. However, when spectating, then it shows all of the players just fine. I'll try to do more testing, but I have tons of mods enabled, so it might take a while for me to find the conflict.

    upload_2015-7-14_20-46-45.png

    Attached Files:

    tunsel11 likes this.
  6. DeathByDenim

    DeathByDenim Post Master General

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    Oh, that would be my Notes mod, I would guess. That one affects the player drop down list by adding that note icon thingy at least. Does the problem go away if you turn the Notes mod off?

    (Also, cute that you have a note on yourself. :))
  7. ViolentMind

    ViolentMind Active Member

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    Nope, your Notes mod is awesome buddy! ;)

    This is what it looks like without the Notes mod on:
    upload_2015-7-15_17-25-58.png

    And you are the only one that would notice the note that I have on myself (as if I needed the reminder)! Haha :p
    upload_2015-7-15_17-24-19.png

    No, I did a bunch more testing for this one, and it's not a mod conflict at all. This mod is just bugged it seems. It does not happen with Free For All games though. To repro, make sure that all mods are disabled except for this one, then just start a game, set it to Team Armies (number of teams or slots does not matter), fill in the player slots, and start the game.

    This shot shows that even when the player list is closed after you expand it, the list stays on the screen and does not get removed (the commander icons at the top only appear when the player list is closed).
    upload_2015-7-15_17-33-18.png
    DeathByDenim likes this.
  8. mikeyh

    mikeyh Post Master General

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    Fixed... some work in progress code was pushed live.

    You should see the correct behaviour now where space is added between unshared teams.
    ViolentMind and tunsel11 like this.
  9. ViolentMind

    ViolentMind Active Member

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    Fix confirmed. That was fast! At first I thought that I was going crazy, because I didn't update anything, and I couldn't repro the bug anymore. You are good man! :)
  10. mikeyh

    mikeyh Post Master General

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    Updated with the following:

    Players List (top left)
    • adds right click show commander in PIP
    • changes show commander to orbital zoom
    • updates commander location based on commander arrival, damage, allied death or death
    The new world view APIs in PTE should allow the following to be implemented for spectators / casters:
    • accurate last known commander locations
    • army factory and unit composition stats eg mix of air, vehicle, navy, orbital, T1, T2, etc
    • unit selection composition once spectator selection is enabled in a future PTE build eg mix of units attacking, defending, trading, etc
  11. irvlipschitz

    irvlipschitz Member

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  12. mikeyh

    mikeyh Post Master General

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    irvlipschitz likes this.
  13. Quitch

    Quitch Post Master General

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    Did this get integrated, or did it never get fixed?

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