UI Ideas

Discussion in 'Backers Lounge (Read-only)' started by Lirelent, October 1, 2013.

  1. Lirelent

    Lirelent New Member

    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    5
    Just a couple things that are little annoyances for me. Probably stuff that is already on the radar of folks, just low priority.

    1. when trying to select that one construction plane in mixed blob of planes I did the natural thing and box selected the blob. Then saw icons in the lower left representing what I had selected, great! There is the icon for the single construction plane I want to select, but clicking on that icon doesn't do anything. This means selecting a single unit in a blob of units can be very painful, especially if that blob is flying around on a patrol route because thats what all the output of the air factory does.

    2. The build queues on factories indicate what will be built but not in what order. This means that there is no way from a ui perspective to increase the priority of a unit or even know how long currently before a particular unit will even be started. Also my favorite feature from supCom was the ability to set up a build queue then "repeat" that queue resulting in exactly the mix of units desired for a task.

    3. Currently sending a "move" command to a factory doesn't seem to set a rally point for that factory. This is just what you expect that action to do, so it's jarring when it doesn't.
    camycamera, paulzeke and LavaSnake like this.
  2. Lirelent

    Lirelent New Member

    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    5
    somewhat related but not a UI issue per say is that it seems that when I set a construction unit on a "patrol" route, I expect supCom type behavior where it will patrol and repair anything it comes near that is damaged. What instead seems to happen is it stops by the first building it encounters and repairs that building if it gets damaged, but never moves on to the rest of the patrol route.
    LavaSnake likes this.
  3. JarLoz

    JarLoz New Member

    Messages:
    1
    Likes Received:
    2
    As a old timer SupCom player, I feel that the UI issues indeed do need certain improvements. Apart from the previously mentioned ones (especially the build queues and repeat button), here's a couple of others I took note of:

    - Moving around the map. Currently the two ways to move the camera around the planet are the strategic zoom and arrow keys. It might be that I have missed some configuration options, but I feel that these interfaces are too limited. The arrow keys are an awkward way to move around the map, since most of the other useful commands (attack move, Ctrl+# grouping, ect.) are in the left-hand side of the keyboard. If the movement keys could be bound to other buttons (WASD, for example), I wouldn't have to wave my hand all over my keyboard. Since nearly every other action can be bound to a button, it's a bit unfortunate that camera movement is hardcoded to arrow keys. Also, while the strategic zoom is obviously excellent, not being able to pan the camera around by moving the mouse cursor to the edges of the screen is slightly jarring. Also, I would really like to somehow "grab" the planet with the cursor and roll it around, Google Earth-style. And finally, a hotkey to automatically orient the planet on the N/S axis on your screen would be quite nice aswell.

    - Selecting idle workers/commander. Currently pressing F selects idle workers, but you have no control over which types of workers you are selecting. in SupCom, idle workers were listed on the right-hand side of the screen, grouped by Tech tiers. Adding a few more options in the worker selection would help keeping things organized immensely (select [first/all] idle [normal/advanced] [vehicle/bot/flying/naval] workers)

    - Selected units when zooming out. Currently, selected units have light green box around the model. While this is fine when you are zoomed in close enough to see the models, I tend to orchestrate larger maneuvers zoomed out to the level where unit icons replace the models. Currently, there is nothing to differentiate a selected unit icon from unselected one, which makes things a little bit chaotic. This should be quite simple issue to attend to, just add a slight highlighted border to the selected units' icons.
    Quitch and LavaSnake like this.
  4. Lirelent

    Lirelent New Member

    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    5
    The moving the map thing, middle mouse button does that. EDIT: oh and the 'n' key rotates the camera so the north pole is "up".
  5. LavaSnake

    LavaSnake Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,620
    Likes Received:
    691
    I'd like those UI improvements too. Through many of them are probably coming soon since this is Beta after all.
  6. Lirelent

    Lirelent New Member

    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    5
    Yea like I said, probably just low priority. I'd actually hope they're working on net code instead of this sort of stuff at this juncture. Just wanted to make sure that it was documented while I was thinking about it.
    LavaSnake likes this.
  7. masterdigital

    masterdigital Uber Alumni

    Messages:
    438
    Likes Received:
    833
    Fixed. Use normal click to filter your selection to contain only units of that type. Use ctrl+click to remove all units of that type from selection.

    Repeating queues will be easy to add when our Nick gets time. You can ctrl+click to add items to the front of the queue (though the entity currently in construction will not stop). You can also right click to remove items from the queue and shift click to add 5x items.

    This does work in most cases. If you hold ctrl you should even see a little move icon where the waypoint will be. You can also tell factories to patrol (and maybe assist... not sure if that works). If move commands on factories aren't working, then this is a bug, not a missing feature. It does need a more obvious visualization.
    LavaSnake likes this.
  8. LavaSnake

    LavaSnake Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,620
    Likes Received:
    691
  9. Lirelent

    Lirelent New Member

    Messages:
    10
    Likes Received:
    5
    thank you @masterdigital !

    Awesome, the ctrl+click is something I hadn't even thought of, but I can see that being super useful. I'll have to try this out my next game.

    the ctrl+click is great to know and I'll look forward to the repeat button. I know you folks are super busy and this sort of thing is "nice to have", so I promise to patient :)

    Maybe I was just running into a pathing issue then in my haphazard base. When I get a chance I'll do some tests in isolation and see if I can get a factory to rally. I'll file a bug if I can't and don't find something existing in the tracker. Telling factories to patrol DOES work, and is pretty much the basis of my base defense, just air factory pumping units into a patrol route. I tried the assist thing at one point in relative isolation and it didn't seem to work, but I'll try specifically to test this when I get a chance.
  10. Culverin

    Culverin Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,069
    Likes Received:
    582
    Added to Unofficial "Official GUI Discussion Thread
    https://forums.uberent.com/threads/unofficial-official-gui-discussion-thread.52055/

    [SUGGESTION] Building/Production ~ Infinite Loop button (Similar to Supreme Commander)

    Thanks for the suggestion! :)
    LavaSnake likes this.
  11. WaylanderPK

    WaylanderPK Member

    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    51
    I'd like to see the ability to set energy priority for buildings and constructs.
    3 level,s hi, medium and low. So if you stall your energy at least you can determine which things have priority.
    LavaSnake likes this.
  12. LeadfootSlim

    LeadfootSlim Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    576
    Likes Received:
    349
    The biggest UI problem for me is orbital units. Right now you have to do some weird fiddly perspective stuff to select your orbital junk...

    I'd think the best way to handle orbital UI is a second "zoom out" option between the planet view and the system view you get when you hit " . ", obscuring or fading your ground units' map icons and showing only your orbital stuff so you can select them and move them around without getting confused.

    Also super important: Trajectory lines and ETA counters for interplanetary units and, if necessary, Halley'd moons.
    LavaSnake likes this.
  13. LavaSnake

    LavaSnake Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,620
    Likes Received:
    691
    They have something like that in the UI already (the little lightening bolt below the command options), but it isn't hooked up to any code. I would like it implemented too, but for now you can always use the stop button to leave more energy for the other units.

    That would be quite helpful.
  14. vanteo

    vanteo New Member

    Messages:
    20
    Likes Received:
    1
    Please Please!!! This is so true. There needs to be a zoom level that only selects orbital. Or better yet a list of unit types on the side Land Water Air Orbital all checked by default but if uncheck cannot be selected. That way you could only select Air or Only Orbital quickly!
    LavaSnake likes this.
  15. Arachnis

    Arachnis Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    938
    Likes Received:
    442
    It probably has been mentioned before, but we really need a kick-functionality in the lobby to throw out players that went afk. Also a chatroom for the game lobby (where you select games) would be really nice.
    LavaSnake likes this.
  16. LavaSnake

    LavaSnake Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,620
    Likes Received:
    691
    Yes, something to deal with AFKs is a must.

Share This Page