Proposal: Always-shown "Purchased Units" panel

Cernel

@Alexei-Svitkine said in Proposal: Always-shown "Purchased Units" panel:

We have a prerelease to try with this feature implemented:
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/releases/tag/2.0.16238

To enable this, set "Show Beta Features" to "True" under "Engine Settings" -> "Testing".

Please try it out and play with it and let me know how it feels. Thanks!

This feature is not working for me. In all games I tested it, it just shows an empty "Purchased Units" thing at the bottor of the action tab.

Also, if the "Purchased Units" is showing any unplaced units that you have, not only those that you purchased, it should be called otherwise (I get that in all the standard games you can only have unplaced units if you purchased them, but, even in this case, strictly speaking any units that you didn't start with is purchased, no matter if also placed). It also feels weird and wrong to me to see an empty "Purchased Units" thing at the bottom of the action tab, while you are in the placement phase.

Alexei Svitkine

@Cernel Can you provide a screenshot? Which maps?

Cernel

@Alexei-Svitkine Any games I tried that is available in download list. The situation is just as I pictured.

(I purchased 3 infantries and 3 armours)

Cernel

Thinking over it, I see "unplaced units" as a resource you have, thus conceptually similar to displaying resources. This is so especially if you consider that in a game like WW2v3 Chinese will get directly infantry; so, for such a player, receiving infantry units to place is substantially like for everyone else collecting production units (PUs).
Or you can even have games in which you always and only "collect" new units (like Risk, or likely most games in which you have only 1 unit type), for example (albeit unavailable):
https://github.com/triplea-maps/conquest_of_the_world/archive/master.zip
Thus you could have all unplaced units you have displayed in the bottom bar, next to the resources you have, but with a divide in between (not to confuse resources stock with unplaced units stock). However, this would present the challenge that usually the bottom bar is thinner than what would be needed to fully display the units (for example, in the TripleA assets the normal flags are 32 pixels high, while the units are 48 pixels high).

Cernel

@Alexei-Svitkine said in Proposal: Always-shown "Purchased Units" panel:

There's also additional open questions:

Does it work well on all maps, especially with a lot of units? I welcome suggestions on which to test - or when we get a prerelease build out with this change, people can try it out too.

How does it work with large unit icons? Something to also try out once we have a prerelease build with it.

I already suggested this, did you try it?

@Cernel said in Proposal: Always-shown "Purchased Units" panel:

p.s.: You can use this map (not available in download list) to test with a unit much bigger than the usual 48x48 pixels.
https://github.com/triplea-maps/conquest_of_the_world

It shouldn't be an issue here, as you don't purchase, but place right when you get the units (I assume you know Risk), but it may give you an idea, or should I say I've no idea how this feature would display, as all the space is already filled with only 1 move.

Anyways, I suppose you can test by changing (modding) the game as to not destroying unplaced units, then just skipping placement, if I'm guessing correctly that by "purchased units" you actually mean "unplaced units".

Alexei Svitkine

@Cernel said in Proposal: Always-shown "Purchased Units" panel:

@Alexei-Svitkine Any games I tried that is available in download list. The situation is just as I pictured.

(I purchased 3 infantries and 3 armours)

That's very strange. It's not supposed to be empty. What version of Java are you using?

After enabling beta features, did you restart triplea?

Cernel

@Alexei-Svitkine said in Proposal: Always-shown "Purchased Units" panel:

What version of Java are you using?

It says 11.0.4.

After enabling beta features, did you restart triplea?

I had it already enabled.

Alexei Svitkine

Hmm, very strange. I wonder if it's some platform-specific difference.

Has anyone else had a chance to test it? Does it work for other people on Windows?

EDIT: Hmm, I had a chance to try it on Windows and am seeing the same thing. Ugh.

Cernel

@Alexei-Svitkine Yeah, I immediately guessed it was because I'm on Windows and you are on Macintosh, but, then, I've been a little dubious since nobody else said anything or anyways confirmed the bug.

Alexei Svitkine

Actually, looks like I can reproduce the issue on Mac if I change the look and feel to Subspace, which is what TripleA uses on Windows. So I should be able to debug.

Alexei Svitkine

I figured out what's wrong and will be sending a fix. Stay tuned - I'll post an update when we have a prerelease build with the fix.

Alexei Svitkine

@Cernel said in Proposal: Always-shown "Purchased Units" panel:

@Alexei-Svitkine said in Proposal: Always-shown "Purchased Units" panel:

How does it work with large unit icons? Something to also try out once we have a prerelease build with it.

I already suggested this, did you try it?

I didn't before, but I did now. The panel doesn't show up because as you say, there's no purchase. (I did get an exception with the UnitScroller on it, but this seems unrelated to my change.)

Cernel

@Alexei-Svitkine Well, anyways what I said is that I believe it should not be called "Purchased Units". Like you could have a game that gives you whatever units based on something, also already having some at start game, that you'll place at some point. The matter is not that the units may be purchased, but that you have them still unplaced.

Alexei Svitkine

@Cernel said in Proposal: Always-shown "Purchased Units" panel:

@Alexei-Svitkine Well, anyways what I said is that I believe it should not be called "Purchased Units". Like you could have a game that gives you whatever units based on something, also already having some at start game, that you'll place at some point. The matter is not that the units may be purchased, but that you have them still unplaced.

Sorry I didn't reply to this. I agree that naming it something different like "Units to Place" would be better - and China on WW2v3 is a good example of this. Feedback noted and will keep it in mind when I iterate on the UI.

Still hoping to get the first UI out for people to try before I go about changing it.

Cernel

@Alexei-Svitkine I think it can be just "To Place", as not like you can place something else but units (besides, also PUs (the main "resource" in the game) are nominally "units", as the meaning is "Production Units").

Alternatives to "To Place" may be "Unplaced", "Under Production", "Mobilizing", "Held" ("heldUnits" is the xml way of calling units in a player's inventory).

Alexei Svitkine

Okay, so I think we have a prerelease out with the fix here:
https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/releases/tag/2.0.16244

Please try it out, thanks! Sorry for the fact the previous one did not work right on Windows.

Cernel

@Alexei-Svitkine Works for me, but this additional feature rates as an additional problem, in my tracker.

I guess here it is being generally assumed that TripleA maps are all maps with 48x48 pixel units. If so, I hope that is a wrong assumption.

Not a map available anywhere, but an example of what you may get with 64x64 pixels units images on Full HD:

This image confirms my expectations, based on what I already explained.

Here, I cannot even acces the actual actions tab, meaning I'm unable to even undo the single move I made, unless I expand the right bar, of course (actually, I can also do it if I go in Settings/Testing and set Show Beta Features = False, then save and reload the game).

I suggest deleting this feature (if not moving it out of the "Actions" tab). Otherwise, at least assuring the actual actions space is never cut so much as being impossible to undo any or all of them (rather cutting the purchased units space).

LaFayette

Scrollbars look like a must. IMO we'd always probably want to see at least 4 of the purchased units, more than that behind scrollbars perhaps (largely need to account for cases where as @Cernel has tested there are a pretty decent number of different units pruchased. Some maps could get more extreme and we'd need to handle it)

IIRC the unit scroller was a bit debatable for taking up too much space. Unit scroller is move related, so it makes sense. We could try to cut down the space it takes, though I'm not sure if there is an obvious solution.

The fly-out tab I still think is the ultimate solution, until we get there moving the purchase panel is probably 2nd rate but at least gets the feature in. The 'resources' tab could make sense to have it. We could help the navigation issue between tabs by ensuring there are hotkeys to the tabs and that the hotkey is displayed on hover. Potentially and in addition to that, we could explore if there is a way to get tabs to show in rows on Mac so that they are all always visible.

Cernel

It is not even that, actually. I have this "Purchased Units" thing everywhere, even if I go to the Notes tab!

Is this a bug, and this feature is actually supposed to stay only on the actions tab?

Anyways, movements are made based on a number of information. It is not feasible putting all such information right into the Actions tab, and I don't see why the units you have in your inventory (or, as some boardgames call it, your "mobilization zone") should have the privilege.

Cernel

@LaFayette said in Proposal: Always-shown "Purchased Units" panel:

(largely need to account for cases where as @Cernel has tested there are a pretty decent number of different units pruchased. Some maps could get more extreme and we'd need to handle it)

That (unreleased) game of mine is not extreme, about this matter: there, I bought 11 units types, only 1 unit type more than what you can buy in "World War II Classic" and less than what you can buy in "World War II Revised"!

And 64x64 pixels units is only 33% wider and higher than the usual 48x48 pixels units.