Taking your suggestions for a new UI
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@rainova said in Taking your suggestions for a new UI:
Any interest in playing not on a flat square but on a three dimensional sphere?
That would be very cool and a thing I thought about sometimes, if you mean it is still two dimensions but represented on an orthographic projection, with the user scrolling the map like you are handling a globe.
My suggestion, on how it should work, is that the map-maker should provide a map supposed to be drawn in an equirectangular projection and also provide the four coordinates of longitudes and latitudes at the edges of the input (global maps will have the same longitude entry for both instances or -180 and +180 respectively for one and the other) so that the program gives the ortographic projection for the map. The user may be allowed to switch between equirectangular and ortographic, and other projections may be supported too (The mercator seems to be popular amongst TripleA map-makers, and I think it is the one used by the "World At War" map, although I believe it is a not very good choice.).If you mean three dimensions, that would be great for futuristic space maps, but I'm not personally interested in such matters.
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@rainova I've often thought that a sphere would be great; as I like that the current map wraps endlessly when going east or west. However, while going east or west the top is always the top and the bottom is always the bottom. I'm not sure the same would hold true if the map wrapped going north or south. After all, when you reach the top of the world, you've reached the top: there is no more going North!
While a sphere would seem awesome, (and again it's been on my mind a lot), it's not truly practical or necessary (for this game).
What we truly need is a flat map that has the north and south poles stretched out. Granted, it would look extremely weird and a bit confusing; but it would be the most accurate representation in essence. The Artic and Antarctic would each be comprised of four rectangles.
But this would seem to be a topic for map Makers and not really the User Interface. So, getting back on topic...
What I would like to see is the ability to add our own Tabs. Have a TABS file that allows us to specify which tabs we see and in which order. Maybe this is feasible and maybe not. Heck, I'm not even sure what tab I would add other than one that shows my own unit inventory.
I think, though, that it'd kind of be like a Field of Dreams: if you add it; they will find a use for it! -
@stohrm A sphere would be very helpful for any scenario that takes the north pole into serious consideration, i.e. any global scenario past WWII IMHO. I agree with you about the tabs. I believe any data details should be in tabe, including diplomacy, game stats, and the battle calculator. Those are currently in popups to be opened from the context menu or by hotkey. I‘d like to unify those UI concepts, i.e. you can popup a tab if you like. And yes, I can imagine more data detail views.
