Taking your suggestions for a new UI

[General_Zod]

I'm disappointed iron war has been changed, I'm trying to check out how it tracked fuel in original version.

Did it track fuel in real time or end of turn? Ah, I think remember now. The difficulties were in counting incoming fuel vs expenditures. Since incoming fuel updated at end of turn.

Just a last point on fuel thoughts, stockpiling of fuel is really the way the fuel should be handled if you want historically accuracy.

Axis Germany had to stockpile their fuel for a few years in order to launch ww2, and the field marshals knew they must take oilfields in process of war, to have realistic chance of success. Romania, Caucasus and middle east primarily. And the supplement with increased synthetic oil production in Germany, France and Poland since one of the processes relied on coal.

Italy was dead weight for Germany as fuel supplies went. Italy could just barely maneuver its own navy. Let alone supply North Africa campaign.

Japanese had tremendous shortage of fuel too. Until they conquered Sumatra, Java, and Borneo. But American submarines devastated their supply lines.

[beelee]

Have a self block option. 4,8,12 hr or w/e amount u want. More of a "not say stupid things" as opposed to Po'd. Actually the two are somewhat related. : )

It's mostly the "stupid thing" for me. : )

heppster could make a good button for it I'm sure : )

No dis on you hepps. Skill acknowledgement only : )

See I could use that button right now : )

[Stohrm]

I don't know if this has been suggested and/or discussed; but I think that the way battle is conducted needs to be changed.

I just started my first Play-by-Forum game and I can see it's going to take forever (except I'll probably concede here shortly).

Anyway, my suggestion is to limit the battle(s) to one round (each): You move in; attack; you choose what you hit; and then you choose whether to stay or withdraw.

Perhaps add some rules to this (and I have yet to think this all the way through, so I'm not sure exactly what those rules should be; but) such as attacking and withdrawing in the same round would be a "Raid" and there should be a limit on what units are allowed to "raid". If you include units which are not allowed to "raid" then you must remain until the next round.

As I suggested: in that attack you choose which units you hit and the computer randomly chooses which units you lose (if any).

If you remain: you're opponent now has the option to counter attack; simply remain to defend again next round; and/or withdraw any/all units. Counter attacking is not a raid and any units can be used in the counter attack. This time the (defending) Counter Attacker chooses which units he/she hits and the computer randomly chooses which of his/her units are lost. Units with only a single movement point cannot counter attack and withdraw too.

Needless to say, if the counter attacker remains the (original) attacker now becomes the counter-counter attacker... So on and so forth.

I truly believe that the game should've been done this way from the "get go"; but that's just my opinion.

I imagine that if armor/tanks are used then it's not a "raid". If more than a certain number of units are used then it's not a raid, etc.

Think on it. Discuss it and go from there.

It would definitely shorten the time it takes to resolve a battle and makes more sense (In my opinion). You don't have multiple research rounds, or any other multiple rounds. Why are there multiple combat rounds?

Anyway, the concept kept me awake; so I've posted it. I suppose it's more of a game change request than a User Interface one: but the UI would need to be designed with such a change in mind.

I hate to say this; but the UI should actually be more like that of Medieval II Total War; but then it wouldn't be TripleA it'd be TW.

[General_Zod]

@stohrm Yeah PBEM is for people who love the game but are not available to play live. But it's can be rough on the typical lobby gamer, since it requires a lot of patience.

There are some games that limit combat rounds, eg. "Age Of Tribes". It allows the player to choose between 1 and 5 combat rounds for land and naval combat (air is possible too). This can result in contested territories too. There are some pros and cons, to that aspect to consider.

To my knowledge those setting are not unit specific, so if you set it for land combat rounds = 2. Then all land units can battle up to 2 rounds max.

[General_Zod]

@Hepps
Ok so please don't laugh to hard. But here's my feeble attempt at graphics, to show you a component of what I was suggesting.

The proportions are not right and maybe the minimap needs to be shifted else where or minimized so the entire bottom could serve as new territory tab. This is just to give you the feel of it.

Note, I also cut the top title bar and menu bar out as well as the bottom info section in attempt to gain more space. I guess menu could be a dropdown button somewhere?

Note: Just for reference, the map image is 1366x768 and unit images are 48x48. This should be close to what it would look like on a 15inch display, when this image is viewed at 100%.

[General_Zod]

@Hepps Btw, the national colors changes where just for my personal use, so I can see units a little better from zoomed at 50%. I'm not suggesting you change that.

I changed exiled just to not be to similar to Germans. And swapped Italians with neutrals.

[General_Zod]

@Hepps If the mini map stayed where it is, It might be enough space for most cases, any overflow can use a scroll bar, maybe? Also can jam a couple extra units in the rows.

Also, these 2 rows can be for any and all units, the suggestion to have specific rows for specific units isn't really practical.

[Hepps]

@general_zod Personally I would prefer to keep all of the (more or less) fixed or permanently visible menu options in one area of the screen. Then have them reducible or expandable. Having the Chat/player turn box at the top then means it will always block yet another part of the screen while its open and visible (which would be pretty much always).

I also question the work-ability of being able to effectively present all of the written info in the Terr. window into a bar of text. I feel as though the the info currently displayed in the Terr. Tab would be better served being broken into 2 windows... One for Territory INFO. and one for UNITS.

Here is yet another version....

[prastle]

@hepps looks great! Where is the National Objectives Tab

[General_Zod]

@hepps Yes, that sounds reasonable, looks great too!

I must admit, I was slacking on the territory information portion. I was thinking, more or less, an overview of that territory information, and then click for more details, kind of thing.

30 units displayed at once is awesome.

This is already a vast improvement. So I have no objections. I'd be thrilled to see this come to fruition as is.

[General_Zod]

The battle calculator itself needs an overhaul. I have a couple ideas for it. But maybe in a new topic?

[Hepps]

@general_zod Probably best. Since there is a lot going through this thread already.

And since the BC is a much a question functionality as it is format... it probably justifies that we discuss that in detail in its own right.

[alkexr]

@hepps The territory info box is currently cluttered with

Units may change ownership
Captured by -> Ownership to
Britain -> Exiled Allies
Russia -> Exiled Allies
USA -> Exiled Allies
China -> Exiled Allies
Brazil -> Exiled Allies
Spain -> Exiled Allies
etc.

Which is both an inefficient use of space and poor way of showing information to the player. Ideally you would want to say:

Exiled Allies take control of Allied units in this territory.

or (after elaborating in the game notes how Exiled Allies territories work) simply

Exiled Allies territory

Now this is a nice dream, but this is definitely not generalizable to all possible maps. That's why I'm arguing for per map html customizability. Something like

tooltip.territory.Low Countries = Owner: <b>$CURRENT_OWNER$</b><br/>Original Owner: Germany<br/>A territory of the Exiled Allies

Now there are several obvious problems with this exact syntax, but I would love to see something like this implemented.

[Hepps]

@alkexr I agree. An improvement is certainly possible in terms of how the information is presented. Either way a box is still necessary for the information and that is what I am trying to cover in this thread.

The topic is certainly worthy of its own thread as a feature request.

[redrum]

We are starting to get a lot of different ideas floating around this thread outside of just the UI revamp that Roi/Hepps are working on. I'd suggest for any ideas folks feel strong about such as BC, territory info format, etc to create a separate thread articulating clearly what you'd propose as otherwise they will just get lost in this thread.

[General_Zod]

So I'm looking at the beta UI in 9464. Here's some feedback.

1. I think first and foremost the user interface must be very intuitive. And there should be no ambiguity anywhere in the interface, of what does what.

2. The old typewriter font is kind of weird. I suggest a more user friendly font.

3. The screen is way too big, it needs to be resized so there is not so much empty space. The proportions are simply way too large for what we need to display.

4. The map background in the play screen is not so hot. We surely can place something nicer there.

5. Need a minimize button too.

[RoiEX]

@General_Zod Yes, the design is not final yet once everything works we can easily reconsider how stuff needs to be layed out.
Fullscreen won't be permanent either, once the UI is working I'll introduce an option to choose default window sizes.
The details in the background need to be discussed with @Hepps though ^^

[Mahks]

Unit Info Display :

Problems with current tooltip :

• Not available on all unit images in all panels
• Is a tooltip (limited duration & format restricted)
• Text is a horizontal string of properties and values, this inhibits finding the value you want before the tip disappears

Suggestions :

• Have all unit images be a class that has a hover trigger calling a function that displays a "Unit Info Panel"
• The unit info panel could be placed in the same location as the minimap when a unit is hovered (stays visible as long as the player hovers)
• Properties listed vertically with values shown on same line (the eye may then easily pick out the value one is looking for)

I find that when playing a new map, especially one with many new units and faction differences, that I have to keep the
Unit help panel open. But it is not accessible when some panels are open. It also requires much scrolling to find the unit one wants info on.

Most common need is when I want to view foreign units in a territory. No tooltip on those images. If I open the territory panel, I get the list of unit images with tooltips, but as I move the mouse out of the territory, the list is lost.

[Frostion]

Where can one find and try out this beta UI?

[redrum]

@frostion Latest pre-release then go to Engine Preferences > Testing > Use JavaFX UI.