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Legal I'm not owner by this content, but I share this public content with our community understanding the legal consequences. http://waywardstrategist.com/about/ And We Share the vision from the Owner of this Site, I share this only by educational context or point of view. source: http://waywardstrategist.com/2015/05/04/lets-talk-rts-user-interface-part-1-interview-with-dave-pottinger/ Introduction One of the most crucial aspects of the design of any game is its user interface. This is an incredibly broad topic, ranging from the game’s menu system to its in game graphical user interface or HUD (heads-up display) to its interaction model – keyboard and mouse, joystick, game pad, or what have you. A game’s HUD is one of the most basic and most heavily utilized sources of information to the player in a real-time strategy game – many an RTS has been accused of forcing its players to ‘play the UI’ instead of being more free, as in genres like shooters, to interact mostly with the game’s world and environment. The HUD combined with the game’s control scheme (or mouse and keyboard interactions model) encompass the vast majority of a player’s knowledge of and control over the game space, and it behooves game designers to get these systems just right for players, to reach that age old Platonic goal of allowing the player’s intentions to translate directly into action in-game. Respected RTS game designer Dave Pottinger, now president of indie studio BonusXP, who has worked on storied RTS titles such as all of the Age of Empires games, and Halo Wars, has graciously lent me his ear (metaphorically speaking) and generously lent me his time to answer a couple of questions I had regarding his thoughts as a game designer on this critical facet of the real-time strategy genre. Wayward: It is my opinion, and tell me if you agree (this’d be a great place to throw in a comment if you were so inclined) that by and large the RTS genre is sticking with known quantities: for the most part, RTS interfaces are comparable to those developed at least 10 or 15 years ago Dave Pottinger: I think that’s true. 3 reasons: Part of that is just that there are less RTS games. Less games means less chance to innovate and see new stuff.RTS UI is hard. Improvements for the hardcore are almost always in opposition to improvements for the casual. Just today I decried how we allow you to scroll the camera while drag selecting because it’s terrible for noobs. 3 poeple instantly said “Well, you can’t change that!”. Every genre has those types of tried-and-true assumptions, but few have as much UI as an RTS game. Connecting back to your question, I think it’s harder to innovate when you have so much UI that is established and expected.I think RTS UI is something of a solved beast. Back when I started, there was still a debate about one or two mouse buttons. Thankfully, that’s out of the way. But, by and large, the RTS UIs of old were pretty good.I do fully expect other UI paradigms to come up in RTS games. Absolutely. I can’t wait (and hope to help introduce a few of them). But, I think those need to be accompanied with some game changes. If you have a game that plays like SC or Age, I think you’re going to end up with a UI like SC or Age because that UI works pretty darn well for controlling that type of game. Wayward: At their core, what are your goals regarding real-time strategy interaction models (both with ingame graphical UI and with keyboard/mouse interaction systems) Dave: At the simplest level, we need players to feel like the UI is allowing them to control the game. Well, maybe that’s not the simplest way of looking at it; whether or not they have fun with the game is probably the simplest metric. Nevertheless, IMO, people get most frustrated with UIs when they are unpredictable and/or they don’t know how to make it do what they want. If I have to answer the “How do I do XYZ? question too often during a playtest, then I know that one’s in the crapper. So, at the base level, I want a functional UI. Once you learn something, it should be easy to remember how to do it. I personally want a very consistent UI. The UI should also be responsive. That’s not a hard concept, but it can be hard to execute. Many RTS games run a lockstep, synchronous simulation (to push the unit counts so high). That can create difficult situations because the units may not start moving right away when you command them. That means we need to solve the responsiveness issue some other way. At a higher level, I think an RTS game has a harder-than-average presentation issue… We need to deliver critical info via a split second glance. That’s hard. No one wants to study the gait of a the unit to see if he’s limping when they’re really playing competitively. They need a way to see how much health the unit has at a glance. Hence hitpoint bars. Bumping up even more, if we can solve the functional and presentation issues, then we can start to think about how it does that. Does it look good? Does it fit the mood of the game? Is it fun to navigate? Where can we put the little dashes of love that make someone enjoy a UI? I do know some folks who start with the UI and then work backwards. I don’t think that way, so I have to do it this way Keyboard is similar, but there’s less room/need for excitement and pizzaz. Do I get some response when I hit a hotkey? Does your keymapper work? Great. Move on. Wayward:What do you think are the primary strengths and failings of RTS user interaction design as a whole? If this is too broad, can you comment on the strengths and failings of a representative game (perhaps one you’ve worked on) + comment on what you would’ve liked to see done differently? Dave: Broadly… I’m not sure I’d consider any RTS game to have a great UI. I say that because I think there’s simply too much information that you have to present. I do think there are plenty of RTS and RTS-like games that have good UIs given the gameplay they must serve. SC2 and LOL come to mind. But, I still don’t think either of those games is a good UI. Too much info, too geared towards the hardcore. I also humbly say those things expecting the same critiques to be lobbed at our past work (Age, AOM, Halo Wars) and our current game, Servo. We have a lot of information to show you so that you can make the best informed decision possible. Strategy folks tend to like that. Our job is to present all those things in the best UI possible. I’ll mention two specific fails… The “giant” Age of Empires 3 UI. It wasn’t really *that* big, but once the game was out, it was instantly lampooned. It surprised us. We had spent so much time arguing/debating/redoing that UI; we just never really noticed that it had gained too much size. We burned all of our energy and time trying to make everyone happy; I don’t think we were ever able to step back and evaluate it from a fresh perspective. So, when that reaction hit, the AD for the game (Dave Kubalak) and I sat down and just did the mini version that night without asking anyone’s opinion. Went out shortly after. The SelectAll button from Halo Wars. I hated it then and still hate it now. It was such a cave against the fact that we just couldn’t make the UI work well enough. We couldn’t get control groups to work the way we wanted and we were out of time (being that the studio was getting closed and all). We added it to make the game “as playable as possible”. It instantly had the expected effect. It was so easy to use that it became all anyone ever used. It really un-did a lot of the fine work that went into unit differentiation and special abilities. But, without it, the game wouldn’t have been playable. Wayward:What is the cardinal sin a designer can commit when establishing an interaction model for a strategy game? Dave: I think there are plenty:) A few that come to mind… Assuming everyone will want to “play like you play”. With RTS games having more UI than your typical game, there’s a bigger chance for failure here. You need a UI that can appeal to people who don’t play the same way that you do. In some cases, you may be on the losing end of preference, too. For example, I don’t personally love the QWERTY-style hotkeys that are the rage today. I understand them, though. I can accept that lots of people like them, too. So, we’ll just have an option.Assuming that everyone *wants* to play the way you play. Similar, but importantly different than the previous one. Just because you know the right answer, don’t expect everyone to want the same goal. Everyone has their “limit” in terms of how much energy and effort they will expend in a given game. It’s a huge mistake to assume that everyone will have more fun if they play better. Some folks are okay playing a slower paced game. Let them. Yeah, they won’t win a tournament, but they likely don’t care.Assuming that you are actually any good at the game you are making. You are not. Don’t think you are. Find someone who is and watch them play. That will change everything.Thanks again for your time, Dave! http://waywardstrategist.com/2015/05/04/lets-talk-rts-user-interface-part-1-interview-with-dave-pottinger/

Some tips to keep in mind , if we will change the GUI http://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/tutorials/game-ui-by-example-a-crash-course-in-the-good-and-the-bad--gamedev-3943 http://waywardstrategist.com/2015/05/04/lets-talk-rts-user-interface-part-1-interview-with-dave-pottinger/ There as an other, ( was hard find because , the original source RTS guru disappears, now you now why I'm obsessed to save or take info from other sites, instead only linking)

condiderate for many the other side, some time ago or you playing AOE or you playing Starcraft. My interest with Starcraft they use abilities, but later was implement in Aoe3.if you see AOE 3 was trying to be more like Blizzard's Franchices. Implements a lot of stuff from Warcraft and Starcfrat that was my impression about.

for me add tabs can let us save space I recorded some gameplay to show how works in AoE 3 Later we see other RTS like SC2 or Rise of Nations (But this last is more simple)

more Visual, you know how teach people even don't know read?, using images, iconography, semiotic old printed only if the player want print a PDF in my case to memorize hotkeys (that is other matter) link with our wikis and try to have updates even in main languages. I try to record others GUI (from others RTS) to shows some extra info we can include into the engine.

@Karamel we need more visual Manual and have PDF version( printable) When I was buy EE in 2004, the game have a lot visual info, and had a visual and unit counter scheme. this one is very similar. The other proposition is have integrated manual with links, where the detailed info are avaible through links, like AOM, you have to do double click in unit icon and this display very detailed info, even some about history or mythology.

The CC are too long range canbe nice unlock those potential with technologies in AoK the range of TC is the size of a farm. In not sure with AoK but is more than that, may be 2 or 3 ( the farms are small in AOM) in AOE 3 each villager increases the attack power. I have references about this matter. In Other RTS don't have attack ( except EE 2). Palisades same, may be need some technologies to unlock its potencial, like loom with female villagers. The first phase cavalry explorer can't have that LOS ( other unit who need reveal it's the potencial to the each phase)( may be LOS unlock techonology like town watch inn AoK) can be shared with outpost.

Ok following the the concept 0. AD is supposed you are forming colonies and settlements in 0 AD the years are slowly not like AoK, that why some buildings take time, may be some day we get a mode Turbo like AoK and AOM (?) In this concept the settlers must be try to build farms and storehouses , etc, outside of territory, this will be the first settlements outside a capital province( 2nd and third phase). But the danger to live outside a territory frontier is the easy to be razed, sacked and captured by a enemy troops, or simple, be massacred by reading troops. In the trac I read about idea the farms if is not working or people work in them( farming), lose HP. About walls, our walls are different from AOE franchise , because the turrets shots arrows and you can have units in to the top, firing arrows, stone and javelins

The walls and palisades were penalized is because their excessive use but now , with capture feature , is the only way to protect the unprotected defenses like towers or other buildings. Have huge territory can be a handicap. With 5 rams you can take down these expensive walls and remember not only are expensive, are slow to build. So this need rebalance again. Ok with idea the buildings outside territory only not military, like Delenda est mod. Obviously this not count for exceptions.

Sounds Empire Earth ( 1 and2) more some of rise of nations. I like the idea.

Yeah , the main page looks like 0.A.D at the beginning, but they want more Civs, like China and Olmecs.

The sounds , and some look. Especially the blacksmith sound, that was made by LAVS

y se te fijas yo he contestado la mayoria de tus preguntas.

I tried a non legal copy( in the future I will buy the legal version) Is interesting, the same game but more content. I was playing with Berebers vs Celts The Ai was nearly to defeat me because , I forgot setting victory conditions. Now the menu is more polish, when is loading have all map info, including victory conditions, starting peace and starting positions. What really news. The biome( I play in Kilinmanjaro really similar to our Savanna map) The siege tower ( I can't test) Attack move ( we had already) but is not great thing. New command more intuitive for building( press B to building F to select farm) Two Ais ( Classic and new) Now all factions have a icon where represent an expansion or DLC The Bereber Art GUI is colorful ( too much for me) To many art ( sprites, especially eyecandy) looks like more a mod than a expansion. The gameplay is the same, old and some orthopedic , you know is inferior to AOM to give order sequences, too much outdated. The same formula but more counter units( the good point) but I was read about unbalanced at the sea. The Ai spam many troops but can't deal with that, because don't use all to the best way. If you ask me SC2 in many ways are superior. 0A.D are superior ( modern and less antiquated) but need adding more features, maps and create more channel to promoting the game. May be involve more the comunnity to spread the word. Many featured asked by users are done with 0A.D, even they have same request as us.( add more factions/civilization) but our advantages is have less generic units, and divided by factions than by whole set of single civilizations( example Indians are critiqued because are too generic compared with 13 Europeans Civs.)

May be we need update, like other sites, they have options like press button. Confirmation or asking easy things for humans like identify with pictures foods, etc.

Yeah Youtube are full of people asking fix the bugs. Even the channel official answer in other people Channel's

The game is unbalancead, I will try to get a copy of the expansion to test, I want the new game mode, Sudden Death , is very like rise of nations.

Very original video for an Seudo RTS.

I'm using Windows and Tortoise SVN client, is more easy than Linux way (my opinion)