New GUI: Design & Features Discussion

[historic_bruno]

Updated mockup:

In this case "Y" is the icon for carried resource with the amount listed to the right. These icons might be too small though Another option is to shrink the portrait more or enlarge the whole panel.

[Potter]

What about this updated mockup?

I have moved the "carrying resource" icon under the portrait.

And, we can also switch the locations of generic name and specific name, if we need more space for specific name...

[Potter]

The unit panel is getting too crowded now! What about moving the "Action buttons" to the right area (construction panel), maybe with a different heading implying they are different from the construction icons.

That would really give breathing space for the central unit panel

[ribez]

The unit panel is getting too crowded now! What about moving the "Action buttons" to the right area (construction panel), maybe with a different heading implying they are different from the construction icons.

That would really give breathing space for the central unit panel

i agree that unit panel is too crowded!

i think that formations and attitudes occupy too much space: only active formation and attitude should be showed, in form of buttons that, when clicked, could be show alternative formations or attitudes. So you could have more space for unit panel

Edited June 6, 2012 by ribez

[Pureon]

Thanks to the guys on IRC who helped out:

It's not final, but hopefully it satisfies some of the concerns people had

[Potter]

I like the placement of the unit portrait, the reduced stances, experience bar shown under the unit portrait and the way carried goods is shown!

But, i feel that the player name is shown more prominent than the unit name. It should be the reverse.

And, i dont see the armour/attack stats. Where would that information be shown?

Edited June 7, 2012 by Potter

[Pureon]

And, i dont see the armour/attack stats. Where would that information be shown?

Hover over the unit's icon to see armor and attack stats, as well as other useful stats such as range, LOS, number of kills etc. This way these secondary stats are all in one place, and don't clutter the GUI unnecessarily.

[historic_bruno]

Hover over the unit's icon to see armor and attack stats, as well as other useful stats such as range, LOS, number of kills etc. This way these secondary stats are all in one place, and don't clutter the GUI unnecessarily.

As I said in IRC, we should keep the armor/attack icon for that and maybe design a new icon It's not intuitive to hover the portrait, I mean people might do that on accident, but what makes more sense is to put the unit description there with possibly the name again. Whereas if there's a distinct icon people are bound to be curious what it is and try hovering it, then they learn what it is.

[Mythos_Ruler]

There's plenty of room for the attack/armour icon.

[Thorfinn the Shallow Minded]

Is there a good reason for stamina to be shown on the unit's GUI?

[Mythos_Ruler]

Is there a good reason for stamina to be shown on the unit's GUI?

There will be. And 'Loyalty' too, for Structures and Female Citizens. (since neither Structures nor Female Citizens have Stamina, it is replaced by the Loyalty bar).

[Pureon]

Thanks again to everyone that's helped out:

Time to ask Brian whether any of this is possible?

[k776]

Well done Pureon. Best mockup thus far!

The only thing I might have comment for is the position of the players name. It's between unit name and unit controls, which breaks apart grouping of similar things.

Can you show us what it would look like with the Player name under the action buttons, and also above (not in) the center panel (move the portrait image down slightly).

[WhiteTreePaladin]

I'd really rather not put the name under the buttons. I think they should stay on the bottom since they are on the bottom when multiple units are selected. So, unless moving them is central to the design, I can do it if you really want, but I don't really see the point.

As for technical feasibility, we can reasonably only color text dynamically. If really we want to color a background like behind the player name or as an outline around the unit icon, then I'll need a way to change the color of a sprite after is is created. We don't have this currently.

The only things this mockup has that the old one didn't are the HP and stamina numbers and the specific unit name. I kind of thought that either we wanted more info, or a smaller panel size. The attack / armor icon doesn't offer much (I'd prefer more info). There is more space apportioned to the resources than attack and armor and many resources cannot gather at all (and those that can will only gather for part of the time anyway).

Just some food for thought. I'll make up whatever interface you all want (where I can), just wanted to mention some potential issues.

[rjs23]

A thought just hit my mind: I'm not sure if other games has this feature but what if you place those buttons (train, research, or upgrades) ABOVE the unit/building instead of placing those buttons in the UI container?

Heres a rough image of what I'm talking about: (using the Mythos_rule's screenshot that i modified)

Those buttons are transparent until you mouse over them which then becomes completely solid.

Edited June 8, 2012 by rjs23

[FeXoR]

A thought just hit my mind: I'm not sure if other games has this feature but what if you place those buttons (train, research, or upgrades) ABOVE the unit/building instead of placing those buttons in the UI container?

Heres a rough image of what I'm talking about: (using the Mythos_rule's screenshot that i modified)

Those buttons are transparent until you mouse over them which then becomes completely solid.

That way the buttons position on the screen will differ which is bad for playability. In addition representation in the graphic engine might need some ms to pop up - time that might be important in some situations.

There where games that used this e.g. The battle for middle earth. It's priority was clearly look and feel and so it was not balanced, had a bad unit AI, the player AI cheated like hell without matching any moderate player and the playability sucked.

In general to the space in the centered frame: I got no problems with it but just to say what uses much space in comparison to the use in game:

- The unit picture use much space though an icon about as big as in the production frame would do (even better) to recognize the units type. A large representation could be shown in a tech tree or civilization guide.

- The health and stamina bar do not need to be labeled IMO. A mouse over that shows the name of the stat (health/stamina) and the actual/max values should be sufficient. The bars represent the state of the unit (fresh and healthy/exhausted but healthy/rested but ingured) quite well IMO:

Edited June 8, 2012 by FeXoR

[historic_bruno]

As for technical feasibility, we can reasonably only color text dynamically. If really we want to color a background like behind the player name or as an outline around the unit icon, then I'll need a way to change the color of a sprite after is is created. We don't have this currently.

We can dynamically create a sprite with the player color (guiObject.sprite = "colour: r g b a"), it's something we already do for game setup and tech pairs, to name a few. It may not look as snappy as Pureon's image, some tweaking of alpha is needed and possibly a second overlaid sprite to get that shininess.

[WhiteTreePaladin]

Ben, that should work. I guess creating a new one every time isn't too bad for performance?

[edit] Wait, it's not creating a new one. I wasn't able to get that to work before, although I don't remember "colour" being part of it.

[Pureon]

Would the sprite use a dds alpha channel similar to player colour on units? I will supply that file if and when it's needed.

Brian do you have Photoshop?

[historic_bruno]

Would the sprite use a dds alpha channel similar to player colour on units? I will supply that file if and when it's needed.

I don't think the UI supports that yet, but it might be simple to add since it uses the shader/material system? For now, I was just thinking a simple flat colored bar with some alpha and an optional second sprite for borders, highlights, or whatever enhancements we want. IMO the player assignment boxes in game setup already look OK on a similar background:

[Pureon]

IMO the player assignment boxes in game setup already look OK on a similar background:

Very true, no need to reinvent anything.

[WhiteTreePaladin]

Brian do you have Photoshop?

No, I just have GIMP.

Looks like it doesn't matter in this case though.

[Mythos_Ruler]

Sometime we really should redesign all of the menus and various windows with an eye on consistency. Pureon with his graphical skills would be a big asset here.

[WhiteTreePaladin]

I tried to make it somewhat consistent, but it could certainly be a lot better.

[Pureon]

Brian, here's the 'panel_middle.png' texture file for the GUI layout - it should just replace the existing one, everything's in the right place. Let me know what else you need.