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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> War in the Pacific: Admiral's Edition >> Modified interface in Admiral Edition?

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Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/12/2008 9:44:55 PM

ypsylon

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Im curious about that. Such tiny icons for interface are just pain. Its so easy to click not what you intend increasing only ammount of pointless clicks which WITP or WPO are full off. At least a bit more of user friendlines. Please :)

How about bigger icons and a bit of redesign?

Example moving top bar to bottom:

Dont get me wrong. WITP & WPO are great games with no equivalent on the market (except in limited way old Gary Grisby's Pacific War) since the begining of computer gaming. Im hardcore hex-based player. But super-tiny icons together with super-scaled map are just attrocious (in particular with large LCD). How about e.g. 36*36 or 48*48 pixels icons interface. Just look at GGPW. Old game with much better interface than WITP. And both games belong to 2 different eras of PC gaming.

Post #: 1

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/12/2008 11:35:20 PM

The Gnome

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Post Caveat: I'm shooting from the hip on this and will throw together some more thorough posts after I have read more.

Agree 100%, just posted about this on the wish list. We also need more resolutions including those for wide screens.

My top UI requests would be:
1) More standard interface to what we get on most apps (ok, cancel, apply buttons).
2) Larger easier to see text, cleaner fonts would be dandy.
3) Snappier response times from the interface. Need to nix the lags when buttons and other screen elements are clicked.
4) Larger easier to hit buttons
5) Skinnable/User Modifiable as much as possible
6) Dual Screen support would be dandy.

Now I'm not sure the engine would support any of this, but there you have it.

(in reply to ypsylon)

Post #: 2

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/13/2008 1:52:27 AM

bradfordkay

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" My top UI requests would be:
1) More standard interface to what we get on most apps (ok, cancel, apply buttons). "

I've got to say that this would just add more clicks to a game that is already loaded with mouse clicks, even though I've been guilty of making the wrong button choice on occasion.

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Post #: 3

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/13/2008 3:44:26 AM

Captain Cruft

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The interface is not changing in AE, there will just be even more buttons ;)

(in reply to bradfordkay)

Post #: 4

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/13/2008 5:37:42 PM

Shark7

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

The interface is not changing in AE, there will just be even more buttons ;)

So....

What does the red button do?

Serious Question: Exactly how many more? The game is quite click intensive as it is, so are we going to see a minor, moderate, or extreme increase in the number of clicks per turn?

I'm pretty bad about forgetting to do things...like set destinations for transport fleets, etc.

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Post #: 5

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/13/2008 7:12:32 PM

Mike Scholl

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Shark7

quote:

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

The interface is not changing in AE, there will just be even more buttons ;)

So....

What does the red button do?

Serious Question: Exactly how many more? The game is quite click intensive as it is, so are we going to see a minor, moderate, or extreme increase in the number of clicks per turn?

I'm pretty bad about forgetting to do things...like set destinations for transport fleets, etc.

Having played it a lot in testing, I would say "a fair number more" IF you want to use "waypoints" and "patrol zones". And I think I can safely say that everyone will be having a "click fest" for a while just going around the map and trying to get a handle on the changes.

(in reply to Shark7)

Post #: 6

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/14/2008 2:47:39 AM

The Gnome

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

The interface is not changing in AE, there will just be even more buttons ;)

I rated the ui as barely acceptable a few years ago and all I had was a 17" monitor running 1024x768, now I have a 24" in 1920x1200. Would be nice to use the real estate.

Also, my eyes aren't getting any better and those buttons sure are small.

All in all I welcome the upgrade and I'll probably be getting it, just hope a little customer feedback steers the devs some.

(in reply to Captain Cruft)

Post #: 7

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/14/2008 3:00:54 AM

Mike Scholl

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quote:

ORIGINAL: The Gnome

quote:

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

The interface is not changing in AE, there will just be even more buttons ;)

I rated the ui as barely acceptable a few years ago and all I had was a 17" monitor running 1024x768, now I have a 24" in 1920x1200. Would be nice to use the real estate.

Also, my eyes aren't getting any better and those buttons sure are small.

All in all I welcome the upgrade and I'll probably be getting it, just hope a little customer feedback steers the devs some.

I asked the same question when I joined the AE Test team (and for many of the same reasons). Don't think it will happen for AE. Maybe for a later patch if enough of us old blind players ask for it.

(in reply to The Gnome)

Post #: 8

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/14/2008 3:45:56 AM

treespider

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Mike Scholl

quote:

ORIGINAL: The Gnome

quote:

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

The interface is not changing in AE, there will just be even more buttons ;)

I rated the ui as barely acceptable a few years ago and all I had was a 17" monitor running 1024x768, now I have a 24" in 1920x1200. Would be nice to use the real estate.

Also, my eyes aren't getting any better and those buttons sure are small.

All in all I welcome the upgrade and I'll probably be getting it, just hope a little customer feedback steers the devs some.

I asked the same question when I joined the AE Test team (and for many of the same reasons). Don't think it will happen for AE. Maybe for a later patch if enough of us old blind players ask for it.

Resources were limited...so the question is - Would you rather have the same old broken game, while only being able to see more real estate,.... or would you rather have a much more realistic game with some of the old foibles taken care of with the same view?

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Post #: 9

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/14/2008 4:28:29 AM

jwilkerson

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quote:

ORIGINAL: The Gnome

I rated the ui as barely acceptable a few years ago and all I had was a 17" monitor running 1024x768, now I have a 24" in 1920x1200. Would be nice to use the real estate.

Also, my eyes aren't getting any better and those buttons sure are small.

All in all I welcome the upgrade and I'll probably be getting it, just hope a little customer feedback steers the devs some.

Playing the 1024x768 game on a larger res. monitor will be easier on the eyes, everything, including the buttons is larger!

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Post #: 10

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/14/2008 5:51:04 AM

The Gnome

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quote:

ORIGINAL: treespider

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mike Scholl

quote:

ORIGINAL: The Gnome

quote:

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

The interface is not changing in AE, there will just be even more buttons ;)

I rated the ui as barely acceptable a few years ago and all I had was a 17" monitor running 1024x768, now I have a 24" in 1920x1200. Would be nice to use the real estate.

Also, my eyes aren't getting any better and those buttons sure are small.

All in all I welcome the upgrade and I'll probably be getting it, just hope a little customer feedback steers the devs some.

I asked the same question when I joined the AE Test team (and for many of the same reasons). Don't think it will happen for AE. Maybe for a later patch if enough of us old blind players ask for it.

Resources were limited...so the question is - Would you rather have the same old broken game, while only being able to see more real estate,.... or would you rather have a much more realistic game with some of the old foibles taken care of with the same view?

Not wanting to get into a quibble, but speaking as a developer this isn't an either or situation. A little bit could have been thrown towards sprucing up with UI without making it a total overhaul and costing all the other changes.

It's totally understandable that things need to be cut, but it's a little dramatic to say that all the improvements would have been scrapped for the sake of some UI enhancements.

quote:

Playing the 1024x768 game on a larger res. monitor will be easier on the eyes, everything, including the buttons is larger!

True enough, and I can't wait to try it out!

(in reply to treespider)

Post #: 11

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/14/2008 6:18:05 AM

witpqs

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I think they're right about the effort that would be required to upgrade the UI. Basically we are looking at an interface from the early 90's, so only a from-the-ground-up re-write makes any sense. Anything else would require lots of effort for little gain. I would love a better interface - I've put it on the request list in the past.

(in reply to The Gnome)

Post #: 12

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/14/2008 6:35:33 AM

jwilkerson

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quote:

ORIGINAL: The Gnome

quote:

Playing the 1024x768 game on a larger res. monitor will be easier on the eyes, everything, including the buttons is larger!

True enough, and I can't wait to try it out!

No need to wait - if you have a larger res. monitor now - just fire up the game now in full screen mode - and all your buttons and text will be larger!!

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Post #: 13

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/14/2008 10:16:30 AM

ypsylon

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Of course GUI is bigger on larger LCDs, but seriously that's not the point. Nobody spending $$$ for large LCDs to view only a fraction of a map. Wouldn't be a cool thing to see whole or nearly whole map without need to scroll it!

Also even best LCDs are not good with really serious scaling down. With 1680*1050 it looks bad, I cant imagine how bad it is with 1920*1200.

I beg you Devs: Have mercy for our eyes!

How about to scrap AE* and start from the scratch with new GUI?

And I'm scared already by more buttons. Probably I will not buy AE (I bought WITP brand new,box for equivalent of 8.50$ USD) anyway. Instead of less buttons and more of sanity, we facing more buttons and more insanity.

< Message edited by ypsylon -- 1/14/2008 10:22:21 AM >

(in reply to jwilkerson)

Post #: 14

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/14/2008 4:14:17 PM

The Gnome

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quote:

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

quote:

ORIGINAL: The Gnome

quote:

Playing the 1024x768 game on a larger res. monitor will be easier on the eyes, everything, including the buttons is larger!

True enough, and I can't wait to try it out!

No need to wait - if you have a larger res. monitor now - just fire up the game now in full screen mode - and all your buttons and text will be larger!!

I'm running an iMac so I have to decide which VM I am going to use first, VMware or Parallels. I'm leaning towards VMware at this point.

Again though, the size and clearness of the interface is just one of my hopes for improving it. Like I said before, if changing the UI is impractical given the game engine this goes into the "oh well" category.

(in reply to jwilkerson)

Post #: 15

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/14/2008 4:26:11 PM

Mike Scholl

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quote:

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

quote:

ORIGINAL: The Gnome

quote:

Playing the 1024x768 game on a larger res. monitor will be easier on the eyes, everything, including the buttons is larger!

True enough, and I can't wait to try it out!

No need to wait - if you have a larger res. monitor now - just fire up the game now in full screen mode - and all your buttons and text will be larger!!

I'm using a 23" monitor, and my eyes are still taking a beating....

(in reply to jwilkerson)

Post #: 16

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/14/2008 5:04:09 PM

jwilkerson

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Mike Scholl

I'm using a 23" monitor, and my eyes are still taking a beating....

Well, you're a special case - you might need new eyes instead!

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Post #: 17

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/14/2008 6:46:59 PM

Mike Scholl

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quote:

ORIGINAL: jwilkerson

quote:

ORIGINAL: Mike Scholl

I'm using a 23" monitor, and my eyes are still taking a beating....

Well, you're a special case - you might need new eyes instead!

Only one so far. Surgery scheduled in early February right now.

(in reply to jwilkerson)

Post #: 18

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/15/2008 10:14:34 AM

Trigati

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quote:

ORIGINAL: ypsylon

Of course GUI is bigger on larger LCDs, but seriously that's not the point. Nobody spending $$$ for large LCDs to view only a fraction of a map. Wouldn't be a cool thing to see whole or nearly whole map without need to scroll it! Also even best LCDs are not good with really serious scaling down. With 1680*1050 it looks bad, I cant imagine how bad it is with 1920*1200.

I have a 24' with 1920x1200 native.. I really hate scaling down all the way to 1024. It does look quite bad.

< Message edited by Trigati -- 1/15/2008 10:15:13 AM >

(in reply to ypsylon)

Post #: 19

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/17/2008 3:18:36 AM

BB57

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What I would like to see to save mouse clicks is to have the window start at the top instead of the middle when resorting a field.

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Post #: 20

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/18/2008 2:40:30 AM

madgamer2

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quote:

ORIGINAL: The Gnome

quote:

ORIGINAL: Captain Cruft

The interface is not changing in AE, there will just be even more buttons ;)

I rated the ui as barely acceptable a few years ago and all I had was a 17" monitor running 1024x768, now I have a 24" in 1920x1200. Would be nice to use the real estate.

Also, my eyes aren't getting any better and those buttons sure are small.

All in all I welcome the upgrade and I'll probably be getting it, just hope a little customer feedback steers the devs some.

Well not being a techno wiz I can only relate to my own experience. I have a 20.1" LCD with a native resolution of 1680 x 1050. Now we all know that if you run an LCD at anything other than its native resolution you hav to run the thing in one of 4 modes with the 2 that give you full screen are Monitor or video timing which uses the timing from the monitor or the video card to run the non native resolution.
Well that is so much mumbo jumbo to my poor brain so I set my resolution on the native resolution and boot the game. The game changes the resolution to its own and the LCD is using video timing for non native resolutions.
Now to me it looks good the way it is and to my way of thinking a higher resolution would result in smaller icons and font size...right?
I don't care what resolution the game is in I just want it to look good which it does. Now a Larger monitor screen would (all things equal) produce larger Icons and font print but increase in resolution to me is not that big of a thing to me. It would be nice if the icon size and font did not get smaller for those who have not the large screen monitors needed to use higher resolutions. All those little buttons might even be smaller on smaller monitors A piece of software like a game has to run on as many systems as possible in order to make a profit which is the important point.

The ideal solution is to have a game in several resolutions but to do this it would increase the cost I would think. This is after all not a new version so many of the things we may want will have to wait till a new version. As to the question of creating a new version rather than the AE update is not something for an old gamer to comment on here as there have been many posts on the subject already.

Madgamer

(in reply to The Gnome)

Post #: 21

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/18/2008 1:59:17 PM

m10bob

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I want bigger buttons, and the higher resolution monitor is NOT the answer, for me..(Already have that)..
Call me "Magoo" I guess..

Attachment (1)

< Message edited by m10bob -- 1/18/2008 2:02:52 PM >

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Post #: 22

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 1/18/2008 4:24:21 PM

The Gnome

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From what I gathered there is a problem with UI changes, and that is the game logic is coupled with the visual elements. That makes it a time consuming mess to make what would otherwise be simple display changes (very unfortunately).

It's an easy trap to fall into, and I've done it before myself. If the gang ever decides to do a WiTP 2, I would highly recommend a de-coupling of display and logic.

(in reply to m10bob)

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RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 5/20/2009 9:42:58 PM

aprezto

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I think it sounds like they have missed the boat on all sorts of interface stuff that could rotate around such things as shortcuts. Like:

right mouse clicks - these are way under-utilised. Use them for such things as setting destinations for TFs and LCUs (using a right mouse click to select so that you don't have to go to the information screen and then another to set destination.
Using the map for waypoint selection and then being given a list of TFs to aim there. And again information about what TFs have the selected hex as their target.
Shortcuts to the production screen for Jap air units, from within the unit screen, using pop up help when you mouse over the prod button showing the factories producing the planes in question.
Learning menus, or user changeable (this may be more pipe dreamish and require the whole interface to be updated), such that the most regulary used buttons are put in the closest proximity to each other. Have the game relocate them, or again allow the user to change them, such that you don't have all the scrolling required to go backwards and forwards between each button.
Information on the army screen, about which location each LCU has as its preparatory target.

I could go on for ages but I don't know if this is pointless considering the responses about having to rebuild the game from the ground up to facilitate such things.

(in reply to The Gnome)

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RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 5/20/2009 10:41:22 PM

wworld7

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quote:

ORIGINAL: aprezto

I could go on for ages but I don't know if this is pointless considering the responses about having to rebuild the game from the ground up to facilitate such things.

Since it has been stated repeatedly that many things such as some of your ideas are not possible until a "start-from-scratch" WITP-2 (one can hope for it) it does seem to be pointless to re-hash the UI at this point. It is what it is. and it isn't changing.

For now, I'm just looking for the positives that are coming in WITP-AE (and there are many) and hoping for the best.

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RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 5/21/2009 6:20:32 AM

jmscho

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quote:

ORIGINAL: flipperwasirish

Since it has been stated repeatedly that many things such as some of your ideas are not possible until a "start-from-scratch" WITP-2 (one can hope for it) it does seem to be pointless to re-hash the UI at this point. It is what it is. and it isn't changing.

Well stated Flipper. I get fed up of people requesting changes and bitching when they are rebuffed. AE is nearly there thanks to the development team. Threads like this are just a distraction.

The interface may not be state of the art today - but the ultimate questions to answer are "1. Does it work? 2. What would be gained/lost were it to be changed?". Answers 1. yes, 2. better playability/enormous delay. Conclusion - forget about it. I'd rather have it out with functionality changes than have waited this long just to get GUI changes.

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RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 5/21/2009 11:27:38 AM

Dili

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quote:

I want bigger buttons, and the higher resolution monitor is NOT the answer, for me..

The higher resolution you have the tinier the buttons you will get for same size monitors. The solution is to degrade the monitor resolution since no one will change the game engine, this is Witp-AE not Witp-2.

(in reply to jmscho)

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RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 5/21/2009 2:03:40 PM

Erik Rutins

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While some improvements have been made in screen/data organization and usability, this is functionally the same interface as in WITP. As mentioned before, changing that in any radical way was really not an option with this release and will not be an option until WITP 2, whenever that comes. I recognize that WITP is not a model of interface design, though IMHO given the amount of data and complexity being dealt with, it could be much, much worse. It works and if you can tolerate the WITP interface, you'll be fine with the WITP-AE interface.

Regards,

- Erik

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Post #: 28

RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 5/21/2009 4:54:39 PM

Chad Harrison

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Personally, I think it gets the job done just fine. I have never really had issues, and as Erik pointed out, I have seen much, much worse presentations of 1/100th the amount of information that you have to deal with in WitP.

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RE: Modified interface in Admiral Edition? - 5/22/2009 2:40:16 AM

Bullwinkle58

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Chad Harrison

Personally, I think it gets the job done just fine. I have never really had issues, and as Erik pointed out, I have seen much, much worse presentations of 1/100th the amount of information that you have to deal with in WitP.

I agree with you, up to the point of managing the Japanese economy. That is a total dog's breakfast. The UI of that portion of the game has prevented me from playing 50% of the game I bought. I would prefer root canal.

Fixing/exposing the AI fixes 50% of my main wish list (with waypoints and improved sub ops as dessert.) If they could make the economy running not depend on drilling down FROM THE MAP (!!!) that would be the other 50% of my list for WITP-2. I'd buy it tomorrow.

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Post #: 30