A few minor UI improvements?

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All Forums >> [New Releases from Matrix Games] >> Shadow Empire >> Suggestions and Feedback >> A few minor UI improvements?

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A few minor UI improvements? - 6/24/2020 12:05:55 PM

WCG

Posts: 138
Joined: 5/30/2013
Status: offline

I'm still very new to the game, and I'm loving it! But here are a few minor suggestions:

1) When I'm on a city tile, looking at the city, it would be nice if there were arrows I could click to go from city to city in my regime. Often, after all, when I'm looking at cities, I want to look at more than one of them.

(Maybe there's a hotkey which does that? I never use hotkeys, and I don't pay much attention to them. The reasons don't matter. But my suggestions are all about when using a mouse.)

2) When I'm choosing a zone target for stratagems, clicking on the zone should not just select it as a target, but move the underlying map to that city, too. That way, I can quickly close the stratagem window and look at the city, if I need to confirm anything before making that decision.

It's a minor thing, but then, most of these are.

3) When selecting a leader target for stratagems - and any other time when we need to scroll through a list - please let us use the mouse wheel for that, instead of needing to click on the bar and drag it. Using a mouse wheel is just automatic for me, and it's always a surprise when that doesn't work in a situation like this.

4) When setting up a new unit model to research, it would be great if we could look at a summary first, before we finalize the research. As it is, we immediately start researching it when we make the last decision. Sometimes, it's actually surprising that it is the last decision. But mostly, if would be great if we could see, on one page, what decisions we've made, before committing to the research.

(I've been very disappointed at the motorbike units I've created. They're so slow, compared to my buggies. Now, I'm not sure if that's the result of decisions I made or not. But it would be a lot easier to catch potential problems if I could do one final check before deciding on the exact model I'm going to research.)

Again, these are just a few minor improvements (to my mind, at least). No big deal. I'm loving the game! Thanks for that!

PS. Note that I'm not a wargamer. Just personal taste, of course. But if this were just a wargame, I wouldn't have bought it, just because I quickly get bored with games like that. But this is so much more than that.

I need war in a game like this, but economics, diplomacy, and research probably interest me more. So I'm loving the combination of all of these things. And in a science fiction game, to boot? I'm in heaven.

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RE: A few minor UI improvements? - 6/24/2020 12:20:34 PM

zgrssd

Posts: 3385
Joined: 6/9/2020
Status: offline

4) If this is mostly about weight or cost, the Tooltip of each item shows the running weight/cost including the item you are pointing at:
But I agree a summary screen and a lot of other deails would be better:
https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=4830974

(in reply to WCG)

Post #: 2

RE: A few minor UI improvements? - 6/24/2020 3:47:49 PM

siRkid

Posts: 6650
Joined: 1/29/2002
From: Orland FL
Status: offline

All very good ideas. I would like to add one more thing to the list.
When selecting a unit to add a stratagem to, show if that unit already has one. I hate adding multiple priest to a unit.

_____________________________

Former War in the Pacific Test Team Manager and Beta Tester for War in the East.

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Post #: 3

RE: A few minor UI improvements? - 6/24/2020 4:12:10 PM

Falke

Posts: 179
Joined: 8/13/2004
Status: offline

1) Left side bar , bottom button. This lists the zones and can be used to click through the cities
2) Good idea
3) Agree
4) Ambivalent - Does add info, but downside is another click

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Post #: 4

RE: A few minor UI improvements? - 6/24/2020 7:57:08 PM

zuekamo

Posts: 48
Joined: 6/21/2020
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: siRkid

All very good ideas. I would like to add one more thing to the list.
When selecting a unit to add a stratagem to, show if that unit already has one. I hate adding multiple priest to a unit.

Priests don't stack?

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Post #: 5

RE: A few minor UI improvements? - 6/24/2020 8:32:17 PM

zgrssd

Posts: 3385
Joined: 6/9/2020
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: zuekamo

quote:

ORIGINAL: siRkid

All very good ideas. I would like to add one more thing to the list.
When selecting a unit to add a stratagem to, show if that unit already has one. I hate adding multiple priest to a unit.

Priests don't stack?

Yes and no. It is a a complicated question:
- Priests are unit feats. There is a limit to how much of any specific unit feat you can have per number of subunits
- There is also a limit into how many subunits the feat "embedds with" (affects)
- And finally, a totall cap of unitfeats/unit
- You also generally want to spread out feats, as far as possible. So not having more then 1 Priest/Unit is not a bad idea overall.

(in reply to zuekamo)

Post #: 6

RE: A few minor UI improvements? - 6/25/2020 11:58:41 AM

WCG

Posts: 138
Joined: 5/30/2013
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: siRkid

When selecting a unit to add a stratagem to, show if that unit already has one. I hate adding multiple priest to a unit.

Good idea. One way to avoid that is by picking the units first, then adding a stratagem by clicking on the "Strat" box near the commander's portrait. But that gets awkward when you have a ton of units.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Falke

1) Left side bar , bottom button. This lists the zones and can be used to click through the cities

Thanks. I forgot about that. I mean, I looked at it once at the start of the game and couldn't figure out why I would use it for anything. Now I know.

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RE: A few minor UI improvements? - 6/27/2020 9:42:28 AM

Daza99

Posts: 285
Joined: 8/1/2017
Status: offline

I would like to see a <- -> buttons for when viewing Leader profiles, so right arrow goes to next one down the list and left arrow next one up the list.

(in reply to WCG)

Post #: 8

RE: A few minor UI improvements? - 6/27/2020 4:51:55 PM

Axeking

Posts: 29
Joined: 6/6/2007
Status: offline

I would add that #4 seems like a no-brainer feature that is missing.

Its really annoying to be cliking through the decisions, and suddenly its in the queue with no final confirmation of wanting to spend the resources.

This totally prevents you from experimenting with designs to find the balance you are looking for, since you don't know when the choices will suddenly stop and it hits the queue. I would most definitely like to see the result of the proposed design before commiting resources to it.

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Post #: 9

RE: A few minor UI improvements? - 6/27/2020 10:02:04 PM

siRkid

Posts: 6650
Joined: 1/29/2002
From: Orland FL
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: WCG

quote:

ORIGINAL: siRkid

When selecting a unit to add a stratagem to, show if that unit already has one. I hate adding multiple priest to a unit.

Good idea. One way to avoid that is by picking the units first, then adding a stratagem by clicking on the "Strat" box near the commander's portrait. But that gets awkward when you have a ton of units.

ow I know.

Thanks I did not know about that feature.

_____________________________

Former War in the Pacific Test Team Manager and Beta Tester for War in the East.

(in reply to WCG)

Post #: 10

RE: A few minor UI improvements? - 6/28/2020 6:18:14 AM

Daza99

Posts: 285
Joined: 8/1/2017
Status: offline

There are a few windows in the game with "Cancel" inside of OK or Close which looks odd. Perhaps not intended and a oversight?

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Post #: 11

RE: A few minor UI improvements? - 6/28/2020 5:47:28 PM

Atros

Posts: 48
Joined: 6/26/2020
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Personally I would so much like to see all the unit feats changed into freely attachable minor subunits, as my secretary of war has still been unable to explain exactly why can't he comply to a direct order from his supreme commander to move that elite sniper team from Recon One to the First Battalion of 1. Mobilized Lifeguards Brigade, where they would actually be needed and utilized...

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RE: A few minor UI improvements? - 6/29/2020 12:19:27 PM

WCG

Posts: 138
Joined: 5/30/2013
Status: offline

quote:

ORIGINAL: Atros

Personally I would so much like to see all the unit feats changed into freely attachable minor subunits, as my secretary of war has still been unable to explain exactly why can't he comply to a direct order from his supreme commander to move that elite sniper team from Recon One to the First Battalion of 1. Mobilized Lifeguards Brigade, where they would actually be needed and utilized...

Perhaps because they're not so much subunits as just people in the main unit who are more skilled at some things than your average soldier?

I know that they're shown as separate people. They can even be killed in battle, without losing any of your fighting men. But I look at unit feats as just recognizing that soldiers aren't clones, completely interchangeable.

Sometimes, their particular skills might not be especially useful where they are, but is the army always perfectly efficient? And maybe they don't want to leave their teammates, anyway.

Don't ask me. I like to roleplay in strategy games, so I just imagine how this might make sense. And it does seem to make sense to me. You can design your armies as you wish, but you're still dealing with people,... supposedly.

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Post #: 13