Metal, energy, and the gui

Doomweaver · Post by **Doomweaver** » 25 Jun 2005, 03:04

Does anyone find it takes them a few seconds to work out exactly what is happening with their resources? Personally, I think TA Spring would benefot from a layout that you can just glance at, but I'm not sure exactly what that would be. Any ideas?

Dragon45 · Post by **Dragon45** » 25 Jun 2005, 06:19

I've always wondered what the second set of numbers means; i mean the ones in paratheses.

shnorb · Post by **shnorb** » 25 Jun 2005, 06:58

i must say the resource system, and gui representation of the resources isnt as simple as alot of other rts games, but ive been playing ta for so long im used to it...

Doomweaver · Post by **Doomweaver** » 25 Jun 2005, 07:22

Dragon45, i'm not sure paratheses are. There is a number for the amount you are gaining, losing, currently have, and maximum.

mongus · Post by **mongus** » 25 Jun 2005, 07:33

im with the new representation thing!

btw i really dont like the way.. when you build a metal storage (or energy), you really loose the perspective.. i mean.. you still think that have small amouts of metal or e if you look at the graphic.. im not sure how to explain this.. but if you look at the bar, and you are used to 3000 metal, then you can see that and think something like "aha, i have like 300 metal", but its reallya at another scale, and now that mean 3500 metal = 2 adv factories or 2 mini fusions...

finally, when you have a big production (-100 metal) , and lets say 2 (20000) storages, well, you are alreday producing at another scale.. and the metal lowers and raises quickly, as does in the beguinning of the game....

well im not very clear.. but... would be nice to be able to diferentiate the different "scales" of that bars.
Well there IS a way to do it, read the numbers.. sure, but im talking about something more graphic....
something that TELLS you have a lot of metal production and storage just by looking at it....
(that bar tells you that only if you read the numbers in it)

shnorb · Post by **shnorb** » 25 Jun 2005, 08:04

hmmm... when you put it like that, having a different layout scheme doesnt seem so pointless... but i cant really think of a great way to do...
one thing i would like to see change is the sharing of energy/metal going into the 'h' key function as well. i find having it on the energy/metal indicators a little clumsy... what are people's thoughts on this?

EDIT: maybe having a few different schemes that you can choose from would be a good idea...

Doomweaver · Post by **Doomweaver** » 25 Jun 2005, 08:33

Actually, the red bars are the only part that I find works well... lol!

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 25 Jun 2005, 10:16

i think a number should be added, how many metal u hav @ any time.

Kixxe · Post by **Kixxe** » 25 Jun 2005, 10:18

Then only thing i want is the text on the bars to be larger. And a esayer color to read then red.

It's kinda hard to read small red text in the heat of battle

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 25 Jun 2005, 10:43

well keeping it compact, means more room for the game..

aGorm · Post by **aGorm** » 25 Jun 2005, 12:31

Possibly (just thinking out loud here...) the bars are yellow right? So what if, as your max metal storage when up the bar started to faded to white at one end, leving the bottom half yellow? this way you'd be able to look at a shorter bar, but go, haha I still gotmore metal than I used to becasues my bar is shifting to white at one end...

does that make sence....

possibly you could do the same but with a range of colours, so like +100 will be yellow which fads to green for +300, which fads to red for +500....etc

that sort of thing. Giving you a multi coloured bar that if half full still tells you you got more than you began with because its half full but shows by the change in hue that you are infact producing more.

Well, someone make sence of that

aGorm

Min3mat · Post by **Min3mat** » 25 Jun 2005, 15:33

i hear you aGorm great idea, as long as its not done by amounts and is just say, u have 1/3 of the possible metal => the bar is red u have 2/3 the bar is green etc. i know it'd only be a graphic but it would be nice.
Also in TA u had Input/Output
On this game if you are using more than you are getting you cannot see the magnititude of your energy/metal deficit, if you use more than you get the two numbers are the same unlike TA. I'd like it to be put back to Input/Output like TA did it!

NOiZE · Post by **NOiZE** » 25 Jun 2005, 17:56

Min3mat wrote: Also in TA u had Input/Output
On this game if you are using more than you are getting you cannot see the magnititude of your energy/metal deficit, if you use more than you get the two numbers are the same unlike TA. I'd like it to be put back to Input/Output like TA did it!

Agree on that :D

Doomweaver · Post by **Doomweaver** » 25 Jun 2005, 23:57

How about we don't have the color for say metal % based, but actually value based.
0-500 dark grey
500-1000 light grey
1000-1500 silver
1500-2000 silvery blue
2000+ radiant blue

So just by glancing at what color it is, you can tell within the vicinity of about 500 metal how much you have.

And for energy, is might be easier if we toggle between the current information and a different one.

Instead of showing how much energy you have and writing down how much you are gaining/losing, we have a bar that shows your production, and an overlapping bar that shows how much you are using. Inside each section created by the two overlapping ones (we'll have to make them fatter) you write its size.
i.e.
http://img229.echo.cx/my.php?image=energy5tv.jpg

could be more useful than the current system. Worth a try, at least.

Min3mat · Post by **Min3mat** » 26 Jun 2005, 00:13

yeah but the problem arises when you are using > getting...what are you going to have? a -tive %tage??? i'd rather use OTA system so i can see how bad i'm doing

Doomweaver · Post by **Doomweaver** » 26 Jun 2005, 02:56

What do you mean? We retain the same energy system; when you losing more than you are gaining, your energy begins to drop.

Warlord Zsinj · Post by **Warlord Zsinj** » 26 Jun 2005, 05:03

Keep the colours to the primaries...

[/partially colourblind]

[K.B.] Napalm Cobra · Post by **[K.B.] Napalm Cobra** » 26 Jun 2005, 06:39

What about shades of gray, so we don't get some gay rainbow looking effect?

mongus · Post by **mongus** » 26 Jun 2005, 06:52

not much colors should be used...

and.. reading aGorm i had an idea!! (yeah happens all the time sorry).

how about ... showing the cost of the actual buiding/unit to build in the metal bar...
that way when you are about to build a lab at the beguinning, er.. 3/4 of your metal bar (possibly) and 100% of your energy turn into negative color (yelloy-blue?, gray... er... almost black?), showing graphically the costs... sounds good to me!

of course that goes to hell when you have 20000+ storage... but at the beguinning it makes sense.. posibly when building a krog it shows still...

also batched build queues could show.. lets say if you choose a lab, an it has a queue = to .. 50% of your metal.. it should change its color...

its a bit hard to make those features compatible...

a stall estimated time sounds good too..
lets say you are producing 100 but spending 200... if your storage is 20000 you should stall in... ok i dont know.. (20000[m]*100[m/s] = 200 secs= 3.33 [min]?).. that is ai for!.

telling you, in that time you have to: finish building, minimize production, or maximize resource extraction....

also a build time counter sounds great.
telling you in how much time you get your last unit in queue.
this is pointless with 100+ queues (sometimes i do).
maybe batching queues can be done....
like groupping units by orders..

group A = 6 fidos, 1 radar, 1 jammer, 3 zeus, 2 shooter, 3 pelicans. = 4 min.
group B = 2 adv cons, 1 fark.= 1.8 min.

a bunch of queued units and have time calculated for that group of units.
(btw, a stop btn for labs plz! (ala on off)).

Doomweaver · Post by **Doomweaver** » 26 Jun 2005, 10:59

mongus, that would make sense for metal. It should show, when you move your mouse over the unit, if all resources remain being mined and used at the current speed, how much less (or more) you will have at the end of construction if you issue that order. Same goes for moving your mouse over a constructing unit while you have construction units selected.

Doesn't really help for energy, but if we used teh system I suggested, then it could show the projected energy use when you are hovering over a build order.

Spring RTS Engine

Metal, energy, and the gui

Metal, energy, and the gui