New User Interface

[danuker]

One fundamental thing needed by a game is a user interface. Spring has one, but it is terribly < in some cases, plain, in other, cluttered >. Therefore, I make this topic to centralize everybody's potential ideas of a new, better, more intuitive, effective and simple user interface!
Post ideas/suggestions here, and the devs shall see if or when or which they will implement.
I want haz visual arbitrary building rotation system! (though that sounds impossible)..
Hopefully this topic won't die..

[aegis]

I want haz visual arbitrary building rotation system! (though that sounds impossible)..

generals-style click+drag to rotate?

[danuker]

aegis: precisely. You could put the old green arrow to yet another use: showing the direction
Either that, or anyhow else; this request was mostly to encourage people to post wild ideas too, but wouldn't hurt implementing :D
Sorry for late post- some mobile browsers don't eat cookies...

[Neddie]

I want haz visual arbitrary building rotation system! (though that sounds impossible)..

generals-style click+drag to rotate?

We already had a thread on it, didn't we? Click + Drag + Toggle Button - not just Click & Drag. Click and drag should be for lines if anything.

[danuker]

this is not intended to be a thread on that.. but for more general UI refurbishment
I propose buttons to be grouped by function: -movement, attack, interaction, building etc

[smoth]

we can already rotate buildings we just do not have to click and drag to do it.

Click and drag rotation of buildings will cause issues when queing lines of structures. just use the mouse buttons to rotate, it is faster.

[AF]

but the 4th and 5th mouse buttons control spacing in lines and rows?

[smoth]

what does 7&8 do?

[SinbadEV]

I think he might be referring to the actual GUI... you know the part that can be modified entirely in LUA to be whatever he wants it to be...

[AF]

7 and 8 sit unused since most people do not possess them.

[smoth]

lol af: []

also not my fault their mouse haz no buttans and people cannot go old school and edit a config file.

[AF]

The [] keys do not have 'rotate left' or 'rotate right' labels on them. There is no helper on screen telling you they do this either.

Therefore your points only apply to people who surf these forums and just happen to come across a post such as that one.

And that is one of the points of this thread. Most people I see are surprised when I show them what the 4 and 5 mouse buttons do and they've never noticed after months of playing despite having the buttons millimeters away from their thumbs.

[rattle]

7 and 8 sit unused since most people do not possess them.

What about mouse9? I've got nine buttons

[Neddie]

Games on the engine can define their own UI as scripted in LUA with custom buttons, layouts, menus, etcetera. A generic UI which overrides everything else engine-side would not be beneficial. What you want, however, can be done game by game on the engine. So, gather the developers of your game and brainstorm what you want. CA's team, I believe, is working on nested menus. Argh has implemented a custom GUI, as I believe has Smoth.

[LordMatt]

It would be nice if mouse buttons could be bound similar to keys.