..:: New GUI Design - in progress ::..

IceXuick · Post by **IceXuick** » 30 May 2006, 02:20

yep indeed (ressurect button), thx for the fast info!

tooltip was larger before, can set it back, so it can hold more info.

Hotkeys will be visible on mouse over/hover.

Pxtl · Post by **Pxtl** » 30 May 2006, 02:32

FireCrack wrote:^Unit descritions are in tooltips IIRC...

A "desired" resource drain would be good, prehaps in bracets next to the actual resource drain?

But what' i'd realy like to see is metal and energy coming and going from donations.

And um... you need a ressurect button

Agreed about the "from donations" thing. Disagree with the "desired" thing - all I want is my "desired" drain. I don't give a crap what my actual drain is when I'm nanostalling, because I know it's the same as my income.

FireCrack · Post by **FireCrack** » 30 May 2006, 02:34

^Aye, i thaught i edited that in, but whatever.

Acidd_UK · Post by **Acidd_UK** » 30 May 2006, 12:40

I agree that knowing desired drain is more useful than actual drain...

Quanto042 · Post by **Quanto042** » 30 May 2006, 13:55

Dude i have nothing but praise for you man, Everything i could want in a gui you already have and then some. I have no suggestions and i have no critizisms, the interface is clean, legible, informative. Everything i could want. WHEN WILL IT BE READY????!!!!!!

krogothe · Post by **krogothe** » 30 May 2006, 14:23

The sharing numbers are a bit painful on the eyes (make them nice and legible like the resource bar), the orders menu should get a tiny height increase to touch the minimap (or the minimap should be resized to fit).
Dont forget to grey out buttons for units that cant do certain things like cloak/reclaim etc.
The status lights are nice good and big now!
The dgun and bombard buttons should be on the first row, restore and capture on the second and transport orders third.
I like the group bars at the bottom but a lot of groups will have different units and orders at the same time, maybe replace the unit names with numerical HP (a bar doesnt leave much room for comparison, even if its great for peripheric vision). They should also flash red when under attack.

Its looking so good its fooling people into thinking its ingame!

AF · Post by AF » 30 May 2006, 14:52

OK, I think this is much better. I dont like the biggish spaces between build pics they might do with being 1 row less and being made bigger to suite, otherwise this is a much better design than previous ^^

Caydr · Post by **Caydr** » 30 May 2006, 15:07

Optimus Prime wrote:But one small point i have to criticize: There is no room for descriptions and in FF you need them really. I put there the hints for newbies, which unit is best for and thats really usefull.

I think maybe you misunderstood Optimus here. Either that or I did. Anyway, tooltips when you're buildings something - I don't think this'd be so good. Why not have it just replace what's currently in the info bar? Think about it, I mean, how often have you simultaneously needed to know the status of a constructor WHILE choosing what you want it to build next? Either it's about to die so you're microing it to maybe avoid shots, or you're just telling it to build your next solar. Meh.

Anyway, what I thought he meant was when the unit was built, how do you read its description? Most people have no difficulty remembering what a Thud is (or whatever unit), but a newbie might. Since this design is intended to be very newbie-friendly, shouldn't the description be shown at all times, just as it is now?

Optimus Prime · Post by **Optimus Prime** » 30 May 2006, 16:08

exactly Caydr. The point is that in aa or xta all seems to be intuitive. But for other mods it is not. In FF the descriptions are a very important "feature" for newbies and even average people.
Some units do more than tripple damage to special other units and without these descriptions, newbies think that there is something wrong and will be frustrated.
The tooltips should be visible all the time and only if you dont want them, you should be able to hide them, but not by default.

kujeger · Post by **kujeger** » 30 May 2006, 19:56

IceXuick wrote:yep indeed (ressurect button), thx for the fast info!

tooltip was larger before, can set it back, so it can hold more info.

Hotkeys will be visible on mouse over/hover.

Hotkey in tooltip is good, but you should also colour the letter green or something in the button graphic itself (where possible), so that the stop would be [green]S[/green]op but self-destruct would be normal with the hotkey in the tooltip only.

patmo98 · Post by **patmo98** » 30 May 2006, 22:37

kujeger wrote:Hotkey in tooltip is good, but you should also colour the letter green or something in the button graphic itself (where possible), so that the stop would be [green]S[/green]op but self-destruct would be normal with the hotkey in the tooltip only.

I would prefer it if the letter was underlined insted of a diffierent color. I think that a diffierent color would stick out like a sore thumb.

krogothe · Post by **krogothe** » 30 May 2006, 23:07

patmo98 wrote:
kujeger wrote:Hotkey in tooltip is good, but you should also colour the letter green or something in the button graphic itself (where possible), so that the stop would be [green]S[/green]op but self-destruct would be normal with the hotkey in the tooltip only.
I would prefer it if the letter was underlined insted of a diffierent color. I think that a diffierent color would stick out like a sore thumb.

nah just do it the blizzard way, colouring it in a brighter shade, which looks classy and pretty

IceXuick · Post by **IceXuick** » 30 May 2006, 23:59

krogothe wrote:The sharing numbers are a bit painful on the eyes (make them nice and legible like the resource bar), the orders menu should get a tiny height increase to touch the minimap (or the minimap should be resized to fit).
Dont forget to grey out buttons for units that cant do certain things like cloak/reclaim etc.
The status lights are nice good and big now!
The dgun and bombard buttons should be on the first row, restore and capture on the second and transport orders third.
I like the group bars at the bottom but a lot of groups will have different units and orders at the same time, maybe replace the unit names with numerical HP (a bar doesnt leave much room for comparison, even if its great for peripheric vision). They should also flash red when under attack.

Its looking so good its fooling people into thinking its ingame!

Yes indeed, i think those numbers in the stats screen could be better. Maybe there could also be another tab there, with the income of your allies, and the sharing.

The buttons that aren't used for a unit hopefully won't be displayed at all, but i don't know if this can be done with cegui.

Dgun and bombard i indeed had planned in the first row, but i was a bit tired and wanted to show you the progress. But also, these a commands, that only apply for a commander OR a bomber, so they won't show up both, if this could be done.. like i said in the previous alinea.

The numerical hp is indeed maybe a good idea, showing how much hp the entire group has.. Maybe i can replace the "HP" text, with this number. The white flash you see is a group that is under attack, this could be red, or could just also be a red thin line (so when having multigroups under attack, you don't have one big flashy thing going on there.

The thin white line is the actual group selected.

Jouninkomiko, you have some progress on the implementation of cegui? Im starting to get itchy to get going to work on the gui :D .

i'll post a new concept later tomorrow, with the minor added fixes!

Any else who has critics or praising on this

thx for the comments again! Let's hope this can be implemented asap!

jouninkomiko · Post by **jouninkomiko** » 31 May 2006, 00:59

I told you all I was incapacitated due to my tonsils.... I'm almost better though

Snooky · Post by **Snooky** » 31 May 2006, 01:59

Ice,

What about moving the unit build slots closer together as in OTA to support the possibility of using larger 6-slot buildpics (i.e. UH Nukes, or special units like the Krogoth)...

Also was not sure where you can setup in game alliances or give your allies some of your units (I might have just overlooked these)

Excellent GUI overall though

Warlord Zsinj · Post by **Warlord Zsinj** » 31 May 2006, 10:07

You don't have to eat the GUI, you just have to code it

Maybe you should ice them?

*runs off into the distance*

Guessmyname · Post by **Guessmyname** » 31 May 2006, 13:56

IceXuick wrote:i agree to the person who suggested the old TA style resource system. It showed the income and the drain (that is used, if there is metal/energy or not). The 'third' number i think could just be the difference between them, so all people that can't do math very well, can see how much it exactly is.

This being said, i have made a new version of the concept!

If everything is right, most things should speak for themselves. If there might be any questions, or suggestion/idea's, let me know.

As for all the (new or anxious) people here, this is just a concept, and is (by far) not working ingame. I designed all buttons, but you might already have guessed that they won't all show up if the selected unit doesn't have that option/setting.

the not much altered buildmenu screen:

the quite alot altered ordersmenu screen:

Again, the on/off buttons. Where are they?

Pxtl · Post by **Pxtl** » 31 May 2006, 14:08

"State" is the on/off toggle.

jouninkomiko · Post by **jouninkomiko** » 31 May 2006, 14:23

What is that short vertical bar that each resource has? The one between the 631 and 1300 for the metal and between the 1320 and 1500 on the Energy?

AF · Post by AF » 31 May 2006, 14:25

They're the same as the little red markers we currently have, you share resources if your resources jump above that marker, so say the marker is at 1000 and you have 13000, your allies are able to sue that 300 of your resources

Spring RTS Engine

..:: New GUI Design - in progress ::..

State