Spring RTS Engine

Spring is starting to grow on me. The controls are bloody funky though. Is there any chance we could have TA style controls as an option. You know, left click executes move and build commands, right click deselects units. After playing TA for 8 years I'm finding it very hard to adjust to this new system.

It was the same in Command and Conquor and Warcraft as I recall. The current system doesn't make sense to me. Having build on one button, select on another is pretty counter intuitive.

New GUI should have mouse bindings so you can change it.

That and I think there's an invert mouse button checbox in game settings

Molloy wrote:Spring is starting to grow on me. The controls are bloody funky though. Is there any chance we could have TA style controls as an option. You know, left click executes move and build commands, right click deselects units. After playing TA for 8 years I'm finding it very hard to adjust to this new system.

It was the same in Command and Conquor and Warcraft as I recall. The current system doesn't make sense to me. Having build on one button, select on another is pretty counter intuitive.

its that way and get used to it, if u keep playing you'll stop noticing that in a week or less (everyone passed that stage)

Speaking of the new GUI... anyone know if you'll be able to execute orders simply by clicking on the minimap like in OTA? I miss that feature...

That's a good point Belmakor. I was missing that as well.

Also, one thing I find very hard to read is the unit orders: Hold Fire, Return Fire, Fire at Will etc. They're practically impossible to read. Is there some way to make the text bigger?

Change your game resolution, maybe. Yet another issue hopefully fixed by an improoved GUI.

I also prefer the OTA-style order-clickable minimap. Enabling that would make giving large patrol orders much easier.

Additionally, I hope the devs eventually implement OTA's comma and period keys, which page back and forth through the order/build menus. This is nice because you can flip through the menus while still scanning the camera around with the mouse cursor. (It doesn't help that Spring's clickable forward/back buttons are very small... kind of "hunt the pixel.")

alas, so many of the wanted features and fixes for Spring seem to hinge on the status of our mythical New GUI...

The cool thing about finally getting to give orders on the minimap is that in Spring, the minimap can be made bigger and smaller, so you could effectively cover the whole screen with the minimap, and order your units around Supreme Commander style.

But I agree with FizWiz; every time a problem comes up, the answer is "oh, the new GUI will fix this!"; but people have been talking about this new GUI for almost a year now. You can't keep citing the GUI unless the GUI is less then a week away from release; until then, the problem is an immediate one, and the GUI is not looking like a feasible solution, because it is too far off.

Gnome, didn't you make a basic TA-style GUI that made the GUI opaque and everything in it completely readable?

Molloy every post i see by you is you trying to make this game into TA.

Shutup already.

Belmakor wrote:Speaking of the new GUI... anyone know if you'll be able to execute orders simply by clicking on the minimap like in OTA? I miss that feature...

This can be an important achievement for Spring :idea:
I miss a lot this feature too.
DuGratz

clericvash wrote:Molloy every post i see by you is you trying to make this game into TA.

Shutup already.

I like to keep the Spring community friendly.
And how do I say this...
I think "Shutup already" is not working with me.

Hear Hear Tim...

Anyway, the New Gui is talked about because everyone wants it. And everyone say "oh it will fix it" because it will fix it. And to change it at teh moment isn't as easy as it sounds, especialy as there trying to ADD the new gui coad to teh current code. Theyd have to add in a third GUI as an inturum, and its just dev time wasted on teh actully GUI.

Remember theres only so many programers, and there are lots of things to fix up besides the GUI (even though GUI gets the most press)

aGorm

Molloy wrote:... The current system doesn't make sense to me. Having build on one button, select on another is pretty counter intuitive.

So i guess old TA's button style is intuitive and this one not? Haha. There is one things that doesn't makes sense about the system but you didn't guessed which one is it, cause it certainly isn't nothing of what you complained about.

If you want to feel one of the benefits of this new system, try selecting a builder and just use the action-delivery-button (right-click) on a factory. An automatic guard action is given without any further need of work. No such thing in old TA.

By the way, this is not the exact same thing as TA. Nor it intends to, i think. Just the same style.

What would make the GUI alot more readable would be if it was dark when you had your mouse over it. And opaque when it wasn't. Or just some sort of highlight.

Well, find a programmer to implement "the new gui"
Once we have a good GUI system people can make a gui TA style, Molloy style, StarCraft style, etc.
Then players can select there style from the config menu and we can move on to the next MTR thing.

Tim Blokdijk wrote:Well, find a programmer to implement "the new gui"
Once we have a good GUI system people can make a gui TA style, Molloy style, StarCraft style, etc.
Then players can select there style from the config menu and we can move on to the next MTR thing.

From my understanding one of the biggest holdups is the art, not the programming... The GUI must be designed somewhat like a website, which means someone has to learn the GUI construction interface and make one that looks good enough to serve as the spring default GUI...

well the art-part of the GUI can be handled by someone else. If that sould save time and effort of the programmer. And yes, I volunteer. Probably other people want to help as well.

for the love of god. I thought 1 mechasonic was enough. Now we're getting spammed with them.

o unjjust world...

PauloMorfeo wrote:

Molloy wrote:... The current system doesn't make sense to me. Having build on one button, select on another is pretty counter intuitive.

So i guess old TA's button style is intuitive and this one not? Haha. There is one things that doesn't makes sense about the system but you didn't guessed which one is it, cause it certainly isn't nothing of what you complained about.

If you want to feel one of the benefits of this new system, try selecting a builder and just use the action-delivery-button (right-click) on a factory. An automatic guard action is given without any further need of work. No such thing in old TA.

By the way, this is not the exact same thing as TA. Nor it intends to, i think. Just the same style.

uhhh. Yes there was.