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UI > Menu Interface |
BackSlash
Marshal
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003
Posts: 11183
From: Bristol, England
|  Posted: 2005-05-18 17:16
Me and Drafell where talking earlier about an easy to use menu driven interface used for things like "Attack" "Follow" "Protect". It free's up space on the screen, and gets rid of those buttons that no one knows what they do unless they mouse over. Its must more self explanitory.
Here are two examples I did, they are basic, and the darkspace ones would ofcourse use the darkspace graphics rather than simple black boxes, and Tahoma font.
They would ofcourse be tied onto the right click mouse event, that is currently not being used by the engine, it would apear next to the cursor, so that its quick and easy to navigate.
These menus could also be used for planets, so if the object was right clicked on, a menu would apear with "Orbit" "Approach" "Enter Build View". Also, when in building screen, a menu-like building approach would be better. Instead of the icons, you would have a list of buildings on the right so...
"Dome"
"Hub"
"Attack/Defence >" "Fighter Base
"Defence Base"
"Hydrofarm"
On mouse over, the obvious popup with the stats would be there ie
Uses:
2 Population
15 Power
Gives:
15 food
Another thing that could be tweaked for this, is the mission tab. Say, I gave the command "Attack Noob". This would go to ALL players within the area/system. It would be better if the players could chose whether they could have the orders sorted via Fleet/Rank/Name, aswell as the power to ignore some orders. The other users would see this in their mission viewer as..
"Command orders:"
"Drafell: Protect Earth"
"BackSlash: Capture Luna"
"Fattierob: Capture Sol"
Player orders would stay untill that person logs off, or you log off. Could be done by seeing if the user is connected, if true, then display.
The choice to also add in supply orders aswell, where an icon on the supply ships screen would show up over the ship that is the target of the order. Say I give the command to supply "Dave". Dave would now be added to a list that supplys would have if logged in.
"Supply Orders:"
"BackSlash: Supply Dave" "View/Target Dave"
Supply orders would only show for ships that are of the supply role.
Now, along with this could be the Universe Events. It would work like this...
"Universe Alerts:"
"Earth is under enemy blockade" "View Planet"
"Luna has been captured by Kluth"
Planets captured would be removed every 10 minutes, whereas blockades would stay for 5 minutes, with it being removed if the blockade is stoped.
On connect to the MV, you would recieve a list of Universe Alerts that happened in the last 10 minutes.
Here are the example menu's, I will do an example build menu later.
[ This Message was edited by: BackSlash *Jack* on 2005-05-18 17:35 ]
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Drafell
Grand Admiral
Mythica
Joined: May 30, 2003
Posts: 2449
From: United Kingdom
| Posted: 2005-05-18 17:40
Also add in a default 'double-click to move to target' mode which would be context sensitive dependent on target type. IE you double-click a planet and you will go orbit it. You double-click another player you will go into follow mode.
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rnrn
DarkSpace Developer - Retired
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Puddle Jumper
Cadet
Joined: December 14, 2004
Posts: 81
| Posted: 2005-05-18 17:49
Before you start modding the UI maybe you should work on the making the game balanced Not UGTO on the top and kluth on the bottom.
For each ship one faction has every faction should have a ship of equal power.
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Drafell
Grand Admiral
Mythica
Joined: May 30, 2003
Posts: 2449
From: United Kingdom
| Posted: 2005-05-18 18:00
Nitron: Keep to constructive feedback about this suggestion. Do NOT try and pervert the thread for your own agenda and pointless whining. If you have something useful to say then say it otherwise make your own thread to post about such issues if they bother you so badly.
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rnrn
DarkSpace Developer - Retired
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Faustus
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 2748
From: Austin, Texas
| Posted: 2005-05-19 10:16
@backslash...
Good stuff, but needs to be more organized...
One thing, since right click now brings up a context menu ... how do you rotate your view around your ship now?
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Doran
Chief Marshal
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 29, 2003
Posts: 4032
From: The Gideon Unit
| Posted: 2005-05-19 11:41
@backy, have this left over from the last time i suggested a ping/fps hud
10pt, tahoma, bold
basic button shape, can prett much stretch it as will as long as you keep the lower left corner intact. the 2 grey dots are the colors for the border, bit of a gradient running light-topleft to dark-bottomright in the "off" position, "on" is dark-topleft to light-bottomright
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c0ld
Midshipman
Joined: June 24, 2003
Posts: 342
From: UK
| Posted: 2005-05-19 12:18
Quote:
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On 2005-05-19 10:16, Faustus wrote:
@backslash...
Good stuff, but needs to be more organized...
One thing, since right click now brings up a context menu ... how do you rotate your view around your ship now?
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Well that's easy, middle mouse button. Zoom and rotate on the same button. I think black&white had it like that.
And while we're on the subject, the nav screen desperately needs push scrolling.
[ This Message was edited by: c0ldfury on 2005-05-19 13:07 ]
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c0ld
Midshipman
Joined: June 24, 2003
Posts: 342
From: UK
| Posted: 2005-05-19 12:26
Not that anyone cares, but a while back I did a complete redisign of the interface in photoshop. I felt it was quite clever, escepially for a dumbass like me, it was organised, intuitive and had loads of features. The 3/4 finished file was I think 700megs and took 3 months to make, but I ended up deleting it. I just couldn't justify all that work without getting paid. 
[ This Message was edited by: c0ldfury on 2005-05-19 13:08 ]
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NoPants2win
Cadet
Joined: February 23, 2002
Posts: 1275
From: Poorly ventilated paint storage facility.
| Posted: 2005-05-19 13:40
700 megs? You lie like a rug.
This entire game, including the UI is like, a 40 meg download.
[ This Message was edited by: Pants{UGTO/KLUTH} on 2005-05-19 13:41 ]
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c0ld
Midshipman
Joined: June 24, 2003
Posts: 342
From: UK
| Posted: 2005-05-19 14:22
A PS file can get very large with 100s of layers. Escepcially PS CS, which has that multi-threaded layer thingimabob system. The actually flatenned image was the same as a TGA file (3.5meg ish) but the original consisted of 10s of full-size backgrounds with 100s of overlaid icons. 700meg is easy really.
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Drafell
Grand Admiral
Mythica
Joined: May 30, 2003
Posts: 2449
From: United Kingdom
| Posted: 2005-05-19 14:32
@ Faustus
A single "right click" would bring up the context driven menu. It is a function that occurs in various games and applications so is a nice a familiar concept for new players.
You would not need to hold the right button down to keep the menu active. The context menu would stay onscreen until you either choose an option., click elsewhere on screen, or perform another game action using the keyboard.
Holding down the right mouse button would activate the camera mode and enable you to adjust the camera as normal.
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rnrn
DarkSpace Developer - Retired
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Drafell
Grand Admiral
Mythica
Joined: May 30, 2003
Posts: 2449
From: United Kingdom
| Posted: 2005-05-19 15:36
Breaking the Context menu down into sections:-
Action >> Menu >> Subsection
Right Click >> USE (IE Dock, toggle power, open interface)
>> Control** >> Follow
>> Shadow
>> Orbit
>> Orders >> Attack
>> Defend
>> Capture
>> Interface >> Select major structure (Starport, shipyard)
>> Send Message
>> Transfer Credits
Each section would update depending on what you have right-clicked on.
**Not required if double-click movement is enabled.
[ This Message was edited by: Drafell on 2005-05-19 15:42 ]
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DarkSpace Developer - Retired
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BackSlash
Marshal
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 23, 2003
Posts: 11183
From: Bristol, England
| Posted: 2005-05-19 17:00
@Faustus
RightMouse OFF would bring up the menu, so if you hold it down, the rotate camera would still work. It would only bring the menu up, only if the mouse has not moved, and the right mouse button has been released. That way, if you hold it, dont move the mouse, then move it, it will move the camera. If you hold it, release it, dont move the mouse, the menu will apear.
Using middle mouse button would be a very bad idea, since some laptops and mouses dont have a middle mouse button.
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c0ld
Midshipman
Joined: June 24, 2003
Posts: 342
From: UK
| Posted: 2005-05-20 12:01
Quote:
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On 2005-05-19 17:00, BackSlash *Jack* wrote:
Using middle mouse button would be a very bad idea, since some laptops and mouses dont have a middle mouse button.
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I think black and white dealt with that by having two methods, either pressing left + right or middle.
I agree though, it was an off the cuff suggestion and wouldn't work well with DS, your way is better. I've seen in other games that do it though, a slight delay before rotating when both context menu and rotate is on the same button. Nothing serious though.
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Shigernafy
Admiral
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 5726
From: The Land of Taxation without Representation
| Posted: 2005-05-20 13:24
Nice.
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