Wishlist: Possible User Interface Improvements

[lch]

Originally Posted by AstralWanderer

Doesn't work well. If you zoom out, select a province and zoom in again, the zoom won't centre on that province (resulting in it going off-screen most of the time). Yes, you can use arrow keys but it is a slow process.

If you use the # key to select a province, it will center the window around the province. You can then zoom in and out of it in any way that you want.

Originally Posted by AstralWanderer

And what is the point of having a 1,500 province capacity if it is so frustrating to use it?

I agree to that, the limit should be lower. There just isn't much of a point in playing such large games. The AI will be less dangerous, not more successful, the hosting times will become unbearably long very soon, and you'll eventually hit at least one of the other limits that are in the game. The game isn't designed to be played at those extremes. The minimap suggestion is good, though there are more important things that should have to change first, IMHO.

[Ballbarian]

If you use the # key to select a province, it will center the window around the province. You can then zoom in and out of it in any way that you want.

I didn't know that. Thanks!

[Sombre]

Originally Posted by AstralWanderer

And what is the point of having a 1,500 province capacity if it is so frustrating to use it?

Well since I would personally never play on anything anywhere near that large (my absolute max would be around 400, with my preferred being about 70 provinces) I'm not about to defend it. I suppose because people requested that feature and it wasn't too difficult to raise the limit. People who play with even 750+ are a definite minority and are arguably being a bit silly, so I'm not sure why any gui changes should be made with them in mind.

Another request is with commander names. Since there are a limited number, it doesn't take long for names to be re-used which makes things awkward if you have several Generic Joes in the same province. Adding a numeric identifier (e.g. Generic Joe-2) would help but for thematic reasons, a numbering system specific to each civilisation would seem best, e.g. for the Romanesque positions we could have Lucius Flavius Unus, Lucius Flavius Duo....Lucious Flavius Viginti-et-Unus (21) and so on.

I don't know much about nametype limitations, but you can probably just mod the basegame nametypes to include more names (I doubt they are currently at the limit, whatever it is). I wouldn't consider this hard at all to fix and maybe some others would appreciate the mod, so why not do it? I can even show you how if you'd like.

[AstralWanderer]

Originally Posted by lch

If you use the # key to select a province, it will center the window around the province. You can then zoom in and out of it in any way that you want.

Thanks for the info - but while a little easier, you still need to note the selected province number, then type it before zooming.

Just having a command to centre the map on a selected province (the C key isn't being used at the moment...) would be of benefit here.

Originally Posted by Sombre

I don't know much about nametype limitations, but you can probably just mod the basegame nametypes to include more names (I doubt they are currently at the limit, whatever it is). I wouldn't consider this hard at all to fix and maybe some others would appreciate the mod, so why not do it? I can even show you how if you'd like.

Expanding the nametypes would delay rather than fix the problem. There would really need to be a code change (not a large one hopefully) to identify when name re-use occurs and to alter subsequent ones to make them unique. Gandalf's suggestion of combining words could achieve this without having excessively long names ("Generic Joe One Hundred and Eighty Four").

A quicker fix would be to just append a numeric ID when multiple commanders with the same name are in the same province. That would suffice to avoid confusion.

[Sombre]

It would only delay in a theoretical sense. If you were able to input 10,000 names (completely doable with a script, it's just a matter of limits) I think it would solve the problem in a pratical sense.

It really depends on whether you want the problem solved or not. Generally modding something is the way forward if you do, requesting features is the way forward if you aren't bothered.

[LDiCesare]

I think commander and province names can b eimproved by just adding more to the lists.
I think a minimap would actually clutter the interface and be harmful. There's already lots of space eaten by your commanders (if you move 20 mages and their troops from one place to the next, you can't see half the screen). I also think mouse wheel + arrow keys do a fine job, and for the record dislike big maps, but I think a minimap would be harmful if it took any screen space. If you put it behinf a button, it would be ok but probably not that useful.

[llamabeast]

You know you can resize the commander icons right? < and > keys.

[Wrana]

Agree with majami - an official visible status would be nice. I would also like to have at least a possibility to save messages from previous turns - or an in-game notepad system where you can write down some facts such as said diplomatic status, what you know about other pretenders, etc. It's bothersome to see opponent's bless at start and having to look up old saves to call it back when it's needed...

[Sombre]

Could just use an external notepad. I keep a .txt file open for each game I'm playing and note bits down.

[Gandalf Parker]

Maybe its the difference between a linux game and a windows game. Windows people seem used to having games that take over the entire machine so they want all the goodies to be inside the game.

I think its bad to add things to the game that are easily done externally. Some of the requests Ive seen would have had notepad, winamp, paint, an alarm, a backup system, screen capture, and voip.