SE5: GUI design discussion..

Ruatha · #1 February 21st, 2003, 09:52 AM

I'd like somekind of 3D map. A grid instead of a 2d map.
As in Elite II Frontier. (I think it was that game)

David E. Gervais · #2 February 22nd, 2003, 02:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Will:
David, I know not very much ideas for you there, but if you get the contract, be sure to bug Aaron about the skinnability

I never 'bug' Aaron, but I will mention it. Having the GUI 'skinnable' would be a nice feature. As to weather the actual shape and placement of the different GUI parts can be user defined, I'm not the one to answer that!

Cheers!

[ February 21, 2003, 12:48: Message edited by: David E. Gervais ]

Lemmy · #3 February 22nd, 2003, 02:25 AM

Quote:

quote:
For one example, I'm designing a new 'visual tech-tree' for the 'Research' window. I'm aiming along the lines of a flow-chart type layout, but also have a few 'different' things that I might try. Do you think this might be a good thing?

That would be a bad idea. It would not incorporate tech levels very well, unless it was extremeley long.

Quote:

I am not sure how usefull a graphical tech tree would be, there would be lots of crossing lines, since it is moddable and will have to be generated on the fly based on whatever techtree people want to load in.

*jumps excitedly*
Look at my sig!! Look at my sig!! Look at my sig!! Look at my sig!! Look at my sig!!

The screenshot link!

[ February 22, 2003, 00:25: Message edited by: Lemmy ]

Ed Kolis · #4 February 22nd, 2003, 03:41 AM

Looks nice, but maybe some of those long "strings" could be condensed - i.e. instead of

shields 1 -> shields 2 -> shields 3 -> shields 4 -> shields 5 and shield depleting weapons

you could have

shields 1-3 -> shields 4 -> shields 5 and shield depleting weapons

in other words, any time you have a linear progression with no branches, just compress it into one box

Suicide Junkie · #5 February 22nd, 2003, 04:17 AM

Alternatively, you could always compress the tech areas into one block, and label the outgoing lines with the level requirement.

For in game, you could have indicators, a bar, or just numbers to tell you how many levels you have so far.

Colour coding things to show whether it is researchable or not (or already done) would be a nice touch.

Fyron · #6 February 22nd, 2003, 04:48 AM

I would much rather have it look more like it did in SE3 than anything else. SE3 was good, because you could spend points on every available tech, and choose how much percentage of you want in each tech. SE3 was also good because you could see more info in the same space than you can in SE4, and much more than you would see in what David suggests for SE5.

What SE5 needs is to stay away from those lame graphics-intensive display modes that games often use these days. Nice and simple is always better in this area.

[ February 22, 2003, 02:51: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Instar · #7 February 23rd, 2003, 08:36 AM

I see what you mean by the ship parts things.

XML skins... that would be great, but I don't know XML very well (other than how its like HTML and stuff, and some basic things in it)
Like I said, I really liked SC4's interface... it had like the 3 overview modes, and each mode opened up different tools, which were broad categories, with their own subsets opened by clicking. It prevents icon buildup (SEIV has this disease) but provides good amounts of accessibility. In this scheme of things, I would like it in the GUI to be able to make a few custom sets of submenus (for example, I could really use a set in SC4 with only heavy roads, high density everything, and water pipes).