Some minor UI gripes

[PDF]

Originally posted by Kristoffer O:

quote:

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Originally posted by PDF:
Well, I rather have many gripes with the new UI..
The game looks much much better now than Dom1, but overall I don't find the interface has been made much easier for the moment (but Ok I still have some adaptation time to get )

I agree on
- Dark background needed for identification of units - will try the transparency tip
- Not only unit stats should be aligned, but also Province stats..
Plus I have :
- Why has r-click been disabled to exit menus/windows ? Now I have either to scroll dooooooooooooown the spell list to click Exit button, or keep a finger near the Esc key..
- The hotkey list (key "?") should be accessible directly from the main screen - having to search what is the hotkey for the list kills the whole idea :eek !
- When typing keyboard isn't properly mapped but hardcoded in QWERTY mode - a pqin when you hqve q French keyboqrd Names have no Capitals either .. too bad for a Pretender God (a pretender god is way much feeble)
- There's no way to know from the main screen how many units your commanders have under their command ? (previous Shift-s key) ?
- Please make a real "end turn" button that ends turn in a click, and not 3 ! I know this has been done to have the same procedures in SP and MP, but frankly it's a bad idea.
99.99% of TBS games have a different "Save" and "Next Turn" buttons, why not have that ? This a real step backwards from Dom1 in SP (and whatever MP fans may say, 90%+ of players of any TBS only play SP..)

The r-click was removed as it seemed to be confusing to newbies. Now r-click is an info-click so to speak. We did like the old thing, but it was something that people complained about.

'?' availability seems like a good idea.

Keyboard things are beyond my knowledge.

Hmm, on the save thing. JK is probably pro as he didnt want to remove hotseat mode in the first place.

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About the r-click in Dom1, I honestly thinks that what was "unfriendly" to new players is that it was the ONLY way to exit, and not a standard one !
Now that there is standard "exit" buttons, r-click would only be a welcome additionnal easy shortcut to exit ... better than Esc key

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by PDF:
About the r-click in Dom1, I honestly thinks that what was "unfriendly" to new players is that it was the ONLY way to exit, and not a standard one !
Now that there is standard "exit" buttons, r-click would only be a welcome additionnal easy shortcut to exit ... better than Esc key

I liked right-click exit. But it was unfamiliar... I don't like scrolling down a menu to find the exit button. Every exitable menue should have a big "X in a Square" in the upper-right corner, where you click to exit.

[licker]

What I don't like about the r-click is that when you r-click to exit, but your cursor is ontop of some thing with a pop-up you get the damn pop-up.

Its better now (Dom2) than it was. Its not that hard to step on esc, believe me after a few hours of game play you probably won't even notice what you're doing

[Saber Cherry]

Originally posted by licker:
What I don't like about the r-click is that when you r-click to exit, but your cursor is ontop of some thing with a pop-up you get the damn pop-up.

Its better now (Dom2) than it was. Its not that hard to step on esc, believe me after a few hours of game play you probably won't even notice what you're doing

You're so self-centered!!! What about all the one-handed gamers? Seriously, there are one-handed gamers, but even more people that like to play (conveniently) without having to learn any keyboard commands.

[licker]

Heh, keyboard commands? You mean like when it says enter god name they want a little keyboard on the screen so that they can click on the letters ala the arcades?

Hotkeys is one thing, the use of 'esc' as a general back up or close window is so ingraned in every computer game I've ever played I can't see it being lumped in with hot keys...

One handed gamers indeed! I don't care about catering to the minority, just get a damn prostethsis already!!!

PS. If my sense of humor leaves you flat, grow the hell up

PPS. No one handed gamers were injured in the posting of this post.

PPPS. They may have been injured upon reading it though...

[Daynarr]

Originally posted by Saber Cherry:

quote:

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Originally posted by PDF:
About the r-click in Dom1, I honestly thinks that what was "unfriendly" to new players is that it was the ONLY way to exit, and not a standard one !
Now that there is standard "exit" buttons, r-click would only be a welcome additionnal easy shortcut to exit ... better than Esc key

I liked right-click exit. But it was unfamiliar... I don't like scrolling down a menu to find the exit button. Every exitable menue should have a big "X in a Square" in the upper-right corner, where you click to exit.

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I'm having a Deja Vu here. Same proposals were made when we started beta testing game, but little later nobody cared. This game (and lots of others I've played) is played best using keyboard shortcuts and ESC isn't so much of a problem.

Since you can order your commanders to search, patrol, research, etc. within a few seconds (using S, R, X, or other keys) it is logical choice to get used to those shortcuts since they save you time, clicks and make game even more enjoyable experience. After that you won’t care about ESC, trust me (been there, done that ).

Just some tips on UI here. You can group your commanders by left clicking on them and holding CTRL at the same time (ungrouping works same way). Grouped commanders can take orders together, like move, search, research, patrol etc and makes it much easier to make conquest armies combined of standard commanders, priests and mages.

Another one is that when you select commander, all shortcut commands will apply to him only (or them if it’s a group). However, if NO commander is selected just placing mouse over one of them and using shortcut will set that order for him (saves you a click).

Example: You want your mage to research spells. Method 1 is to select him (left click on him) and press Shift+r, which will give him research command. Method 2 is make sure you didn’t select anyone, place mouse over him and press Shift+r. That will also give him research order.

Method No. 2 is much faster and easier so I warmly recommend it.

[Leif_-]

Originally posted by Daynarr:
[QB] I'm having a Deja Vu here. Same proposals were made when we started beta testing game, but little later nobody cared. This game (and lots of others I've played) is played best using keyboard shortcuts and ESC isn't so much of a problem.

But Beta-testers has to stay with the program. Potential customers ("potential fellow addicts" to me) do not. Hot-keys are userfriendly, but they are not beginner friendly (two terms that are often confused) - especially when the documentation that came with the demo was completely insufficent and that there are no "hints" about what the hot-keys are (such as differently-coloured letters in menu names etc.) A game needs to be both user-friendly and beginner-friendly. Dominions 2 is not beginner-friendly at all.

As for my gripes about the UI:

All screens in the game are exited by the "esc" key, except the battle-view which is exited by the "q" key. Let "esc" also exit that.

Have to exit a report screen to open a new report screen. To look at two report screens I first have to press Fx for the first one, then escape to return to the main screen, then Fy for the second one and finally escape once again to return to the main screen. What I _should_ be able to do is to press Fx to go to the first report screen, Fy to switch to the second and then Esc to return to the main screen.

"Exit" buttons as the Last element of a scroll-list. You should never have to scroll to find an exit button.

The "Dominions candles" just doesn't give me the same quick overview as the "grey-scale map" did in Dom I. I'd have preferred to have some kind of translucent overlay on the map to show the dominion (and also things such as unrest, provinse defenses and tax-levels.)

Incidentally (as I don't have a working copy of Dom2 at work) is there any way to select a region using just the keyboard? I.e. not having to first point and click on it with the mouse.