Unofficial "Official" GUI Discussion Thread

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by Culverin, September 29, 2013.

  1. Dementiurge

    Dementiurge Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,094
    Likes Received:
    693
    The problem is caused by planets being spherical and opaque. Strategic zoom is still a flat plane that fails to show half of the planet's surface. The same applies to a minimap, and any allegory with SupCom.

    The kind of solution you need to be looking for is something that makes the planet transparent.
  2. mkultr4

    mkultr4 Member

    Messages:
    95
    Likes Received:
    4
    Another thing that is HUGE:

    A tab that displays the number of idle fabricators. Clicking on the tab allows you to cycle through them. This is an insanely useful feature in Starcraft 2.
  3. Culverin

    Culverin Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,069
    Likes Received:
    582
    Dang, you're right.
    The "Selection highlighting @ strategic zoom" will help, but it won't solve the problem entirely.
    I think that's complicated enough to warrant an entirely separate thread.
  4. Culverin

    Culverin Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,069
    Likes Received:
    582
    Ooops. You're totally right.
    This was previously in SupCom and I had this in my mock-up, but left it out on the list!

    Added!!!
    Good catch! :D
  5. Dementiurge

    Dementiurge Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,094
    Likes Received:
    693
    • Toggle or switch for enabling/disabling building snap.
    • It should be possible to rotate a building's preview without placing it.
    • It should be possible to bind multiple functions of a certain type to the same hotkey, e.g. 'Focus on last event' and 'Replay last 10 seconds in Chronocam', and initiate them both at the same time.

    Regarding the list:

    - Control Groups are already implemented.
    But, unlike SupCom, factories in a control group don't extend that control group to the units they create.
    - Color coded waypoint lines are already implemented, at least for assist orders.
    'Repair' orders should probably be given a different color code, but that might be a different issue.
    - Range rings for selected units can be seen if you hold control.
    This also applies to radar and sonar, but there is no indicator for orbital radar. It's a WIP feature.
    - The Chrono Cam already provides a game clock/timer.
    I wonder if it could be modded to be shown all the time...
    - There is a players list, but there is currently no ladder ranking to list. (But there are mods for 3rd party ladders.)
    - Pretty sure all keys are already rebindable, and there are unit selection shortcuts available to be bound.
  6. masterdigital

    masterdigital Uber Alumni

    Messages:
    438
    Likes Received:
    833
    This is a very interesting thread.

    Please note that the UI can be modded (though you are limited by the information exposed from the C++ model). Some of this stuff could be fixed completely with a mod (and really good mods can be incorporated into the game... with the permission of the author). For instance, the economy display changes make a lot of sense, but I don't know when I'll get to them.
    Gorbles likes this.
  7. mkultr4

    mkultr4 Member

    Messages:
    95
    Likes Received:
    4
    It would be awesome if some of the more important suggestions could make it into the core game.
  8. teddythebear

    teddythebear Member

    Messages:
    50
    Likes Received:
    21
    I just threw together this quick mockup of a dial indicator of how your eco is doing. I'm not really sure how the dial would work if you are way over or under (percentage? some kind of logarithmic scale?) but I do like the colors and that it clearly communicates what is good and bad behavior. It might be cool to have the stall/waste text start slowly strobing and gradually increase to a quick flashing when your eco is doing poorly.
    [​IMG]
    Culverin likes this.
  9. mkultr4

    mkultr4 Member

    Messages:
    95
    Likes Received:
    4
    I cannot fathom why more people aren't interested in some of these ideas. Many would streamline the gameplay for advanced users and simultaneously make the game easier to learn for newer players.
  10. SatanPetitCul

    SatanPetitCul Active Member

    Messages:
    267
    Likes Received:
    197
    I agree with you, i even developed the idea by integrated the efficiency of your economy.

    [​IMG]
  11. SatanPetitCul

    SatanPetitCul Active Member

    Messages:
    267
    Likes Received:
    197
    Merge Factories

    It could be convenient to merge factories together. Merged factories would behave like a unique factory. If you select one of the merged factories, the whole group will be selected.

    [​IMG]


    Very often i have a bunch of factories building bots, and only one factory building engineers. If i want to stop the bot factories, i have to scale the view and use the double click, or i have to ctrl+click every factories, and give order. It is a waste of time. And often i don't realize that by double clicking i also select the other factory, and i stop the production of engineers :/

    By the way the double clicking feature is broken on a spherical map, you often select too much units due to the curvature at the edge of the view.
    rorschachphoenix and Schulti like this.
  12. dala1984

    dala1984 Member

    Messages:
    61
    Likes Received:
    12
    Suggestion: Multiple rally points and patrol routes for factories. Splitting the production between them.
    Maybe shift+crtl+right click to make a new rally point.
    Should be movable.
  13. mkultr4

    mkultr4 Member

    Messages:
    95
    Likes Received:
    4
    Drop down bar for choosing player/team colors.
  14. Culverin

    Culverin Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,069
    Likes Received:
    582
    Masterdigital, I'm glad you find this thread interesting.
    Personally, I find SupCom the best RTS I've played. Strategic zoom was pretty revolutionary, no longer was a player hampered by an artificially limited mininap.

    The GUI is smart, I can find things quickly and move and monitor large armies.
    Most importantly, it didn't get in the way of what I wanted to do.
    When I play SupCom, I am the commander.

    I am really hoping PA will bring the next evolution in this.


    "you are limited by the information exposed from the C++ model"
    This was the point of me doing this thread.
    I know that the "perfect" GUI from Uber may take a while, but I'm hoping you can see what us fans are hoping for in terms of functionality so we can get that info out of the C++ model for 2 reasons.
    1. It'll help you guys plan for the long term.
    2. It'll arm the modders with the info they need to help with the GUI in the meantime.
  15. Culverin

    Culverin Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,069
    Likes Received:
    582
    Floating build panel,
    Similar to SupCom Mod: Zulan's hotbuild

    floating build panel.jpg
    Last edited: October 6, 2013
  16. Culverin

    Culverin Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,069
    Likes Received:
    582
    Strategic Icon Overlay in Build Panel
    Function: Toggle

    strategic icon.jpg
    tripper and mkultr4 like this.
  17. Culverin

    Culverin Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,069
    Likes Received:
    582
    I have started a discussion for GUI in the modders forum
    https://forums.uberent.com/threads/gui-discussion-modding-info.52526/

    I hope you'll be able to help discus, and figure out what you need from the devs there :)
  18. Culverin

    Culverin Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,069
    Likes Received:
    582
    Can you clarify on how building are placed right now?
    Am I correctly understanding that building and be entirely freely rotated?
    And the only "snap-to" they have right now is based in proximity to other buildings?
    And this is what wish to disable? For what reason?

    Agreed.
    Do you have some sort of specific idea how this should be implemented?


    That sounds really, really difficult to do on the dev end.
    Perhaps if you could elaborate on this?
    Like "nuclear launch detected", and it shows you the nuke launch?
    What if you can't see the nuke silo because it hasn't been scouted?



    Thanks!
    Edited the status label :)
    I have actually never used this function.
    Do you feel this is a missing feature?
  19. Culverin

    Culverin Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,069
    Likes Received:
    582

    Is this something you would be happy with if implemented as a control group functionality?
  20. Culverin

    Culverin Post Master General

    Messages:
    1,069
    Likes Received:
    582
    dala,
    That sounds really interesting.
    Definitely agree that all rallypoints should be movable.
    How should the rally point and patrol routes split up? Evenly distributed based upon the unit queue?

Share This Page