Konrad_Novak
Member
New Extended Force Icon Info (EFII) offer a lot of new information to the player. But is the information really useful and necessary? The following is only my opinion of course 
Since you can't edit/turn off the info that is displayed in the separate EFII boxes, it must be really important to the player the majority of time. But I don't think that's the case. Let me list the info in the EFII and elaborate.
1. Current Order Status. It is useful only in very narrow situations and not necessary at all. Most of the time (like, 80-90% of the time) player simply remembers what orders he has issued. For other situations there's an excellent "Plan" dialog, which shows not only what the units are doing, but their command structure as well.
2. Rout Status. It's more useful as it duplicates the "Rout Filter". But that filter's usefulness is overshadowed by the "Combat Power" one which shows not only the rough rout status ("rough" because it doesn't show whether unit recovers or retreats/routs) but the Combat Power of the unit as well. But in EFII the player is limited to the "Rout Status". Which is OK, but not great.
3. Deployment Status. I don't think it's useful and/or necessary at all. 90% of the time Deployment Status is obvious - the unit is marching? Its status is probably "Moving". It's been defending since the morning? Probably "Dug-in" or something. Etc. Now, it COULD be useful during the attack - it's useful to know what's the unit's situation without having to click several times to open its information dialog. But that's the only situation I can think of.
4. Facing. This one isn't useful or necessary too. Player usually knows the units' Facing or it's either obvious from the game situation or unnecessary (e.g. when the unit is routing you can't influence it, so Facing info is simply not useful). Even when the player doesn't know what's going on he can always drag the mouse over the units in question and he'll see units' Facing AND Footprint (the latter is much more useful to the player!).
So, my resume - 3 out of four (1, 3, 4) EFII are unneeded and simply clutter the interface, while number 2 is not the best option. As for me, I've already turned EFII off.
2. Give the player the ability to turn off separate segments of EFII. I'd turn off Facing, and Order Status immediately and would think about the other two.
3. Replace the segments of EFII with something more useful. With what exactly? It needs to be discussed with the players. I'd choose Fatigue+Cohesion+Personnel. These three cover most of the info I need at a glance. In more specific situation I have to get into those clunky dialogs no matter what.
That's about it. BTW, I may be missing something very useful in these EFII. What is other players' opinion regarding it?
Usefulness and Necessity
Since you can't edit/turn off the info that is displayed in the separate EFII boxes, it must be really important to the player the majority of time. But I don't think that's the case. Let me list the info in the EFII and elaborate.
1. Current Order Status. It is useful only in very narrow situations and not necessary at all. Most of the time (like, 80-90% of the time) player simply remembers what orders he has issued. For other situations there's an excellent "Plan" dialog, which shows not only what the units are doing, but their command structure as well.
2. Rout Status. It's more useful as it duplicates the "Rout Filter". But that filter's usefulness is overshadowed by the "Combat Power" one which shows not only the rough rout status ("rough" because it doesn't show whether unit recovers or retreats/routs) but the Combat Power of the unit as well. But in EFII the player is limited to the "Rout Status". Which is OK, but not great.
3. Deployment Status. I don't think it's useful and/or necessary at all. 90% of the time Deployment Status is obvious - the unit is marching? Its status is probably "Moving". It's been defending since the morning? Probably "Dug-in" or something. Etc. Now, it COULD be useful during the attack - it's useful to know what's the unit's situation without having to click several times to open its information dialog. But that's the only situation I can think of.
4. Facing. This one isn't useful or necessary too. Player usually knows the units' Facing or it's either obvious from the game situation or unnecessary (e.g. when the unit is routing you can't influence it, so Facing info is simply not useful). Even when the player doesn't know what's going on he can always drag the mouse over the units in question and he'll see units' Facing AND Footprint (the latter is much more useful to the player!).
So, my resume - 3 out of four (1, 3, 4) EFII are unneeded and simply clutter the interface, while number 2 is not the best option. As for me, I've already turned EFII off.
Suggestions
1. Make EFII editable (it's the best solution I can think of). For example, if EFII could show Cohesion+Suppression+Morale+Fatigue filters it (with the help of "Combat Power" unit infobox) would give an almost complete picture of units' situation during the attack.
2. Give the player the ability to turn off separate segments of EFII. I'd turn off Facing, and Order Status immediately and would think about the other two.
3. Replace the segments of EFII with something more useful. With what exactly? It needs to be discussed with the players. I'd choose Fatigue+Cohesion+Personnel. These three cover most of the info I need at a glance. In more specific situation I have to get into those clunky dialogs no matter what.
That's about it. BTW, I may be missing something very useful in these EFII. What is other players' opinion regarding it?
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