Some suggestions for UI improvements

[Shadrach]

Hey,
just got the game and while I've not had a lot of time to play, been loving the slickness of the new UI, giving more space to that lovely map.

There are a couple of improvements I'd like to suggest. Some of them have probably been mentioned elsewhere...

* Close opened dialog with Escape key - not sure if the concept of "active" window applies but maybe just close the dialog with the mouse hovering or last used? Constantly having to find and click Dismiss might get repetitive.

* Double click a unit to open Force Info.

* Double click a task to open Edit Task.

* Dockable windows - probably on the list, just my +1.

* Remember window state, so if you set up your dialogs they will open in that state the next time.

* Improve the text colour of the dialog header? Right now the dark text on grey is kind of hard to read at times, even if it's just the title of the window, so no biggie.

* Hover text on the Main menu, at the start it was kind of hard to figure what menu was where.

At the moment just UI stuff, sure more to come once I dig into the Red Devils scenario properly, and I am sure the hardcore grogs here will have more input on the rivet counting

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

Welcome Shadrach. Most of those points have already been made and we'll register them as +1s. The Text colour suggestion is a first though. So a lighter coloured text colour then?

Re Your last point about the Main menu. Do you mean the Main menu in game or the menu on the startup screen?

Re double click on force unit and task icons. This would work fine where you have a single unit on the map but not so when there is a stack or overlapping icon. So I don't want to do this as it will interfere with the cycling through stacks of units.

Re window state. We remember positions but we do not currently remember the opened/closed state of them. It's on the wish list though.

Anyway thanks for your suggestions. Enjoy.

 

[Shadrach]

Thanks for the reply Dave - I figured some of these were no-brainers so were probably already suggested

The text colour: Yeah just lighter on the dialog headers, maybe the same colour as the text you use elsewhere, the yellowish or white one. Just a personal preference, but I think it would look better and clearer to see what the dialog is about.

Something like this (quick mockup)


Main menu: I mean the in-game dialog labeled Main with the OB, SUP etc options. I just think think since there are hover text for a lot of other things it should be there, mostly for consistency and not having to think twice what OB and FS means

Re double click on force unit and task icons: I see the problem with stacks and cycling through units, but I think it would work, as long as only the selected unit/task can be double clicked. Basically, what would be good is some kind of shortcut here - either keyboard press (Enter?) or something to quickly get to those menus. Looking at unit stats and task settings is something I tend to do a lot in this game, and right-click just seems to break the "flow" of thing.

 

[Dave 'Arjuna' O'Connor]

Re double click. You do realise that if you leave open the first Force Data and first Edit Task windows then they will update each time you select a new unit or order. So there's no need to keep using the right context menu. Just click on a different unit and peruse its data and then click on the next one and see its data with no context menu, closing or opening involved.