Hey all,
I'm new to this forum and new to the game. And to be honest, I haven't played it much. I could not get passed the Air Combat, they kept shooting me down (I'm pretty bad). I decided to go to the forums and I saw this post about the GUI. I've read through all the pages and thanks to the comments and ideas here and a few of my own ideas I came up with a version of the GUI.
Version 1
Portrait bar
I've put the portrait bar to the bottom left, but without the portraits. Instead, I only used the numbers. When the soldier dies or passes out, it shows it where the stats were. Like K.I.A., OUT for being passed out and maybe MIND or CTRL for mind controlled.
AP Reserve
I modified the AP Reserve bar that was suggested by Gauddlike a bit. I didn't like the first one, because there was too much information. Once players have played the game for some time, they will know what the symbols mean. So the text explaining that could be left out. I think the 'AP Reserve' text could be left out too, because less text is less clutter.
Soldier Scroll
I left these buttons in, because enough people like them. With those little stat bars it may seem unnecessary, but enough people like them to keep them in I think. And I sometimes use them with X-com.
Soldier stand/crouch
The Stand and Crouch buttons are under the Scroll buttons. Seems like a logical place.
Weapon & Grenade
I didn't change the weapon and grenade buttons, I think this is fine as it is. The grenade button should indeed be used as a quick button, without dropping the weapon. Just see it as quick belt access.
Inventory
I moved this to the left of the portrait so it's close to the weapon and grenade button.
All the above got something to do with controlling your soldiers so that's all on the left side of the screen. All close together so it's easy to access.
Floor/Camera control
Then there is the Up and Down buttons for the floor. I assumed that's what the camera button is used for that was on the original.
Soldier Stats
Nothing changed here. But I keep asking myself the same question every time I look at this part of the GUI. What could replace that huge portrait picture? Because the only thing it really does is showing the rank.
End Turn and Map
End Turn is nice. The Map button is now a little bigger, because those camera controls are gone. I also think that the Map button should stay a button and not a mini-map. I think that a mini-map isn't needed for a few reasons. My main reason is that the game is turn based, nothing is changing quickly. There will be time enough to look around you and see what's happening. Or click on the Map button to get a big overview. Mini-maps are handy with real-time strategy games, because stuff is constantly moving. That will not happen in Xenonauts.
A personal reason is that I like the feeling of exploration. If the mini-map is already showing bits of the area around me, I'm not going to be surprised when I step outside of the vehicle. Could be a good thing, but I don't see it that way.
I used the entire width of the screen and when doing this I had a bit of room left so I stretched the big Portrait/Stats window. If there is a need for a few more buttons they could be added there.
For instance the 'Leave/Fly Away' button. I don't know if this is an option in Xenonauts, but there is no button for it now. I also wondered if there are those sort of elevator things like in the X-Com ufo's. Because if there are, there's no buttons to move the soldier up or down a floor.
Thanks for reading the whole thing and I hope my version could help you guys!
FunkyPoop