Small Optional UI/Accessibility improvements (battlescape)

[Scrimpton]

OH god, just lost a huge writeup.

hopefully the image is self explanatory.

Long deleted post short:

toggled options.

Problem/solution 1

difficult to remember which squad member is assigned to which hotkey (especially for new gamers like wife and children!)

Facial recognition = easy for unfamiliar players to know which soldier is on which hotkey. (this is semi implemented already, easy change?)

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_perception)

One of the most widely accepted theories of face perception argues that understanding faces involves several stages *...* derive details about the person *...* to being able to recall meaningful details such as their name and any relevant past experiences of the individual.

Recognizing your soldiers by their faces also has the possibility of enhancing that classic xcom notion of losing much loved soldiers. Know more than their names, know their faces. Remember them.

;_;

Problem/solution 2 - No quick and clear indication of who's who, when looking at any tactical situation.

Soldier names above/below sprite = at a glance knowledge of who's who with no need to dig through the UI. If you've kitted out Alex Brown as your go to "breacher" you want to be able to see where he is in relation to the rest of your breach team.

'At a glance information' can vastly speed up the tactical decision making/execution. And imo, improve the flow of the game.

This information is already available to players willing/capable of remembering abstract soldier statistics and their positioning within the skyranger. These small optional changes would simply help the non-savants more readily access the basic information required to manage a battle.

Shame i lost my original post. silly me.

Hope this makes sense and is useful.

[Gorlom]

I don't understand what improvement you want for the first point, and isn't it recognizable who is who for the second point after you select them and get to see the weapon in their hand in the box between the portrait and the AP reserve slider?

I don't really mind a toggle option to have names or nicknames show over/under the soldiers on the battle field. I just don't think it really makes a difference for me.

[Thann]

I think he wants portraits above the soldier bar with hotkeys like in the picture (to know quickly, who is soldier with hotkey x). At the moment there is no clue about which soldier is on hotkey x until you press x and select him.

I agree that there should be something to distinguish the soldiers on the hotkey bar. This could be their portraits or at least a symbol of their weapon next to their hotkey number.

Edit: I just tested that at the moment you can hover over the hotkey bar to see the portrait of the soldier. That is also nice. But I think if you use that picture to find a soldier, then you don't use hotkeys because you always hover over the hotkey bar and click on it instead of pressing the hotkey.

Edited September 25, 2012 by Thann

[Scrimpton]

I think he wants portraits above the soldier bar with hotkeys like in the picture (to know quickly, who is soldier with hotkey x). At the moment there is no clue about which soldier is on hotkey x until you press x and select him.

I agree that there should be something to distinguish the soldiers on the hotkey bar. This could be their portraits or at least a symbol of their weapon next to their hotkey number.

Edit: I just tested that at the moment you can hover over the hotkey bar to see the portrait of the soldier. That is also nice. But I think if you use that picture to find a soldier, then you don't use hotkeys because you always hover over the hotkey bar and click on it instead of pressing the hotkey.

This is pretty much what i mean.

Currently if you hover over the hotbar, the unit portrait shows up. I think it'd be good to have an option to always have these portraits displayed. So you know which soldier is on which hotkey at a glance.

It's something for the newer players primarily.

@Gorlom

regarding "isn't it recognizable who is who for the second point after you select them and get to see the weapon in their hand in the box between the portrait and the AP reserve slider?"

This is kind of my point, currently you have to select them just to know who they are. So if you've got 14 guys, you have a potential situation of clicking through 13 different men before finding the one you actually wanted.

with portraits/names information on the hotbar/on the battlescape, you'd know this information at all times.

At the moment it's hard to know exactly who "3" is, a little portrait would go a long way, and since it's already half implemented.. it seems like an easy option to implement.

Sorry for the mess/bad explanations of the first post. My first draft of it was much clearer, but got lost when uploading the image..

[Thann]

Would be a good idea to make those two things an option to turn on or off. For portraits there could be the options none, mouseover and all and for names over the soldier sprites it could be none, selected, all.

[Scrimpton]

Would be a good idea to make those two things an option to turn on or off. For portraits there could be the options none, mouseover and all and for names over the soldier sprites it could be none, selected, all.

Yeah, glad it makes sense to someone else!

[Gorlom]

Just as long as the game doesn't force me to always have the portraits onscreen. we has a discussion back at version 8 or something and I pretty much oppose always showing the portraits. I find it to be too intrusive, ruins the atmosphere/immersion and overall annoying.

I was very happy when Chris went with the pop up on mouseover model.

(I'm not against allowing you to use the interface you want, just hoping no one will prevent me from using the interface I want)

PS. are new players even likely to use hotkeys?

[Scrimpton]

Just as long as the game doesn't force me to always have the portraits onscreen. we has a discussion back at version 8 or something and I pretty much oppose always showing the portraits. I find it to be too intrusive, ruins the atmosphere/immersion and overall annoying.

I was very happy when Chris went with the pop up on mouseover model.

(I'm not against allowing you to use the interface you want, just hoping no one will prevent me from using the interface I want)

PS. are new players even likely to use hotkeys?

I think it makes sense to encourage the usage of efficient hotkeys. First stage of that, is knowing what you'll get when you press them.

One of the many reasons broodwar is harder to get into than sc2 for newer gamers, you simply can't tell which units or buildings are assigned to which hotkeys without hours of rote memorization.

IMO, at 1920x1200 or higher, there is so much empty space and such a lack of basic information such as "whos that guy", but i can understand why you'd like it to be that way. Thus the word optional in the title

[Gauddlike]

Hopefully the UI will scale better so there aren't so many open spots later.

There is always room for an extra hotkey or two to toggle informative displays though.

The more options you have the happier you can make more people after all.

[Scrimpton]

Hopefully the UI will scale better so there aren't so many open spots later.

There is always room for an extra hotkey or two to toggle informative displays though.

The more options you have the happier you can make more people after all.

As long as the options don't confer an obvious otherwise unattainable advantage.

I'd assume some people don't even see any of this as a problem, and are happy with memorizing their squads abilities and their placing within the skyranger, wish i was one of them!

[Gauddlike]

Basic information I would like to see are what armour and weapons they have and if they have an enemy in sight.

The role badge Chris has talked about partially solves this.

If it pops up above the soldier portrait then you can at least tell what weapons they have.

I would prefer if the role icon came in four colours so you could tell what tier weapon they were carrying as well.

If you can set the icon yourself then two would probably be ok, one for your best tier, one for your weaker tier.

If the portrait was to change depending on armour type then that would also help but is less likely.

Maybe the portrait could have a coloured border or something to reflect having an enemy in sight?

[Scrimpton]

Basic information I would like to see are what armour and weapons they have and if they have an enemy in sight.

The role badge Chris has talked about partially solves this.

If it pops up above the soldier portrait then you can at least tell what weapons they have.

I would prefer if the role icon came in four colours so you could tell what tier weapon they were carrying as well.

If you can set the icon yourself then two would probably be ok, one for your best tier, one for your weaker tier.

If the portrait was to change depending on armour type then that would also help but is less likely.

Maybe the portrait could have a coloured border or something to reflect having an enemy in sight?

I really like the idea of having the coloured borders to the portraits. That's great.