Ground Combat UI improvements

[Baggaman]

Many good suggestions in this thread. My most wanted combat UI improvements would be:

- Add select next soldier button (and an associated configurable hot key, so people can assign it to tab if they so wish)

- Make changing elevation up and down customizable hot keys, so people can assign it to mouse scroll wheel is they so wish

- Add an icon or text to each soldier portrait stating their combat role. Currently I resorted to renaming my soldiers to keep track of "who should do what" on the battlefield. Well... assigning different weapon types and armors to each soldier type also works, but towards the end of the game armors and weapons become very standardized (at least they did for me in my latest playthrough)

- TU cost for all actions should be visible as a mouseover on the appropriate action

- Right clicking on the map turns the soldier facing to that direction. Unless it just happens to be a creature in that spot. Make right clicking always turn the soldier facing.

[GizmoGomez]

So people with no scroll wheels can't select aims? must be a keyboard shortcut then i hope!

Right click to select aim level as well.

[ploertendoder]

Make (seen) aliens behind terrain more obvious -- An alien was behind a rock and I couldn't see him at all (my troopers had such problems). I knew he was there, and I could hover over him to target him.. but it usually involved hunting around until the icon changed; I spent some time hunting for a way to rotate the map, but didn't find one. Some way of clearly indicating there's an alien there you can see. A clear silhouette or outline, or maybe fade the terrain.

This is the most important one for me. If my troops can spot the alien I should be able to see him as well.

[Max_Caine]

Armour degredation is (as far as I can tell) in the game. It would be nice to have some indication how badly degraded a squaddies'/alien's armour is. Perhaps a little icon or something pops up when armour drops below 1/2 or 3/4s? (On a traffic light scheme set of colours, perhaps?).

[StellarRat]

This is the most important one for me. If my troops can spot the alien I should be able to see him as well.

That was supposed to be in the game. It was working at one time. I think it will be back.

[Sathra]

The colour flare is back in with V19, though units behind 'buildings' (mesas count as buildings) still have problems being seen.

Roof toggle to the rescue!

[Harmor]

Something I noticed when playing today was that sometimes, the game sets rifles to burst mode without the player's input. It seems to happen randomly and I'm not sure how to recreate it, but you won't notice it everytime before you fire.

[Ol' Stinky]

Something I noticed when playing today was that sometimes, the game sets rifles to burst mode without the player's input. It seems to happen randomly and I'm not sure how to recreate it, but you won't notice it everytime before you fire.

I think it's when you've just used a weapon on burst fire mode, like the LMG, and then switch to another soldier. It's annoying, I agree.

[Gauddlike]

Chris has already said elsewhere that when you select a soldier the aim/burst selector will revert to that soldier's previous setting and not be overridden by the next soldier, my suggestion is in addition to that, just to eliminate constant needless clicking where possible. i.e your soldier in the last turn was set to burst, now in the present turn you want to burst again, but don't want to have to move the mouse again and manually select single shot just because your stuck in burst mode. It's a tiny detail but think it's attention to little things that makes for a more enjoyable gameplay.

You could use the keyboard shortcut to switch shot types?

That cuts out needless mouse movement but without forcing some kind of automatic shot switching that may be annoying to as many players as it helps.

It is b to cycle the fire mode by default although you can change it in gameconfig.xml if you want to.

That will also allow you to switch modes while the aim cursor is up for a nice quick way to compare shot types.

The game does need to remember the last shot type per soldier though rather than globally.

I would love to see UI for firearms that would be more modder friendly, in respects to allowing for multiple ammo types...

It mainly seems to be the base UI that causes problems but it would definitely be nice to see the new UI support multiple ammo types everywhere, including allowing the quick reload button to work like the grenade slot.

Right click it to select an ammo type to reload then just click to reload to your new ammo type.

[smoitessier]

You could use the keyboard shortcut to switch shot types?

That cuts out needless mouse movement but without forcing some kind of automatic shot switching that may be annoying to as many players as it helps.

It is b to cycle the fire mode by default although you can change it in gameconfig.xml if you want to.

That will also allow you to switch modes while the aim cursor is up for a nice quick way to compare shot types.

The game does need to remember the last shot type per soldier though rather than globally.

Thanks for the keyboard shortcut, will try that out.

But as far as automatic setting of single shot/burst mode, I just don't see how it could remove a players choice, what am I missing?

If you don't have enough APs to burst fire but have enough to shoot a snap shot, why would you want to manually select it, when it could be done for you, with a visual cue such as the burst icon being grayed out, and the single shot selected?

[Gauddlike]

That isn't what the post I quoted said.

To be fair I couldn't really work out what the suggestion was from that quote, I only used it to show how the hotkeys could be useful.

It said something about if you fired a burst last time and wanted to fire another burst this turn then why should you have to click single shot.

Personally I would prefer the shot type not to change without my input.

I chose a specific mode for that soldier for a reason, leave it where I put it.

If I don't have enough AP for a burst then the crosshair is greyed out and the AP cost is displayed in red.

That tells me what I need to know.

If I wanted to fire a burst but the game had switched me to single shot mode how would I tell that I didn't have enough for a burst?

Probably by switching over to burst fire, noticing the above indicators then switching back to single.

That adds more unnecessary clicking for me.

The auto switch would annoy me more than it would benefit me and could be a little confusing.

For example if I moved my assault rifle soldier then would the game automatically switch to single shot every turn unless I reserved enough AP for a burst shot?

Would it only switch if I brought up the aim cursor or would it switch as soon as the AP dropped below burst fire cost regardless of if I actually aimed at anything?

Would it be obvious that it was switching or would I need to check the burst indicator every time I saw a weapon set to single shot just in case it had auto switched, either on this turn or a previous one?

[smoitessier]

That isn't what the post I quoted said.

To be fair I couldn't really work out what the suggestion was from that quote, I only used it to show how the hotkeys could be useful.

It said something about if you fired a burst last time and wanted to fire another burst this turn then why should you have to click single shot.

Sorry I don't know how to quote you yet still have my quote in your quote, hope that makes sense

Personally I would prefer the shot type not to change without my input.

I chose a specific mode for that soldier for a reason, leave it where I put it.

If I don't have enough AP for a burst then the crosshair is greyed out and the AP cost is displayed in red.

That tells me what I need to know.

You would keep your chosen mode from the last round always

If I wanted to fire a burst but the game had switched me to single shot mode how would I tell that I didn't have enough for a burst?

Probably by switching over to burst fire, noticing the above indicators then switching back to single.

That adds more unnecessary clicking for me.

The auto switch would annoy me more than it would benefit me and could be a little confusing.

For example if I moved my assault rifle soldier then would the game automatically switch to single shot every turn unless I reserved enough AP for a burst shot?

Na the game would have switched you to single fire mode only because you didn't have enough for burst, if you had enough for burst and you had burst the previous turn you would still be on burst. If you had shot a single shot at the beginning of the round and had enough for a burst and wanted it, you would still have to select it manually.

This change is only useful after you've used some TUs in your current round and only saves you time by switching you to single shot, only because you were set on burst and could not use it anyways.

Would it only switch if I brought up the aim cursor or would it switch as soon as the AP dropped below burst fire cost regardless of if I actually aimed at anything?

Would it be obvious that it was switching or would I need to check the burst indicator every time I saw a weapon set to single shot just in case it had auto switched, either on this turn or a previous one?

Good point. The best thing would be a visual indicator next to the crosshairs for ease of use, so for example if you have 40 TUs and your target is in front of you, you'll see the burst icon near the crosshair.... But say you have a 2nd target on your 3 o'clock and you put the crosshair on it you would see (today) that you need a red 42 TU to fire, under the new system the crosshair burst icon would change to single shot with the new most accurate aiming next highest AP costs, i.e 32 TU for an aimed shot in the case of an assault rifle. Or which ever makes the most sense like 22 TU snap shot idk.

Having the grayed out burst icon also at the bottom would be good for other peoples playstyle and consistency.

[Gauddlike]

Sorry I don't know how to quote you yet still have my quote in your quote, hope that makes sense

I never worked that out either, I think you need to do it manually which is more hassle than it's worth normally.

All interesting points to think on.

I reckon it will come down to what is easier/faster to implement.

[ThunderGr]

When you take a shot at an alien, the cursor does not return to crosshair but to select. So, you have to move it away from the alien and back to it again, in order to shoot a second time. This is inconvenient. It would be nice if it returned to crosshair. I just shot at him, I know he is hostile.

[ThunderGr]

A minimap. I miss a minimap a lot. Please, include one!

[Kurruk]

By mini-map you mean the actual mission map that opened in the full screen? That was a great overview of situation.

As for the crosshair - it was mentioned before. It is irritating as well as centering when alien is suppressed or got hit, just when you were in the middle of issuing another command (moving into cover) or moving camera to select next soldier.

[ThunderGr]

By mini-map you mean the actual mission map that opened in the full screen? That was a great overview of situation.

Yes, that was the mission map in the OG. Since then, pretty much all strategy games have used mini-maps. I do not mind what way it is implemented, I would like it implemented, though. It gives you a big picture about the current battlefield situation and you can cover great distances by clicking instead of scrolling.

[Ol' Stinky]

It'd be nice to get a button/keybind that highlights all useable items on the floor in bright red, as well as giving them a dominant sort code so they can be seen through opaque walls/obstacles. It's not a common issue, but sometimes you need to drop your main gun to throw that critical grenade, and it's annoying having to find the gun again.

It'd also be nice for checking whether a dead naut's weapons are usable, although I don't think any alien weapons cause overdamage right now except drone explosions.

There are parts of the UI at the bottom where the RMB still causes a naut to turn. It probably shouldn't. It doesn't happen a lot, but occasionally I'll be outside the quick-grenade slot by a little bit and rotate my soldier instead of select the type of grenade I want. Not the end of the world, sure, but I'd rather it didn't happen.

[CellNav]

The shots don't matter.

The suppression effect is centred where you aim and is unrelated to the actual projectiles.

To cut friendly fire in half, I suggest they take the % to hit my squaddie and divide it in half. The new half would be a suppression effect and the shot would just carry on. A soldier standing up with bullets whizzing past his head would naturally crouch, a crouched soldier would crouch even more, perhaps go prone but that's not a valid stance at the moment.

When players speak of aliens being unaffected by suppression, are those aliens Sebillians? In the aiprops file they have an ability called "Regeneration" ... I dunno what it does but the lizards have been hard to pin in my gc.

Also, I suppose suppression doesn't stack? I feel like I'm wasting ammo suppressing them more than once.

I hope some day Farmer Brown will cease fire on dead or stunned aliens ... I have to show the farmer the business end of a stun grenade to make him understand the alien is no longer a threat!

[Sathra]

Regeneration is just health regeneration. Suppression seems to be based on bravery, and I think the higher ranked Sebbie's are pretty brave.

No idea if suppression stacks. I think not.

[Black Cat]

Though in 18.x builds the xenopedia says adrons are fearless robots, yet I seem to suppress them often Bug?

[svidangel]

In the 19.2 build you cannot see when your troops are suppressed, since you cannot see them getting suppressed. All you can see is that sometimes troops will start with half TUs, which for those of us who have played other versions... we can understand what is going on.

Ah, see that it's been noted in another thread.

Another little thing, would be nice if the Soldier indicator 1-8 etc in ground combat got a red X through it or changed color or something... other than disappearing.

Edited June 30, 2013 by svidangel

[wcanyon]

Where is the file for the hidden movement overlay? I tried modding the one called hiddenmove.jpg and it didn't work.

[Dranak]

Where is the file for the hidden movement overlay? I tried modding the one called hiddenmove.jpg and it didn't work.

.../assets/gui/GroundCombat/Hiddenmovement is the directory. I've always modified/deleted both hiddenmovement and hiddenmovementsmall. I greatly prefer it deleted (just dims the screen) to present.

[svidangel]

Another small thing. I don't give a hot damn about my troops morale. That may change but at the moment I would MUCH prefer that blue bar be replaced by something that shows our % ammunition.

Might just be me running out of ammo training up my troops, but especially in laser fights with lots of reaction fire... be nicer than having to go through each one to check if they have enough for a full round.