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New Mission End Screen (feedback / opinions welcome)!


Chris

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total scores are fine for me, they are whats important. +1/+2 doesn't do it for me... sick of games spamming the screen with every little number change.

[EDIT] Are the numbers on the left supposed to be correct? It looks confusing, you have a bunch of x2...$1,500,000 and yet the total sale value is $200,000? Maybe this explains why i only got 2,000 for completing a light scout mission earlier ;P

Edited by Dead Dread
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total scores are fine for me, they are whats important. +1/+2 doesn't do it for me... sick of games spamming the screen with every little number change.

[EDIT] Are the numbers on the left supposed to be correct? It looks confusing, you have a bunch of x2...$1,500,000 and yet the total sale value is $200,000? Maybe this explains why i only got 2,000 for completing a light scout mission earlier ;P

Chris's first post stated that the numbers are random and so should be ignored :)

Regarding the stat upgrade section: would it be possible to put tooltips on the stats? That way you could choose to display one, but have all the information available on mouseover for those who want to check.

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The eternal war between +X STAT and TOTAL STAT will only end when the blade of one is sunk deep into the belly of the other. Chris, whatever you do is not going to please one camp or the next. The only possible way I could think of combining the two would be to add a colour - perhaps an extra shade of green, or have light blue for +1'd stats and light green for +2'd stats, or clump all the +1's first then clump the +2's next, so no further words are used (or do both?).

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Will there be any background art added? I feel saddened that the background is all pure black :(

Can the soldier "bars" not be bigger vertically so that you can fit +1 or +2 under the stat? I mean you already have a scroll bar beside the soldiers so you can see more soldiers than can acctually be fit on the screen.

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It'd be interesting if people would post which they would prefer to be displayed, if there was only room for one - the updated stat, or the increase (so "ACC +1" or "ACC 67").

personally i d like to see the increase (+1 TU). Seeing what a soldier got for what he did during the mission allows me to know what i must do with my soldiers to better train them so it 's the most useful information for me.

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Well... I simply suggest that you show the stat increase and final stat value.

To allow that i see two solutions:

1/ reduce the medal size on each soldier line to free space on the stat line increase. The stat increase line should be free on his right part. So you will probably have space two display both information

2/ Reduce the left part of the screen. I think you take to much space to indicate the recovered item, lost soldier...

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Sorry but I prefer a nice background like before with two screens, instead of one cramped screen were we have to argue about what little real-estate there is for a few bits of text...

That said if you continue this route for the soldiers, i would keep all the text the same color except for the promotions, and the words "injured X days", it's way too busy as is, also in regards to the +1 vs skill level, i would go for the skills, (but really missing who gained what in the old screen)

I understand why the dead soldiers don't have any info, but it may be this that is also coincidentally causing a busy screen, because it makes big holes in the spreadsheet page layout.

I for one get attached to my men and would like to be able to see how good they were, or who was so and so, and luckily were not a big loss (die red shirt!) :P.

Perhaps if dead soldiers were shown stacked together at the bottom of the list it would be easier on the eyes too.

edit: Even better have a little transition like a little skull and bones image in the list and put the fallen underneath there, or even put them on another screen to set them apart completely, they earned it!

I guess what i want to say is this screen is dehumanising, i miss seen my little scientist getting their hand dirty in the field, or imagining that they are thrilled to be out away from their desks etc... now they are relegated to numbers on one screen :(

Edited by smoitessier
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Sorry but I prefer a nice background like before with two screens, instead of one cramped screen were we have to argue about what little real-estate there is for a few bits of text...

Yes. I agree that the two screens with a nice background were better...

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I have another suggestion:

To present the +1 or +2 information, i think you could use a color code. I've made a quick edit on your image:

combat_debrief_mod.jpg

You can see on the first soldier that some stat are in orange/yellow, other in flashing green. So the orange/yellow can be +1 and the green +2.

You will have both information without any change to your layout... Of course you could use any color, but i think a tutorial popup at the first time the screen appears could be a good way to present this color code and other function of this screen.

combat_debrief_mod.jpg

combat_debrief_mod.thumb.jpg.509443c7b11

Edited by Alturys
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Here's what I was thinking, the white text is a bit too hard on the eyes, but here is a rough sketch

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/9871/c4t3.jpg

for the dead, all the final stats would be there and their medals, hope that fits

And sorted from most missions to least

Another idea that just popped up was something more cynical, but just begs for another screen for a total listing of dead since the start of the war

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/8505/c6r1.jpg

Edited by smoitessier
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The presently existing screens look better. The success/failure backgrounds add a lot to the game's creepy atmosphere. If a soldier dies I also prefer to look at the large portraits of them, rather than these small ones. Their deaths (and stat progression) seem trivialized without the 2nd dedicated tab.

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I like the new look though I do obviously bemoan the lack of art.

I'm also one who would prefer to see the stat increase values (as opposed to final values) so +1 to that argument!

I also really like Smoitessier change, moving the KIA to a separate group and showing missions and final stats.

Lastly, one small change I would make is to arrange the soldier in the list by Rank! I like to see where my soldiers fit in among-st each other..

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I kinda prefer the current, more atmospheric model too (if polished of course), but if Chris' vision is this kind of pop up layout on top of the ground combat view, I feel the soldier tabs on the right needs to be taller. As the frame is scrollable, it shouldn't matter how tall the tabs are. Bigger tabs equal bigger portraits and also fit more information.

My long and honarbly served, now dead soldiers deserve more than a stamp size picture. Give me mission and kill numbers etc.

Also, we all need it to have background art. Preferably changed to fit mission result.

Edited by Skitso
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As was suggested earlier in the thread, we'll just give players the choice of either displaying +1 ACC or ACC <new value>. We'll use the opinions posted in this thread to judge what the default option should be.

I'm not sure we'll have any special treatment for KIA soldiers. If anything, we'll just have a list pop-up after you win the game.

Background art is a no-no, I'm afraid. It's not consistent with the look of the other windows, but more importantly it's just very difficult to read text on top of a painted image because of all of the visual noise.

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In short: More artwork is better than less artwork.

Background art is a no-no, I'm afraid. It's not consistent with the look of the other windows, but more importantly it's just very difficult to read text on top of a painted image because of all of the visual noise.

If background art i no go, then I suggest reworking the mission debrief screen into the same style as the new "immersive" UI. I would very much prefer a screen that is split into two tabs, but with room for victory/defeat artwork dispalyed next to (but not behind) the debrief information.

- The great artwork of this game is like a reward in itself! When the civilopedia is updated or your base is upgraded, the images are more than half the thrill.

- Mission debrief should feel the same. We spend a lot of time looking at tiny sprites in the battlescape or stats on a spreadsheet - the artwork is one of the few places where soldiers can be presented less abstract. Not as numbers or pieces on a board, but as living, breathing, scared, confident, despairing, victorius human beings.

- I would really urge you to consider redesigning the debrief page(s) with this in mind.

If you´ve got the ressources, I would even suggest multiple variations in the artwork for the briefing and debriefing screens. Simply because the artwork is a reward in itself. Variations could depend on terrain type, mission type or graduation in mission outcome.

- It would be awesome to be rewarded with a new screen after you finish your first mission in an alien base. Or to see an apocalyptic nuclear blast after a failed terror mission. Or... Or... Or..

---

That being said: I really like the way you are displaying the debrief information now. It is shorter and much more concise. Well done!

Edited by Frakel
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There is a nice theme running through the base screens that I would like to see continued with the debriefing screens.

Instead of a pop up window a screen that looks like a soldier debrief.

Something more like this although it is a quick mock up and needs refining:

8I6nR9G.jpg

Link: http://i.imgur.com/8I6nR9G.jpg

Updating the dropship and soldier model depending on what was on the mission would be nice.

The backdrop is just from the soldier equip screen but some unique artwork would fit nicely there.

Note that I didn't use the previous success screen because the artwork doesn't mesh well with the paperdoll image.

For added impact it would be possible to line up the proper number of body bags along the blank floor behind the semi transparent speech bubble.

Just saying.

Refinements could be a border on the screen so it looks like a video feed, remove the dropship, have some context appropriate background images like body bags or alien corpses being disposed of.

The clipboard could be removed and the speech bubble stretched down to allow more soldiers to be displayed.

Probably many other things beyond my limited imagination.

*edit* Replaced the image for an almost identical one but the black on white text is now white on black to match the soldier names.

Edited by Gauddlike
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