Sequence of Play Tutorial - #10

[Neilster]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

ORIGINAL: Neilster
I don't have a problem with everything being on the one page. I just think the flags add confusion. Having said that, people are used to wizards and having to click a back button a couple of times to check or change something is easy and intuitive. The advantages in clarity and extra screen space to help explain each step are worth it I think.

I appreciate, Steve, that you don't won't to revisit things that work but I'd argue that this is aesthetically broken. It fails every human-computer interaction test and I've only seen negative feedback about it. I think the vast majority of your decisions on this project have been correct but this section needs work.

Cheers, Neilster

You now like the rail lines?[:D][:D][:D][:D]

Sadly,[:(] I have come to the opinion that judgments about whether a decision is correct[:)] or not[:-] (and I do not exclude myself here) are 99% based on whether the person making the judgment agrees with the decision.

Ha! I said the "vast majority", not all. The rail lines still look like a nasty tape-worm one might pick up while slaving under brutal Japanese overlords to build the Thai-Burma rail line. [:D]

Cheers, Neilster

[composer99]

I myself have no problem with the game launch screen, position of boxes, flags & all. I find it pretty, straightforward, and easy to understand. I do not consider myself an atypical person when it comes to processing visual information; then again, I did play around with CWiF a few times and I have had the benefit of examining the MWiF game start screen when it was originally under discussion, so I may well simply be used to it by now.

[dale1066]

Seeems fine to me, only thing I'd say would be dispense with the different confirmations buttons and just have one start game button? with maybe a confirmation dialog showing a summary of the important selected options with a back button.

Are gamers likely to be typical humans and can't cope with a rather non-standard HCI after all I don't know about you but when we played Cardboard wif the various aspects of the games HCI were scattered around the lounge with maps, rule books, myriads of tiny counters, intermingled with pizza boxes and beer cans but we managed [:D]

But on the general scheme of things for me its a rap.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

I think (hope) you mean wrap.

[dale1066]

yep that too

[Shannon V. OKeets]

Here are some improved early pages for this tutorial and a couple of new ones. Page 1 is unchanged and not shown in this series.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

Here I have changed the fonts within the flow boxes and given the labels a background box to make them legible.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

This is the first of 3 new pages.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

Yeah, it took me a long time to recode the sequence of play for the DOW phase.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

5th and last in the series. Screen shots for this page provided by Patrice.

[Greyshaft]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

Here are the first couple of pages for the last Introductory tutorial.

I suggest having a non-solitaire game in this screenshot.
If it were a multi-player game screenshot then it would show the use of phase 5 - assigning players.
It is not clear from this screen which countries (if any) are being played by the AI

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Greyshaft

I suggest having a non-solitaire game in this screenshot.
If it were a multi-player game screenshot then it would show the use of phase 5 - assigning players.
It is not clear from this screen which countries (if any) are being played by the AI

I want to use solitaire here. Tutorial page 1.7 shows 4 players over the internet with step 5 in detail.

But you are correct that I messed this up. Step 5 should be filled in with assignments for Neophyte and AI Opponent. I took the screen shot too soon. I fix.

[Froonp]

About naval replacement units, they are not only for Japan as you wrote in page 4 of tutorial 10, France and Germany also have some. You can also had a few know example as the Hyuga & Ise in brackets.

About boxes for phases & subphases, may I suggest that subphases have smaller boxes than their mother box ? If not smaller size, maybe smaller text, well, something that visually shows that it is a subphase.

[Toed]

Do the player have access to the map in any other phase other then the ones with a yellow hexagon? Beeing able to se the map helps alot of decisions during most phases. For example during the DOW phase if you want to check if your units are in the optimal position to declare war or during the Choose action phase if you need to check if for example you hope you can do a combined or if you need another land move. Or any phase when you come back after having loaded a saved game.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

ORIGINAL: Froonp
About naval replacement units, they are not only for Japan as you wrote in page 4 of tutorial 10, France and Germany also have some. You can also had a few know example as the Hyuga & Ise in brackets.

About boxes for phases & subphases, may I suggest that subphases have smaller boxes than their mother box ? If not smaller size, maybe smaller text, well, something that visually shows that it is a subphase.

I'll correct the error about the Replacements but I still want to say nothing about them. It is an optional rule of very little consequence. The other subphases are vastly more important.

How about this for differentiating the boxes for Stages from Phases from Subphases? In the later category I am including some items that are not officially subphases in the MWIF code (e.g., reroll for initative.

I think I'll changes the text for phase names to a black font. And make the subphase text smaller - but keep it red.

[Froonp]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
How about this for differentiating the boxes for Stages from Phases from Subphases? In the later category I am including some items that are not officially subphases in the MWIF code (e.g., reroll for initative.

I think I'll changes the text for phase names to a black font. And make the subphase text smaller - but keep it red.

That's better IMO, at least now you understand at glance what is within what, and what follows what.

[Greyshaft]

Third and fourth sentances of first para of Tutorial 10 page 4 are apparently inconsistent. You say '...could be...' implying uncertainty then say '...always happens...' implying inevitability. I reread it and saw that you are pointing to a special case (one player controlling multiple powers) but the the third sentance says '...ahead of or behind...' when perhaps you mean that player will be active '... ahead of and behind...' the other players. I still don't know what are you trying to say here.
 [&:]

Perhaps have phasenames in a different font. I found the last para confusing until I realised [font="times new roman"]'Initiative'[/font] represented a phasename rather than a state of play. Also the word is capitalised in the first sentance of the para but not so in the last sentance - I appreciate that is because it is not a phasename in the last sentance but it still looks confusing to me.

[Froonp]

ORIGINAL: Greyshaft
Perhaps have phasenames in a different font. I found the last para confusing until I realised [font="times new roman"]'Initiative'[/font] represented a phasename rather than a state of play. Also the word is capitalised in the first sentance of the para but not so in the last sentance - I appreciate that is because it is not a phasename in the last sentance but it still looks confusing to me.

Or put them between quotes : "Initiative".

[composer99]

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
5th and last in the series. Screen shots for this page provided by Patrice.

I recommend praying to the dice gods too.

Nothing like pandering to gamers' superstitious natures. [:)]

Come to think of it, my allies and I need to do a little praying to the dice gods to start off our next game session.

[Shannon V. OKeets]

Here is a revised page 4. I have made the font for the phases black and included text about what the box outlines mean. The yellow outline is explained on a revised earlier page (not shown). Responding to comments by several people, I also reworked the text so it is clearer.