Interface Improvements?

Advanced Tactics is a versatile turn-based strategy system that gives gamers the chance to wage almost any battle in any time period. The initial release focuses on World War II and includes a number of historical scenarios as well as a full editor! This forum supports both the original Advanced Tactics and the new and improved Advanced Tactics: Gold Edition.

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Veldor
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Joined: Sun Dec 29, 2002 9:32 am
Location: King's Landing

Interface Improvements?

Post by Veldor »

I know we may all just be use to it by now, but is there really a need in these games to keep forcing us to move the mouse pointer back and forth all over the screen countless times in succession just to issue simple orders??

What I am refering to here is, for instance, the need to select each unit and then move all the way down to the bottom of the screen to select the movement button and then to move all the way back to where we just were to click a hex or two from the start. Then repeat by clicking the next unit right there but have to move all the way to the bottom and back again just to select move again. And so on.

That's what they invented the right mouse button for guys :)

I'm not asking for a context-sensitive menu (Though that would be great as it could account for multiple options then), but how about just making the right mouse button execute the default order of, lets say, move.

There are quite a few other things about the interface that do greatly impress me, but I continue to fail to see why developers must always line up all the options on a toolbar as the only option for issuing orders.

Am I really alone in this thought?

PS. Its quite possible this has been made even worse and/or more apparant to me using a high-resolution widescreen monitor. But its still more effort than should be necessary at any configuration. A few widescreen related improvements that could be made would be moving the toolbar sets away from the extreme edges and closer to the center.. So that for instance when you click end turn you dont have to move so far to hit ok, or when your done with transfers etc. you can just move slightly up to click back instead of all the way up and back to the left side. etc.
pad152
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Joined: Sun Apr 23, 2000 8:00 am

RE: Interface Improvements?

Post by pad152 »

You can select a unit with the mouse and then use the M key to move a unit!
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Veldor
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Location: King's Landing

RE: Interface Improvements?

Post by Veldor »

ORIGINAL: pad152

You can select a unit with the mouse and then use the M key to move a unit!

Yes I found the full list of shortcut keys on Page 62, but that doesn't address the greater points I was making. It should be far easier to accomplish tasks with just the mouse than it is, and It wouldn't be too difficult to address, especially in the case of the right mouse button and the widescreen issues as outlined above.

As a seperate question. Seriously, regardless of anything else, why do wargame devs seem to love to ignore that your mouse has more than one button? [:D]
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Jim D Burns
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RE: Interface Improvements?

Post by Jim D Burns »

Yeah and please give us a global command to upgrade elements. Make it an HQ function, so I can select all rifle II elements attached to HQ X and upgrade them with the supply from HQ X or Z etc. It takes forever to go through all my units in the Russian scenario and I find myself putting off upgrades until I can do multiple ones at a time so I don't have to go through all the units ever third or fourth turn every time.

Jim
seille
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Location: Germany

RE: Interface Improvements?

Post by seille »

Yep, Jim i agree here. That would be great indeed !
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