The interface is .... how could I say ...

[nukkxx5058]

The interface is ... hummm ... I don't find the word.

[delatbabel]

ORIGINAL: nukkxx

The interface is ... hummm ... I don't find the word.

Did you look behind the sofa? [:'(]

[TheHellPatrol]

ORIGINAL: nukkxx

The interface is ... hummm ... I don't find the word.

FUBAR

[nukkxx5058]

LOL yeah ... something like that ... lol

[Soapy Frog]

Yup. It's true, words fail me too when I try to talk about it.
 
Hopefully by now Marshall is aware that the interface needs improving

[pzgndr]

I think the basic architecture of the interface is fine. We could use some more information here and there, and maybe some popups would help. I'd particularly like to see my MP's information highlighted somehow in the status box so I can find important news. My current struggles are related to playing the game well, not worrying about the interface.

We're not likely to see an overhaul of the interface. I don't believe it needs one. Rather than saying ambiguously negative things about it, some specific and practical recommendations for improvements would be more helpful.

[Kwik E Mart]

ORIGINAL: pzgndr

I think the basic architecture of the interface is fine. We could use some more information here and there, and maybe some popups would help. I'd particularly like to see my MP's information highlighted somehow in the status box so I can find important news. My current struggles are related to playing the game well, not worrying about the interface.

We're not likely to see an overhaul of the interface. I don't believe it needs one. Rather than saying ambiguously negative things about it, some specific and practical recommendations for improvements would be more helpful.

color coded for each MP would be even better....green for russia, white for austria, blue for france, etc....

[Soapy Frog]

ORIGINAL: pzgndr
We're not likely to see an overhaul of the interface. I don't believe it needs one. Rather than saying ambiguously negative things about it, some specific and practical recommendations for improvements would be more helpful.

This has been done at length in other threads; however I might point out that a lot of interface pain can be alleviated simply by being A) consistent and B) adopting some de facto standards of the windows world; e.g. consistent left-click and right-click functionality, windows that can be opened and closed (and even moved) with a consistent set of controls, having right-click context menus and so on.

Even better, being able to "pick up" counters with the mouse, drag and drop, ctrl and shift click for controlling multiple counters, all of these things would vastly improve playability.

Feedback is still very poor in general. The information screens are usually hard to read. The log is impenetrable. See if you get me started we'll be here all day

[Marshall Ellis]

I've already second guessed myself for the interface. The interface is basically a 5 year old design. Can it be improved? You bet! ALOT of information in this game!
I'm ALWAYS open to ideas...Keep'em coming!
 

[pzgndr]

This has been done at length in other threads

There have been a lot of comments, for sure. This thread, however, started off by offering nothing constructive.

Better to say I don't like this particular aspect of the interface, this is why I don't like it, and here's my recommendation to change it so it's more useful/helpful.

I'm ALWAYS open to ideas...Keep'em coming!

See? We just need to be specific and reasonable and hopefully we'll see some improvements made. Thanks Marshall.

[Grimrod42]

Soapy Frog made some suggestions...

[yammahoper]

 
I confess at first the interface really bugged me.  But after playing for a while, it has become second nature.  It is not as bad as I first thought.  It actually has a certain rhythem to it that I now like.
 
That said, I want to be able to see the results of battles other nations fight.  How much money the other nations have on hand RIGHT NOW.  Small things that bugged me like not being able to place a corp in the land phase or stand a corp down in the land phase just required getting use to the rules and playing by them, even if I disagree with the logic.
 
yamma

[Grognot]

It's functional.  In some cases, it's not particularly efficient, but it's quite functional.

Some random notions --

As the contents of fleets are open knowledge, why not summarize the total H/L/T counts underneath the stack of icons?

Likewise, in a nation-summary view, it would not be unreasonable to show total H/L/T, and total under-construction H/L/T.

In the economic phase, an 'iterate through my free states' mechanism would be good.  Or even combining them into one screen -- i.e. select nation from list, and the unit types shift.  Ship-building would still require another click (either list of ports, or map click).

Enforced peace duration -- should be noted in the diplomacy matrix.

Battles -- a marker on the map where a battle took place in the last month might be good.  Even better if it's clickable to get a summary (subject to FOW rules/options).  Maybe best if either participant can share the battle summary -- in-game, not cut-paste-e-mail -- with other nations if he likes... but in this case, I would recommend the ability to *lie* (i.e. edit what others see) in this summary.

Broad view -- a whole-map view showing nothing but corps movement (e.g. arrows whose intensity and/or size varies with number of corps) from region to region, and control.

In the peace-term selection screen, it might be interesting to be able to indicate which terms you intend to impose, to any of your allies who are also at war with the victim... with the caveat that it also shouldn't necessarily be completely honest.

[Grimrod42]

One really nice thing would be to have different counter sizes for corps and garrisons.
It is not easy to tell whats what on the map.
Also some way to easily Identify cavalry corps, guerrillas , cossacks etc

[Grimrod42]

Another thing that would be really good is a notation toll to gather all into one place the information you gather about your enemies, corps strengths etc.
Might as well use the power of computation.

[Marshall Ellis]

Grimrod42:
 
I do agree with your counter comment. The counters were one of the toughest things in the games to do! Our problem was that the map was not desgined for this size counter and the counters weren't really designed for any map! LOL! (If that makes sense). I'm a fan of the simple square counters in the standard game and we discussed this a few years back but too much work had already been done with the current counters so we moved on it. There are some obvious spacing issues in some of the areas that can make it difficult to see where a unit really is. I'm hoping we can help this by maybe adding some zoom boxes on the map to help clarify in a future release when our legs get good and sturdy (i.e. no outlying game crashes, major bugs, editor released, etc).
 
 

[RooseBolton]

While yes the UI can seem daunting, and there seem to be a few quirks in the system (little ones imo), after playing many hours of the game vs the AI (not the sharpest tool on the shed the AI), at least i have mastered the AI, and see little trouble in playing the game.

..Just keep playing solo, you'll figure everything out....it does work

Steve

[CapnKnuck]

I have two requests:
 
1 - I wondered whether there might be a move as stack feature, similiar to the naval phase, where you can move a flotilla as a stack?   Except, in the land phase, you would instead hold down the control key and select all the corps you wanted to participate in the stacking movement, and then you can just move all as one, rather than having to move each corps individually?
 
2 - Is it possible to colour code the log?  The flat text file in which the log is currently displayed is not exactly intuitive.  You have to look very hard for historical information, yet another thing which slows down the pace of the game.  (See Dancing Bear's comments about speeding up game play).  For example, if I'm not bothered about seeing the outcome of France, Austria and Prussia's turns, but very intersted in, say Great Britains, rather than have to figure out where in the log GB's stuff is, I should be able to jsut look for the pink text.   In addition, a collapseable log might be useful.  For example, Austria and Prussia may go through an entire game without having to consult the Naval log, so in addition to collapsing/expanding game logs, they could be colour coded for quicker reference?
 
Thanks,
The Cap'n.
 

[NeverMan]

Marshall,

You talked about "zoom" boxes, why not just tell where the counter is when you click on the counter? For instance, if the counter is in Paris AND in the City, it could say "Territory: Paris, City" and if not in the city "Territory: Paris" or something like that, although I'm fine with the "zoom boxes" too.

ONE THING, I wanted to add if you are going to eventually work on "zoom boxes" is a ZOOM OUT function. It would be great to be able to zoom out some.

[Grognot]

ORIGINAL: CapnKnuck
1 - I wondered whether there might be a move as stack feature, similiar to the naval phase, where you can move a flotilla as a stack? Except, in the land phase, you would instead hold down the control key and select all the corps you wanted to participate in the stacking movement, and then you can just move all as one, rather than having to move each corps individually?

Regarding this -- if memory serves, this has been brought up before but at least two considerations indicate against it -- at least for true, uninterrupted stacking movement.

One is that certain events are supposed to be allowed as each corps individually moves in -- notably, the mobilization of Austrian insurrection corps. Allowing full uninterrupted stack movement weakens this somewhat -- much less so than in the boardgame, because EiANW controls when they appear and not the Austrian player, but somewhat still.

The second bit is that moving in stacks contradicts the foraging rules -- each corps is supposed to forage after its individual movement, and is penalized by the presence of other unbesieged corps in its end area at the time of foraging (which may be before other corps arrive in or leave from that end area).

That said, I see no reason that a pseudo-stack movement couldn't be done where picking up and moving a whole stack is interpreted as a sequence of individual moves, provided there's (a) a way to tweak the order of the moves, (b) foraging is still done on an "after each corps' move" basis, and (c) a chance to change orders if interrupted by such things as insurrection corps.