TOAW IV USER INTERFACE

[Curtis Lemay]

Clicking five times on the Down Y-Zoom gives this view:



Note that, while this provides some fine zoom control, but since it is done graphically there is some pixalization that occurs.

[Curtis Lemay]

Clicking five more times reaches the max Y-Zoom:



This is about the same scale as shifting the map scale up one level to Huge. (So there are ten Y-Zoom steps between each map scale level.)

[Curtis Lemay]

Now let’s tab to the final button panel – the Reports tab.

The first button is for the Situation Report. Click on that:




This is about the same as under TOAW III. However, note that there is now a button to expand the report.

[Curtis Lemay]

Click on that button:



There is now much more information available. But the report is now on three pages. This is the first page. Note that items that are at their default values are shown in a slightly smaller font, to alert players to the items that are not default. Note the “Down” button – to revert to the condensed version of the report.

[Curtis Lemay]

Here is the second page:





Still more new information.

[Curtis Lemay]

the right button again:



Much more new information is available here.

[Curtis Lemay]

The second button is the Scenario Briefing:



This is unchanged from TOAW III.

[Curtis Lemay]

The third button is the Weather Briefing:



This is also unchanged from TOAW III.

[Curtis Lemay]

The first button of the second row is the Air Briefing:



This is unchanged from TOAW III except for the part about the Fog-of-War factor being fixed each turn. Note that the Air War Panel has the same information in condensed form.

[Curtis Lemay]

The second button is the News Report:



This is unchanged from TOAW III.

[Curtis Lemay]

The third button is the Inventory:



The only changes are the scroll bar and the sorting ability of the column headings.

[Curtis Lemay]

The first button of the third row is the Expected Reinforcement Report:



Note the scroll bar, health icon, and unit icon. Note that the Unit Info of units that aren’t on the map yet are shown bracketed, to help ID those units.

[Curtis Lemay]

The second button is the Recent Reinforcements Report:



The health icon is new, as is the unit icon and strength info. Note the scroll bar.

[Curtis Lemay]

The third button calls up the Theater Option report:



This now has a scroll bar and the limit of options displayable at one time has been increased from 16 to 64.

[Curtis Lemay]

The fourth button on this row toggles the Unit Panel display mode (from stack to group composition and back). This is the same as right-clicking in the Unit Panel.

The bottom row of buttons control the PO Assist operation. They turn on/off the display of one or all formation objectives, toggle PO Mode, and execute PO moves.

Finally, let’s look at the popup dialogs.

First, the movement popup:





Note that to get the movement popup, you may have to hold the mouse button down for a short delay, depending upon what you have set the Menu Delay to in the Player Options. Here, I’ve set no delay, so the menu comes up immediately.

Also note that this scenario has a value of 2 for the Improved Road Motorized Movement Divisor. That means that motorized units pay only ½ MP for each improved road hex entered.

[Curtis Lemay]

The popup that results from right-clicking a stack can have many options, depending upon what is possible in the terrain (rail damage, rail repair, bridge damage, bridge repair, board plane, ship, train, helicopter, etc.).

[Curtis Lemay]

Here, one thing not yet seen is the Group Composition:



Note the dialog now uses huge counters and there is no 3D graphic. Otherwise, the entire popup is unchanged from TOAW III.

[Curtis Lemay]

That covers the game UI. Next I’ll detail the Editor UI.

Happy Wargaming!

[Tamas]

Hey everyone,

The above is Bob's User Interface Guide, that I posted earlier as a PDF.

We hope this way it will be easier to read through, and comment/ask questions.

[Phoenix100]

V helpful. Thanks.