Suggestion: Make more dialogs modeless

[Shadrach]

Would it be possible to make more of the dialogs modeless (non-modal), so that we can interact with the map and units while the dialog is showing?

There are several dialogs where this could be very useful, and generally I think it should be the case for almost all dialogs. Unless there are specific reasons they should not be, like the single-option start/end dialogs. The ones I immediately see the use for this in, are Group Composition and Battle Report.

Group Composition: This would allow us to place the dialog off to the side and immediately see the units in a stack, and be able to select them and not have to then exit the dialog to actually give orders. I find myself constantly using it and forgetting I actually have to close it after selecting a unit, and it would improve the flow of orders greatly.

Battle Report: When active, it should activate the Review Battles view (swords/BTS) and allowing us to move the map, clicking individual battles and getting the Full Report. This would for one thing remove lots of the problems people are reporting with the location being obscured by the report, and also make one of the two buttons on the top-left corner redundant [1].

There are probably a lot of other cases where this could be useful, like the OOB/Formation views. The ones above are most important for gameplay flow issues.

Any other ideas, suggestions etc?

[1] Move the Show/Hide panels control into the drop-down View/Options (where they rightfully belong) menu and you can remove the whole panel [:D]

[gbaby]

Regarding Group Composition. You probably already know, but just in case, you can change the unit display from "top unit on stack" by selecting the "Stack Display Mode" button, Reports panel, last column, 3rd button down. This changes the Unit Info panel to show entire stack, much the same as the group composition panel, and you can select any unit in it make it the current selected unit. Just in case you didn't know.

[sanderz]

ORIGINAL: Shadrach

Would it be possible to make more of the dialogs modeless (non-modal), so that we can interact with the map and units while the dialog is showing?

There are several dialogs where this could be very useful, and generally I think it should be the case for almost all dialogs. Unless there are specific reasons they should not be, like the single-option start/end dialogs. The ones I immediately see the use for this in, are Group Composition and Battle Report.

Group Composition: This would allow us to place the dialog off to the side and immediately see the units in a stack, and be able to select them and not have to then exit the dialog to actually give orders. I find myself constantly using it and forgetting I actually have to close it after selecting a unit, and it would improve the flow of orders greatly.

Battle Report: When active, it should activate the Review Battles view (swords/BTS) and allowing us to move the map, clicking individual battles and getting the Full Report. This would for one thing remove lots of the problems people are reporting with the location being obscured by the report, and also make one of the two buttons on the top-left corner redundant [1].

There are probably a lot of other cases where this could be useful, like the OOB/Formation views. The ones above are most important for gameplay flow issues.

Any other ideas, suggestions etc?

[1] Move the Show/Hide panels control into the drop-down View/Options (where they rightfully belong) menu and you can remove the whole panel [:D]

100% agree
hopefully its something the devs agree with and can patch in

[Shadrach]

ORIGINAL: gbaby

Regarding Group Composition. You probably already know, but just in case, you can change the unit display from "top unit on stack" by selecting the "Stack Display Mode" button, Reports panel, last column, 3rd button down. This changes the Unit Info panel to show entire stack, much the same as the group composition panel, and you can select any unit in it make it the current selected unit. Just in case you didn't know.

Yeah, I've tried that one, but I haven't really seen the use for it - for one thing it's so small you can hardly see the unit, and I already use 1.3 scaling so don't want to make the panel even bigger just to be able to see the units. The Group C. dialog has a perfect size of icons to get a quick overview of what's there.

Secondly, with it selected you are unable to view current unit info if you move the cursor off the stack.