Matrix Games Forums

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

A revised version based on yesterday's forum feedback. Since this screen shot was taken I have widened the space for showing the die rolls, so the 7 no longer drops down to the next line.

Why is the Impulse Track and End of Turn info shown here? The number to end the turn could change every time weather is rolled and you don't even know the weather until after initiative is determined. Likewise the weather report (unless it displays the modified weather chart for the current turn). Seems to me that stuff should be in a separate "informational" form that a player can call up anytime during his impulse. It is of no assistance when performing the Initiative Stage.

It might also help to add the warning that if you request a reroll, the Initiative Track marker will be adjusted before it is resolved.

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

A revised version based on yesterday's forum feedback. Since this screen shot was taken I have widened the space for showing the die rolls, so the 7 no longer drops down to the next line.

Why is the Impulse Track and End of Turn info shown here? The number to end the turn could change every time weather is rolled and you don't even know the weather until after initiative is determined. Likewise the weather report (unless it displays the modified weather chart for the current turn). Seems to me that stuff should be in a separate "informational" form that a player can call up anytime during his impulse. It is of no assistance when performing the Initiative Stage.

It might also help to add the warning that if you request a reroll, the Initiative Track marker will be adjusted before it is resolved.

One form for multiple purposes.

During a turn, if you are thinking about passing, you might want to look at this form. In fact, you might want to examine it before choosing your actions for an impulse. having separate forms would make the player go to two places to get all the information. Well, actually to three. This design does require him to go the the weather report separately.
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Good point about the change in the initiative after requesting a re-roll.

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

One form for multiple purposes.

During a turn, if you are thinking about passing, you might want to look at this form. In fact, you might want to examine it before choosing your actions for an impulse. having separate forms would make the player go to two places to get all the information. Well, actually to three. This design does require him to go the the weather report separately.
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Good point about the change in the initiative after requesting a re-roll.

I guess I didn't understand why the Initiative Stage form would (could?) be called up during an impulse. In that case all the portion for Initiative resolution would not be of much use other than as a reminder of where the track is at - and the buttons for Initiative have to be disabled except when appropriate. Maybe it would be better to have the turn-end info and weather report combined in an info form and the Initiative separate?

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets
It took me awhile to get around to this. Here are Vichy French units with the naval units all done with similar striping. I'll eventually get around to removing the thin edging of darker blue/lavender around the air and naval units as they appear on the map. The Flyouts show the units the way I would like them to appear.

Looks good to me.
Perfection would be that the land units be the same too, but isn't perfection an elusive goal ? [:D]

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

A revised version based on yesterday's forum feedback. Since this screen shot was taken I have widened the space for showing the die rolls, so the 7 no longer drops down to the next line.

Why is the Impulse Track and End of Turn info shown here? The number to end the turn could change every time weather is rolled and you don't even know the weather until after initiative is determined. Likewise the weather report (unless it displays the modified weather chart for the current turn). Seems to me that stuff should be in a separate "informational" form that a player can call up anytime during his impulse. It is of no assistance when performing the Initiative Stage.

It might also help to add the warning that if you request a reroll, the Initiative Track marker will be adjusted before it is resolved.

I for one LOVE to see the Impulse Track and Initiative Track here.
I don't know if it is the right place, but it is a pleasure to see it graphicaly.

One point of improvement would be to highlight the current impulse on the Impulse Track.

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

One form for multiple purposes.

During a turn, if you are thinking about passing, you might want to look at this form. In fact, you might want to examine it before choosing your actions for an impulse. having separate forms would make the player go to two places to get all the information. Well, actually to three. This design does require him to go the the weather report separately.
---
Good point about the change in the initiative after requesting a re-roll.

I guess I didn't understand why the Initiative Stage form would (could?) be called up during an impulse. In that case all the portion for Initiative resolution would not be of much use other than as a reminder of where the track is at - and the buttons for Initiative have to be disabled except when appropriate. Maybe it would be better to have the turn-end info and weather report combined in an info form and the Initiative separate?

Maybe. 6 of one and a half dozen of the other I think. The current weather report does give the probability of the turn ending, but it doesn't show the impulse track. The impulse track provides more information visually, which might be easier for some players to understand.

The interface design could use 1, 2, or 3 forms for Initiative, Impulse, and Weather, since WIF has important interrelationships between all 3. Using 1 strikes me as an overly complicated form. 3 strikes me as too much fragmentation. If we go with 2 forms, then there are three possibilities, and the current design uses one of those.

I have no overwhelming reason for the current design - other than that it is already coded.[;)]

ORIGINAL: Froonp

ORIGINAL: paulderynck

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

A revised version based on yesterday's forum feedback. Since this screen shot was taken I have widened the space for showing the die rolls, so the 7 no longer drops down to the next line.

Why is the Impulse Track and End of Turn info shown here? The number to end the turn could change every time weather is rolled and you don't even know the weather until after initiative is determined. Likewise the weather report (unless it displays the modified weather chart for the current turn). Seems to me that stuff should be in a separate "informational" form that a player can call up anytime during his impulse. It is of no assistance when performing the Initiative Stage.

It might also help to add the warning that if you request a reroll, the Initiative Track marker will be adjusted before it is resolved.

I for one LOVE to see the Impulse Track and Initiative Track here.
I don't know if it is the right place, but it is a pleasure to see it graphicaly.

One point of improvement would be to highlight the current impulse on the Impulse Track.

Yeah, about the highlighting, ...

I wrote code to do just that, but the visual component will only do it if you mouse click on the line. Executing a mouse click on a line from within the code is non-trivial. Also, I don't want the player to be able to change the highlighted line with a mouse click (though that is what happens presently). So the component I am presently using has two problems: I can't highlight what I want, and the user can change the highlighting so it is incorrect.

What this means is I have to find another component that does do what I want. I know which one that is, but it will take some more messing around to do the conversion. I'll get to it eventually, just not today.

If I am misunderstanding something here my apologies.
Instead of widening the form why not place the Allied and Axis die rolls as follows:
 
Current Initiative: Allied
Bonus if re-rolled: None
Allied Die Roll: 10
Axis Die Roll:    7
 

ORIGINAL: abj9562

If I am misunderstanding something here my apologies.
Instead of widening the form why not place the Allied and Axis die rolls as follows:

Current Initiative: Allied
Bonus if re-rolled: None
Allied Die Roll: 10
Axis Die Roll:    7

Widening the space for the text only required a few pixels - it didn't affect anything other than a single line of text.

There are situations where a long text message is required, which is why the spacing seems unusual. Also, once the intitiative has been finalized, I show that in the lower portion of the form.

Almost all the forms could be beautified more, but at a certain point I just stop and go on to morre important things.

ORIGINAL: Shannon V. OKeets

A revised version based on yesterday's forum feedback. Since this screen shot was taken I have widened the space for showing the die rolls, so the 7 no longer drops down to the next line.

This is a really swell idea. It will help me keep a few important things straight and all in one tight form.


GSB

There are 22 new MWIF screen shots viewable in Games Under Development - accessible from Matrix Games home.

It really is lookin' good.[8D]

Thanks for the heads up.

I have been working on the Training Videos this week. So far I have completed chapters 1 - 5, which leaves 6 more to do. The first 5 pretty much go through the Picture and Text tutorials, and even though I skipped over some stuff they still run to 1 hour and 52 minutes.

I am guessing that each of the remaining chapters will be in the range of 20-30 minutes. Those will cover the Main form, informational forms, screen layouts and map views. Since they will all involve me moving the cursor around on the map and clicking on stuff, I am thinking they will go somewhat faster, but then they might go slower.

For screen layouts I have come up with 3 to show off the feature. Here is the starting First Game.SLY (i.e., screen layout) for the Commonwealth.

If you click on the label Sea Areas in the screen layout list (upper right corner of the previous page) the entire screen is transformed to this. I could develop another screen layout with a different set of sea areas displayed. These were selected because they have convoys running through the Atlantic Ocean.

Third and last in series.

If you then click on the screen layout Ports, it brings up this screen layout, whcih shows the Naval Review Summary and Details forms. Clicking on any port or sea area in the Summary form, changes the Details form so it presents the units in the port/sea aea you clicked on.

For your information:
=======
Training Videos
(as of June 29, 2009)

Chapter 1 Introduction (4 minutes :10 seconds)
1.1 Opening screen
1.1.1 Layout
1.1.2 Restoring a saved game
1.2 Tutorial 1 - Starting a game
1.2.1 General layout of a tutorial page (page 1)
1.2.2 WIF FE => MWIF
1.2.3 Unified world map

Chapter 2 Map Basics (20:27)
2.1 Tutorial 2 - Countries
2.1.1 Axis major powers (pages 1, 3, 5)
2.1.2 Allied major powers (pages 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 7)
2.1.3 Minor countries & territories (pages 10, 11, 12, 13)
2.1.4 Subcountries & objective hexes (pages 14, 15)
2.2 Tutorial 3 - Map
2.2.1 Hex terrain (pages, 1, 2, 3, 11)
2.2.2 Hex icons (pages 6, 7, 13)
2.2.3 Hexside terrain (pages 4, 5, 8, 12)
2.2.4 Sea areas (pages 10, 9

Chapter 3 Unit Basics (28:27)
3.1 Tutorial 4 - Land Units
3.1.1 Unit review form (pages 1, 2)
3.1.2 Land unit types (pages 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
3.1.3 High & medium resolution (pages 8, 9)
3.2 Tutorial 5 - Naval Units
3.2.1 Naval combat unit types (pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 14)
3.2.2 Naval transports (page 6)
3.2.3 Convoys (page 8)
3.2.4 Naval task forces (pages 9, 10, 11, 12)
3.3 Tutorial 6 - Air Units
3.3.1 Air unit types (pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 11, 12, 13)
3.3.2 Annual improvements (pages 7, 8)
3.3.3 High & medium resolution (pages 9, 10)

Chapter 4 Sequence of Play (33:56)
4.1 Tutorial 10 - Sequence of Play
4.1.1 Turns, impulses, & starting a new game (pages 2, 3)
4.1.2 New turn & new impulse (pages 4, 5, 6)
4.1.3 Naval air assignments and air missions in general (page 7)
4.1.4 Naval movement & combat (pages 8, 9, 10)
4.1.5 Independent air missions (page 11)
4.1.6 Land movement & combat (pages 12, 13, 14, 15)
4.1.7 End of impulse and turn (pages 16, 17, 18, 19)

Chapter 5 Turns, Impulses, Weather, & Supply (25:28)
5.1 Tutorial 7 - Turns, Impulses, & Weather
5.1.1 Weather zones (page 1, 3, 4)
5.1.2 Weather on the detailed & global maps (pages 5, 6, 7)
5.1.3 Weather roll effect on impulses and turns (pages 10, 11)
5.2 Tutorial 9 - Supply
5.2.1 Basic supply path (pages 1, 2, 4, 5)
5.2.2 Overseas supply path (pages 6, 8)
5.2.3 Railway supply path (pages 11, 10, 12, 13)

Chapter 6 Main Form, Screen Layouts, & Map Views

Chapter 7 Starting a New Game & Setting Up Units

Chapter 8 Land Movement & Combat

Chapter 9 Naval Movement & Combat

Chapter 10 Air Movement & Combat

Chapter 11 Production & Politics

Can you put subtitles on your videos please? Makes it easier to understand for us who don't have English as first language.

Hum, I was noticing all thoses granite-textured windows background... And I wonder, is it an option to have plain color instead ? Thoses mixed-colors produce a lot of "noise" around writtings and make the windows a bit painfull to look at for long time and harder to read (especially noticable with the CW with white writings on mixed blueish background). Perhaps it is a Jpeg compression problem from the screen-shot, but the more I watch in-game pics, the more I am noticing this effect...

ORIGINAL: Lützow
Can you put subtitles on your videos please? Makes it easier to understand for us who don't have English as first language.

I second that, for the same reason - and also for the deaf and hard of hearing people.

Plus, if there are subtitles, they could even be translated (even if it's after the initial release, and it could be some fans' work - provided Matrix and Steve allow it, of course)

ORIGINAL: Lützow

Can you put subtitles on your videos please? Makes it easier to understand for us who don't have English as first language.

Probably not.

1 - It would be a lot of work. Notice that the first 5 chapters ran to almost 2 hours.

2 - The Training Videos cover pretty much the same ground as the Tutorials. In fact, if anything, the tutorials are more detailed. If you prefer to read rather than listen, then the tutorials are the better choice. The first 10 tutorials have text alongside each picture (which is why I call them the Picture & Text tutorials). The second 10 tutorials (Interactive) have text describing what to do (mouse and keyboard actions) and what happens when you perform those actions. In the Training Videos that correspond to the Interactive tutorials, you get to watch me move the mouse, etc. If you go through the Interactive tutorials yourself, you get to move the mouse, etc., which is a better way to learn.

3 - In the videos, I do not speak fast and I intentionally insert pauses within the video. That is to let the listener absorb the meaning of what I have just said, and to use his eyes to understand the words. This shouldn't be the equivalent of listening to a radio announcer read the news.

4 - I intend for the Traiing Videos to be use mainly by players who have never played a game of WIF and want to see what it is all about. People who have purchased the game and want to learn it in detail, might use the Training Videos to gain enough familiarity with MWIF to jump into playing a gmae. But if you are new to WIF and want to play MWIF at all seriously, then you will need to go through the tutorials (at a minimum) and probably spend a lot of time with the Players Manual too.

5 - This is not to say that subtitles aren't a good suggestion. It's just that I do not feel the benefit justifies the time and effort they would require (sorry).[:(]