Matrix Games Forums

Is there a place either in this forum or somewhere else to provide suggestions to improve the user interfaces?

No special place that I am aware of.

A thread on this forum should do the trick.

OK, I'll give that a try. I just think it would be nice if there was a filter option for the maps to reduce units that are displayed. Ex: It would be good to filter in/out aviation units, or bring them all to the top of a stack, etc. That seems like an easy enhancement that doesn't involve tweaking the internal logic, just the display.

ORIGINAL: mbristol1981

OK, I'll give that a try. I just think it would be nice if there was a filter option for the maps to reduce units that are displayed. Ex: It would be good to filter in/out aviation units, or bring them all to the top of a stack, etc. That seems like an easy enhancement that doesn't involve tweaking the internal logic, just the display.

+1

ORIGINAL: mbristol1981

OK, I'll give that a try. I just think it would be nice if there was a filter option for the maps to reduce units that are displayed. Ex: It would be good to filter in/out aviation units, or bring them all to the top of a stack, etc. That seems like an easy enhancement that doesn't involve tweaking the internal logic, just the display.

Not to sure what you mean to bring them to the top of the stack mbristol, if you mean an air unit is on the botton of a 5 unit stack and you want it on top then all you have to do is hold shift down and left click on the pack until the unit appears on top, and in about 1 second it will be on top and you can let it remain there. Hope that helps you.

Sometimes when I am about to use my air units I put them all on top if I feel it is going to be a prolonged air battle, this way I am sure not to overlook any units even though there is a popup on the left side of the screen showing units availble.

Bo

I think that for a big air war it would indeed be nice to have all the fighter air units on top by pressing one button. Although that would not help having multiple air units in one hex.

Than again, I would prefer other things first. Bugfixes, netplay and AI comes to mind. However, this is a nice suggestion.

ORIGINAL: bo

ORIGINAL: mbristol1981

OK, I'll give that a try. I just think it would be nice if there was a filter option for the maps to reduce units that are displayed. Ex: It would be good to filter in/out aviation units, or bring them all to the top of a stack, etc. That seems like an easy enhancement that doesn't involve tweaking the internal logic, just the display.

Not to sure what you mean to bring them to the top of the stack mbristol, if you mean an air unit is on the botton of a 5 unit stack and you want it on top then all you have to do is hold shift down and left click on the pack until the unit appears on top, and in about 1 second it will be on top and you can let it remain there. Hope that helps you.

Sometimes when I am about to use my air units I put them all on top if I feel it is going to be a prolonged air battle, this way I am sure not to overlook any units even though there is a popup on the left side of the screen showing units availble.

Bo

I think he meant that all units of that type would be placed on the top of the stack (in every stack).

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: bo

ORIGINAL: mbristol1981

OK, I'll give that a try. I just think it would be nice if there was a filter option for the maps to reduce units that are displayed. Ex: It would be good to filter in/out aviation units, or bring them all to the top of a stack, etc. That seems like an easy enhancement that doesn't involve tweaking the internal logic, just the display.

Not to sure what you mean to bring them to the top of the stack mbristol, if you mean an air unit is on the botton of a 5 unit stack and you want it on top then all you have to do is hold shift down and left click on the pack until the unit appears on top, and in about 1 second it will be on top and you can let it remain there. Hope that helps you.

Sometimes when I am about to use my air units I put them all on top if I feel it is going to be a prolonged air battle, this way I am sure not to overlook any units even though there is a popup on the left side of the screen showing units availble.

Bo

I think he meant that all units of that type would be placed on the top of the stack (in every stack).

warspite1

When playing the board game did peeps used to have a set way of placing their units? I did but then I don't know if that was just me being anal or good practice? The order was: air units, land units (general on top then DIV or ART) naval units (in order carriers, BB, CA). Oh and all stacks had to be neatly placed and facing the same way........

For us stacks needed to be neat and the stacking order was fixed. Almost the same order as you have, Warspite1. The order, from the top, was air units, land units (division and art size, HQ, Corps and Armies with the weakest unit first), naval units (TRS, CV, BB, CA, Sub).

Suggestion. For return to base actions, could the selected unit's original base hex be highlighted somehow, so we know where it came from and can better decide to return it there or rebase it? Unless there's already a way to do that and I'm missing it...

Few items i'd like to suggest, mostly interface options.

1. Have a key of somekind that when you mouse over an enemy stack you can see what the attack odds are currently. So if you have a hex surrounded by 5 guys and you are debating on adding a couple more for the attack you could quickly at a glance see what the supposed attack ratio would be. Even a caveat to the number showing that it doesn't take into account eng doing weird things or winter units etc.. just a simple 40:12 number so a person has a sniff if they need more stuff vs counting all the units. With fractional odds it reduces a lot of counter shuffling to get exact odds, but you still sometimes have to do a bit of counting things up to see if your close.

2. Similar to the show only ground or show only air units someone posted above, it would be nice to filter the air by lnd and ftr. I hate having to look through stacks to see if there is a 'ftr' within range of my attack..

3. Naval on the global map... and in particular transporters. We are playing a 'quasi' hotseat game where we pass the save file back and forth. While my opponent sometimes remembers to tell me what he did with the CW it would be nice to see on the global map where transporters are so I can see what's moved and where. In another game that I'm playing as the CW I came back to the game after a week long break and even I had a hard time finding all my transporters

4. Resources on the global map. It would be nice to have color codes of convoyed vs not...While I can see how many convoys I have out, and if they are unused I have no easy way to see that resource x in country y isn't shipping.. e.g. that i need an extra convoy somewhere.

ORIGINAL: pzgndr

Suggestion. For return to base actions, could the selected unit's original base hex be highlighted somehow, so we know where it came from and can better decide to return it there or rebase it? Unless there's already a way to do that and I'm missing it...

I just added the row and column number to the "Return from whence" string, but that probably doesn't help a lot.

The easiest solution is to select Return from whence and if you don't like the result, Undo the move.

There's a return from whence button? Never seen it, where is it found?

Right click on the air unit if you have to land it. Hover over "air units" and then it appears. There are all kind of nice features in that menu in different phases...

ORIGINAL: Centuur
Right click on the air unit if you have to land it. Hover over "air units" and then it appears. There are all kind of nice features in that menu in different phases...

OK that helps. Not sure if there's a better way to communicate all these little nice-to-know features. Other than read and memorize all three manuals. LOL

What I'd like to see is a change to the interface. I've noticed it when I play, and even in the tutorial videos but there seems to be areas of the screen that just don't get used so in my mind it's an inefficient way to present the game information.
I'd say have the game take up the whole screen. The map would take up 3/4 of the screen and then around the outside edges (could just be one side, bottom, or combination) would be the information screens, docked. They could be opened or minimized (scrolled up). The programs that I use all the time that have a similar interface that I'm thinking of is Visual Studio and/or DreamWeaver. To me those use the screen quite efficiently.

Just my 2 cents . . .

-Cary