Speed and depth controls for previously selected units appear to work but in fact do nothing.
Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2023 12:05 pm
Procedure to reproduce
There should not occur buttons which appear to work but do not in fact work. Here are two examples of how this may be made true.
Approach 1: The buttons should actually work for a previously selected unit whose controls are displayed on the right panel. Clicking the buttons should actually affect the course and depth of the submarine.
Approach 2: The buttons should not be present or should not appear to work. For example, the entire right panel may be hidden or made blank when no unit is selected. If this is undesirable, all controls on it should at least be made visibly inactive ("greyed out") and not permit user interaction.
Actual behaviour
The buttons appear to work but in fact have no effect.
If a speed control button was clicked in step 5, the button appears as though it worked and the corresponding setting was successfully selected.
If a depth control button was clicked, the depth and speed section of the right side panel disappears. The same thing happens if the button clicked was one of the "manual - set auto" buttons, whether for course or speed.
In all of these cases, the action taken in step 5 has no effect at all on the state of the submarine.
More generally, the entire right side panel appears to be affected by this. For example, immediately upon performing step 4, the "time underway" counter in the right side panel stops advancing and continues to display the value it showed at the moment of deselection.
Significance
I have been aware of this issue for some time. Despite this, it still regularly causes confusion for me when playing Command, as orders which I assumed were successfully issued were in fact never issued.
There is obvious potential for this behaviour to even further confuse newer players, who are less likely to have a clear understanding of how they should expect the controls to behave.
- Create a scenario containing a submarine under the player's control. Start playing that scenario.
- Give that submarine a waypoint.
- Select that submarine by clicking on it on the map.
- Deselect that submarine by clicking on a location on the map not occupied by any units.
- On the right side panel, click one of the buttons for changing commanded depth or speed.
There should not occur buttons which appear to work but do not in fact work. Here are two examples of how this may be made true.
Approach 1: The buttons should actually work for a previously selected unit whose controls are displayed on the right panel. Clicking the buttons should actually affect the course and depth of the submarine.
Approach 2: The buttons should not be present or should not appear to work. For example, the entire right panel may be hidden or made blank when no unit is selected. If this is undesirable, all controls on it should at least be made visibly inactive ("greyed out") and not permit user interaction.
Actual behaviour
The buttons appear to work but in fact have no effect.
If a speed control button was clicked in step 5, the button appears as though it worked and the corresponding setting was successfully selected.
If a depth control button was clicked, the depth and speed section of the right side panel disappears. The same thing happens if the button clicked was one of the "manual - set auto" buttons, whether for course or speed.
In all of these cases, the action taken in step 5 has no effect at all on the state of the submarine.
More generally, the entire right side panel appears to be affected by this. For example, immediately upon performing step 4, the "time underway" counter in the right side panel stops advancing and continues to display the value it showed at the moment of deselection.
Significance
I have been aware of this issue for some time. Despite this, it still regularly causes confusion for me when playing Command, as orders which I assumed were successfully issued were in fact never issued.
There is obvious potential for this behaviour to even further confuse newer players, who are less likely to have a clear understanding of how they should expect the controls to behave.