Matrix Games Forums

Are you working on some improvement to user interface and control ?
My big wish: units should "remember" orders from previvous day (with all waypoints)...

Hmmm
not sure about that idea, but we are hopeing to be able to make some Templete like idea, and be able to save and reuse

not sure if we can get it to work or not

Arkady:

Definitely we will be making GUI improvements. And all ideas will be considered. Remembering orders and waypoints from the previous day is very unlikely due to the database structure- it's gonna be huge as it is, and that would definitely require new save items and info. Not sure we're ready for that; and conversely, I can imagine those who would complain, that they have to redo all the waypoints, and if something is missed (easy to do), then units might go on assigment, when they really shouldn't be airborne, and most likely even if assigned they wouldn't be sent to the same target, nor along the same route.

Keep up the flow of ideas- great stuff.

Jean-Claude

How about running in a window mode? Can this be added, maybe it is already there not sure my old BOB CD must have been thrown out as I can't find it any more so I cant check.

ORIGINAL: sabre100

How about running in a window mode? Can this be added, maybe it is already there not sure my old BOB CD must have been thrown out as I can't find it any more so I cant check.

[:D]
I second this request ... I just post question in different thread when found this [8D]

well I might not be the one to speak, but

from what I understand the games are now windows compatable, which sounds like they should do what ever other window programs can, but better to let JC reply in more detail

I would like to be able to print missions page.

hmmm
a print button on the side/button of the info screens ?

I can ask

would it be easier/better to have a button to open up the printer with in game, or a button to take a screen dump and place it in a file to look at out side of game ????

from some of the things that have been said about how BTR works with windows and memeory loss/leaks, it may be better to have it do a screen dump

Definitely we will be making GUI improvements.

Please if you do so, look into using "right click menus" like you find in TOAW. Like for example, you put the mouse over a USAAF base, right click and it brings up a menu allowing you to chose from several functions like "View Pilot list, View Aircraft List" etc etc so on, so that you don't have to drill through several layers of buttons to get to the information or screen you want. That's the biggest downside of all of Grigsby's games based on this style of interface (BoB, BtR, UV, and WITP).

right now, I am not sure what to say on this

the engine may control what we can try to add, improve on how the GUI works (I like the idea)

the game itself now works with Windows, can the engine be changed to work like other window programs ? we can see

This is just one gamer's humble opinion, but I found the UI to BoB so difficult to use that I gave up on it. It was a long time since I played it (more like wrestled it, really), but I seem to remember having to plow through too many number-filled screens, and do a lot of clicking, just to work out the elements for a single mission and then execute it. Really bad memories. More like work than play. I'd really like to give this game another go, but I'd only consider buying it if I knew the UI had been given a significant reworking. I hope the engine allows the devs enough flexibility to do that.

Though I never stopped playing the game (still am), I share the opinion that the interface is too reliant on mouse clicks, particularly in places where it doesn't make a whole lot of sense from a UI-perspective. A specific example is setting raid altitudes: right now, setting the altitude of a mission requires an occasionally outlandish number of clicks (e.g. I want my Spitfire XI to recon at max altitude...that's one click to get it to 30k feet, and ten more to get it to 40k. Multiply that by a dozen recon missions...and that's a lot of mouse clicks. Start staggering altitudes by hundreds of feet, it gets ridiculous.) Personally, I'd find game play much more pleasant if the ability to key-enter altitudes were added to the existing interface, so in the above example, instead of 11 mouse clicks to get from 30k to 40k feet, it requires one (click on the altitude), and five key strokes (4-0-0-0-0).

Hassle
we still pretty much stuck with the basic UI

we can try to improve it, but not sure we can really just make a new one and have it work

yea, that Alt thing always bothered me too

we should at least be able to put a top Alt much higher then 30,000, so say we make it 50,000 when you click on max, since most planes do not have that kind of alt, it would change it to the max alt of the plane type

I think that is doable

I can see pro's and con's to setting up a imput box for setting the Alt

i think some people don't even notice it

If you could export all the data the player can acess into an external file (cvs,txt) I am sure there are some poeple around who will create external tools to support playing and simulate a staff. have a tool go over the target list to find all oil sites not reconned for more than 2 weeks or something like that.
If you had all the data availible you can get via the menus in the game there are lot's of interesting things you could do with it.


If you can export data you do not need too touch the part of the UI needed to view this data, you can do nearly everything ( except giving orders ) outside of the game. And there you can do a new interface without having to fool around with the old stuff

I would go for this. I once wrote a utility in XL to take a WiR save game file, and extract the order of battle for my side, the tank holdings (total across all units), etc. Something similar (especially if restricted to just the info the player already has but present quickly) would be great. I have always resisted hacking save game files on BTR, because I wanted to avoid temptation!

I would love to list all targets each turn with latest recce date, etc
All fighter units with current kills
All pilots with current kills
total number of each aircraft short to establishment
average number of missions per pilot for each unit etc

I am sure there are more...

my idea wa s more like an "export info" button that expeorts everything known to the player into a file. For tools and utilitys to make use of this data I trust the community to come up with something.

ORIGINAL: soeren01

my idea wa s more like an "export info" button that expeorts everything known to the player into a file. For tools and utilitys to make use of this data I trust the community to come up with something.

Sorry - that is what I meant as well. I described how I have done it in the past, but I don't want to hack the savegame file.

Is there any way to bring the resolution from 800x600 to 1024x768? It would add a lot more screen space and make scrolling across the map for targets less tedious