{The List} General User Interface

[Frozzy]

This post is an entire fill in. Will be done tommorow (I hope)

[Kuciwalker]

Get rid of the end-turn button (or AT LEAST make it pop up a confirmation). It's too easy to hit, and it's not like pressing enter is all that difficult.

[Frozzy]

Make a drop-down menu like in CtP. (basically above the minimap there was a button. Click on it and a menu appears. Click on the same button and it minimises. Saves space

[Trifna]

Or, instead, it could maybe be arrange with a little animation taking half a second, after which you need to click again. In the later days, it could be one of these emergency buttons protected by a cover than you must lift.

Maybe that in the Middle Ages it would be a full helmet (engraved "end turn" on it) with the button as a scroll (written "end turn") once you lift the "nose" of the helmet

[Frozzy]

Annoying...

[Fosse]

Just having the end turn button not so close to all of those other buttons solves the problem. No thirty second pauses, no popups... Yuck.

Remember the dozens of information screens you could get in SMAC? Let's make that the minimum amount of information at our fingertips in Civ 4. And get those advisors off of the screens: they "cartoon" the place up without actually providing anything, especially advice.

[wrylachlan]

Have a little box in the corners, top +bottom + and sides that contains more detailed information about the tiles surrounding your current unit.

These info boxes would be context sensitive:
If your current unit is a settler, the box could display the total potential shields, commerce, food if you settle there.

If your current unit is a military unit, it would give you a rough idea of your chances versus an enemy unit in that tile. The assessment could be based on your level of intelligence, the better your intelligence, the more accurate the assessment.

Also included could be:
Movement cost
Defense bonus
Any special info like "Quicksand - takes away1 hp from your unit"

[DarkCloud]

Basically, have sidebars and topbars instead of CTP's bottom bars... those were hard to access and since most games have sidebars- people are used to them.

[wrylachlan]

Originally posted by DarkCloud
Basically, have sidebars and topbars instead of CTP's bottom bars... those were hard to access and since most games have sidebars- people are used to them.

Um no... that's not quite what I was saying. I was talking about 8 boxes, one at each of the compass directions.

[DarkCloud]

I think you misunderstood me- I was merely making my suggestion independent of yours

As for your idea; I only partially support it- we don't want to clutter the screen. Basically I would like to perhaps see a little box on the right side stating the Unit data and the terrain data but I don't think we need hundreds of windows.

[wrylachlan]

I'm also against a lot of windows, but at the same time I would like more information easily available, and in an easy to understand (preferably graph) representation...

What about semi-transparent overlays that you could toggle between Military, Economic, etc. and off?

The military overlay would look like a speach bubble eminating out from any tile surrounding your unit that has an enemy unit. That Bubble would contain basic info like the breakdown of Foot vs. Horse vs. Artillery and what your chances are of taking the tile if you attacked. This would also allow your military advisor to have a little more personality - if you have multiple targets, the one your military advisor thinks is the best move could contain a comment like "The enemy is weak, strike here!"

An economic overlay might show potential output of tiles. It could also show proposed roads or other improvements that the economic advisor thinks you should build - maybe with a speach bubble from the most important one with an advisor comment.

Switching between Overlays would be as simple as clicking a button next to the Advisor head - maybe a graphic of the advisor studying a map...

[hexagonian]

Either set up the City Screen so it does not block out the MainMap (with a series of tabbed bars) or...

The overview map on the City Screen should actually be the working map that's in Mainmap screen, rather than a static map, so you can scroll to borders to see unit deployment while you purchase.

City Worker placement on tiles within your city radius can be handled on a small inset map

[DarkCloud]

Toggleable semi-transparent overlays might just work.

As long as the player could turn off the blasted things in the Options section and it was made VERY clear that the player could do so... Highlighted information about each unit could be very useful to some players. But generally, all that's really needed is a list of how many stacked units are in a pile and their health bars (for more advanced casual players)

[Shogun Gunner]

I would like to have a little bit more control over the zoom feature of Civ. In MP games, this is really bad...where the game focuses you on one area to show you something, but zips away so fast before you can really see what's happening.

Conversely, the MP game is good that if you are playing turn-based, you can click on your cities, advisors, etc. even if you have finished your turn. That's useful to organize thoughts, strategies, etc.

I hate just sitting there in SP games with the computer cheating, I mean thinking, about it's turn. You can't do anything but sit! I read a magazine usually. Sometimes I try to browse Poly in a very small window, but I hate missing things on the screen.

[DarkCloud]

I would like to have a little bit more control over the zoom feature of Civ. In MP games, this is really bad...where the game focuses you on one area to show you something, but zips away so fast before you can really see what's happening.

Maybe a 'Pause' hotkey that pauses the game for 5 seconds at a time?

I hate just sitting there in SP games with the computer cheating, I mean thinking, about it's turn. You can't do anything but sit! I read a magazine usually. Sometimes I try to browse Poly in a very small window, but I hate missing things on the screen.

that's probably because of the increased # of civs in Civ III, things like that rarely happened in civ II... especially since you could turn off viewing enemy moves (I think...)