{The List} General User Interface

[DarkCloud]

I think this goes here:

http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=94361 "Squares, Hexes, Octagons"... UberKruX

[Geoff the Medio]

Consistent Button Locations

A current major annoyance for me is the variable location of action buttons at the bottom of the screen (in Civ3). Depending on the terrain, the buttons for "build road" or "build fortress" (or similar) can sometimes be in the same location for two different units. This occurs, because the buttons are all centred in their row, and don't have a consistent horizontal location. When rapidly cycing through a gang of workers, or even just a series of individual workers at different locations, but doing the same thing, it's too easy to hit the wrong button since they keep moving around.

Also, make the buttons a bit larger... it's annoying to miss the main menu button by two pixels and up scrolling the map instead.

The pilliage improvement button and disband buttons (and build fortress) are sufficiently rarely used (by me anyway) as to be separated from the most commonly used ones.

The various of worker automations could be part of a sub-menu from a general automate worker button... they're too much clutter now (though occasionally useful enough to leave on...)

The 'End Turn' button definitely needs to be less easy to accidentally hit. Firstly, label it onscreen. Secondly, maybe require two clicks, at any speed... the first one 'activating' and highlighting the button, and the second actually ending the turn. This would avoid accidental single clicks, but a quick double click would still let the turn be ended immediately without delay.

SMAC style combat odds were nice, though actually accurate ones would be nicer, unlike the completely wrong ones in SMAC (don't know about SMAX).

Have mouse access to everything, ala SMAC. In particular, all the F# screens, not just the advisor ones (F1-F6), and to all possible unit actions by right clicking.

[Naokaukodem]

I would want to eliminate some boring stuff for (very) heavy players. Well, those aren't normal, but i saw many of them who pretended to be sane.

1. Add an option to automate the science/economy/luxury tab so that it would be optimised to the turn, and possibly with locks just like Civ2 and/or Civ1. Don't forget to bring back the settings to the former set once a tech discovered.

Possibly add an option to display this on the main screen!!

2. Allow easy selectionnable triggers, like with the former science rate (like 100%) and tech (like pottery), or do it automatically according to player's habits.
Display a message only when those are a part of the player's civilization skills.
This could be an option too.

(to be continued)

[Laszlo]

I was really blown away by the simplicity of the Galactic Civilizations interface. There were no workers, so that helped it a lot, but you could really breeze through a turn on a huge map. There were barely any pop-ups requiring immediate attention for confirmations as Civ2 was. If only they had full keyboard shortcut support for the menus it would have been perfect.

I could see the interface in Civ3 going that direction, and I hope that's what Soren was saying with his "Simplify, simplify, simplify" mantra in the cIV Powerpoint presentation. I much preferred GalCiv to Civ3 (though I missed Earth) . Suggest checking out GalCiv itself to see what I mean about their implementation.

[La Diva]

PLEASE fix the Locate City feature! Four solutions:

1. Include a Search Engine style text box to type in the name
2. Sort alphabetically by city name
3. Double sort, first by Civ, then by City
4. GoTo link on Advisor pop-ups.

My most frequent reason to find a city is after a pop-up tells me one of my units is in another civ's territory, usually because their border expanded or they just built a new city next to my sentry in unclaimed territory. Offer a map link in the pop-up either to go and move the unit immediately or to show me where to find the city when AI finishes its turn. Since my unit is "asleep," finding it can be very time consuming and annoying.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Bleyn
One very simple interface change I'd like to see is the unit current hit point/total hit point numbers shown in the same info box that displays their stats and movment points.

It is.

[Kuciwalker]

Re: Consistent Button Locations

Originally posted by Geoff the Medio
A current major annoyance for me is the variable location of action buttons at the bottom of the screen (in Civ3). Depending on the terrain, the buttons for "build road" or "build fortress" (or similar) can sometimes be in the same location for two different units.

WTF are you using the buttons? There's a reason they have hotkeys.

[piratebrun]

I need BOTH keyboard and mouse actions for each function. Makes MP easier, and SP when you are drinking beer, talkin on phone, smoking a cig, etc etc etc... and the shortcut keys need to be in every menu so they are easily learnable (like civ2 menus).

and ALL actions need shortcut keys - especially right click on unit/city. there is a key on the 104-key keyboards that is supposed to simulate a right click. then you could use the arrow keys or first letter of the command to navigate the menu.

move/view (like civ2) needs to come back, so you can move a unit with the kbd, then hit 'm' to switch modes, cursor to the next unit, hit 'a' to activate, then move/attack with that unit. saves SOO much time.

the whole reason i hate macs is the no choice of kbd shortcuts. i can completely use windows without a mouse (and do frequently).

[lorifromsf]

Be able to access Embassy screen from other screens.

Fix Embassy & Spy functions.
The current setup is way too clunky. There should be a list of civilizations, a list of cities, a list of options and a choice of degree of difficulty.

I think spies should be divided into two groups – “intelligence” and “agents”. Intelligence should be able to be planted without the risk of causing war. They allow the player to find out all the information that a spy can do currently. I am especially thinking of knowledge of spaceship construction. Agents are more like current spies without the intelligence aspect. Planting them causes a risk of incident, and they do all the actions. Also, make planting spies a little more certain, at a higher cost.

Have a single screen that has all known info about another civilization. Military strength, resources, luxuries, diplomatic status (war, right of way, alliance, etc.), what wonders they are building, what techs they have and those I have that they lack. I know others have said that we should be able to see more information, such as what trades are in place between two other civilizations. This would be a good place to put it all.

Also make accessible an abbreviated F1 type screen for other civilizations, showing names of cities and last known population. If I investigate a city I should be able to access the information throughout my turn from here. Also, this information should be available for several turns, with a disclaimer that it is old information.

[Brent]

Be able to customise the look of the interface, to look like Civ2, Civ3, SMAC, or something else.

[trolluscaius]

like hexagonian says make group like warcraft.
it could be great if we can do batch action like upgrade units or order improvement to multiple target