FIRAXIS asks for your help on Interface Design...

[Atahualpa]

I think there should be some screens where you can do a lot of stuff quickly and where you get all the information you need to run your empire. Best would be to include batch operations, so that I can set options for multiple cities with a few clicks.

What I liked about CtP and what you HAVE to include is the maximize tab! When I want to boost production, I hit the production button, when I want to boost my treasury I hit the gold button! Wonderful thing! However, the feature was not perfectly implemented in Ctp, so that I had to select every single city and maximize it and now you see why I vote for batch operations. Wouldnt it be better (in one single screen) to sort all cities by size and then select the five best cities and maximize them for production in times of war!

I would make a single status screen where there are registers (or tabs) named cities, civ, units... .

In addition maybe you could make the windows resizeable. When maximized, the window shows all the information, when not, there are scrollbars, but then you can view parts of the map.

I really disliked the city screen of SMAC or SMACX. I only played the demo however, but everytime I open it, I get knocked down. It feels overloaded, there is no contrast! Blue on blue. Remember the civ2 screen had green regions and orange regions and blue regions. This helps orientating!

BUT: And I hope everyone agrees with me, if you make the game sluggish, nobody will care about the design! Design has to be fast to be (not) noticed!

Ata

[Atahualpa]

Btw, Yin, Heroes of Might and Magic III is great! I have played the game at my friends and I liked it the very first moment I played it!
There are now 8 different castles and all have 7 different creatures making 56 creatures, plus the 4 creatures that nobody (at least no player) has (earth, water, fire, air creatures). Making 60 unique creatures.
There are tons of hereos all unique. There are tons of spells. XL maps are sooo large, it will take hours to explore and conquer them completely.
There are 7 different resources (I believe 7).
But best are the 8 different castle types. This guarantees replayability!

All combined makes one of the greatest games!

So much for homm3,
Ata

[EnochF]

I just picked up Test of Time and have been playing it off and on for a couple days, which is why my new top priority for the Civ III interface is:

SPEED

Moving a unit should be as fast as possible. No, make that faster than possible. Likewise, any pulldown menus should appear almost intantaneously, with as little ostentation as possible. In fact, I would even prefer Civ III to operate in a standard window rather than a full-screen jump that takes precious seconds and makes the monitor blip every time I want to multitask. Er.

For that matter, a standard Windows menu bar is infinitely more user friendly than some obscure customized interface what minimizes on the bottom or side of the screen somewhere, and besides, any interface you design will end up eating memory and wasting time, and very little is gained. Not to mention that designing a customized system of pop-up message windows has got to be a pain; why bother? We instinctively know how Windows works. Escape equals "cancel" and takes down a message box. Enter equals "okay" if there's no "cancel" box. You don't have to worry about training yourself to hit the space bar or alt-S or some other exotic key combination that way.

Another quick issue

KEYBOARDS

My sense is that simulation players, Civ players in particular, are happier with keyboard controls than the mouse. I understand designing a mouse-oriented system, but I also believe that every function of the game, no matter how obscure, should have a keyboard shortcut. I would also appreciate the ability to mark and number a unit or group of units, as in Age of Empires/Kings. (You know: select a group, hit control-{number} to mark, then you can select that group by hitting alt-{number} without having to hunt all over the map.)

[Atahualpa]

EnochF: If you have played CtP you'll see that a mouse orientated design can be quite good to. The only keys in CtP I use are Strg+s and Strg+l and sometimes the 'n' key for next turn but only rarley. Most unit-options are shown as large buttons and can easily be reached. It needs some time to get used to, but when used to it, you'll like it!

Ata

[yin26]

Ata,

Thanks for the good word on HoMM3. I can't wait to get my copy once things slow down for me. By the way, how have they changed the interface?

[jodasi]

Build To: feature for settlers
==============================

In master of magic, you can instruct your engineer to build a road from point a to point b. Usually that how I build all my roads in Master of Magic.

In Civ2 you have to manually instruct your settler to build a road in every spot. This build to feature would eleviate much of the micromanagement that a settler would require.

If one were to expand this further, you could highlight an area and tell your settler to BLAH this area, where blah is irrigate, or pilage, or mine. This would also help trim down micromanagement.

Micromanaging settlers is the one thing that really makes me batty about CIV2. Please fix it in civ3.

[jodasi]

3 Scenario builder Enhancemencements.
1 New feature.

#1 Named Heroes/Villains joining or opposing players.

Let Random Named Heroes enter the game under random conditions.

Example: When player 'x' achieves amassing xx dollars or hits tech level yy, or something then unleash demon type BLAH.

Or, Darkvine the evil lord (hero unit) joins in a pact against player 'y'.

#2 Reserves coming over the hill...

Example: In the Scenario Builder, allow the programmed entrance of xx units on to the map on turn yy, at location zz.

What does this mean? A good hearty scenario with reserve units entering the board. This is good because you can do scenarios that dont depend on cities being on the board. It also means you can do good classic wargame scenarios with reserves, just like the old SPI type of wargames.

#3 An Item builder like in Master of Magic.
This item can be used to actually pump up a unit on the board.

Example: Unit A finds a ring of invisibility (unit is no longer affected by zone of control. Unit B finds boots of springing (plus 3 to move)


#4 Introduce named abilities that units can aquire during the game.

Example: Spells!!! Unit A finds a scroll that instills water walking(can move on water with out a boat) or stone skin(defense +2), or fear(causes enemy units to retreat).

[Atahualpa]

Yin: Sorry, I dont know Homm2, so I cant speak of any changes. Homm3 is the only one of the 3 I posess. But, the interface is quite easy, as I (newbie) got used to quite quickly.

ATa

[Theben]

Check out the MISCELLANEOUS summary. The last several posts were stolen from the PLAYER INTERFACE threads, and IMHO should be considered. On the whole, I must agree fully with EnochF about speed, using a standard Window, and mandatory keyboard shortcuts.

yin, Ata:

The upgrade from HOMM2 to HOMM3 is mostly an upgrade in graphics, with a few new monsters, spells, and structures on the land. Oh, and the underground map. The campaigns, unfortunately, are a lot worse.

[Mike Salzman]

I suggest including a sidebar that scrolls vertically through all of the cities you have. They should be organized chronologically with (in very small letters) the name of the city and the population. And put that info over a little icon that looks like the city does on the game. I suggest keeping it very small (about 20x20 pixels or so) so not to take up too much space, but go all the way from the top to the bottom. When you click on the city once, it will center on it on the map, click it again and it will enter the city. It can be compared to the way the castles are organized in Heroes of Might and Magic 1, 2, and 3.

[Krenske]

Some proper Automation of Constructing units would be good. The Automation of units in "Test of time" is really Bad. Being able to order a unit to improve a cities roads should have it build roads for every possible square for the city. Being able to shift click squares and then order the same improvement for all would be great. The best bit would be the MOM feature of building roads from here to here and having the unit do so.

After completing its assigned task it should come back and be available again.

Paul Krenske

[darkgrendel]

I say the interface should be something between the too-dark SMAC and the too-bright CTP.

[Steel_Fist]

Hey,
Remember the original screen in CIV 1 where at the end of the game you got to see a history of your world? The world map was seen and the borders and cities of the various empires was updated as a timeline was moved along, also the first civ to discover a tech was announced. This was a very cool feature, one that I would love to see includded with CIV III. It was something I looked forward to much more than seeing some "movie" at the end of a game.

[Sparky]

Civ CTP's graphics were good -- colorful and high-resolution with plenty of detail. SMAC missed out with low-resolution graphics. But it did beat CTP in interface. In CTP you were supposed to move units with the mouse which is VERY UNCOMFORTABLE for those accustomed to the numeric pad arrows. I would like to see a cross between RTS games and TBS. Have the option to highlight unit groups with an on-screen box for "go to" like Total Annihilation, but still be able to use the arrow keys for individual units.

For everything else, the interface of SMAC should be replicated using CTP's better graphics style.

[Atahualpa]

Moving with the mouse is not so bad IMO. I like it!

Ata