FIRAXIS asks for your help on Interface Design...

[Blade Runner]

1/ Custom graphics interface elements, preferably 2-4 different styles. (in editable graphic format .gfx .jpg etc.)
2/ Menu/interface editor with underlying scripting language.
3/ User defined shortcuts/hot keys.
4/ Full screen mode (ala Yin).
5/ User defined/modified scripts can change ANYTHING dinamically on the interface. (i.e. in year 1500AD the interface look alike change from style 1 to style 3, etc.)
6/ The complete interface/menu/graphics system are saveable/loadable (like a scenario )

Blade

[Icedan]

Thanks Blade, now you're gonna have me redesigning the interface more than actually playing the game. Anyone find themselves creating units more than actually playing with it in the game? I did, and how pathetic that was.

[Rusty Nail]

I would argue strongly for a return to the civ2 style of showing a city's current status on food, production, an science GRAPHICALLY, both on the little resource map and in the cities screen. Civ2 was superb. SMAC and CTP and TOT all moved to a numerical system, a backwards step IMHO. Why is beyond me. Numbers are not nearly as intuitive when you have to review many cities quickly. Why not offer both?

[Baller]

The ONLY thing that I ask of Civ III's interface is that it be easy to figure out and fast. One of the things that made Civs I and II such addictive games was the fact that you could figure out how to play the game right out of the box without reading the manual/playing the tutorial. Unfortunetly, CTP came out with a new "improved" interface which did nothing but turn users off. I personally do not have tons of free time to "get used" to a total overhaul of the graphical interface system, so playability is tops in my book.
One more thing: I love the ticker idea, and also the history book at the end of the game.

[EnochF]

Thumbs up on the ticker idea. That always added a fun element to SimCity. Make sure the ticker doesn't slow down an average speed computer system, though. Don't make the ticker access the CD, for example.

Thumbs up to historical summaries. Half the reason I play Civ is to write a new history. It would even help keep me interested in the late game if I could take a break and look at the major events of the year I just played, like an almanac, showing the various statistics of my empire, discoveries I made this year, attacks and battles, new trade routes, environmental damage... sometimes I get tired of moving units around. Let me look at what I've accomplished.

[don Don]

Hey, I've got your specifics right here!

Keyboard control is a must. SMAC limited keyboard control to one or two things at any given time: Base Control Screen steps through bases in alpha order with left/right keys, but you can't switch Resource/Support/Psych display, open the build orders or build queue or hurry, scroll through garrison or unit support list. One should at least be able to tab between the MFD, Build, Base names areas for arrow key manipulation.

As implemented Labs & Energy Banks Reports don't allow keyboard scrolling. Base Ops Report can't switch between production, citizens, and garrison views, while scrolling doesn't work after clicking on a base. Returning to Base Ops from a Base Control Screen repostions you to the beginning of the list instead of wherever you were when you entered the Base Control Screen.

Datalinks: should be able to tab between the data screen and the list of topics, and scroll/page through the topics.

SORTING! Can't sort or manually rearrange presentations in any way. Should be able to sort tech by category, bases by size or location or manual arrangement.

I feel better now

[Garth Vader]

As mentioned summary pages are great especially if you can sort like MOO2. I also like keyboard shortcuts F1 for city status for example. If you are going to display stats like the Civ 2 demographics can they mean something or have their calculation method available. I never could figure out why my space faring CIV had an average income of $600.

If there is going to be a design screen like SMAC's workshop it would be nice if when you deleted design number 30 you weren't sent back to item #1 all the time. This would be nice for any menu like that, for example you are looking at a city status report and you click on a city to go that detailed screen when you exit the detailed screen you should go back to the status report screen in the same place you left it, not the top.

[connorkimbro]

another idea borrowed from simcity (and a few other sim type games) is that i want to see trends. . as in, i want to know how much money i have now, but how much did i have a year ago? 10 years ago? am i getting it faster now than i did then, or slower? these things could be represented by a graph of some sort. . and not just about money, but about anything. . popularity, population, whatever you want. . i'd imagine that it wouldn't be too hard to implement, so the more information you can find out from these types of graphs. . , the better.

[Nemo]

City windows: like civ II. No bar graphs nor only numbers. I liked the different pictures (one for food, one for science, etc) that are spacious when there are few and crunched when there are many, these would be acompanied by numbers. And soft colors that complement, each other.
- Think Civ II -

Allow an option to hide the general information toolbar, and let us be able to choose what side of the screen it can be on (top, bottom, left, right). Allow resizing of that little world map, maybe even allow the space bar to maximize the map window (like in Homeworld - but 2D).
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OT? Window sizing of the game: If you allow it to be a window (most older games) which people have mentioned, rather than full screen (like newer games) please put a screen resolution option in it. I *hate* having to change my desktop resolution just to play a game.

[ember]

Filters would be nice.

Like when looking at a the unit totals summaries, being able to filter out units that have no existing copies and none under production...Usually the AI lists are 3 - 5 pages by the end of the game, and most don't exist anymore...

Give more fileds in teh summary windows available than you display, and allow the user to determine with filds are important to them. Personally i would use a net production field more than raw production.

[subspace]

I want a screen where I can "talk" (literally) with my advisors. The High Consul in Civ2 is nice, but it feels like a one way dialogue. I also want the interface to be interactive.Like when i want to talk with one of my advisors, i don't click the Advisors Menu, but instead i "pick up a phone" and summon all of my advisors for a meeting. In this "meeting", i can ask some questions and also ANSWER some question (for example, the Senate wants my explanation for sending my nuclear subs to another nation's territory).
Another example is when i want to change the tax rate. I summon my economy advisor, and discuss this matter, and the outcome would be the new tax setting.
The coolest implementation of this interactive-interface, i think, would be in the battlefield. I'd rather shouted "CHAAARGE, and fight to the death!!!!!", than simply move a unit to an enemy city.

[don Don]

Garth, that's 600 constant 4000 BC dollars, which is $263,592.31 after adjusting for inflation

[Theben]

Have a hotkey that will overlay trade routes on the map, allowing players to see where to intercept/pirate trade routes.

A toggle for messages. Allow the player to set the message time on screen from 2-20 seconds + one more that lasts until the player clicks it off. Have 2 different settings: One for regular message windows & one for combat message windows separately.

[bondetamp]

The one thing I liked the most in SMAC was the way you could customize your troops. I like parashuting col.pods. They take a few more rounds to build, but saves ****loads of time on movement.

The second most loved thing in SMAC was the ease of uppgrading obsolete units. In CivII nothing anoyed me more than having twenty phalanks lying around during the space-age.

Both of these options should IMO be included in CivIII.

As for interface, I like the SMAC interface, but I'd go for a more "windowish" one. Like CivII, so I can play it on work and still be able to alt-tab myself back to photoshop when the boss comes in the door.

Interface is one area whre Microsoft really shines. Learn from them. But make CivIII more stable. A blue screen is fun for no-one.

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mail: bondetamp@yahoo.com

<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by bondetamp (edited November 17, 1999).]</font>

[johnmcd]

Absolutely everything that can be hyperlinked should be, as in Championship Manager 3 (football(soccer) management sim). It can be frustrating at first but very quickly makes you curse every other interface ever. Even my kettle's seems overly complicated now.