GRAPHICS: Call to Artists!

[Maquiladora]

My only problem with the vanilla screens is that i cant see the effect on production speed when im changing specialists in City Manager, without closing the City Manager first, so anything that fixes that would be good. When you change the Empire Manager you can see the advance count going up or down, so why cant you see the production for a city updated as you change specialists?

Anyway if there HAS to be a whole new design, id like to see a "NEXT POP IN [ ] TURNS".

[Peter Triggs]

Anyway if there HAS to be a whole new design, id like to see a "NEXT POP IN [ ] TURNS".

It may be possible to do this (also) on the main screen by adding a little box under the city's pop. You'd have to have "Show city names" in your profile enabled to see it.

One point I'd like to raise is about the max army size. I think we could raise it providing we allow enough buttons for each of the possible units in the army. What do people think?

[Gilgamensch]

Locutus, the design is looking good, but I don't like that you have to scroll through the build list:

For me the build list shall have all entries visible. That is one of the biggest annoyances for me.

And as Maq mentioned:

My only problem with the vanilla screens is that i cant see the effect on production speed when im changing specialists in City Manager, without closing the City Manager first, so anything that fixes that would be good. When you change the Empire Manager you can see the advance count going up or down, so why cant you see the production for a city updated as you change specialists?

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Flinx
The problem I have with this setup (which is based on The second layout by Locutus) is that the information on the left is so chopped-up and all over the place that it is impossible to use and this information is why I use the city screen!

I agree that it's not in the best possible arrangement, but I think if it's switched around some it will be no worse than the existing system. It might be a little harder to take in at a glance, but I think it's only a matter of getting used to it.

Originally posted by OnePresent
As I put this together another option came to mind that may be a better use of the tabs. Instead of having tabs for status and build, have tabs for build and map view. When is the map view least needed??? Maybe when using the build interface??

I don't think so... I think users are just as likely to want to see their city when choosing what to build (Does it need defence because it's near the enemy, does it need to build settlers because there's an area empty of cities nearby, etc.)

Here's a more ambitiious proposal: How about having two sections of the screen (basically where you have the map view and where you have the tabbed section in your last proposal) each of which can be chosen to be either build view, status view or see-through-to-map view.

[Maquiladora]

It may be possible to do this (also) on the main screen by adding a little box under the city's pop. You'd have to have "Show city names" in your profile enabled to see it.

This is interesting. Can we have other things like currently building item and time to completion next to it, under the city name on the map too?

[The Big Mc]

How about Time to next pop and a button to stagnate the pop growth.

[Tamerlin]

Originally posted by OnePresent
As I put this together another option came to mind that may be a better use of the tabs. Instead of having tabs for status and build, have tabs for build and map view. When is the map view least needed??? Maybe when using the build interface??

True!

Though J Bytheway is not wrong neither...

I prefer the city screen you posted page 18, it seems to hold all the needed informations. I guess the problem is that it can't be displayed in 800x600...

[Gilgamensch]

Originally posted by Tamerlin
I prefer the city screen you posted page 18, it seems to hold all the needed informations. I guess the problem is that it can't be displayed in 800x600...

Page 18 ?????????????????????

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Gilgamensch
Locutus, the design is looking good, but I don't like that you have to scroll through the build list:

For me the biggest problem is I don't like to have to click tabs to see info. And on 800x600 it's gonna be one or the other, we can't have both, at least not when we also have a map view.

But either solution is really unsatisfactory for bigger resolutions: it's silly that a window only takes up 25% of the screen but you still can't see everything you want.

I was thinking we might simply have to develop 2 versions of the city screen: one for small resolutions (800x600) and one for big ones (I think it should be possible to fit everything comfortably on 1024x768 without having to rely either on tabs or scrolling).

But a solution similar to John's proposal might work better: have different panels that can be opened or closed as desired: on 800x600 having all windows open would then block most of the map view, but on bigger resolutions you would still have a decent amount of space left for the main map. This method is already used for the various Advisors in the game, it shouldn't be too hard to copy it for other parts of the UI.

[Gilgamensch]

Actually were you mentioned the advisor:

I haven't seen any suggestion for this. Not that, me thinks, anyone of us hardly ever uses it (although I leave the trade one enabled to the see the most profitable one at once).

But the designs till now, would get rid of him, or?

[The Big Mc]

sack him

no council like civ 2. The military advisor was always complaining about lack of troops even when I conquered 99% of the world.

[OnePresent]

Originally posted by J Bytheway

Here's a more ambitiious proposal: How about having two sections of the screen (basically where you have the map view and where you have the tabbed section in your last proposal) each of which can be chosen to be either build view, status view or see-through-to-map view.

Interesting. I like this idea better than the two sketches I put up. As with all of these designs these items are really crammed into a small space. It may be almost impossible to get every needed detail in place and have it logical, usable, and decent enough to look at. (Yes the left area of this screen needs much work.)

Here's yet another concept. First some dramatic background music.

Let's use all the space on the 800 x 600 screen for all functions EXCEPT the map. On the title bar of the window we put on the left side, the eyeball which centers the map underneath. Just to the right of this (programmers, are you sitting down?) a "windowshade" button. With this button the whole window is collapsed into the title bar to reveal the centered map underneath. Another click on the windowshade button brings the dialog box back in view. Not perfect, but maybe the cleanest solution yet, an all-numbers-in-one city screen, alternating with the best map view yet--full screen. And if you are using high resolution you can have the city screen and background map visiable at the same time.

[Locutus]

How about this? (See attachments)

You can click on the buttons in the top and bottom of the screen (as well as 'List' in the Current Queue button section for the Buildable Items list) to display/hide various sections of the UI.

This works on all resolutions: on 800x600 most of the map would be invisible if everything is open and you'll have to select which sections you want to see, while on bigger resolutions you could have everything open and still have a decent amount of space to view the world map.

Note that everything but the city name/mayor/eyepointer (which I forgot to add but should be easy enough to fit in) section can be hidden, since I can't imagine anyone would want to hide that section. Of course, it should be easy enough to add a hide button for that section as well, if deemed necessary.



Example 1

[Locutus]

Example 2

[Gilgamensch]

Looks a bit messy, my first impression. But I will give it more thoughts.