Context Menu

[Hearteater]

See attached for my galaxy layout suggestion .  And while I'm commenting on the galaxy map I'll mention 3586 from Mantis.

I think for non-context sensitive things, a flyout menu bar that is accessed by standard hotkeys might make the most sense.  Basically just like you suggested with say keys 1-9 (or whatever) to access each item on the flyout menu.  The advantage here is you aren't blocking the middle of the screen with a menu.  This could make multi-step actions (arc move) a little cleaner since the menu could remain open and in fact change as you progress through each stage of the action.

But for things that are truly is context sensitive, I'd leave it.

[Nalgas]

See attached for my galaxy layout suggestion .

But what about those poor people who use tiny resolutions (not that I understand how they play the game that way in the first place without getting frustrated)?  You can't just keep tacking more buttons on everywhere, because not everyone runs at 1080p or higher like you and I do.  Heh.

[Hearteater]

You'd have to be running in 800x600 for that change to be an issue as the modified menu area on the bottom takes up just over half a 1920x1080 display.  Once you hit 1024x768 that would fit fine.  And for reference, in business applications which I work, we assume everyone has at least 1024x768 now are users have stingy IT departments that upgrade their hardware 4+ years behind the curve.

[Echo35]

And for reference, in business applications which I work, we assume everyone has at least 1024x768 now are users have stingy IT departments that upgrade their hardware 4+ years behind the curve.

Hey, we have a 5 year cycle for the long stuff and we have larger screens than that! I actually surplussed a machine today from 1996. Think it could run AI War?

[Nalgas]

You'd have to be running in 800x600 for that change to be an issue as the modified menu area on the bottom takes up just over half a 1920x1080 display.  Once you hit 1024x768 that would fit fine.  And for reference, in business applications which I work, we assume everyone has at least 1024x768 now are users have stingy IT departments that upgrade their hardware 4+ years behind the curve.

Fair enough.  I didn't actually measure the pixels or anything.  Something I do hate is that everyone assume that people have at least 1024x768 screens and will run everything full screen.  It annoys the crap out of me when websites don't degrade gracefully when in a window that's 900 pixels wide on a laptop or netbook or something.

[Nice Save]

The only things I use the context menu for are the galaxy map layout and science lab auto-gather knowledge. I would happily use Hearteater's galaxy map thingummy, but I can't see myself learning a keybinding for auto-gather. Otherwise the context menu might as well not exist as far as I'm concerned.

[Nalgas]

The only things I use the context menu for are the galaxy map layout and science lab auto-gather knowledge. I would happily use Hearteater's galaxy map thingummy, but I can't see myself learning a keybinding for auto-gather. Otherwise the context menu might as well not exist as far as I'm concerned.

Those two things are probably also the main reasons I use it in single player, but in multiplayer it suddenly becomes very important for giving resources to people.  If someone pops a distribution node, they can give whatever extra they don't need to other people, or if someone's building a particularly big project or just got their fleet wrecked while doing something important, other people can toss some spare resources their way to speed things up (although just having your engineers assist whatever they're doing also works, depending on what exactly is going on).