Interface improvements

[Jukelo]

I've been enjoying my time with TLF a great deal so far!

There are however a few things I'd like to touch upon as far as the interface ease of use is concerned.

1) In the Race relations screen, when pointing the cursor at one of the races icons, a list of their relations with the various other races is displayed
As you can notice, this list is not color-coded by race, as opposed to the exact same list in the Government dealings screen.
I think that second image is a lot more usable, and for the sake of consistency I believe it should be re-used on the Race relations screen.
There is also the issue of, when clicking on a race in that relations screen, being sent to the detailed relations screen (this one), whose exit button sends you to the global map as opposed to returning you to the Race relations screen.

2) Clicking the Friendly acts, Hostile acts and Government deals buttons has to make up for half the clicks on the global map. Luckily, you can access the Friendly acts screen with the LMB on a planet you're already on...but if you want to do any of the other two (hostile & government), you have to reach all the way to the bottom of the screen to where these buttons are. It might just be me being lazy, but I really felt like I spent too much time having to drag the mouse around to access these vital screens whne most of the time the items they're linked to (the planets) are going to be in the middle of the screen (to this end I found myself using wasd a lot to try and reduce the distance between the planets/outposts and the buttons). IMO a simple way to fix that would be to add buttons in each of these 3 screens (or at least the Friendly acts, opened by default with LMB) to access either one of the others, something like that:



Accessing these buttons this way would take an extra click, but has the benefit of reducing the distance and keeping most mouse movement around the center of the screen (as well as turning downward mouse movement, into upward movement, which always feels more comfortable).

3) The detailed planetary view has great art background... but after the first couple times you tend to not really look at the art anymore: you're there for the numbers. Which unfortunately are presented in a long vertical list which later on (when you most need it) will overflow and force you to use the scrollwheel. A lot. Which is a shame considering 2/3rd of the screen space is wasted on (very good) artwork which does very little to help you access the information you're looking for easily. Even for the few surviving low resolution screens around (I guess some people still use 1024x768 screens) there is enough room to arrange all taht information in a more efficient way, if only in a double column.

4) Double clicks please! Some Friendly/hostile/govt acts require more context, like a target or a duration which have to be set in the field below (at the bottom of the screen again... ) but some others are pretty straight forward (attacking a pirate base etc) and the player should have the option of accepting them simply by double clicking instead of having to reach all the way down to the Take action button.

5) ..and last but not least, shortcuts!! I was very dissapointed when I noticed the lack of key customization as far as the global map is concerned. Having played most previous Arcen titles I have always been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of options you could remap to the keyboard...but TLF is very poor in this regard. We should be able to quickly access the various screens using keyboard shortcuts (which incidentally would adress 2) ).

That's it for now, I'll be sure to keep this thread updated if I have any more gripes with the UI and usability in general.

[BobTheJanitor]

I like the idea of making the 4 map options accessible from any screen when dealing with a particular race. Less clicking is always good. I'm also a fan of hotkeys. If you have time, your ideas will get to the devs more directly if you're willing to post them on mantis.

[Qoojo]

Every selection for number of months should have quick buttons for 1/4, 1/2, 3/4, and max. Because it seems like the specific number of months is a bit irrelevant. Usually, I am looking for something along those ratios.

[Azurian]

Great ideas,  I especially want the Contract Complete screen to be improved visually.


I wish this game could be modded by editing. XmL files.

[Draco18s]

I'd also like a way to gift multiple, unrelated, technolgies to a race without being thrown back to the map after every one.  Same with other political dealings.  Only throw me back to the map when I do something that causes time to pass.  After I've done 37 odd things and exit to the map myself and start time up again, then it can pause and show me the results (99% of which is going to have been what was shown to me in the dialogs anyway).

[Azurian]

I wouldn't mind if the solar map was unpaused in the background at 1/4 or 1/2 speed when on the Interface screens in the solar map.

[Jukelo]

I like the idea of making the 4 map options accessible from any screen when dealing with a particular race. Less clicking is always good. I'm also a fan of hotkeys. If you have time, your ideas will get to the devs more directly if you're willing to post them on mantis.

Thanks for the advice. Should I post it as one big report to avoid flooding the mantis with all these minor-ish and all more or less related issues?

[topper]

I like the idea of making the 4 map options accessible from any screen when dealing with a particular race. Less clicking is always good. I'm also a fan of hotkeys. If you have time, your ideas will get to the devs more directly if you're willing to post them on mantis.

Thanks for the advice. Should I post it as one big report to avoid flooding the mantis with all these minor-ish and all more or less related issues?

I have one mantis ticket from during the alpha for accessing all of the planet screens. Take a look at it here.

Each idea or bug should probably have its own ticket, but you can look at the current issues to see if yours are duplicates of any existing ones.

[Azurian]

I like the idea of making the 4 map options accessible from any screen when dealing with a particular race. Less clicking is always good. I'm also a fan of hotkeys. If you have time, your ideas will get to the devs more directly if you're willing to post them on mantis.

Thanks for the advice. Should I post it as one big report to avoid flooding the mantis with all these minor-ish and all more or less related issues?

Make one post,  put the original post,  and upload all the pictures and then put a link to this thread.

[kasnavada]

The second idea needs to go up badly.

I spent 40 years of game time in my first game not finding out there was something else to do rather than friendly actions...

[Azurian]

You can also put the buttons on the bottom where it shows the credits.