Author Topic: Units/GUI: Better and Larger Selection  (Read 3013 times)

ChupaReaper

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Units/GUI: Better and Larger Selection
« on: 12 June 2010, 00:26:47 »
This has probably been requested before, but it is annoying only being able to select 16 units, I know they can be saved as groups but it is still annoying. The best thing I think is when more than 16 units are selected their images in the top right corner stack so all of one units shares the same image and has a number on it showing how many of them are selected.

Also this would be pretty useful, when a units image in the top right is left clicked only that unit (or stack of units) is selected, also with less than 17 units selected double clicking the unit image would select all units of its type within the selection (just liking left clicking a stack of units). Right clicking or double right clicking should do the opposite removing the unit(s) from the current selection.

Thinking about it, it would probably be better to stack units straight away even with less than 16 selected. When more than 16 types of units are selected, they are all selected but the first 16 types are only displayed in the top right corner with maybe some image signifying that more than 16 types are selected or could get really advanced and add arrows to get to a new page of unit types selected.
« Last Edit: 19 September 2010, 16:39:56 by ChupaReaper »

hailstone

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Re: Unit selection...
« Reply #1 on: 12 June 2010, 05:56:49 »
Thanks for putting in the effort with the detail. This has been mentioned before but there isn't a ticket in trac yet.

Here's a possible ticket:

Quote
Summary: Increase/Remove unit selection limits
Type: enhancement
Description:
Currently it is only possible to select 16 units. This could be due to the limit of space in the display panel. A possible solution is to group the portraits of the same unit types with a number representing the amount of units in the group, allowing a greater number of units to be represented in a small space.

When a portrait is left clicked the details/skills for the unit(s) is displayed. Double left clicking a portrait should remove all other selection leaving the chosen unit(s). Right clicking should remove a single unit from the selection. Double right clicking should remove an entire group from selection and shift+right clicking should remove n amount of units from selection. (This will need testing to find the best combination of user input.)

When more than 16 types of units are selected, arrows are left clicked to view other pages of unit types.

I imagine this will be dependent on the GUI changes that are being worked on for 0.3. I think it would be another ticket but adding health bars to the portraits could be a good idea too.
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ChupaReaper

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Re: Unit selection...
« Reply #2 on: 12 June 2010, 10:41:01 »
That looks good to me, I've heard the GUI is being redone so it's a good time to get this mentioned. I've read that it's being redone for different aspect ratios, it would be good if it allowed high quality images as all my buttons/portraits are 128x128 but they look ok but could look better on a HDTV lol, some GUI scaling option should be implemented with the new GUI engine.

silnarm

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Re: Unit selection... [Opinions wanted!]
« Reply #3 on: 13 June 2010, 06:32:56 »
This has indeed been discussed before, and has been the point of much debate...

I'm in favour of increasing the limit, but I don't think completely removing it is on option.  So what are peoples opinions on a reasonable number? We could probably get away with 25 without having 'stacked' icons, but the stacked icons with numbers wont be hard, so is more than that preferable??

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ChupaReaper

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Re: Unit selection...
« Reply #4 on: 13 June 2010, 11:38:39 »
It depends how it's all programmed, there might be a way to remove the limit all together or might just have to up the limit, if some people want to limit to stay  then a tech tree option in the xml should be added with a default of 16 units max. My mod can have hundreds of units in a mega long game so selecting then 16 at a time can become annoying.

John.d.h

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Re: Unit selection...
« Reply #5 on: 13 June 2010, 17:53:48 »
It depends how it's all programmed, there might be a way to remove the limit all together or might just have to up the limit, if some people want to limit to stay  then a tech tree option in the xml should be added with a default of 16 units max.
Personally, I like the 16-unit limit as it seems more suited to the small-scale squad skirmishes of Glest, but I can see how somebody would want to create a more massive game with much bigger armies, so I can go right along with what you're saying here.

I'm in favour of increasing the limit, but I don't think completely removing it is on option.  So what are peoples opinions on a reasonable number? We could probably get away with 25 without having 'stacked' icons, but the stacked icons with numbers wont be hard, so is more than that preferable??
I think 25 would be fine if we make it 5x5 grid.  That's probably the most I would want in a group, but I don't pretend to speak for everybody.

Gabbe

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Re: Unit selection...
« Reply #6 on: 13 June 2010, 18:06:41 »
I prefer huge armies clashing together in huge battles. my opinion ::)

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Re: Unit selection...
« Reply #7 on: 15 June 2010, 01:53:09 »
I dunno. I would personally think that unlimited units in a selection would be good. It won't make battles any bigger, since I always make a bunch of numbered groups and send them to attack at almost the same time (never more than a second or two apart, and going a few steps at a time to ensure they stay in pace). Result? Huge battles anyway. Infinite select just lets me have less micromanagement.  :thumbup:
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ChupaReaper

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Re: Unit selection...
« Reply #8 on: 15 June 2010, 02:01:23 »
I've found my mod quite interesting now as it starts off very small scale until some buildings are built then things pick up until eventually you have an average attack force of around 100 units, also the AI have an unfair advantage being able to control as many units as they want at once, for small squad battles this is fine but when things get all big and epic a lot of ctrl+# is needed.

wyvern

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Re: Unit selection...
« Reply #9 on: 15 June 2010, 02:08:22 »
I think that you should have the option to organize units into sections, these would go as following and could each be selected as a single unit but the larger the sections are the harder they are to manouver.
unit:single unit such as swordman, daemon etc
squad:a section of 4-5 units
platoon:4 squads
company:4 platoons
division:4 companies
army:4 divisions
This would lead to more strategy variety, the sections act as a single unit.

ChupaReaper

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Updated: Units/GUI: Better and Larger Selection
« Reply #10 on: 19 September 2010, 16:52:06 »
I've bumped this topic so that it gets noticed again and moved to the Feature Request place.
With the new GUI I think this feature looks more realistic now.
What I think would be good:
  • No more limit or a very big limit.
  • Selection portrait Grouping: Only one portrait is shown with a number equal to how many units of that type are selected.
  • ? When units of the same type are selected either all their portraits are displayed or they're grouped.
  • When units of the same type are selected or units with identical abilities all their special commands should be displayed. I've found when two different types of my worker units (Werewolves and Satyrs) are selected their Build commands are all gone. I have their build commands separated into General, Military and Castle. They can both build the same General and Castle buildings but different Military buildings so when both types of workers are selected instead of hiding all Build commands, only the Build General and Build Castle should be kept.
  • When multiple units of different types are selected, each type of unit should be grouped, if more than what can be displayed in the GUI is selected then the new scrollbar feature should be put to good use.
  • Units could be selected or deselected by left clicking or right clicking on the portraits in the GUI, so left click a unit type/group to select just them or right click a type/group to remove them from the current selection.

silnarm

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Re: Units/GUI: Better and Larger Selection
« Reply #11 on: 21 September 2010, 02:46:22 »
Tickets #192, #193 & #194.
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silnarm

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Re: Units/GUI: Better and Larger Selection
« Reply #12 on: 22 September 2010, 11:12:56 »
Increased the limit to 24 for now, will make unlimited at some point in the future.

Edit: ... and the selection options from the display panel are in the works...
« Last Edit: 22 September 2010, 11:21:31 by silnarm »
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Zoythrus

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Re: Units/GUI: Better and Larger Selection
« Reply #13 on: 22 September 2010, 18:13:41 »
i would prefer unlimited selection, Glest needs to be bigger!

ultifd

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Re: Units/GUI: Better and Larger Selection
« Reply #14 on: 22 September 2010, 21:48:11 »
If it's unlimited later, the icons will be "stacked" right?

ChupaReaper

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Re: Units/GUI: Better and Larger Selection
« Reply #15 on: 22 September 2010, 22:33:19 »
Stacked would be best, it would be insane having over 100 portraits to cycle through, I'm not sure if it should stack if only the same type of unit is selected but for multiple types of units it should always stack, it's easier to keep track of how many of each unit is selected, and we have new scroll boxes for when we run out of space in the GUI.

silnarm

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Re: Units/GUI: Better and Larger Selection
« Reply #16 on: 23 September 2010, 12:11:55 »
If it's unlimited later, the icons will be "stacked" right?

I think grouped by type and stacked, yes.

  • Units could be selected or deselected by left clicking or right clicking on the portraits in the GUI, so left click a unit type/group to select just them or right click a type/group to remove them from the current selection.

Done, not like that of course :P to be (somewhat) consistent with the keys used to add/remove from selection by clicking acutal units, it works like so:

Code: [Select]
No modifier keys: selects only that unit
Shift: selects all units of that type, within the selection
Ctrl: de-selects that single unit
Shift + Ctrl: de-selects all units of that type, from the selection
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ultifd

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Re: Units/GUI: Better and Larger Selection
« Reply #17 on: 23 September 2010, 21:51:48 »
Ok, good. Wouldn't want half or more of my screen full of icons... :-/

ChupaReaper

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Re: Units/GUI: Better and Larger Selection
« Reply #18 on: 23 September 2010, 22:41:39 »
I tink this sounds good and yep those controls are more consistent. Bigger/unlimited selections will bring my mod to prime as now I can send in hundreds of zombies (they're super weak units but fast and very cheap to make so it's fun just to spam a horde of zombies to keep your enemies busy lol)!

 

anything