Feature request: better selecting units

[emscape]

I suggest a better system for selecting units:

- 1. when having more than one unit selected if you should be able to click on the icon of one unit to select that one unit (i think)
- 2. when pressing right mouse button on a units icon, you deselect it.
- 3. when having more than 16 units selected display their icon only once for all the units of a same kind. in the icon display the amount of that units you have selected.
- 4. rule 1 and two should also be applied on rule 4.

Maybe this would keep new players more often...

[John.d.h]

I agree.  Also, shift-clicking to un-select a unit in your group would also be handy.  It's a real pain to not be able to morph your Initiates because one of them just turned into a Battle Mage and lost the morph command.

[titi]

I dont understand what you mean with clicking on player icons? There are no player icons , just units in the field.

@Jond.h. yes a shift unselect would be really handy!

[claymore]

titi, he means the unit icons that appear in the top-right corner when units are selected, and which don't currently respond to clicks.

I think this is a good idea, besides right-clicking on units' icons to deselect those units. The effect of right-clicking an icon should be the same as if you had right-clicked on that unit. If you already have a unit selected, that would mean that unit would walk over to the one you just clicked (and could possibly follow it around. But that's another idea for another thread...)

[John.d.h]

I'm thinking left-click on the icon to select the unit, shift-click on the unit or the icon to unselect it, and maybe ctrl-click to select all units of that type from the group.

[Zoythrus]

but, you realize that they all look the same when it comes to the icons. how do you know which is which? my solution: health bars on the icons. this would make it easier to know the states of your guys.

[emscape]

indeed, but it more like having one unit you don't want, or if you have more then sixteen units selected, you could unselect all of one kind simultaniously.

Thx claymore for covering my abscenity today. Health bars on the icons would come at hand, but woudn't it be a bit difficult to implement that nicely?

[titi]

If a unit is not selected there is no icon? So where do you click with left? For deselecting its ok, but I don't see a really huge advantage here. For me its better to see in the game itself what I select/deselect. And what should be health bars good for? When the units are selected we already have a health indicator!? And with this existing ingame indicator you know which unit on the filed is meant.

[Zoythrus]

no, the health bars would be on the icons themselves, this is so you can grab your most injured men from the icons

[John.d.h]

no, the health bars would be on the icons themselves, this is so you can grab your most injured men from the icons

I'd rather not have this, as it takes focus away from the actual fighting.  Warcraft 3 has this, and consequently I spent half the game with my eyes on icons instead of the action.  It might make me better at winning, but it's less fun because the game becomes all about "click on the shortest health bar, make him run away, lather, rinse, repeat", instead of about commanding troops in a battle.

[emscape]

by selecting them by clicking their icon: I will illustrate this:

you have an archer selected and one swordman: (or 10 archers and 8 swordmen) you only want the swordmen to be selected, you click on the swordman icon, and poof you only have the swordmen selected. That was the meanin go f this...

[titi]

ah ok, but for me these are all no real "must have" features. I have the same feeling as john, that all this watching for icons removes a part of the fun to play glest, because you start to look too much on the icons instead of the battlefield. Maybe the selection will come, but for me it has no high priority.

But the "shift-click unselect" is really something we need 

[emscape]

yeah but have u seen that the icon watching idea was for the health bars, When u just need to click a few icons, you allready do need to do that to build things! its just that you could select your units better, and that would make glest a better game for everyone who just joins in at glest. Ive played a lot of rtsses, and it ran really smooth when u could select  units like that, every played stronghold? u really should try, maybe u will realise what i mean, when u dont even then, I think u allready got the point now...

[Zoythrus]

yeah but have u seen that the icon watching idea was for the health bars, When u just need to click a few icons, you allready do need to do that to build things! its just that you could select your units better, and that would make glest a better game for everyone who just joins in at glest. Ive played a lot of rtsses, and it ran really smooth when u could select  units like that, every played stronghold? u really should try, maybe u will realise what i mean, when u dont even then, I think u allready got the point now...

ive played Stronghold, and that is a really useful feature.  let's do that!