RE: UI proposal

[Elijah Meeks <elijahmeeks@yahoo.com>]

> If you check out the Mac interface, you will find
> that several of the ideas
> discussed already are implemented there.
> 
> 1. A unit list can be brought up in a separate
> window, which contains much
> more information (plans, tasks, build status,
> materials etc) than the tcltk
> unit list.
> 
> 2. By right-clicking on any unit you bring up a
> small floating window with
> all the information you find in the unit info pane
> in the tcltk interface.
> Plus images of occs or transports. Clicking on these
> bring up new floating
> windows with information on those units. And so on.
> There is also direct
> access to the relevant help node through a help
> button in each floating
> window.
> 
> 3. When a unit needs a new build task a small
> floating window pops up with
> a menu that shows only what can be built by that
> unit. Picking an item
> closes the window and sets the build task.
> 
> The key thing here is that stuff like this pops up
> only when you need it
> (or ask for it). The Mac interface is similar to the
> SDL interface (and
> differs from the tcltk interface) in that emphasis
> is put on a whole-screen
> heads-up display. The map covers the entire screen.
> Lincoln's proposal
> included a lot of useful stuff, but there was not
> much space left for the
> map. And the map is the most important part of a
> game like this.

I still haven't managed to play a game successfully on
the Mac, but from how it looks and what you're
describing, it sounds perfect.  Lincoln's proposed UI,
though, would be an improvement over the current PC
interface, and if all the information windows are made
on-demand (Or most of them, at least) then the screen
is only ever as cluttered as a player wants.  It'd
look better if the information boxes could be truly
floating (And only docked if the player wants) so that
when you're right-clicking for info or a build, the
box has the appearance of a dialog box common to many
strategy games.




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