0.3 Battle visualisation/combat pop-up

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miu
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0.3 Battle visualisation/combat pop-up

#1 Post by miu »

0.3 DD says:

Combat pop-up
For every combat that occurs (regardless of whether or not it involves the player), a window that explains the casualties and the outcome. The graphics team shall develop a simple, animated display for automated combat; a primarily text popup with some sound effects and a display of respective fleet/base strength which then reflects casualties as combat rounds are evaluated. Does not need to be interactive. Looking forward: This will develop along the way so that there is still something interesting to look at and listen to when combat is automatically resolved (for example, the difference between space combat and ground combat in MOO2 should be the difference between controllable space combat and automated space combat in FreeOrion).

Ideas and visions for this?

The moo2 ground combat analogy sits well here, as well how battle visualisation was done in Imperium Galactiga I, right amount of ships (2d sprites) approaching each others from different sides of screen, firing simple beams and exploding accordingly to battle results. As we have only one set of ships, sprites will not be a big task to make. We could use the ships we have currently, but as 0.3 is the release we are going to go public, I would prefer seeing new models.

Problems: how to deal with battles involving more than two empires without making it too complicated?

Should the system battle takes place be represented somehow in background?
Last edited by miu on Wed Sep 08, 2004 1:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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drek
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#2 Post by drek »

I believe noelte already implemented this, more or less.

Should probably just leave it (and perhaps the ship models) in place until the combat version (v4). Anything done for v3 would just have to be changed in v.4.

edit: things we will (probably) be needed for v.3:

* a redesign of the sidebar to include money (and perhaps Health and Construction as well.) Icons for for all of the above

* a method of adding projects to the global build queue from the sidebar. Possibly, a method of displaying buildings/ships already constructed/in progress on the sidebar.

(sidenote: a more noticeable cue that there are more planets either above or below the visible portion of the sidebar would be cool.)

* a redesign of the planet info screen to include meters, buildings, buildings/ships in progress

* Ledgers, both on the planet info screen and empire wide

(sidenote: tooltips. #1 barrier to newbies figuring out the game)

* a list of all planets/ships empire-wide

* the black hole looks great; the rest of the stars still aren't quite right imho. At least one has a visible non-black background. I might take another wack at this myself, but so far my attempts haven't measured up.

* textures for 3d planets (though I gather pd is already handling this, I'd be happy to help--I'm ok at making abstract-ish textures.)

* victory/defeat screens. possibly turn processing screens (personally, I'd like to see either a rotating cast of turn processing screens, or the elimination of this screen altogether in favor of a small centered window.)

* the global build queue

* the global research queue

very early prototypes of both kinds of queues:
http://home.earthlink.net/~drekmonger/Buildv3/

Aquitaine
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#3 Post by Aquitaine »

Yeah, I don't think we changed that from v0.2.

v0.4 will be the big deal combat assets kick. v0.3 will mostly be tech and buildings.
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Geoff the Medio
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#4 Post by Geoff the Medio »

drek wrote:(sidenote: tooltips. #1 barrier to newbies figuring out the game)
Huh? Tooltips prevent newbies from learning how the game works? How so? Worst case scenario, they could just be ignored.

Perhaps you meant the opposite?

In this mockup (by drek): http://home.earthlink.net/~drekmonger/B ... search.png I think it'd be better to have a button / icon / tab for each reserach category, rather than a back / forth buttons. With only 8-10 categories, and the need to quickly jump to a particular category. The category you're currently looking at would be highlighted, or displayed as the label for a tab.

Some way to indicate that a particular tech unlocks something in another category will also be necessary. This could be done the same way as showing the effects of an application or any other tech, which would look just like the "tree" of applications under the theories. The box would be labelled "UNLOCK", and would name the tech and category. Clicking on the tech would zoom the view to that tech if it's currently available (whether it's in the current category or another category).

Also, "expanded" theories that are showing their contained applications should have a "-" rather than a "+", as clicking on the "button" would presumably collapse the tree, rather than expanding it when clicked when currently collapsed (when it would be a "+")...

drek
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#5 Post by drek »

*nod*

I don't expect the finished UI to look even close to that mock-up.

emrys
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#6 Post by emrys »

Geoff the Medio wrote:
drek wrote:(sidenote: tooltips. #1 barrier to newbies figuring out the game)
Huh? Tooltips prevent newbies from learning how the game works? How so? Worst case scenario, they could just be ignored.
Well, I suppose there is just about a coherent argument that says that having tooltips everywhere is an excuse for designing a UI/Game that so difficult to play it NEEDS tooltips everywhere. I.e. a well designed UI puts all the info you need right at your fingertips, and well designed game mechanics are intuitive enough that a player simply doesn't need tooltips.

Not that I'd entirely agree with that argument, but it's worth bearing in mind to ensure it doesn't apply.

drek
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#7 Post by drek »

I meant tooltips should be implemented, Rise of Nations style.

Hovering over a number should give not just explanation of the what the number is, but a ledger detailing how the number what arrived at. Mildly important as documentation of how techs/buildings/etc. are effecting meters. (maybe a two stage hover: .5 seconds pulls up the explaination, 2 full seconds adds the ledger)

It was really convenient in RoN. (was it RoN? I might be remembering a different game.)

noelte
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#8 Post by noelte »

maybe, a in game tutorial (walkthrough) is what people need. Just tooltips isn't enought, imo
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