production and research UI screen

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noelte
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production and research UI screen

#1 Post by noelte »

Hi,

the programmers are in need of user interface screens for empire wide production and research. I already saw an first mockup somewhere, but don't remember where and more relevant, if it was ok with miu!?

I plan to work on rewriting production to handle empire wide issues, so e.w. production UI is what I need.

Ronald.

see http://www.freeorion.org/wiki/index.php ... mming_Work
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pd
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#2 Post by pd »

some more info would be usefull. please give a brief explanation what's exactly going on on those screens and what ellements are needed. thanks.

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#3 Post by noelte »

pd wrote:some more info would be usefull. please give a brief explanation what's exactly going on on those screens and what ellements are needed. thanks.
Sorry, i thought the main idea is already known.

We had a decision that be will have a empire wide production queue. Now, we need a UI which makes it possible for the player to selected what to build and where to place that item after it is been constructed. There was a quite long discussion about that issue, do you remember?

1 - select item to build (maybe x5, x10, ...); maybe in groups (buildings/ships/...)
2 - select location where it should be placed afterwards (buildings=> planet, ships => shipyards (for now planets))
3 - provide some mechanism that the player can use his PP's efficient (i remember a tetris like mockup)
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Geoff the Medio
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#4 Post by Geoff the Medio »

noelte wrote:1 - select item to build (maybe x5, x10, ...); maybe in groups (buildings/ships/...)
2 - select location where it should be placed afterwards (buildings=> planet, ships => shipyards (for now planets))
To be clear, is the plan:

a) player selects item to build. item builds... finishes. after item finishes building, player is prompted to select a location at which to place the completed building. item appears in selected loation.

or

b) player selects item to build. player selects location at which to place the building. item builds... item finishes. item appears at the previously selected location without further input from player.

I thought it was decided to use (b), but your wording is ambiguous and seems to imply (a).
Last edited by Geoff the Medio on Wed Sep 29, 2004 4:23 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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#5 Post by Tyreth »

drek has done some mockups already which give the basic idea of what it may look like - at least good concept images. Unfortunately I don't remember which thread they were in, so hopefully he sees this thread and can show you pd :)

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#6 Post by miu »

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#7 Post by pd »

Unfortunately I don't remember which thread they were in, so hopefully he sees this thread and can show you pd
eh, i didn't say i'll do this, just wanted some more info for the one who is going to do it. :)

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#8 Post by noelte »

b) player selects item to build. player selects location at which to place the building. item builds... item finishes. item appears at the previously selected location without further input from player.
of cause b) :-)

eh, i didn't say i'll do this, just wanted some more info for the one who is going to do it. :)
What? Pd has colunteered already? :twisted:
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#9 Post by miu »

Drek's production screen sketch has good way of assigning projects to build que, but how to choose target planets intuitive way? A sortable list and smallstarmap. (and what functions that starmap should have?) Any other ideas?
As Drek's suggestion stands, it takes quite much screenspace, have to think UI to function well/fit all nicely.

Impaler is working on a sketch for research-screen.
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#10 Post by Impaler »

First I need to know is it possible to reserach a project slower then the maximum rate. Say for Instance I want to research "Adamantium Armor" which costs 8 RP over 10 turns. But I only have 5 points avalible can it be be reserached a the slower rate of 5 pts per turn and be completed in 16 turnes (16x5 = 8x10)? If so will it be possible fo the user to re-alocate (speedup/slowdown) reserach that has already started? I am thinking of reviving some ideas for the "Tetris" Quee but must be shure on how research works.
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#11 Post by drek »

Don't think my orginal mock-ups are adequate for the task. There's too much difference between the costs of a low tech and high tech project to fit them all on the same grid.

Got a slightly different idea in the back of my head, hope to sketch it out soon.
how to choose target planets intuitive way? A sortable list and smallstarmap.
Excellent question. No good ideas yet.

I imagine most buildings will be started on the planet itself, from the galaxy map. We'll still need an intuitive method of selecting and displaying build destination on the build screen itself.
If so will it be possible fo the user to re-alocate (speedup/slowdown) reserach that has already started?
Yes, on the tetris queue you can move a projects to below or on the line between "funded" and "unfunded."

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#12 Post by Geoff the Medio »

Impaler wrote:First I need to know is it possible to reserach a project slower then the maximum rate.
Aquitaine wrote:
Geoff the Medio wrote:Hey.

Regarding the Hears of Iron tech style "X / turn for Y turns" spending on build projects, is the X a limit or a requirement (and limit)? If the latter, does a project stall or fail if X isn't met for a particular turn?

Thanks.
It's a requirement, and if you don't meet it, it just stalls until you can meet it.
I presume this applies to FO research as well.
drek wrote:
how to choose target planets intuitive way? A sortable list and smallstarmap.
Excellent question. No good ideas yet.

I imagine most buildings will be started on the planet itself, from the galaxy map. We'll still need an intuitive method of selecting and displaying build destination on the build screen itself.
For buildings that have area-of-effect meter bonuses and penalties, a localized galaxy map that somehow indicates some measure of the net value of the bonuses and penalties would be helpful. For direct distance, a shaded circle could surround a prospective location to build something. For starlane jumps distance, the starlanes leading to the in-range systems would be highlighted ins a similar manner. The in-range systems for a particular location would need to have + and - net change indicators next to them... probably summarized for the whole system, taking into account the current populations of the planets, their focii and required buildings for effects to function and the like. The (net meter change)*(population) would be summed up for all planets in the system for each meter, and a set of icons next to the system would indicate the total net change for the system. The user would drag an icon for the building to build over the various prospective build sites, and the display described above would update to show what the results would be if the building were created immediately (no worrying about predicting changes between now and when the building would actually be finished). Nice graphical feedback like differently coloured and sized numbers for positive/negative and magnitude of change could also be indicated for the effects on each meter.

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#13 Post by drek »

hrm, drag drop.

Maybe we can use the actual galaxy map/sidebar. Drag the project on to the intended planet.

The available build projects could appear in a bottom left box or bottom bar. Or something like the Mac Apple menu/Windows Start menu, cept dead center of the top of the screen:

Code: Select all

     BUILD MENU
           | 
   SHIPS    BUILDINGS
      |           | 
   Scout        MegaFarm
   Mark I       Nightclub
   MarkII       Fire Hydrant


Drag dropping the project dumps it into the bottom of the queue, which can be opened as a leftside sidebar. Projects can then be arranged on this queue via dragging, investigated via rollovers and clicks.

Once we have shipyards in the game (v.4), there'd have to be a method to quickly move to a planet with a shipyard, and a method of highlighting these planets as allowing ship builds.

EDIT: might be better to have seprate menus for ships and build projects, and slightly different behaviors (since ships can be designed and redesigned and should be possible to autobuild them at first available shipyard rather than drag dropping to a yard specifically.)

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#14 Post by Impaler »

Ok I made a modification of Dreks Research screen to show a more simplified tree aproatch. Its a bit like Accendency in that the Tree will be narrow and somewhat linear. The portion being show is just a small section of the whole "Agriculture" tech catagory. The user is currently mousing over Secrets of the Sausage which causes its info to be displayed at the bottom into information window. The coloring of the Box indicates the User knows this Tec and the white Boxes are now being Resarched, their would be more coloring/greying out to indicate stuff thats no yet reserchable or is not currently being reserched even though its avalible.

Theory and Aplication will be destinguished not only by the styling of the Icons (I think most people were in favor of SMAC style for the Theory Icons and something differnt for Aplication) Refinement will simply be done with Roman Numerals ontop of the Aplications to show current level of Refinment.

The Tree pattern is Upward and Rightward, Theories are always to the Left and Aplications they spawn are to the extream right hand side. This dose 2 things. It keeps them from getting in the way or the Theory Branches and helps destinquish them as aplications. Adsactly how Theories will brach still is not clear to me (and possibly others as well) but it cant be too complex like in SMAC which requires a whole Poster to show its highly interconected Tec tree. If it were like Civ 3 then a wider tree would probably be required.

Next I will work on some means of displaying currently Researched and Queed projects.

Image
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Geoff the Medio
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#15 Post by Geoff the Medio »

drek wrote:hrm, drag drop.

Maybe we can use the actual galaxy map/sidebar. Drag the project on to the intended planet.
Since we need to both select a system (which is relevant for distances to areas of effect and the like) as well as an individual planet on which to build a building, perhaps we should think in terms of a "build cursor" rather than dragging and dropping. Since you need to click to pick a system, and then click to pick a planet, just the single-finality of dropping something would be rather limited. Instead, I'm thinking that picking a build project from the menu would change the cursor to the "build X here" cursor, which would let you manipulate the galaxy map as normal, opening system sidebars by clicking on systems and such, and then clicking on a planet would actually assign the project to the planet, and the curosr would return to normal.

I made a horrid mockup:
Image
(If you already had the sidepanel open, you could go directly to picking a planet.)
Once we have shipyards in the game (v.4), there'd have to be a method to quickly move to a planet with a shipyard, and a method of highlighting these planets as allowing ship builds.

I thought the general consensus (unofficial) was to have shipyards per system, not per planet. In that case, the cursor stuff above would still apply, except the systems without a shipyard owned by you would be dimmed out.

(similarly, any planet that didn't meet the build requirements for a particular building would be dimmed out... and any system that didn't have any planets on which a building could be placed woudl be greyed out).

If possible, the nearest system to the cursor would be centre of a dim circle for placement of any area-of effect buildings, as described above, and net-bonuses and penalties would be displayed for all nearby systems within the dimed out circle that indicates the range of effect of the building.
Image
If there are multiple ranges, slightly different shadings could be used.

In both cases, mouseovers or info next to the potential build site (planet or system) would have pertinent info, such as shipyard capacity or a reason why the building can't be placed at a certain site...

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