FreeOrion

Would it be possible to add a button just below the system name for that? It'd make things a smidge easier to manage.

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you mean to open the fleetwindow????

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Can COWs fly?

Yes.

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Instead of just a button it would probably be usefull to have sort of a fleetwindow integrated into the sidepanel. This was actually on a very early mockup AFAIK done by drek back then. It was located on the bottom - I would prefer to have it on the top though.

Thoughts?

Shrinking the fleet window would be nice. I can't say I like the idea of fusing it into the system window though. I think it'd be a bit too cumbersome....

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So what's the benefit of having 2 buttons doing the same thing on the screen then?

I don't see why having a fleetwindow intergrated into the sidepanel is cumbersome. Click on a system -> the sidepanel opens and displays the planets and ships located there - pretty straightforward to me.

Alternatively just click on the fleeticon and only the fleetwindow will open.

hmm... good point. I personally spend so much time at large screen sizes that I find it hard to click on the fleet things. Now that I think about it... Sometimes it seems like you have to put the pointer exactly in the middle of the fleet icon to select it. And I occasionally have to zoom in to be able to select a star.

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That's an issue of UI feedback. Geoff mentioned this aleady. It can be easily solved by scaling the star and fleet icons up when hovering about them and/or making them brighter. Both is already done but could be exaggerated even more I guess. Low priority though.

Difficulty in clicking on what you want is also partly an issue of the size of the clickable area around fleet icons or system icons. You have to be pretty close, especially on far-out-zoom levels, in order to have a click register as on the icon rather than on the empty space around it. IMO enlarging the clickable area somewhat would be good. Having a minimum radius in pixels for this area would also be good.

What do you think about the sidepanel+fleetwindow idea?

I think they work well enough or better as separate windows. If you're just ordering fleets around, you don't necessary need to see the contents of the system where that fleet is located. In particular, you might want to look at other systems to which you are considering sending the fleet, rather than the one where it is presently located. If the fleet window and sidepanel were fused and showed the fleets at a system while showing that system, this would be very awkward or impossible to do.

I also think there are plenty of other UI issues needing time and/or attention from graphics and design, and particularly coding, that it's not worth considering revamping something this established and fundamental to the current UI design at this point.

what about the button idea?

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I didn't mean to replace the fleetwindow completely and put it into the sidepanel. I meant to place a second one(maybe reduced in complexity) in the sidepanel. This way we can also display enemy ships at the sidepanel. I imagine just a list of ships present at the selected system. We could of course put a button in there to open the fleetwindow(for fleetmanagement).

Sounds redundant... and like a significant waste of space. What exactly would this do that isn't done now? There's also enough on the sidepanel with the system info and individual planets info already not to want to devote more space to fleets info as well.

In general i like pd's idea. Of cause i wouldn't just take the fleetwindow (or a part of it) and place it at sidepanel. But a little area which displays some stats and icon of the fleets located at the system might be a nice add.

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