[Freeciv-Dev] Re: (PR#7127) [FS] Screen design

["Morgan Jones" <morgan.jones@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

<URL: http://rt.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=7127 >

>> Ok here's a new hastily thrown together layout idea.
>> 
>> Please note that I haven't covered everything; I just wanted to
>> see if
>> this idea was worth pursuing or not.
> 
> Looks very nice! You have talent for pixel-perfect layout.

Thank you.
 
> Yes, I like this. GalCiv is more like this as well. The thing is,
> when I play a game, I'm not very interested in doing janitor work
> managing windows. So fixed position windows or mode screens work
> better.

My thoughts too. 
 
>> I've attached a picture of the GUI as it might appear on both the
>> 'Map' page (minimap, current unit, etc) and a hastily put together
>> idea of the 'Cities' page (i.e. the City Report).
>> 
>> Not all reports or dialogs will work well like this, the city
>> popup,
>> the help menu, and the spaceship screen spring to mind and these
>> would
> 
> Perhaps the city menu, but the others could work in this fashion as
> well.

I intend to have a go at the others in this fashion too.  And at
Raimar's suggestion they should be available in full screen mode too.
 
> Yes, it is very nice. I am still unsure about the chatline though.
> Perhaps that one would work better with a sort of translucent
> drop-down console a-la Quake, with messages superimposed on the map,
> like in Quake. It either uses too much space or isn't visible enough
> otherwise.
> 
Ok after having looked at the Neverwinter Nights and Quake III
screenshots here are my thoughts:

-All chat and messages appear in at least one of three possible ways:

1)  In the top left corner of the screen superimposed over the map ala
Quake 3, though possibly in a transparent box if necessary to look
good.  The player can define how many lines are displayed at one time
and new messages force old ones off the top of the screen.  This area
is not scrollable but it is clickable by hilighting the text when the
mouse moves over it.

This would perhaps be cleared at each turn end or a message
dissappears after a user defined number of turns.

This would be useful for messages that you need to know immediately,
such as what you've just found in a hut.

2)  Message icon appears in the bottom right corner of the screen. 
There are different icons for different message types.  If there are
more than one message of that type a small number appears next to the
relevant icon.  Icons stack vertically up the right hand side of the
screen.

Clicking (Double-clicking?) on one of these icons brings up a
transparent box in the centre or lower middle of the map ala
Neverwinter Nights.  This will display all the messages of that type. 
A scroll bar will only be added if there are too many messages to fit
an appropriate max area as the box will resize to fit the messages it
has.  The box has a close gadget and the messages are deleted and the
icon disappears once this has been pressed.  Messages are clickable in
the same way as in 1).

This would be useful for messages that the player needs to know about
reasonably urgently but can wait until finishing what they are doing
to check them -i.e famine feared, city captured, etc.

Having this means that messages in 1) won't get lost too quickly.

3) A dedicated messages report that records all messages received
during the game/game session.  This would look somewhat like the area
I drew in my layout pictures.  However it would not be available on
the main 'map' page of the GUI, but rather on it's own 'messages'
page.  There would be a condensed and full screen version.

The list could be made sortable.  The main column would be
chronological but it would aslo be nice to have a 'message type'
column so the list could be quickly sorted to easily find all the
diplomacy, city, etc messages.  (Same style as the city and other
reports).

This would be useful for checking over any messages you might have
missed or as a log of the game so far.  This would also free up a lot
of room on the main GUI page for other things, though the chat/command
string input should remain probably remain there (?)

Of course which messages go where can be defined by the player.

I apologize for reiterating alot of what I and others have said, and
indeed a lot of the features are already in Freeciv, but I wanted to
put it all together to see if it all make sense.

Thoughts, comments?

     -Morgan