The commander menu
Enceladus
Join Date: 2004-01-18 Member: 25442Members
Join Date: 2004-01-18 Member: 25442Members
<div class="IPBDescription">feedback on the commander menu structure (#153)</div>With build 153 released and being able to play a bit, I began thinking about the commander menu, since when commanding I was forced to use it. So here are my thoughts on it and some improvement ideas. @forum mods: if you think this more fits into ideas and suggestions.. your call :)
If you had the chance to play the alpha yet, you probably played as a marine and you might have noticed that the interface, unless you interact with an armory, is quite minimalistic but immersive. Let's take a quick look at it: <a href="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/playerscreen.jpg" target="_blank">Image linked due to max. img count</a>
You have your gun in front of you, the display of the gun shows the amount of ammo left, it's pretty intuitive. On the other hand you got the health bar as a simple UI element sitting left bottom.
That's absolutely fine. You don't have any place in the game world where it could be rendered, unlike e.g. the Dead Space exosuit which indicates the health and stasis status on it. So out of the box, this works, and I really like that combination.
Now if you jump into the command chair, you choose a different role, which is the rts part of the game. Obviously the interface needs to change for that, so let's have a look at its current state: <a href="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/commanderscreen.jpg" target="_blank">Image linked due to max. image count</a>
This is pretty much inspired by NS1 and pretty much most of the rts games out there use a similar setup. You have an interface bar at the bottom with the minimap on the left, an info area in the middle and the command menu on the right. You exit the chair with the exit button on the top right, ressources are displayed next to it and command groups are top left of the screen.
That's fine and everybody who played an rts will be familliar with it. You could argue about the hotgroups icon positions but that's a general ui thing and I don't really want to go into that one for now.
So what is this all about? Well basically my concern is about the menu structure. On the fps part as a marine, you have one menu on the armory, and that's about it. In Alpha build 153 you have 16 different menus available as a commander and the menu items accumulate to something around 85. <a href="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/ns-menu.htm" target="_blank">A current summary of available menus can be found here.</a>
Imagine a new player jumping into the chair, reading through all available tooltips.. The round would be over till he's done. But the icons (as far as they are present by now) are doing their job quite well, so most of the stuff is intuitive, however some stuff could be improved. In common rts games the menu, and new buttons are explained to you throuout the campaign, the mission, the tutorial. You get one or two new buttons, check these out and you're done.
Experienced players however won't rely heavily on the menu, instead they know their hotkeys. Think of Starcraft 2. Due to the speed increase you tend to learn your hotkeys pretty quick, otherwise proper micromanagement is pretty tough.
But lets go back to the menu structure. It's pretty common to have menus associated with structures in rts games, so I'm not worried about it. It actually makes sense. Have the menu there where you need it.
<b>
Infantry Portal</b>
So the infantry portal menu having an upgrade button for the transponder upgrades and one for recycle is basically enugh. There could be actually one or maybe even two more buttons. One to make an infantry portal to a primary one, which is selected as preferred one (but that's a different story), and a second one to replicate it, if the replicate tech has been researched. I'd place the replicate button at the topright throughout the menus.
<a href="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/infantryportal.png" target="_blank">Image linked due to max. image count</a>
<b>Door</b>
The door menu is also one of the basic ones. You click a door and you get four buttons: open, close, lock and unlock. While you could say well.. fair enugh, you get four buttons for it for all possible variations, I think it could be improved by being context sensitive and reduced down only two buttons which toggle its functionality. If it's open, only have a close and a lock button, while closed the other way around.
<a href="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/door.png" target="_blank">Image linked due to max. image count</a>
<b>Sentry</b>
The sentry also has four buttons: set target, attack, stop and recycle. The set target could use a different icon, but I guess that's a work in progress here. As with the infantry portal, I'd like to see a replicate structure button here aswell.
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/sentry.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>Extractor</b>
The extractor menu is plain and simple. Two button: upgrade and recycle. And here you actually went the way of having one button for all upgrades. That's the way to go. But keep it consinstent, and most of all, give the different upgrades levels an icon indicator like different colors or an L1, L2, L3 as with the command chair upgrade. And again, a replicate button.
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/extractor.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>Observatory</b>
Basically the same as with the sentry. Nothing else to add.
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/observatory.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>MAC</b>
The MAC menu is consistant and having an extra deep menu here for the available buildings to build is fine, since you can't accidentally recycle it by double back clicking. Due to consistency the back button could be changed in position. See command chair.
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/macbasic.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/macbuildings.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>Player</b>
Okay, now we're getting to the tougher ones. The player menu is the context menu when selecting a player. The buttons available there pretty much sum it up and I wouldn't change them, but I think it could actually help to - again – add buttons here. Nothing fancy, but simply make the ammo, med and catalyst pack available here aswell. Saves you the detour over the command chair.
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/player.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>Command Chair</b>
This is actually a tough one for me. The basic buttons are good, except the missing icon for the command chair upgrades, I like the toggle functionality of the CC upgrade button and that it already reflect the upgrade level. But I dislike the second menu. If the command chair upgrades stay the same (5 as of now) you could fit them into the first menu level. If they don't, they won't. The reason I dislike the second level is simply that having an unmanned command chair selected being in the second menu level, then accidentally doubleclicking the back button will recycle the command station. And that's seriously is a problem. The second menu layer is fine, if you take care of the reclycle button.
One solution could be to move the back button to the top or bottom left. I like bottom left more since it makes more sense to me, even though an accidental doubleclick would start a CC upgrade research instead of spawning a MAC. But both are better than recycling the station.
As of now, there is only one structure left, and that is the <b>armory</b>.
From the newly build armory till fully upgraded to a weapon module the armory has 5 different menus, with 15 individual buttons.
First of all.. get rid of the global upgrades menu. It consists of the weapon and armor upgrade levels, and you can easily strip them down to two buttons on the first level, indicating the next research level as you already did it with the command chair upgrades.
The other buttons are fine, again, a replicate button could be nice and for the sake of further upgrades I'd mode the buttons around a bit. One menu saved, no chance of accidental recycling.
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/armory.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Advanced armory only adds prototype and weapons module and the genade launcher. Nothing to change here. Everything still fits into it:
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/aarmory.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
After upgraded to the weapons module, you get acces to the weapons module upgrades menu. The prototype module button is now removed since you need a seperate structure for that. The upgrade menu consists of 4 extra buttons which can be incorporated into the basic menu aswell:
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/wmodule2.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Which would work, but now it would be pretty much full, no more space for further additions, so I'd suggest putting the dependency buttons at the same place where their prerequisits are placed. So Nerve Gas appeares when the greanade launcher has been researched, and the same for the flamethrower alt. Since they are direct dependencies this should work. This leaves us now with:
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/wmodule1.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
And we're done. No more second level menu on the armory and therefore no chance of accidental recycling. :)
If you had the chance to play the alpha yet, you probably played as a marine and you might have noticed that the interface, unless you interact with an armory, is quite minimalistic but immersive. Let's take a quick look at it: <a href="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/playerscreen.jpg" target="_blank">Image linked due to max. img count</a>
You have your gun in front of you, the display of the gun shows the amount of ammo left, it's pretty intuitive. On the other hand you got the health bar as a simple UI element sitting left bottom.
That's absolutely fine. You don't have any place in the game world where it could be rendered, unlike e.g. the Dead Space exosuit which indicates the health and stasis status on it. So out of the box, this works, and I really like that combination.
Now if you jump into the command chair, you choose a different role, which is the rts part of the game. Obviously the interface needs to change for that, so let's have a look at its current state: <a href="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/commanderscreen.jpg" target="_blank">Image linked due to max. image count</a>
This is pretty much inspired by NS1 and pretty much most of the rts games out there use a similar setup. You have an interface bar at the bottom with the minimap on the left, an info area in the middle and the command menu on the right. You exit the chair with the exit button on the top right, ressources are displayed next to it and command groups are top left of the screen.
That's fine and everybody who played an rts will be familliar with it. You could argue about the hotgroups icon positions but that's a general ui thing and I don't really want to go into that one for now.
So what is this all about? Well basically my concern is about the menu structure. On the fps part as a marine, you have one menu on the armory, and that's about it. In Alpha build 153 you have 16 different menus available as a commander and the menu items accumulate to something around 85. <a href="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/ns-menu.htm" target="_blank">A current summary of available menus can be found here.</a>
Imagine a new player jumping into the chair, reading through all available tooltips.. The round would be over till he's done. But the icons (as far as they are present by now) are doing their job quite well, so most of the stuff is intuitive, however some stuff could be improved. In common rts games the menu, and new buttons are explained to you throuout the campaign, the mission, the tutorial. You get one or two new buttons, check these out and you're done.
Experienced players however won't rely heavily on the menu, instead they know their hotkeys. Think of Starcraft 2. Due to the speed increase you tend to learn your hotkeys pretty quick, otherwise proper micromanagement is pretty tough.
But lets go back to the menu structure. It's pretty common to have menus associated with structures in rts games, so I'm not worried about it. It actually makes sense. Have the menu there where you need it.
<b>
Infantry Portal</b>
So the infantry portal menu having an upgrade button for the transponder upgrades and one for recycle is basically enugh. There could be actually one or maybe even two more buttons. One to make an infantry portal to a primary one, which is selected as preferred one (but that's a different story), and a second one to replicate it, if the replicate tech has been researched. I'd place the replicate button at the topright throughout the menus.
<a href="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/infantryportal.png" target="_blank">Image linked due to max. image count</a>
<b>Door</b>
The door menu is also one of the basic ones. You click a door and you get four buttons: open, close, lock and unlock. While you could say well.. fair enugh, you get four buttons for it for all possible variations, I think it could be improved by being context sensitive and reduced down only two buttons which toggle its functionality. If it's open, only have a close and a lock button, while closed the other way around.
<a href="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/door.png" target="_blank">Image linked due to max. image count</a>
<b>Sentry</b>
The sentry also has four buttons: set target, attack, stop and recycle. The set target could use a different icon, but I guess that's a work in progress here. As with the infantry portal, I'd like to see a replicate structure button here aswell.
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/sentry.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>Extractor</b>
The extractor menu is plain and simple. Two button: upgrade and recycle. And here you actually went the way of having one button for all upgrades. That's the way to go. But keep it consinstent, and most of all, give the different upgrades levels an icon indicator like different colors or an L1, L2, L3 as with the command chair upgrade. And again, a replicate button.
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/extractor.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>Observatory</b>
Basically the same as with the sentry. Nothing else to add.
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/observatory.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>MAC</b>
The MAC menu is consistant and having an extra deep menu here for the available buildings to build is fine, since you can't accidentally recycle it by double back clicking. Due to consistency the back button could be changed in position. See command chair.
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/macbasic.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/macbuildings.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>Player</b>
Okay, now we're getting to the tougher ones. The player menu is the context menu when selecting a player. The buttons available there pretty much sum it up and I wouldn't change them, but I think it could actually help to - again – add buttons here. Nothing fancy, but simply make the ammo, med and catalyst pack available here aswell. Saves you the detour over the command chair.
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/player.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<b>Command Chair</b>
This is actually a tough one for me. The basic buttons are good, except the missing icon for the command chair upgrades, I like the toggle functionality of the CC upgrade button and that it already reflect the upgrade level. But I dislike the second menu. If the command chair upgrades stay the same (5 as of now) you could fit them into the first menu level. If they don't, they won't. The reason I dislike the second level is simply that having an unmanned command chair selected being in the second menu level, then accidentally doubleclicking the back button will recycle the command station. And that's seriously is a problem. The second menu layer is fine, if you take care of the reclycle button.
One solution could be to move the back button to the top or bottom left. I like bottom left more since it makes more sense to me, even though an accidental doubleclick would start a CC upgrade research instead of spawning a MAC. But both are better than recycling the station.
As of now, there is only one structure left, and that is the <b>armory</b>.
From the newly build armory till fully upgraded to a weapon module the armory has 5 different menus, with 15 individual buttons.
First of all.. get rid of the global upgrades menu. It consists of the weapon and armor upgrade levels, and you can easily strip them down to two buttons on the first level, indicating the next research level as you already did it with the command chair upgrades.
The other buttons are fine, again, a replicate button could be nice and for the sake of further upgrades I'd mode the buttons around a bit. One menu saved, no chance of accidental recycling.
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/armory.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Advanced armory only adds prototype and weapons module and the genade launcher. Nothing to change here. Everything still fits into it:
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/aarmory.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
After upgraded to the weapons module, you get acces to the weapons module upgrades menu. The prototype module button is now removed since you need a seperate structure for that. The upgrade menu consists of 4 extra buttons which can be incorporated into the basic menu aswell:
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/wmodule2.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Which would work, but now it would be pretty much full, no more space for further additions, so I'd suggest putting the dependency buttons at the same place where their prerequisits are placed. So Nerve Gas appeares when the greanade launcher has been researched, and the same for the flamethrower alt. Since they are direct dependencies this should work. This leaves us now with:
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/nsmenu/wmodule1.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
And we're done. No more second level menu on the armory and therefore no chance of accidental recycling. :)
Comments
It is nothing you can solve with moving buttons around. The matter of the fact is the menu hierarchy is completely flawed.
Here is a little diagram to sum that up:
<img src="http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/374/jpgflame.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Here are links to a lot of topics I have made/been involved in and discussed with others the concerns with the interface:
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=111364" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=111364</a>
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=111311&view=findpost&p=1803588" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...t&p=1803588</a>
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=111311&view=findpost&p=1803624" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...t&p=1803624</a>
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=111133&view=findpost&p=1799828" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...t&p=1799828</a>
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=111133&view=findpost&p=1799824" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...t&p=1799824</a>
It is something I will keep pushing change in until someone bans me, because the current system does not work.
Essentially I think the answer is a CIV style hierarchy menu when you click on a build bot:
<img src="http://images.macworld.com/images/legacy/2006/01/images/content/civ3advisor.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Upgrades could also be done through this method, or just on the structures.
Communication and location methods should be changed, and the focus should be on communication, player management and strategy. Not building micro management in a bewildering menu system.
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/ns-techtree.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
T_T
What I think would be extremely awesome is if everything could be moused over to display all relevant things, on the overhead view. Remember NS1's radial menu? It would be nice if when you moused over any interactive object, a radial interface popped up with all relevant stats/info about the entity, something like, say, in neverwinter nights:
<a href="http://kimag.es/" target="_blank"><img src="http://s2.kimag.es/share/35645439.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
Why would this be better?
<ul>*Less screen space dedicated to buttons or an info panel, which aren't used if nothing is selected, or if what's selected doesn't have selectable options. More viewable area.
*More intuitive IMO. It gives a more immersive experience.
*More friendly to mouse users, which are more likely to be new to the RTS genre. Instead of going from selecting to bottom-right of the screen, you can issue orders as soon as you select something.
*Quick display of tech trees. Tech tree could be completely displayed via branching radial menus, rather than having to guess your way through. This is one of the great weaknesses of the current GUI.
*Visual uniqueness. There's the potential of making it look fantastic. I think the standard RTS/Starcraft style interfaces are cluttered and boring.</li></ul>
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/ns-techtree2.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Now all you need to do is combine that with this:
<img src="http://travelblog.viator.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/underground-map-london.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
So that the line work is even less confusing, and change the colour of the line when it leads to upgrades (could probably break it down into weapons/everything else) instead of buildings. I will give it a go later.
I would also break it down into tiers.. (3 distinct levels in relation to every command centre you have/facility/L2 - still not sure how this will all work together) so both alien and marine interface are similarly connected.
I also agree with the on screen actions.
As far as I am seeing the general consensus:
Build bot = Civ style structure menu/upgrades
Clicking buildings = Upgrades (if you want a specific structure to upgrade/quicker than accessing build menu sometimes)
right clicking screen = Someone mentioned this (and above) for location specific actions. Would be quicker when activating alien buildings as well.
RTS menus are bloody old. They may work in some instances, but NS2 is very complicated. It also has a chance to show itself off for being a more intuitive interface.
What I think would be extremely awesome is if everything could be moused over to display all relevant things, on the overhead view. Remember NS1's radial menu? It would be nice if when you moused over any interactive object, a radial interface popped up with all relevant stats/info about the entity, something like, say, in neverwinter nights:
<a href="http://kimag.es/" target="_blank"><img src="http://s2.kimag.es/share/35645439.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" /></a>
Why would this be better?
<ul>*Less screen space dedicated to buttons or an info panel, which aren't used if nothing is selected, or if what's selected doesn't have selectable options. More viewable area.
*More intuitive IMO. It gives a more immersive experience.
*More friendly to mouse users, which are more likely to be new to the RTS genre. Instead of going from selecting to bottom-right of the screen, you can issue orders as soon as you select something.
*Quick display of tech trees. Tech tree could be completely displayed via branching radial menus, rather than having to guess your way through. This is one of the great weaknesses of the current GUI.
*Visual uniqueness. There's the potential of making it look fantastic. I think the standard RTS/Starcraft style interfaces are cluttered and boring.</li></ul><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Especially with doors, i think this is the way to go if possible. At the moment its just anoying to find the door, click on it, then click to open/close/lock/unlock. Having floating mouseover bubbles would help display only relevant information as well as allow faster, smoother commander gameplay.
Also found it anoying that when i wanted to drop a med/ammo pack, i would need to either have the command station hotkeyed or manually find and click on a command station to get the menu up.
You are right about floaty icons, especially when it comes to the crag/whip/shift/observatory/doors(weldables). Anything that requires priority in relation to the FPS aspect.
So that is everything but structures/upgrades. Whilst they directly effect the game, they don't directly effect the outcome of encounters between players in the same way that hitting umbra on the crag would.
Could be a small bar above the standard menu, showing the ability icons. Hotkeys could be F2 - F4, those are comfortably reachable while your left hand is resting on the control group keys (1,2,3,...).
Selecting the com chair to drop meds has always felt a bit clumsy. Selecting the player first as suggested is impractical imo.
Combine this with some better graphic work for the icons (also size depending on importance) and I think it could work as a full screen menu from the build bot.
<img src="http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/8764/techtree2.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />
I think this would be a great solution combined with power nodes, etc. Because when power goes down, it would blank out the structures not powered. This could work with dynamic infestation as well. The replicate structures 'panel' is not there. This is simply because when you click on 'replicate structures' it could blank out all those but the ones you require to do so.
This would be great for new players, because they could see the routes much more clearly.
Also, I am curious to why you need 2CCs and a L2 upgrade to access a 'MASSIVE' number of upgrades. Maybe UWE can clear things up?
Pop-ups for something like a door would be very nice.
Basically, certain cases it would be very nice to have a radial menu. But it also has to integrate well with the fact many players want access to hotkeys and minimal mouse movements.
Lots of cool stuff coming out here though.
@Runteh
Your graphic is not 100% correct. my editied version is below:
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/techtree.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
But as for using that style of display for navigating also has a problem: You go to a fullscreen, or at least a large overlay, and completely loose the focus of what's going on. That might work in civilisation, but for a fast paced game, that's not really suitable in my optinion.
However I think that having a techtree available ingame to check what you need to build is still a very good idea. And I thought it could be incorporated into a tech advisor style of civilisation. So cou go into the techtree, select whetre you want to go, and get an ingame menu with the requirements left to met. clicking on the items could serve as a shortcut to research the ability directy, or e.g. select a mac with a cc preseleted:
Quick paintjob of it:
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/techtree-advisor.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
It would serve two jobs: for new players it would aid in getting used to the techtree, and for experienced ones, or even when playing with two commanders, it would help to keep track of what has been build etc.
Edit: just noticed, I forgot the advanced armory in the image, but the basic prinicple should be clear ;)
The problem though is (thanks for changing the graphic! I wasn't far off then :D) that because the hierarchy menu is not a standard branching 'pyramid', locating which button to press next becomes more difficult. You have to search different buildings and keep referencing the graphic.
Would a build hotkey/large on screen build menu really be a problem do you think? I see what you are saying. But wouldn't more time be spent searching through buildings, etc, for the right button to press. Rather than clicking on a building/upgrade, placing it down and then having it built? You tend not to build in times of action, and audible alerts could help you there.
I think an old RTS style would work if it supported a simple hierarchy. Any ideas? Maybe this can be refined further... I'll have a think.
My main comment is that there has to be some more tech we haven't heard about yet. The 3rd CC seems to offer no function at this point. I can only guess that some of the upgrades will require it at some point in the future.
Do we know what the upgrade paths for the Kharaa are looking like? I'm pretty interested in seeing is displayed similarly to the above images. It would be interesting to compare the two sides.
If more was added, it would not be that hard to alter. But you are right, obviously stuff is missing.
Pop-ups for something like a door would be very nice.
Basically, certain cases it would be very nice to have a radial menu. But it also has to integrate well with the fact many players want access to hotkeys and minimal mouse movements.
Lots of cool stuff coming out here though.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
pop-up context sensitive radial menus do not have to be mutually exclusive to hotkeys. once you select a building, hotkeys could become available without having to use the radial menus. i was thinking that when you mouseover the radial menu the option enlarges with a text tooltip displaying the name of the ability/command and highlighting the hotkey.
*edit* as to your other point about being hard to navigate, this is true. I've always felt that this can be dealt with by branching, as it was in NS1. I do remember that sometimes the radial menus got intense in NWN, especially regarding spell trees. I'd like to think that if such a situation arose, it could be dealt with by simplifying or grouping the options.
<img src="http://www.sorcerer.de/images/ns2/alphaimages/ns-techtree-alien.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
There's actually alot of stuff missing, and some therefore some dependencies are unsure, but alot of stuff is covered in the tooltips.
But as you can see the alien techtree is alot more straightforward than the marine side and it actually utilises the full 3 hive upgrades
Thats what makes things special.
Could be a small bar above the standard menu, showing the ability icons. Hotkeys could be F2 - F4, those are comfortably reachable while your left hand is resting on the control group keys (1,2,3,...).
Selecting the com chair to drop meds has always felt a bit clumsy. Selecting the player first as suggested is impractical imo.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That might be a good idea I think.
Only Main bottom line can be solid.
That beeing said, i think ns2 is on the good way :)
If map and menu close each other so it could be much more ergonomic for the mouse movement while selecting a point from a map and then dropping med and ammo.
Large Screen Please ! Let us feel high resolution difference !
What do you think about this ? Map and Menu at the same place.
<img src="http://www.yyoru.com/ns2/commanderscreen_yy2.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
In SC2 everything does what you say, when you say it.
In NS2 you build buildings, and everything else does what it likes.
This begs the question... what is the role of the commander? Because if it is just building, there is not as great need for him.
For this to improve (as I have stated many a time) the system needs to change, as does the interface.