Lightening the interface

badpazzword · Post by **badpazzword** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 5:08 pm

Allegiance has a cool way to show and handle menus, and I thought we should be using more of them. Think eg how easy it is to mess up with the settings.

The full and the mini view of the team menu differ mostly by the number of buttons. That makes the mini view less useful, because, for example, you cannot let new members in via that view, or at least it's not obvious. Also, I find stupid to use the second row for showing the money (showing the sector would make more sense) but that's not the point.

I propose to remove the buttons and replace them with popup menus activated when you (right?) click the player. That is, if I clicked on a player a menu like this menu would show up: (in this order)

Accept player A
Take me to T
Boot B[, B]
Change wing C >
Donate to D
Mute M
STFU S
...
(you get the idea)

So, in this moment, you'd right click me and tap S. Only actually useable commands are shown, so right clicking a player in NOAT would only give you Take me to, Boot shows only to the comm, Change wing shows only when right clicking yourself (with the interface as it is now, you'd think you can mess up with other players' wings by selecting them and pushing Change Wing as it works for the other buttons). I see many benefits in this:

* You can use the keyboard to interact, thus saving time
* Adding new stuff (Force to, Issue task and the such) doesn't involve messing up with mdl's and the such
* even if you actually prefer to use the mouse, the commands are nearer
* no buttons allow you to enlarge the list (or sizing down the windows)
* the mini window gets more useful
* only actually useful items are shown
* the interface gets more coherent
* if you fear accidental boots, require tapping B twice (how? With a submenu)

That's it. Flame on /mrgreen.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="mrgreen.gif" />

asheron2k · Post by **asheron2k** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:04 pm

I like it... get to work /mrgreen.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="mrgreen.gif" />

Post by **Tigereye** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:35 pm

What he said.

Code it up /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

--TE

asheron2k · Post by **asheron2k** » Fri Jul 21, 2006 7:54 pm

This may help.

CronoDroid · Post by **CronoDroid** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 2:06 pm

Don't forget to add features like being able to right-click on a base and AP'ing to it, right clicking a miner and choosing 'Mine nearest rock', 'Return to Ref' or 'Return to base'. Add this functionality to groups of pilots as well, like dragging a box around them and then choosing 'Retrun to base' option.

Very useful. /mrgreen.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="mrgreen.gif" />

badpazzword · Post by **badpazzword** » Sat Jul 22, 2006 4:09 pm

CronoDroid · Post by **CronoDroid** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 3:25 am

Re-routing a command through a menu is not the same as changing overall miner AI, at least that's what I figure.

asheron2k · Post by **asheron2k** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 3:39 pm

ya what you wanted seemed like a simple ui change(mdl files)

badpazzword · Post by **badpazzword** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 5:01 pm

I confess I can't understand whether you're hinting the proposal is too easy or too hard. Anyway my answer was based
on the assumption I asked too much and I made a fool of myself (as the ':d' said).

Anyway I'm afraid adding a non-fixed-positioned menu the contents of which depends on the selected items, and having it displayed on the right click is something that requires source change. Feel free to correct me here, though, asheron.

asheron2k · Post by **asheron2k** » Sun Jul 23, 2006 11:01 pm

Well... u\you got me there.. the right clicking and context sensitivity would likely require code change

but a hidden list of commands doesn't seem like it would be difficult (think tooltips)