UI Request

[Akmatov]

Just went back in and played my first winSPWW2 scenario in a long time and was immediately reminded on something I HATE with the SP GUI - you have a bar at the top of the screen reporting some action data and a separate bar at the bottom of the screen with other action data. Having very useful information at top and bottom means constantly looking up and down and missing a lot.

Could you please relocate things so both bars are either at top or bottom? I would prefer both lined up across the bottom of the screen, but either would be a HUGE improvement.

I know this would be a change, but surely others share my frustration.

[void1984]

Yes, that would help a lot.

[DRG]

Well, typically during your phase of combat when you fire on a unit the bottom message might be something like.

"Rifle squad firing at Infantry Section range 350 meters"

while at the top of the screen the message might read something like

"Firing rifle"________________________" hit chance 32%"

while the AI turn is happening the same pattern is repeated.

The IMPORTANT information is what's happening on the map. The top bar info is provided but during game play I really ( really ) have never needed to know the type of rifle being fired and the "hit chance" is, always was and always will be, a rough ( very rough ) estimate of the to hit percentage of how well you *might* do.

The bottom bar gives you generally more useful information in that it tells you who is firing at whom and if there are casualties .

In between combat the top bar gives you live reports on what is in the hex you have your cursor pointed at ( and that info is being expanded in the next release for CD holders ) .. while the bottom bar gives you information about the unit you have currently selected as well as the game turn, visibility and game length.

Personally, I pay very little attention during actual combat to the messages. ( actually none at all ) The real information you need to watch is on the screen between the message bars and given what I know about how the code is put together ( and you obviously don't ) the work involved to move the whole game display upwards to allow extra space at the bottom then moving all the information that is being displayed at the top down to the bottom is prohibitive for something neither of the people who would have to do that work particularly think would be in any way useful.

So, no. We won't be doing that


Don

[StuFL]

I pay attention to the bottom status bar quite a bit. That's where I can see the type and size of enemy artillery to which I'm being subjected, which can make a difference to my artillery planning. Knowing that I can't counterbattery an enemy off-board battery means I can go ahead and use my off-board arty, instead of leaving it idle. There's no other way to get that information from the game. I can tell the enemy artillery was rather large if it left shell holes, but that's it.

I usually ignore the top yellow bar, because it irks me so that the hit percentages are sometimes so disparate between the bottom bar (when cycling through targets) and the top bar (during the actual firing). I've seen cases where when selecting a target the hit chance in the bottom bar is shown as 95%, but when actually firing the hit chance in the top bar is 2%. I've learned to look askance at those 95% hit chances, and say 'yeah, sure' to myself.

My own pie-in-the-sky UI request would be for a turn end combat summary report, sequentially listing who shot at who to what effect that turn. And while I'm dreaming, having such a report either saveable to disk, or cut-and-pasteable, would be a real help to those doing AARs. Might even entice more people to do AARs.

Since I mentioned AARs, I have to relay my most joyous artillery result, which happened in the latest battle of my Russian campaign. in the early turns of the battle, my core off-board 122mm battery managed to drop a bridge crossing a small lake, and I'm pretty sure it dropped a Finnish T-34 into the lake with the bridge. I'm not positive, but I'm fairly certain that there were two tanks on that bridge before the artillery hit, and only one afterwards.

[DRG]

Originally Posted by StuFL

I usually ignore the top yellow bar, because it irks me so that the hit percentages are sometimes so disparate between the bottom bar (when cycling through targets) and the top bar (during the actual firing). I've seen cases where when selecting a target the hit chance in the bottom bar is shown as 95%, but when actually firing the hit chance in the top bar is 2%. I've learned to look askance at those 95% hit chances, and say 'yeah, sure' to myself.

The reason for that is the top to hit % is a raw estimate of your chances BEFORE any of the dozens of variables that could affect your getting an actual hit are calculated and that is why what is diplayed on top differes so much from what the ACTUAL result is displayed at the bottom of the screen so yes, it can be wildly optimistic but that's the reason why.

I belive this is explained in the game guide but if it is not I will ensure I find a way to enter it before the next patch

[Akmatov]

Well, I didn't expect anything to change unless it was really easy. Knowing nothing about the code, or coding, I have no way to know if a suggestion is very easy or very hard without asking.

Still, now I understand more about the information provided in the top bar than I did before, so a net gain.

[void1984]

I like the top bar, not because of the strange hit percentage, but because I'm switch a lot between scenarios from different eras and I like to be reminded what equipment they are using.