Mostly I think the game needs a few relatively minor interface adjustments to help tone down the frustration factor
I don't intend to sound harsh or critical so if I come out that way please forgive me.
One of the first is that I would really love to see the give orders "button" turned into a pulldown instead... That would be more user friendly I think. Any "order" that is an instant or needs more complex handling would still have to open a new window but basic orders like patrol or research etc don't need you to go to the hassle of a new window and those type of commands are frequently used (at least by me)
Among the largest and most complex... (and the one that would vastly improve things IMO) would be to ADD the army functions to the "charsheet" of a unit so that you can quickly move units to/from that unit and the garrison (although not other units) also a quickie ability to move items to/from the lab via the "charsheet" view also would make a huge difference.
An example... I right click on Vlad my command and see all his info and right below his equipment (which should be BELOW abilities/spellpowers imo BTW) I see his squad composition then his description. along the top of the whole thing is the garrison.
I click on his helmet slot and it pops up my lab contents window (filtered for items that fit in that slot would be nice but not important) so I click on an item and it equips it if it can then I keep clicking items til and they keep equipping (if they can) until I hit exit.
I then click on a bunch of crossbows and add them to a squad and set orders etc.
Perhaps add a PULLDOWN with the names and types of each commander in the provice as a menu type item here so I can switch commanders quick n dirty without having to do a lot of clicking. then I could dump this commanders units back into the garrison go to another commander and give those units to them etc.
I work with windows a LOT so I am very used to using windowed modes in my programs and pulldowns over windows are often better hehe. I've been criticized myself for not using them and recently was given a very convincing demonstration of why and when they are better.
Using graphical tiles is nice but not always to be desired. they work wonderfully on the main map view and I would never change that but sometimes making it so you don't have to go into a layer just to look at something then go out then go into another layer change something go out go into another layer look at something etc. etc. that gets tedious.
Use all the neat graphical stuff where it looks good and enhances and use pulldowns where the graphics are not nescessary or don't help. also the more "layers" you can combine into a single layer the better overall I think. i.e. the more function per layer the better the whole thing works IMO.
One final thing that's not really interface related
A thought for DOM III actually... I've heard/well read this game compared a lot to MoM and actually made that comparison myself (mostly to Dom's favour actually) but thought... I really wish dom had MoM's magic item creation system... It seems SOOOOO close but instead of being able to customize based on your spell skill levels you just unlock items based on them. Not that that is BAD mind just I kinda liked being able to truely make UNIQUE items that fit my style 100% I realize that a lazy player would be at a disadvantage vs an industrious player if that was allowed and it might allow creative players a bit much advantage if not regulated well but it's a thought for a try
**EDIT**
Just thought I would clarify for those not crusty nuff to have played MoM hehe... basically for each "level" of a magic "type" you had it unlocked powers you could imbue into items you made so that you could say add +1 to hit to a weapon with air (blue) magic level 1 or +2 with air level 2 etc. or frost brand with air level 3 and water level 5 or whatever. things like that. Items had a limit to how many powers you could put in em based on your alchemy skill also...
[ January 15, 2004, 00:19: Message edited by: DimmurWyrd ]
Some Thoughts
Linear Mode
