Col Klink wrote:Ahadley, you really should avoid using such massive images in posts; it looks like **** and really messes up the page posts making them really hard to read/view by other users. Thank.
It looks fine to me... We probably need to put a DIV with scrollbars on the horizontal in the post template.
Yeah, then he goes and quotes the picture without taking it out, thus becoming part of the problem.
I would agree. As much as I apreciate the work that you have put into the HUD, I'm sorry, BZ2's was just plain better and easier to use. Perhaps a crossbreed? How about for each unit group that you ahve, it immedaitaly goes to show you all the unit sin that group and their health/ammo etc. I personally think that woudl work well.
What was the rationale for using BZ1's HUD layout as the starting point? It seems that using the F-keys makes a lot more sense as you can have dozens on dozens of units.
Thanks for your input guys, really appreciate it..
Well for now were not quite sure about whether we're going to have a 10 unit cap or unlimited units as in BZ2 it is too early to tell.. Were still brainstorming about the idea.. Though i actually agree that the BZ2 interface seemed more instant, fast paced and efficient..
Design wise, we want to keep the clutter on the screen minimal and shove all relevant functions and displays in 1 area rather than fill all of the screen's corners with widgets..
Also we have a challenge in mind, which is to make the game appealing to non-BZ players that are either strictly FPS or RTS people at the same time we dont want to upset the BZ fanatics..
Honda wrote:Well for now were not quite sure about whether we're going to have a 10 unit cap or unlimited units as in BZ2 it is too early to tell.. Were still brainstorming about the idea.. Though i actually agree that the BZ2 interface seemed more instant, fast paced and efficient.
BZ2 was limited to 100 - or limited by the user's framerate dropping through the floor, whichever came first.
Honda wrote:
This is our command menu for the units combined with the radar at the top left corner:
I'd like to point out to you lot before you get too stuck into this, my main problem with BZ1 was that to order 5 units to do something you had to select one unit, order it, select another, order it, etc. Especially that you had to reselect the category otherwise. Easymode from your current design since I noticed shift does nothing yet. Perhaps think about using shift to allow yourself to select multiple units then moving on to the order screen by releasing shift or something to that effect.
Another use for shift might be to queue up commands. Like 'go to this point' then 'attack this unit' then 'follow this unit'. Company of Heroes and other RTS games use the shift key for queueing up commands
Though I personally prefer to use the shift key for the jump thrusters since it's hard to fluidly use WASD and then also try to find a way to contort my fingers to use the E key as well when dogfighting and flying to/from battle.
Noting is defined regarding the HUD interface yet.. These are just mockups... As the HUD is directly related to how the game play style is going to be..
BZ1 and BZ2 both have some elements that can be combined, i also believe we can introduce new elements to simplify and make the game fast paced like a tactical FPS without killing the originality of the BZ series...
The BZ games look visually appealing to an FPS player but IMHO, and im speaking as a casual BZ player, the RTS interface is somehow dodgy and inefficient.. Its like playing starcraft from FPS view, somehow... Please enlighten me if i went wrong over here..
The BZ1 RTS interface is more in line with an FPS heavy game while that of BZ2 is more heavy toward the RTS aspect. The changes are very minor, but the shear difference in access speed to units and buildings and the count do it.
You guys speak about queuing commands and selecting multiple units... Come to think about how fast is it drag a mouse and select these units...
We came with this idea of having 2 modes for the player to switch from:
1. FPS Fighting Mode
In this mode you can use the keyboard to hot-key basic commands like move/attack etc to units/locations that are close to your proximity or marked by nav beacon. Typical BZ gamestyle..
2. FPS Command/RTS Control Mode
In this mode, you press a button on the keyboard that switches the mouse from weapons firing and management to a regular mouse cursor. You can drive around the tank, you are still in FPS view but you cannot fire your guns.. While you're in this mode, also, 25% of the screen gets covered with a more detailed mini-map where you can select multiple units, queue commands and issue any complex orders or advanced strategies you cannot do in the FPS Fighting mode.
Hence Sat Nav and relay bunkers are obsolete and you got 2 modes to get engaged with, each one will have its advantages so you have to switch and benefit from both modes as appropriate. This is a concept so more R&D will be needed before we jump into it..
It's interesting, certainly, but I'm not sure how feasible it is. Certainly sounds like it would be fun to try. Are you intending to have a full-RTS mode or just the FPS command? I don't think top-down should be abandined quite yet, regardless of how little it is used in either game.
Baconboy wrote:Um, I can't reach the site...
It won't load on any computer I go to.
Forums are down for maintenance.. Dunno when they'll be back..
Ill be posting a full description and plan for the new HUD layout and Command Interface on the BZ3 forums and here aswell soon.. We believe we've found a way to make everybody happy ..
Command interface that can fully accommodate 100 offensive, defensive or utility units divided into 10 groups with 10 units per group. Aside from the base units like the Recycler, Factory, Armory and Constructor... Though we plan to cut down the no. of units to 50 maybe, we'll see.. Basically a combination of the best of BZ1 and B2 along with new experimental features.. Scavengers will be mobile but scrap fields will be at permanent locations..
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