OpenXcom Forum
Modding => Work In Progress => Topic started by: StarkMad on July 10, 2012, 05:47:07 am
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One thing that has always bugged me about Xcom is the user interfaces. I really disliked having everything in your base dumped onto one list without any kind of organization to the list. I remember one time when I first played the game that I accidently sold my skyranger because I didn't realize it was thrown in with the pistols and grenades. To remedy the problem I modified the sell screen to make use of tabs.
Sacking lazy employees
(https://openxcom.org/forum/index.php/topic,512.0.html/Sell_Personnel.png)
Junking that old lemon
(https://'Sell_Craft.png')
Selling items
(https://openxcom.org/Sell_Items.png)
I would really like to break the 'Items' tab down into better defined categories and move craft weapons like Avalanche launcher/ammo to the craft tab, but I need to delve deeper into the data files to find out if that is even possible.
P.S. Apparently I'm horrible at figuring out how the img tags work.
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The sorting and tab down function of base inventory management will surely improve the gameplay.
I always think that the letters for weapon and ammo should use different colors.
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I like it. But i'm not sure about colors. Maybe it would be better if you invert them - grey - inactive tab, blue - active ?
Or make them similar to time buttons on geoscape - they have clicked state.
(https://openxcom.org/wp-content/gallery/v0-1/copy_0_280910_interceptions.png)
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oh, totally +1 on this.
And the "clicked" state from geoscape should be used, I agree - no need to invent something new when we can use something that already exists, right?
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When I played xcom last weekend, I had a moment where my storages were full at some point.
What I wanted to do is to sell items until I had again a little bit of space, but I had to sell something, switch back to base information to check how it affected the storage space, back to sell, back to base info, etc...
So information about the storage space on both sell and buy screens would be nice too, since there is a little space to the right of those buttons, you can only make use of the precious screen space ;D
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Daiky, nice font:)
I bet such HD xcom would be more informative :)
Btw, 32/150 occupied or free? :)
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So information about the storage space on both sell and buy screens would be nice too
Would that be to storage space currently in use, or the list of things being purchased/sold. Either way, I like both the seperation and space ideas
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I think currently used, but with realtime updates when you buy or sell smth.
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to be defined :-) just to have an idea how your storage space is doing. However, an extra column with the amount of storage space each of your items takes, can be useful too.
I'm just brainstorming :)
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Sell: Space used> 32(-7)/150
Purchased: Space used> 32(+7)/150
Another question - openxcom uses floating point (with one decimal after point) space size - if we try to show this fractional part - it probably become too long.
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I like Volutar's proposal.
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+1 vote for all suggestions above, these are excellent suggestions.
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+1 from me as well. this will make things more comfortable. now we only need that click-and-drag-the-cursor-down-the-sell-buttons function from the original to sell lots of stuff at once. :D
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Can the item being ordered but not yet delivered be shown?
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hsbckb, I suppose it will require another column for sell/purchase/manufacture menus... But I guess it will make "transfers" button obsolete :)
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Or make them similar to time buttons on geoscape - they have clicked state.
Good idea. I'll look at how it is done in the geoscape and update the sell menu.
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Here is the second version. I used the same approach for the buttons as the clock buttons in geoscape so as to make the sell/sack menu more consistent with the other UIs. I also added the 'Space Used' but it is a static value. It shows you the amount of storage space in use at the moment you entered the sell/sack menu. The patch file is now generated by git per the projects coding standards.
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looking good :)
perhaps replace 41:50 by 41/50 ?
oh, btw, will this work for over-filled storage? you know, like when a skyranger returns a lot of stuff to an already full base and the storage would be 62/50 ?
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the 41:50 notation is probably done because it's consistent with the base information screen
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oops again, right. well, I would like x/y better, but in this case I'd like to withdraw my suggestion in order to stay consistent :)
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So now we're waiting for SupSuper (or Daiky?) to merge it ;)
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the 41:50 notation is probably done because it's consistent with the base information screen
Yes, and because it was just a copy paste from BaseInfoState.
Here is an updated version that has the space used by each type of item. The last requested feature maybe a tough one. I'll have to think about how to do the
'Space Used > 41 (+7) : 50'
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This one should show you the overall change to space used. You need v0.2 + v0.3 + v0.4 since I'm not familiar enough with GIT to make it combine all the patches together.
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Good work :D
Here's another idea. All this texts have blue color. I wonder that maybe it would be worth to try to use different colors? For example for : "Value of sales", "Funds", "Space used". Also maybe different colors for value and space column?
I'm not sure if it's possible now in OpenXcom engine (pallete limitations?). But maybe that way, OpenXcom gui could be made more interesting than original one ;)
What do you guys think? One color to rule them all, or couple of colors?
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Totally agreed. Having whole windows elements in one color is a bad idea. Like we have monochrome displays.
1. Ammo and item colors should differ (there are already examples).
2. Table heading should have more neutral color.
... Textual content have to be colored anyways, and not only for this window! Probably columns better to be having different colors,
N. Quantity/Sall/Sack columns as other numeric fields should get right alignment, and "^v" buttons visually have to be between them (for the moment they are closer to left column)
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N. Quantity/Sall/Sack columns as other numeric fields should get right alignment, and "^v" buttons visually have to be between them (for the moment they are closer to left column)
agreed. considering that "^" and "v" change the number to be sold (which is in the right column), they should be closer to that one. right now it might be confusing.
about adding colors: yes, this might make some things a bit more clear. but please don't turn it into angry fruit salad, the almost-monochrome interface does fit the militaristic setting of the game. :)
EDIT: is this still a mod, or will it find its way into the main branch? even before V1.0? just asking... :)
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So now we're waiting for SupSuper (or Daiky?) to merge it ;)
I'll leave it to SupSuper
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Yes, and because it was just a copy paste from BaseInfoState.
Looks good, but could we do something about making capitalisation consistant though? And maybe add the > arrow after space in the top section to be consistant with funds?
Cheers
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I found a way to squash all of my commits into one so that I can have one patch to rule them all ;D. Changes in this version include:
- Changed capitalization on 'Items' and 'Quantity' column headers to make it more consistent.
- Moved Up/Down arrows a little to the right.
- Made the text lists a different color so that the menu wasn't monochromatic.
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I found a way to squash all of my commits into one so that I can have one patch to rule them all ;D. Changes in this version include:
- Changed capitalization on 'Items' and 'Quantity' column headers to make it more consistent.
- Moved Up/Down arrows a little to the right.
- Made the text lists a different color so that the menu wasn't monochromatic.
Nice patch, but I don't really like the green color. Is it really necessary to make it non-monochromatic? This definetly doesn't fit the game style.
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Here's another idea. All this texts have blue color. I wonder that maybe it would be worth to try to use different colors?
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What do you guys think? One color to rule them all, or couple of colors?
Nice patch, but I don't really like the green color. Is it really necessary to make it non-monochromatic? This definetly doesn't fit the game style.
You can't please everyone. ;D It does break the style of the game but I think its worth it. In a low resolution screen with lots of data presented to the user at once a color change is a great way to visually divide the information and keep everything from blurring together. Now I agree that green might not be the color of choice but it was easier on the eye than the red or yellow.
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As I remember there was already color diversity for items (ammo have had purple color). Concerning color choise, I wouln't suggest dark colors which are close to background (dark green color kinda close to dark yellow). And better not to alter item colors - better to alter header color.
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As I remember there was already color diversity for items (ammo have had purple color). Concerning color choise, I wouln't suggest dark colors which are close to background (dark green color kinda close to dark yellow). And better not to alter item colors - better to alter header color.
I agree. I think alter header colour and different ammo colors are enough.
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Ok, I believe this was the consensus on what the tabbed Sell/Sack menu should look like. So I also applied it to the Purchase/Hire menu.
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Oh, shouldn't craft armament (stingray/avalance, etc) go into Craft tab?
At first times I was confused by buyng those launchers and missiles supposing to get them in the battlescape. :)
And indention+pinkish color of ammos, would be very nice, please, thank you .
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Oh, shouldn't craft armament (stingray/avalance, etc) go into Craft tab?
Yes they should. That is the next thing I am looking into. Right now they are lumped into 'Items' along with pistols, corpses, alien artifacts, and so on. I have to add more categories to the ruleset to make it work but this causes problems with any saved games made before the ruleset modification. So that would probably require a tool to convert saved games as well.
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New categories? Why so? Doesn't game already know what is battlescape item and what is craft armament/ammo?
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New categories? Why so? Doesn't game already know what is battlescape item and what is craft armament/ammo?
If you look in the bin/data/Ruleset/Xcom1Ruleset.rul file you will find the definition for just about everything in the game. Things like the Stingray launcher are in there twice.
The first time is under the 'craftWeapons' category. This definition for the Stingray launcher is what shows up when you are in the 'Equip Craft' menu trying to decide what weapons you want to put on your Interceptors. But this isn't the Stingray launcher that shows up in the Buy/Sell menus.
The second time is under the 'items' category. This is the version of the Stingray launcher that is used by the Buy/Sell menus and this version of the launcher is grouped with things like pistols, rifles, and ammo clips. Here is a shortened version of the category to show what I'm talking about.
items:
- type: STR_STINGRAY_LAUNCHER
- type: STR_AVALANCHE_LAUNCHER
- type: STR_PISTOL
- type: STR_PISTOL_CLIP
- type: STR_RIFLE
- type: STR_RIFLE_CLIP
In order for me to move Stingray launchers to the 'Craft' tab I would have to divide the items category into smaller parts like this for example:
itemsForCraft:
- type: STR_STINGRAY_LAUNCHER
- type: STR_AVALANCHE_LAUNCHER
items:
- type: STR_PISTOL
- type: STR_PISTOL_CLIP
- type: STR_RIFLE
- type: STR_RIFLE_CLIP
But this change causes a problem with old saved games.
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SrarkMad, I don't see why you can't mark those "storage items" which are in the same time in "craftWeapon" (as launcher and as clip, with different "colors", in runtime).
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In order for me to move Stingray launchers to the 'Craft' tab I would have to divide the items category into smaller parts like this for example:
itemsForCraft:
- type: STR_STINGRAY_LAUNCHER
- type: STR_AVALANCHE_LAUNCHER
items:
- type: STR_PISTOL
- type: STR_PISTOL_CLIP
- type: STR_RIFLE
- type: STR_RIFLE_CLIP
But this change causes a problem with old saved games.
I found a better way of handling it that doesn't cause problems with old saved games. Instead of adding more categories I added new 'attributes' to the items I wanted to move.
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So, the things others have mentioned that I need to investigate are:
- Pink ammo
- Storage space delta on Purchase menu
- Possibility of adding an 'On Order' column to Purchase menu
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Another idea - number and money columns right justed? May look better IMHO.
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So, the things others have mentioned that I need to investigate are:
- Pink ammo
- Storage space delta on Purchase menu
- Possibility of adding an 'On Order' column to Purchase menu
This will be another reason for people playing OpenXcom instead of X-Com or XCOM.
Is it possible to arrange the items alphabetically by pressing a button? This is useful when your item list becomes longer and longer.
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item arrangement? gosh, oh no! xcom have "classic" item arrangement and everyone know where he should be looking for particular item. by arranging them you may get practical mess, specially with custom translations.
on order might be nice, but how to fit all this info in low screen resolution?
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item arrangement? gosh, oh no! xcom have "classic" item arrangement and everyone know where he should be looking for particular item. by arranging them you may get practical mess, specially with custom translations.
Oh yes. I haven't consider the arrangement issue for different language e.g. Chinese
For the East Asian Language, item arrangement is meaningless.
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I think that better then pressing a key would be to just make the table header clickable so we can sort by any column. And of course, the default should stay as original xcom. By the way, I think that in original it's actually groupped into few sections (with ammo always under its weapon) and sorted alphabetically. But I'm not sure.
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and alien corpses are available not in every menu.
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This will be another reason for people playing OpenXcom instead of X-Com or XCOM.
Is it possible to arrange the items alphabetically by pressing a button? This is useful when your item list becomes longer and longer.
Old versions of OpenXcom listed the items alphabetically and people didn't like it one bit. :P I forsee a million options in the future...
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SupSuper, do you consider merging it after 0.4 will be released?
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Old versions of OpenXcom listed the items alphabetically and people didn't like it one bit. :P I forsee a million options in the future...
I think that the original DOS Xcom listed the items alphabetically, but in english. It was pain because it didn't make sense translated - it was sorted neither alphabetically nor logically. I'd probably prefer this tabbed view (with one tab showing everything) and then sorted alphabetically.
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Ok, I believe this was the consensus on what the tabbed Sell/Sack menu should look like. So I also applied it to the Purchase/Hire menu.
Very interesting proposition...
A newbie question : will these nice features be integrated in final release ?
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Very interesting proposition...
A newbie question : will these nice features be integrated in final release ?
Second this question: when will these functional screens be in openXCOM?
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Second this question: when will these functional screens be in openXCOM?
We're currently in a feature freeze to officially release the 0.5.0 version, so no new features will be added to nightly builds until we get a bug-free (or nearly bug-free) release version ready. If you'd like to speed up that point, please assist by downloading the latest Git build, and testing it with lots of different situations, and on non-windows platforms. :)
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From someone who just noticed this thread, allow to say, I really like some of Starkmad's edits. Frankly I'd even add another category strictly for HWPs.
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too bad pictures are twice of my broser window size, thus i see only part of it... and i'm too lazy to scroll them and "imagine whole picture".
so i cant even appreciate this "mod" :(
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too bad pictures are twice of my broser window size, thus i see only part of it... and i'm too lazy to scroll them and "imagine whole picture".
so i cant even appreciate this "mod" :(
Most browsers have a zoom/fit-to-width option. Anyways it's Buy/Sell split in item categories, I've been meaning to add it for a while but other stuff keeps coming up.
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Any chance we'll see this soon, SupSuper? :)