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Author Topic: [Suggestion] UI improvements  (Read 4389 times)

Offline chronocide_commando

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[Suggestion] UI improvements
« on: April 22, 2019, 06:47:30 pm »
I have a few ideas of small UI improvements that could save a lot of time and frustration, especially in larger mods with a lot of micro.

1.1 Scroll wheel in inventory.
"Scroll Right" is currently the most clicked button in the inventory screen, and it doesn't even have a keyboard shortcut.
Wheel scrolling would be a huge improvement, if only because you can flip inventory pages without moving the cursor.

1.2. Shift + Scroll wheel for next/previous unit.
There are hotkeys for Next/Previous unit, but scrolling would be much faster and more convenient, especially with 15+ units. It could work both in inventory screen and in Battlescape.

2. Remember the last selected unit in inventory screen (after going back to craft equipment).
Right now when you press the "Inventory" button in craft equipment, you always start from the first unit. This makes going back and forth between craft equipment and inventory inconvenient. It would be great if inventory screen "remembered" the last selected character.

3.1. Live filter.
Quick Search is great, but it could be even better as live search, searching as you type without having to confirm it with Enter.

3.2. A user option to make the search box always on.
There's no reason not to have the search box always visible and selectable, other than preserving vanilla look.

3.3. Clear the search field with Right Click.

4.1 Remove item from craft loadout via inventory screen (Shift + Left Click).
Craft equipment screen doesn't show how many items your units already have equipped.
Being able to remove items from a craft straight from inventory (with Right Click or Shift + Left Click, for example) would make getting rid of unnecessary stuff a lot easier.

4.2 Remove every item currently displayed on the ground from craft loadout via inventory screen (Shift + Clear inventory).
Used together with quick search it can be used to remove a specific weapon and its ammo, weapons with certain damage type, or everything that is not equipped.

Offline Meridian

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Re: [Suggestion] UI improvements
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2019, 01:29:37 am »
Random feedback as a player, not as a dev:

1.1 I almost never click "scroll right" even in biggest mods, saying it's the most clicked button is... subjective. I either have only the needed stuff (one screen is more than enough), or I use search/filter, or I do the equipment via pre-saved shortcuts

2. god no, this would break all my equipment routines... I remember who needs to get what equipment based on their position in the craft, not based on their name or some random RPG stuff, I need to always start on position 1 (and can do everything blindly without even looking at their names)... otherwise I will spend more time figuring out where did I randomly start this time than what I spend on actual equipping

3.1 no thank you, I don't want items appearing/disappearing and changing positions each time I press a key, distracting as heck!

3.2 ok this one I answer as a dev: preserving vanilla look is important, not just "other than"... and user options will be added only for things with a fifty-fifty-ish user preference... I am not adding user options for one user, or even 10 users, or even 50... I need to be 100% convinced that an option appeals to a significant percentage of xcom players before I even start considering it... and in this case, I'm not convinced... btw. such option existed in the past and it was removed (on December 24th 2016) because it was unpopular

4.1 right click is already taken (prime); and shift+left click is also taken (quick unload)

4.2 ctrl+alt+X moves everything unequipped back to base

Offline chronocide_commando

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Re: [Suggestion] UI improvements
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2019, 03:16:03 am »
1.1 I almost never click "scroll right" even in biggest mods, saying it's the most clicked button is... subjective. I either have only the needed stuff (one screen is more than enough), or I use search/filter, or I do the equipment via pre-saved shortcuts
The other buttons in inventory screen are "Next Unit", "Previous Unit", "OK", "Unload", "Create a template" and "Apply template", and there's little reason to actually click them since they have shortcuts. So it isn't much of a stretch to assume that "Scroll right" is the most clicked one.
With two or three screens of equipment wheel scrolling would be way faster and more convenient than searching IMHO.

3.1 no thank you, I don't want items appearing/disappearing and changing positions each time I press a key, distracting as heck!
What if there were a small delay? If items would appear/disappear 200-600 ms after you finished typing (instead of refreshing on every keypress) it wouldn't be distracting.

4.1 right click is already taken (prime); and shift+left click is also taken (quick unload)
Sorry, I forgot about that. What about some other shortcut, like Alt + Left Click or Shift + Right Click?

4.2 ctrl+alt+X moves everything unequipped back to base
Wow. This is really helpful, thanks. Still, being able to remove search results could be useful.

Offline Nord

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Re: [Suggestion] UI improvements
« Reply #3 on: April 23, 2019, 06:45:32 am »
Point 2: No, please, never do that.  :'(

Offline just_dont

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Re: [Suggestion] UI improvements
« Reply #4 on: April 23, 2019, 12:52:28 pm »
After reading this topic and getting into the game for a bit, I realized that there's one thing that's not mentioned here but is definitely creating a lot of extra clicks for me: it's the fact that ground inventory resets to first page when I switch units.

I think that not resetting it would reduce the amount of clicks you have to make to equip your team - especially if there's a lot of pages.

Offline BlackStaff

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Re: [Suggestion] UI improvements
« Reply #5 on: April 23, 2019, 02:33:06 pm »
I wonder why you have several pages of objects to equip your agents.  8)
If I have half a page I think I have too many...  :)
I think everything is perfect....

Offline just_dont

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Re: [Suggestion] UI improvements
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2019, 02:53:39 pm »
If I have half a page I think I have too many...  :)
I think everything is perfect....
Not all people equip the team before taking off, and not all people use different teams for different types of missions (so they can avoid the need of switching gear with that). Not to mention that it's still same micro, just shifted elsewhere - to base management rather than pre-mission management.

Offline chronocide_commando

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Re: [Suggestion] UI improvements
« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2019, 03:25:32 pm »
After reading this topic and getting into the game for a bit, I realized that there's one thing that's not mentioned here but is definitely creating a lot of extra clicks for me: it's the fact that ground inventory resets to first page when I switch units.

I think that not resetting it would reduce the amount of clicks you have to make to equip your team - especially if there's a lot of pages.
Oh yes, forgot to mention that one. Sure, you can get around it by using search (since search results don't get reset when switching units and usually fit on one page), but searching doesn't save much time compared to clicking.

I wonder why you have several pages of objects to equip your agents.  8)
If I have half a page I think I have too many...  :)
I think everything is perfect....
Depends on the mod. Half a page means you have, like, five different weapons. This is perfectly fine in vanilla, TWoTS or XOps, but in Piratez with its hundreds of weapons it would be insane (and, more importantly, inefficient and boring).

Offline Solarius Scorch

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Re: [Suggestion] UI improvements
« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2019, 09:55:02 pm »
I don't have any strong opinions on these issues, except this one:

After reading this topic and getting into the game for a bit, I realized that there's one thing that's not mentioned here but is definitely creating a lot of extra clicks for me: it's the fact that ground inventory resets to first page when I switch units.

I think that not resetting it would reduce the amount of clicks you have to make to equip your team - especially if there's a lot of pages.

I really like this idea. Of course quick search makes things easier, but I'd rather not have to use quick search this much in the first place, and this is a good way to decrease it.

Also, I've decided to check how much equipment I'm carrying in my main craft (since it is feedback of sorts) and:
Piratez: 6 pages
X-com Files: 3 pages

Offline wolfreal

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Re: [Suggestion] UI improvements
« Reply #9 on: April 25, 2019, 05:09:08 am »
After reading this topic and getting into the game for a bit, I realized that there's one thing that's not mentioned here but is definitely creating a lot of extra clicks for me: it's the fact that ground inventory resets to first page when I switch units.

I think that not resetting it would reduce the amount of clicks you have to make to equip your team - especially if there's a lot of pages.

Ok, i´m almost against everything suggested, but this, please, THIS!.  I do also use search intensely, but this sound just great.

Offline Meridian

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Re: [Suggestion] UI improvements
« Reply #10 on: April 25, 2019, 11:49:27 am »
Ok, i´m almost against everything suggested, but this, please, THIS!.  I do also use search intensely, but this sound just great.

Done.