Biggest Command Interface Problem Right Now...

Flak50C

<div class="IPBDescription">selecting troops</div> The command interface has come a long way, and while it still has some quirks, it functions well in most situations.

With one exception: selecting troops.

Click and drag sorta works (sometimes).

There needs to be a list on one side of the command map of players so you can select them. Right now, if marines scatter the tiniest bit its impossible to give them all a waypoint without taking 5 minutes to scroll around and do it individually.

When marines are selected they should show an icon on the right (where building icons go now). Add the common shift key remove/add function and commanders can actually command troops instead of turret farm.

Aaron

Well unless you know your marines personally (could happen with regulars on a good server, but still rare) you *usually* want to give commands to marines that are already close together ("hey you guys there, go over here"), instead of giving the same command to marines that are far apart. If that is the case then drag-select should work. If not, there is always the "All Marines" button up top you can use to automatically select all marines. It might be cool to have a marine selection list, but I wonder where it would go in the UI. Can HalfLife do list boxes in the GUI?

Novis

The vgui is capable of displaying listbox-style windows (i.e. the scoreboard).
While I think selecting marines from a list (or simply the scoreboard) would be extremely useful on a public server, when marines mix up squads faster than you can scroll to them and players leave and join midgame and make things even worse, I doubt this is a problem with veteran and playtester games, so I don't expect anything like that any time soon... <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->

In a game with competent marines (like, they follow their wps <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo--> ) without the need to permanently reassign them squads work well the way they are.

What I'd like improved on the comm interface are things like
- an unselect-marines key (to reduce confusion on the hive-rush-squad that suddenly get a wp in base where I just placed a building...)
- a function to scroll around the map by moving the mouse without clicking inside the minimap
- a button to zap the selected marines for not following orders

BlueNovember

I agree with all but the Zap. Think of the chaos.

<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Commander: I'm just getting out to build buildings in main base. You carry on attacking. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->n00b:  <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo--> [Logs in] ZZZAP! ZZZAP! ZZZAP! ZZZAP! <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Everyone else: WTH? Who went AFK with the Zappepr?!?!?!?!<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Hmm. The des-select marine would be excellent though.

To add to your suggestions; (I know this should be somewhere else, but it is on topic)
To keep your squads together could there be a function to punish people who drift too far from their squad Sgt? (who you appoint?)
Or even giving them some sheilding (slight health upgrade, health regen?) for sticking together?

davidsansome

Im not sure if anyone here has played Populous: The Beginning, but it had an excellent feature where you could select any 1/5/10 builder people (I forget their names) using a button on the toolbar. Something like this would be very useful in NS, especially in the first few minutes of the game when you need to split your teams into two squads. You could just select, say 4 names from a list at the side, assign a squad, give a WP, and do the same with the next 4.

Novis

<!--QuoteBegin--BlueNovember+Sep 1 2003, 11:27 AM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (BlueNovember @ Sep 1 2003, 11:27 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->To keep your squads together could there be a function to punish people who drift too far from their squad Sgt? (who you appoint?)
Or even giving them some sheilding (slight health upgrade, health regen?) for sticking together?<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Maybe the vaguely announced "new scoring system" will reward those marines that stay in the vicinity of their waypoint <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif'><!--endemo-->