Hey folks!
I've read that the menus or at least some of them are under construction so maybe we can share some ideas here.
My problems with the current 2.2 version are as follows:
1. Soldier's recruitment and equipping
There should be a way to delete soldiers from the available for employment list. After a few month this list is as long as the Mississippi and full of people who I will never put into combat and the longer time they wait the less useful they become because the enemy gets stronger over time and they do not develop in any way.
Since the employable people are the same for every base the could be a drop down menu for quick assignment to a certain base. If I see someone in the list who I find useful somewhere else I can choose another base without breaking up current search for a specialist, switching through 5 screens and keeping in mind the name.
If I do not want to wait for transfers of personnel to be finished I simply set the guy on the unemployed list and re-employ him in the next base. That's close to cheating. Soldiers from all over the world are handing in their applications and only the best of the best are accepted. Thus newly employed personnel should arrive within 12 to 24 hours instead of instant time and space travel.
In the epuipment menu there should also be a drop down list for transfer and a check box whether the soldier should stay equipped while transferred to the new base. This way it would be efficient to use one specialized recruitment base where all the equipment is produced and stored and soldiers can be transfered with everything they need. If I can afford to let the soldiers keep the equipment this will save a lot of time. It will come in handy even without a specialzed base.
The health bar should be visible in this menu as well because when I'm short on cannon fodder I might base my decision who gets the new heavy armour on the health status. Furthermore there should be "send to hospital" and "retrieve from hospital" buttons to manage everything according to team issues in one menue.
I know I'm asking much of you but how about a horizontal list of all available soldiers in the base (soldiers in hospital greyed out but retrievable) above/under the team list?
The position in the team should be changeable. If I want George Bush or Al Gore always be number 1 that should be possible. The team members can be kicked out of the team with one click and there equipment can be transferred to someone else or kept (that's how it worked in later x-com versions I think).
2. Research
Since research is a global issue I think it would be good to have a research button on the geoscope. From there the player should be able to manage everything according to research globally. As long as every involved scientist has a space in a laboratory in his base (which is normal because you do not hire more scientists than your lab capacity) and the needed items I don't see any obstacle why scientists in different bases should not be able to work on the same project. Division of labour is needed even with two scientists in the same lab and it will be even easier in the year 2084 with video conferences etc.
The basics for this are already implemented. I can assign soldiers from other bases to an project. Why not manage this truely global?
3. Production
There should be ONE production menu for EVERYTHING producable. It is produced by the same workers in the same production queue in the same workshop. Why not have one menu to manage all about it?
Since this is a basis oriented issue the button for it is fine where it is right now.
The production of aircrafts and aircraft items could be just another button in the production menu.
Same goes for Buy/Sell. I would also find it more convenient to have an extra button for ammo types in the buy/sell and production menu. This would provide a better overview and keeping in mind which weapons you plan to use is not that hard when switching from wepons to ammo.
If it is possible to implement I would appreciate a real scroll bar instead of two buttons to scroll through the lists. The mouse wheel scrolls painfully slow for huge lists and this would speed things up in certain situations.
Ok. This has become a too long post already. These are only my recent thoughts about it. Maybe some of you have better ideas and suggestions. Please keep in mind that this is my wishlist for a perfect gameplay according to my convenience.
