BugsCurrently testing ufoai_2.3-dev_23205_diff_win32 on a system with Intel Q6600 running WindowsXP (RUS), Regional Settings in WinXP set as "Russian".
1) Noticed that though I chose English as game language, the key binding description in Options\Input\Keys are for some reason always in Russian. Perhaps the fact that my WinXp regional settings is set to Russian has caused this; still it is clearly a bug. Screenshot:
http://s50.radikal.ru/i127/0903/a2/9f783a58e8bc.jpg2) Regardless of English language specified in Options\Game\Language, the tip of the day show upon game startup is always in Russian. It reverts to English once I click the "Next" button. Screen: http://s55.radikal.ru/i147/0903/f1/29e93e8b3507.jpg3) In Buy/Sell Equipment screen, the up-down controls are not aligned with respective item lines and are not clickable:
http://i063.radikal.ru/0903/66/c041f24cdf37.jpg
The only way to buy\sell equipment is to use mousewheel, but it takes a lot of trial and error on where to put mouse cursor to increase/decrease values and it works not for all lines on the screen:
http://s52.radikal.ru/i136/0903/c8/52465a8f8af4.jpgFeature requests[goes without saying, all IMHO, all _kind_ requests]
1) Production screen would be much more convenient if it were similar to Buy/Sell Equipment screen in ufoai_2.3-dev_23205_diff_win32 (see last screenshot in the Bugs section of this message - tabbed acces to different equipment/weapon categories, as opposed to current, where you have to press scroll-barish left-right buttons to switch categories in a succession, instead of picking the one you need right away.
2) Production screen: it would be helpful if next to each qued item, the following were displayed: Quantity remaining to be produced (I guess "Q" stands for it now), Time to produce (in hours or days and hours), and Quantity currently in stores (Is that what "Num" stands for? Very cryptic, if so!).
3) Production screen: it would be great if for each qued item, workers could be assigned individually. Say, I have a "production base" with multiple workshops, and e.g. 40 workers. It would be only logical to have some "separation of labor" so that e.g. 20 would be producting Intem A and 10 would be working on Item B and the remaining 10 would be split producting Items C and D. It has been implemented in some XCOM clones; furthermore, AFAIK, research works this way even now.
4) In all screens where up-down controls are used to increase/decrease values (buy/sell, production, research), it would be very convenient to use modifiers:
Simple click - increase/decrease in multiples of one; Shift-click - in multiples of 10; CTRL-click - in multiples of 100.
This would allow for easy operation by user and remove any need for x1/x10 up-down controls currently used in production screen.
The only thing to consider is adding a tooltip and a tip of the day to inform the user of such functionality.
This one does not seem very critical, but having seen it in some apps, I found it immensely convenient, and it is surely easy to implement.
5) Hiring / Buying equipment: should it not, like base-to-base transfer, require time for the hired personnel/acquired items/aircraft to arrive to base? It puts additional emphasis on timing one's decisions and adds reality.
With personnel, it might be even more logical to do it as follows:
- Have each person assigned a nationality (perhaps this property is there already, not sure).
- In determining time-to-base of a particular person, use various values depending on nationality and hence nation of residence and target base.
This way, if I hire an American to a base located in US, it takes maybe a day for him to arrive, whereas if I hired a European to the same base it would take more time.
6) Pilot hiring screen: Pilots should not be wearing field uniform but rather a g-suit and a PDW holster or something like that. This should add visual differentiation bewtween pilots and soldiers.
7) Hiring (any category): I understand this is veryt tedious and perhaps unrewarding to be polishing small features while big ones are not yet done, but having 20 or better yet thirty more faces for models would really add to the gaming experience. People often associate themselves / attach to a particular character, making it more thrilling in engagements. It is not quite easy to attach oneself to a character if another 100 of soldiers and scientists and workers and pilots have the same face.
8 ) Off-base installations: It would be more useful not to name installations as "Installation #x" but rather name them by type as in "SAM#3" or "RDR#5". Using short abbreviations would also make the geoscape less cluttered.9) Soldier Equipment Screen: auto-equip feature should be more "intelligent": e.g. it always starts with hand slots. If I equip weapons last, it is not cool. Some items such as medkit should perhaps autoequip to backpack always, and hands left free for pri/sec weapons unless all other slots are filled.
10) Geoscape: Introduce optional escort mode so that Firebird can be escorted to mission site by available fighter aircraft which would distract UFOs from attacking Firebird first, giving it more chances to survive. In most armies of the world, transport aircraft are usually provided cover, as long as aircraft are available for that purpose )
11) Geoscape: Having a preview of Radar \ Missile range when placing a base would be great.
12) Geoscape: When placig a new base, a dialog that appears after clicking a spot should have "Base name" field in focus so that the user could type the name immediately without having to click the field first.
13) Use of number keys 1-n (assignable in Options\Keys, preferably) to adjust game speed in geoscape. Much more convenient than clicking small icons.
14) Buy/Sell screen (the tabbed version of 2.3): current tab should be highlighted.
15) Base layout should show as graphic or at least as text which aircraft is in hangars, so as to identify empty hangars at first sight.
16) Soldier equipment screen: When putting an item into a slot that is already occupied, the newly placed item should replace the item in the slot, which then should become immediatly placeable somewhere else.
That is: If I am placing say a shotgun into a slot occupied by a pistol, it should go there, and the pistol should become "active placeable item" which I can place in a ny free spot or just drop back into the available inventory. This would save a lot of clicks and time in equipment rearrangement.
Furthermore, "click-to-pickup-click-to-place" algorithm would augment the "click-and-drag-to-place" algorithm nicely.
