GUI Design

[Kildor]

H-Hour, look to the 2.4 hud, there is such icons.

[Prinegon]

@H-Hour: I really love the unit-indicators at your floor marker.

[Winter]

Double-clicking to change firemodes sounds like a bad idea to me. If a weapon has more than 2 firemodes (and there are many of those in the game), picking the right one becomes a chore, especially if you accidentally overshoot.

I don't think that's true, but in any case, I had a thought that we could put firemode choice to RMB over weapon. That'd make things simpler and reduce any hassle.

We can simplyfy it even more by using the same left/right hand method as the  lower mockup (one large field devided into two. Big weapons take up both field, small weapons take up one).

This is a good idea. I've always hated the two big hand windows.

Since we have so much free space left, we could add the basic inventory preview (without backup) for hte soldier, and in the space below the health/AP bars we could add a toggle for soldier stats or something.

Agreed. Keep it small and simple though, its main use will probably be switching stuff between hands and body storage/belt/holster.

Regards,
Winter

[Winter]

Well, I love GUI design and I couldn't help getting in on the fun. Here are some ideas about how we can represent some useful information to the player in a way that isn't too visually distracting.

I actually really like your levels and indicator tabs, but your soldier panel is fiddly and cumbersome, with its tiny tiny buttons and forced scrolling through a list. We want to avoid arrow buttons and especially click-based scrolling.

Regards,
Winter

[Ain Soph Aur]

Well, I love GUI design and I couldn't help getting in on the fun. Here are some ideas about how we can represent some useful information to the player in a way that isn't too visually distracting.

Ok, now I really need to get back to work.

I really like this one. But for me personally the right side needs more work

[Kildor]

Ok. Here is my idea:
Most of information placed on image. All HUD can be maked slimmer without any problem.

About weapon:
Ammo info is shown on the weapon. If no ammo is left, ammo-counter is replaced with button.
Click on weapon to shoot, click on arrow to select firemode. Selected firemode is shown in status field.

Current popup (in 2.4) can be easy added to this HUD.

[H-Hour]

The expandable space for the soldiers is good and I like how less space is taken on the bottom. But shouldn't the player be able to reload even before they are out of ammo? Wouldn't want to be forced to run into a building with one shot left.

[Kildor]

Oh, yes. Thanks for this notice. It is easy to fix, just add symbol for ammo.
Btw, there is one more possible solution, add popup menu to select needed ammo.
Here is it.

Also, status log can change it`s color to show current turn, aliens or player.

[TrashMan]

FYI - I don't think we'll need scrolling.

The screen is big enough to fit all 12 soldiers in the bar.
If no, we can always apply the bars horizontally instead of vertically. That will surely fit them all.

@HH - those markers for levels are a great idea.

[BTAxis]

Don't make assumptions about the screen too lightly - you don't know what resolution people will be playing at.

[Kildor]

Should HUD be normalized for 1024x768 resolution, shouldn`t?

[TrashMan]

Well there's gotta be some minimal resolution. These days 1024x748 is the lower norm.

You can only go after backwards compabiltiy for so long..or should we try to support 320x240 resolutions too?

I mean, UFO:AI isn't resource intensive, so bumping up resolution shouldn't be a issue, even on weaker computers. And if people don't have monitors for that...well, sucks to be them.

[BTAxis]

I was thinking more of portable devices such as the Pandora.

[misiek]

What about making good gui for pc with at least 800x600 resolution and worry about gui for handheld devices if someone will port ufo: ai to them?

After all, ufo: ai should support multiple guis? IMHO it would be better to have one gui for normal computer and second (simpler) for handheld devices than have one universal gui.

[Borsti67]

Kildor, if the soldier-selectors could include the 3 stats (eventually the way TrashMan proposed) it would be more useful IMHO.
Also I like that level-indicators (H-Hour).