GUI Design

[H-Hour]

If equipped icons are incorporated, I think they should be user assignable rather than automatically assigned. If I want to have an assigned medic, I may want to give him an icon showing that rather than his primary weapon, for instance.

[TrashMan]

A dropdown menu next to the soldier name with a list of icons might do the trick.

[Winter]

Here, the mockup:



As you can see, this way one can easily see the status and specialization of all soldiers.

Now, the specialization icon can either be generated depending on what weapon your soldier is carrying, or determined before the mission. Or some other way.

The icons could be generic (sniper, explosive, assault, close combat, heavy) or rather specific, right down to the weapon (railgun has a different icon than a sniper, granade launcher a different icon than a missile launcher, etc..)

I like this, but it would take up a lot of GUI space for larger squads. Any way you could shrink it down a little?

Also, don't forget a UGV icon.

Regards,
Winter

[geever]

Here, the mockup:

It is almost the same as altHUD btw..

-geever

[vedrit]

why not put scroll arrows? That way it doesnt have to be any bigger, while still providing GUI space for large squads. I know its not very good looking, but isnt the mind-set "function before fashion"?

[BTAxis]

Scroll arrows are annoying.

[Bartleby]

i dont like scrolling. popups or sliders are ok.. but scrolling.. :/.
its great to see ppl are working on the gui .
to make a smaller image with more information i like transparent infos as i added.

[TrashMan]

Icon needs to be more visible. Naturally, that was a mockup, so some elements (like the number) can be smaller  and more tighly packed.

another idea is that instead of having bars to show health, AP and morale, you cna jsut have 3 boxes/dots that change color. They don't have to give you an exact reading/value, just an average.

So:
green = over 70% left
yellow = between 40 and 70%
red = less than 40%

Instead of scroll arrow, have a tab, that instantly switches to the next 8 soldiers
With 8 soldiers pr tab, that gives you plenty of room for 12 soldeirs and 2 UAV's.

[Prinegon]

Why not adapt the principal from starcraft 2? Build some groups (A,B,C,D) (or I,II,III,IV). Each member within the group can be chosen with the keys 1 to 6 (or to 8 ), each group can be chosen with STRG+ 1 to 4.

To help the player orientating even better, the position of each soldier relative to the current selected soldier could be added. In my attachment I did this with (okay, I admit, ugly) red arrows and a red circle for the selected player (I used paint and didn't want to spend much time for it). Other representation like highlighting the respective direction would also be possible, of course.

[TrashMan]

The arrows wouldbe useless. The trick to interfaces it to put only the information you need, in a clear, concise way. Minimize what is shown, maximize what can be aditionaly shown.

For example, mousing over a squad memebr number could make the squad memebr flicker or glow on the screen.

OR, if oyu enter a MAP view, you could have icons with numbers representing you soldiers. More intuitive and gives a better overview.

[Prinegon]

The arrows wouldbe useless. The trick to interfaces it to put only the information you need, in a clear, concise way.

This may be true for you. But since I normally don't move my squad by number, but by position, the relative position to each other would be a more useful information to me than the number of the unit itself. Of course there are other ways to represent is, like the way it is done in civilization, where offscreen-units are displayed as a little arrowed bubble at the edge in the direction the unit would be. And yes, the red arrows are over the top. To color one piece of the border in green of the units button would be enough to show its direction relative to the selected unit (as well as there could be added a second border on which enemy sightings would be colored in red in its direction).
In my example the unit 6 would be northern-west to the currently selected unit and would face aliens coming from three directions: north, northern-west and southern-west.

But as I said, I wanted to point out a principle, not to actually do the design.

[TrashMan]

Again, switching to map view gives you a much clearer overview. One button does a better job than all this interface clutter.

I know what I'm talking about, I had interface design as a subject in college.

[vedrit]

some people want more info than where the unit is, and unless there is a unit info popup when you hove over the unit on the map, there will be a lot of clicking to find the unit they want

[TrashMan]

Hover over a number in normal view to get the soldier highlighted (and an arrow pointing towards it)

Hover over the number in the map view to have it's info pop up.

[Winter]

Again, switching to map view gives you a much clearer overview. One button does a better job than all this interface clutter.

Truth. People in this thread are getting very carried away into the realm of gimmicks and information overload.

Rather than trying to design the battle GUI piecemeal, we need to get a full mockup to keep track of exactly how much information the interface is throwing at the player. TrashMan, if you're willing to work with me, we can try to hash something out together in IRC.

Regards,
Winter