Hot keys and group control issues

[BaZooKa]

Why there no key to select your units one by one? For Example - Tab key. It is not comfortable to select it from very small icons on the right side of the screen. It ruins micro.
And how can I select all squads as it always possible in strategies using Ctrl+A for example?

And the big issue that I noticed during mission 2
When I select several units and move tham to the point, sometimes thay don't move or go very weird ways, not the shorter way. And during moving they can just stop for no reason.

[✭Panther ♂]

Agree

[mhardisty]

Good point about TAB and Ctrl+A - as we have grouping units (CTRL+NUM) then I am sure we can also add these other suggestions that you made.
Thank you.

On the pathfinding - on mission 2, on the road up to the extraction point, sometimes if there is a vehicle in the way, a vehicle or squad may determine that it is quicker to go around and up through the woods to the left of the road. I presume it is this that you are referring too?

[mhardisty]

Hi BaZooka - here are some of the controls that are in the current build:

Tab - switches between units in the selected group. If you select several units and then tap this button you should see it cycle through the details of each unit in the group. (You can double click on the unit picture (where ammo, etc is shown) to center on that unit)

We feel that selecting all units is not available in any other RTT games. So, Ctrl+A doesn’t work in them either (but please let us know if there are games that has this control functionality).

However, using SHIFT in the top right panel allows quick selection of multiple units. For example, select the left infantry icon, then SHIFT select the far right infantry icon, and all infantry units are then selected (and if you then SHIFT select the right vehicle unit icon ALL units are then selected). It is then possible to assign them to a group for easy future selection.
CTRL select will also select or unselect units in the top right panel.

Another similar action include double clicking on a unit - which selects all identical units currently on the screen.

And of course, preliminary assignment to groups by CTRL + 1,2,3, etc. then allows you to select groups by number.

Hope this helps.

[✭Panther ♂]

Will you add an order queue?

[BaZooKa]

Originally posted by mhardisty:

Hi BaZooka - here are some of the controls that are in the current build:

Tab - switches between units in the selected group. If you select several units and then tap this button you should see it cycle through the details of each unit in the group. (You can double click on the unit picture (where ammo, etc is shown) to center on that unit)

We feel that selecting all units is not available in any other RTT games. So, Ctrl+A doesn’t work in them either (but please let us know if there are games that has this control functionality).

However, using SHIFT in the top right panel allows quick selection of multiple units. For example, select the left infantry icon, then SHIFT select the far right infantry icon, and all infantry units are then selected (and if you then SHIFT select the right vehicle unit icon ALL units are then selected). It is then possible to assign them to a group for easy future selection.
CTRL select will also select or unselect units in the top right panel.

Another similar action include double clicking on a unit - which selects all identical units currently on the screen.

And of course, preliminary assignment to groups by CTRL + 1,2,3, etc. then allows you to select groups by number.

Hope this helps.

Okey, Thx for feedback

My thoughts on these points:

1. About mission 2 pathfinding - Yes it is what I mean.
When I try to quickly escape in the end of the mission or try to move a group of units to defend medic etc its frustraiting that I need to babysitting each unit to choose the correct way to the point
It should be fixed because it ruins gameplay
During a scripted scene when the squad was left alone against a crowd of terminators so that we could leave, but we cannot leave, we stand still and try to decide who will go first, and then decide to go straight to the terminators instead to go to the evacuation point.
I hope you can solve this issue.

2. Tab button. It is nice that it works when player select group of units
but why it impossible to go through all player's units when no group is selected?

3. Ctrl+A. It is possible to use Ctrl+A in DoW games especcialy in DoW 2 that is also RTT game with a few units on the battlefield.
There is another moment here. Why should you pay attention to how it’s done in other RTT games instead of doing it the way it’s convenient? So other developers will pay attention to the fact that in your game this is done for the comfort of the player.

4. About Units panel UI on the right side of the screen. It may be improved in a good way.
Make the unit icons on this panel at least twice as large, they are inconvenient to select. (Again, look at the size of the unit icons in DoW 2, this is a good example of UI in my opinion.)
And when a unit is inside a vehicle, its icon is simply microscopic. This has clearly not been tested for usability.

5. Right side UI panel and grouping
Notice why I think that moving using TAB only in a group is not very convenient. Your main target audience is ordinary players, not pro players. And the average player often does not remember what units he has in his group, and therefore he will select groups one by one to find the unit he needs.
When the battle begins, the ordinary player forgets about his groups and tries to select units either with the mouse on the battlefield (which is inconvenient since the units are very small), or begins to select from the units panel on the right side. Therefore, it needs to be made as convenient as possible for the player, since most often he will interact with units through this panel or using TAB (for all avaliable units) (not through groups or through selection on the battlefield)

6. There is a good option to make grouping units more convenient, which will increase the usability of both groups and unit panel.
At the beginning of a mission, you have a set of units that appear on the panel in the default order.
It would be very convenient for the player, when grouping units are going to display these groups on the UI panel.
That is, when player selected Humvee + snipers and made a group; on the panel they will immediately be displayed in a separate block.
Then I selected a couple of Bradleys and made a group; they will also be displayed in a separate block.
This way the player will better see and remember which units are in his groups
And thus, if a player has forgotten what units he has in groups and in which group they are , he sees them on the units panel and he can immediately select the entire group or separate squad as player whishes, directly from UI panel

To do all these improvements with UI units panel you should place unit icons vertically not horizontally and it will work much better

7. Add a possibility to unselect units by left clicking

I know my posts can come across as emotional. But it's nothing personal, it's just the kind of person I am.
Please note what I suggested. I know a little about this stuff because I have five years experience as QA engineer in games testing.

[mhardisty]

Originally posted by BaZooKa:

Originally posted by mhardisty:

Hi BaZooka - here are some of the controls that are in the current build:

....................

I know my posts can come across as emotional. But it's nothing personal, it's just the kind of person I am.
Please note what I suggested. I know a little about this stuff because I have five years experience as QA engineer in games testing.

Hi BaZooka - all feedback is good feedback :)
The team have your feedback and will look to update and tweak where appropriate.. Some good points though....

[BaZooKa]

Originally posted by mhardisty:

Hi BaZooka - here are some of the controls that are in the current build:

However, using SHIFT in the top right panel allows quick selection of multiple units. For example, select the left infantry icon, then SHIFT select the far right infantry icon, and all infantry units are then selected (and if you then SHIFT select the right vehicle unit icon ALL units are then selected). It is then possible to assign them to a group for easy future selection.
CTRL select will also select or unselect units in the top right panel.

As I see it works a little bit another way
I can't select the left infantry icon and than select a right vechicle infantry to select all units i have (thats why we need ctrl+a feature)

Testing a little bit and I see that if I select left infantry icon + shift all infantry is selected
the same for vechicles
so I not needed to select left icon and than right icon with shift

maybe its buggy dont know

[BaZooKa]

Originally posted by mhardisty:

Originally posted by BaZooKa:

Hi BaZooka - all feedback is good feedback :)
The team have your feedback and will look to update and tweak where appropriate.. Some good points though....

I was wondering why your game designer (if you have one, of course, hehe) decided that the Squad Panel is not particularly important. It's easy to understand that he thinks so. Because the icons are small and because there is even a special button to remove this panel altogether.
On the one hand, I understand why this was done
That is, you want the player to be able to see the map as much as possible without unnecessary UI objects, and you also think that players will mainly interact with units through grouping.
But this is a misconception, this panel is the most important thing that you have in your ingame UI.

If you want player to have nothing in way of looking at map, then why do you place unit icons horizontally on the squad panel?
And if you want to increase the view, then why are you using such a large image of the squad\vechicles on the screen bottom near minimap which player does not particularly interact?
You wonder why this images with lots of icons and information not usefull for user? Because all thess icons and bars dont have any tips. So I look at them and dont uderstand what they mean and how can I use them for my profit.

So please add ingame tips for images/icons/bars etc.

To manage squads, I interact with the Squads panel 90% of the time.
Because I don’t always remember who I have, who sits where (in vechicle). Looking at specific squad icon, it’s easy for me to select an anti-tank squad, for example, because it’s immediately obvious that it exists
I don't need to look for it on the map or seearching from group.

If, for example, I use "Up Arrow" button that minimizes the squads panel, how will I understand that I have a squad in my vehicle if I forgot? By the small button (Deploy) in the lower left corner (I don't look at left corner 95% of the time) or by the small image (Helmet) above the vehicle that does not display exactly which squad and how many squads are in it?

Well, let’s say I look at it and understand that someone is sitting there
How can I figure out which squad is sitting there if the Squad panel is minimized? That is, I will still need to open it, but the fact is that I don’t see any reason to minimize this panel. On the contrary, it needs to be improved as I wrote earlier.

I think it’s time for me to change my profession to UI game designer, maybe you need one?

[winnie]

Q and E didn't rotate camera. That's pretty common for RTS/city builders of current age.