UI update, prep for round 2: In-game UI feature requests

[Jaedayr]

Don't kill me for this idea, but I'd love it if the ai's cards were upside-down so that it feels more like a real game.

I had to restrain myself from trying to finish you. Haha. That would definitely have to be an OPTION.

Yes, if this is implemented please make it optional... in the mean time, maybe you could stand on your head during the AI turn.

[Jaedayr]

Another suggestion. When a card like Evil Presence is played, is it possible/desirable to have the enchanted land image on the battlefield be a swamp instead of what it was originally? The text box currently contains correct information.

[friarsol]

Another suggestion. When a card like Evil Presence is played, is it possible/desirable to have the enchanted land image on the battlefield be a swamp instead of what it was originally? The text box currently contains correct information.

Except it's not a Basic Swamp, so that might be confusing.

[goonjamin]

Another suggestion. When a card like Evil Presence is played, is it possible/desirable to have the enchanted land image on the battlefield be a swamp instead of what it was originally? The text box currently contains correct information.

Except it's not a Basic Swamp, so that might be confusing.

What if instead of changing the whole image to a swamp there was a overlay icon that could be displayed on it like the attacking and blocking icons. That would at least serve as a reminder that there is something different about this land and to read the text box for details?

[inb63]

I was thinking about an "Alpha Strike" button or shortcut to attack with all your creatures instead of clicking on each of them.

[slapshot5]

I would like to not have to move the mouse to click in the same spot twice. Say I need to discard 3 cards. I want to discard the first 3 in my hand. Currently, I click on the left-most card and it is discarded. Now, what was the second card is the left-most. I click again, but nothing happens. I need to move the mouse ever so slightly to be able to click on that card.

I hope that makes sense.

-slapshot5

[Doublestrike]

@inb63 - have added this in the "confirmed" list since was planning on it anyway. There'll be other helpful battle stuff too - "block with all", "set card to always block", "set card to always attack", and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff.

======

On that point, an insightful reader may have inferred from the list that I'll be working toward a layout using docking toolbars with various buttons available for various functionality groups in the code. The battle toolbar is a good example. Other toolbars will be turn management, card arrangement/display options, developer tools, card "macros" (e.g. telling Goldmeadow Harrier to always tap It That Betrays)...there's lots of candidates.

I'll try to code (and document) it so developers can come in and add a new button (or toolbar) easily. Keyboard shortcuts will be available for these buttons. The toolbars will be toggle-able from the menu. Right now I'm finishing up the UI skins code (90% done), so I'll be starting construction on the battlefield prototype this weekend. Unfortunately results won't be quick, but hopefully they'll be good.

[zaroblan]

Wow, it seems like the impending UI changes are gonna rock!

+1 for setting max zoom size for cards (+gazillion if I could )
+1 for more visible turn phases

Thanks guys. Wish I had the time help. Working long hours na dhaving a disabled child means that life does not lend itself to offering free after hours development time.

[moomarc]

@inb63 - have added this in the "confirmed" list since was planning on it anyway. There'll be other helpful battle stuff too - "block with all", "set card to always block", "set card to always attack", and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff.

======

On that point, an insightful reader may have inferred from the list that I'll be working toward a layout using docking toolbars with various buttons available for various functionality groups in the code. The battle toolbar is a good example. Other toolbars will be turn management, card arrangement/display options, developer tools, card "macros" (e.g. telling Goldmeadow Harrier to always tap It That Betrays)...there's lots of candidates.

I'll try to code (and document) it so developers can come in and add a new button (or toolbar) easily. Keyboard shortcuts will be available for these buttons. The toolbars will be toggle-able from the menu. Right now I'm finishing up the UI skins code (90% done), so I'll be starting construction on the battlefield prototype this weekend. Unfortunately results won't be quick, but hopefully they'll be good.

Some brilliant ideas there! Will casual user be able to reassign keyboard shortcuts and will key combinations be available (eg "Ctrl/Apple+A" for All Attack etc)? I think if you get this UI right we might have to break out Forge 1.2.0.

[silly freak]

Another suggestion. When a card like Evil Presence is played, is it possible/desirable to have the enchanted land image on the battlefield be a swamp instead of what it was originally? The text box currently contains correct information.

Except it's not a Basic Swamp, so that might be confusing.

What if instead of changing the whole image to a swamp there was a overlay icon that could be displayed on it like the attacking and blocking icons. That would at least serve as a reminder that there is something different about this land and to read the text box for details?

Maybe more like a general "this card is affected by continuous effects"/"this card's text was changed" (rule-wise happens implicitly by changing the basic land type)? doing a very specific "This card is enchanted by Evil Presence" seems much like reinvoking card specific code in Forge's (GUI's) heart...

Maybe a general "show as <that> card (image)" would be possible for copy effects, Lignify and the likes, without putting card-specific code into the UI?

[Doublestrike]

Some brilliant ideas there! Will casual user be able to reassign keyboard shortcuts

Yes, and macros too (although talk is cheap).

and will key combinations be available (eg "Ctrl/Apple+A" for All Attack etc)?

I haven't tried this in Java but that was what I had planned. So, if Java can do it efficiently, it'll be there.

I think if you get this UI right we might have to break out Forge 1.2.0.

That's a big if! I'm getting started today.

=====

Also, moomarc, I've fully implemented a skin system for buttons, fonts, and tiled panel handling. The code is pretty but the images are mostly ugly - if you want to take a look I'm sure you could spiff up the graphics a lot. It's in res/images/skins/default. There's only one texture being used at present (texture1) but there will be a total of 3 (the others are there just for testing, they're ugly as sin). The win/lose screen is the first part to use this skin system.

Other details:

- Buttons will look for a left, middle, and right image, in up, over, and down states. The left and right images should be square so they can scale neatly.

- The palette file shows the color scheme. There's three sets of colors for solid backgrounds and text, with a "primary" and "secondary" color for each set. So, they're labelled 1a and 1b, 2a and 2b, 3a and 3b. Sets will (should) always be used together, so text 1a should be visible on top of background 1b. Difficult to explain but hopefully you got it.

- The splash screen will be taken from this skin very soon. Custom buttons and graphics can be added fairly easily later.

- Two fonts are used, a primary and a secondary (font1 and font2). Only ttf fonts allowed (sez Java). Currently using Garamond and Tahoma (I think) but once again, please update to make better looking.

- Other skins can be made by putting the folder name in forge.preferences under forge.skin. Building the project will spit out little errors about missing files, and use the default if necessary. I'll build another skin or two (got one in particular up my sleeve...)

[moomarc]

I'll get to this as soon as I can, but doubt it'll be this weekend. I'm cloning my hard drives to get some decent system backups then installing a fresh OS and all my programs again. Should have finished the clone last night but after 4 hours a surge rebooted my system. Ouch!

[Doublestrike]

Ouch is right!

No rush, since that texture you supplied is in place it looks OK.

The surprise is ready: the splash screen now takes its image from the skin used. So, I've uploaded the "rebel" skin with the Yoda screen from a few weeks back. Looks pretty sweet - made me laugh out loud - but needs a little love, whenever you're ready. Looking forward to seeing some fun skins!

To use it, just change gui.skin=default to gui.skin=rebel in forge.preferences. Later there'll be a select area for available skins, of course.

For some reason I couldn't upload the other fonts and images of the theme so it may not work right yet, but that problem will sort itself out soon enough. The "rebel" splash screen is boss, though.

[slapshot5]

To use it, just change gui.skin=default to gui.skin=rebel in forge.preferences. Later there'll be a select area for available skins, of course.

I have gui.skin=default in forge.preferences, but it is still using the Yoda splash.

-slapshot5

[slapshot5]

I think we have a skinning problem on Mac OS X (Snow Leopard at least. Chris would have to check Lion). Here is what I see in the WinLoseFrame:

It looks fine for me on X11 running on FreeBSD. Haven't checked Windows, but I assume it looks fine there.

-slapshot5

Edit: I already fixed the sizing issue, but the problem I meant to describe was the lack of visible text or graphics on the buttons.