[UI] Please Make Suggestions for new Phases component

[noxx]

Hi,

I've created the request for suggestions not in Developers Talk thread mostly because of you, XMage players, who might know what should be done to make Phases component better.

I know the very first would be (so I add it to the todo list) this one: "Add the possibility to add/remove stop phases on UI component (let's call it Phases Toolbar)". As you know now you need to go to Options dialog, choose "Phases" tab there and change stops. It should be improved for sure.

The next question: Location.
As for me I don't like the location of phases at the right. Most of the game actions happen on the left and middle (player's view, hand, battlefield). So it's hard to move your eyes to the right all the time (especially on wide screens).
The option I thought about is to make it horizontal as it is in MO v4. BUT the horizontal space is so important for other components that I would like not to use it. Maybe we can move to the left before Player's views?

Another option: to make each player have his/her own phase toolbar. But this will make phase stops difficult to implement (as the question raises - do I need to set stops for each opponents separately in Free-For-All game? and what's about 2v2?).

TODO List:
* Add/remove stop phases on Phases Toolbar

You are welcome for any suggestions! Help us make XMage better!

[noxx]

Btw recently I found screenshot of the old XMage version with different layout.

What if we return back to it? Stack, helper (showing Text and Ok/Done/Cancel buttons) and card preview will go back to the left, phases component goes to the bottom (see screenshot). Did you like it at that time?

[LevelX]

I agree, that the bar should be created vertically, because there is more space available. I would connect it directly to the player area. I made a rough image how it should be positioned in my opinion.

* Player can toggle phase stop state(on/off) by double clicking on the phase icon or using the context menu of the phase icon. If the stop is active, the phase has a lillte mark (red dot) or the symbol / font is drawn in another color.

* Maybe it would be useful to be able to set an optional stopif you are able to cast something in that phase. (like upkeep effect of Forecast as example).

* The bar of the active player should have another background color for the phase icons, or at least a colored frame around the bar.

* Solve the bug that the game sometimes stops at a phase because of slow connection. Maybe by controlling the stop phases by server instead of doing it only on the client side.

[LevelX]

Another option: to make each player have his/her own phase toolbar. But this will make phase stops difficult to implement (as the question raises - do I need to set stops for each opponents separately in Free-For-All game? and what's about 2v2?).

With this, you are at least able to set it different for different opponents.
If you want to set a stop for all e.g. upkeep phases of opponent, you could add a additional context menu item with this option:
Activate stop only for this opponent
Activate stop for every opponent

[DMCDante]

I've been meaning to post some suggestions about a few UI changes for a while but never really got around to it and since you are planning to change the "Phases Bar" I figured I might make some suggestions.

One of the things thats really apparent about current XMage UI is that there is a lot of unused space (namely the area at the top and bottom of player stats panels and the area under the card preview) that could be used for diffirent things. I think that the "Phases bar" should be moved to the left between a shightly modified player stats panels and the leftover space could be used for stack or player graveyards - right now they are accessible by a button which makes it hard to keep track of cards that are already there and the fact that you can't keep the graveyard window open and play at the same time doesn't help either (especialy if you play a graveyard-based deck). Toggling the stops on or off would be done by clicking on the top (stop on your turn) or bottom (stop on opponent's turn) of the adequate phase icon and to signify that a stop has been placed a coloured circle would appear on top or bottom of that phase's icon - a similar system to the one that was in MODO v3.

The area below the card preview could be used either for stack or player graveyards depending on what the space between stats panels had been used for (moving the stack would help those playing on smaller resolutions, I remember having to change the card scaling factor in the config files for my laptop because i couldn't see the last card in my hand).

Also it would be cool if you could make the exile zones windows (except the ones that are holding cards exiled by cards like Banishing Light) toggable by a button like graveyards are right now.
I'm attaching a concept picture for you so you can better visualize my idea.

Anyways, keep up the great work and have a good day,
Dante

[LevelX]

Thanks for your input.

Indeed to have the graveyard as a more interactive zone, without opening a modal window would be a nice thing.

One of the things thats really apparent about current XMage UI is that there is a lot of unused space (namely the area at the top and bottom of player stats panels and the area under the card preview) that could be used for diffirent things.

A lot of people (like me) don't use this area at all and fold it completely in. I don't need it (because I use only the enlarged view with mouse wheel) and I like to have more space for the battlefield and chat/log area. I don't like to focus my view to the right, as most things are happening more at the left side of the screen. Chat and log is ok to the right but I would not like to see the stack there.

Another thing that must be taken into account is, that the battlefield has to work for multiplayer games also (like serving up to 10 players now). So I see a problem with your approach of designing the battlefield.

Also there are a lot of players that have a smaller vertical high, so they don't have even avatars now, because their player area shrinks. Question is if XMage in the future presuppose a higher vertical resolution requirement to run at all.

[DMCDante]

I see what you mean, a large amount of players may indeed prove difficult to my design. Idealy you could allow players conigure the battlefield by themselves so they could move and resize diffirent elements, detach and attach them back on, but that would probably make all sorts of other problems and be painful to implement. The best solution that comes to my mind right now is the way MODOv3 looked, to the left you had phases and stack combined into one thing, to the right there was chat and each side of the battlefield had the stats on the left - still it wasn't perfect, a lot of things were small and cramped.
Anyway, I'm glad that you liked my graveyard idea and I hope that you will find a way to implement it.

[noxx]

@LevelX

Thank you for your input. The only issue I can't see how to solve is the vertical resolution. If we implement a phase component per player the way you did on screenshot it will have too big height. Btw have you tried forge so far? They have similar idea but with the small component. The only thing I don't like there is that it is not representative and has no image at all.

@DMCDante

Thanks a lot for your input. Seems you are the only non dev player that put input, and I'd say big detailed input.
At first I really like your idea with the graveyards. I'll add it to my todo list.

Then I like your concept because 1) it was created so carefully (from artist point of view) 2) I like that the player's component height is less that we have now. So probably I will use your concept in some way.

Regarding the stack on the right - I will agree with LevelX. Actually I recall trying your version long ago - it occurred not user friendly as your eyes start moving from left to the right and back, especially on wide screens, plus you need to have this window opened (as for me I always close preview window as I remember most of the cards, and use tooltips/enlarged with mouse wheel for others).

Exile button: totally agree, actually I implemented it long ago and now just found it in git stash

[LevelX]

I guess the phase bar per player can also be created smaller than the current phase bar. Here some rough examples, how I would style it.

Nice would be if you can fold the bar in/out so fold out you see the text & symbolds, fold in you only see the symbols. So if you familar with it, you fold it in to get more space.

[Faavre]

Right click the battlefield to pass priority. Consider using click 3, or clicking the scroll ball for passing turn.

I never use the right click options menu. Consider making use of the mouse a bit more by doing away with the options menu and replacing it with right-click to pass priority, like spacebar.

[BlackLotus82]

I think that the "Phases bar" should be moved to the left between a shightly modified player stats panels and the leftover space could be used for stack or player graveyards - right now they are accessible by a button which makes it hard to keep track of cards that are already there and the fact that you can't keep the graveyard window open and play at the same time doesn't help either (especialy if you play a graveyard-based deck). Toggling the stops on or off would be done by clicking on the top (stop on your turn) or bottom (stop on opponent's turn) of the adequate phase icon and to signify that a stop has been placed a coloured circle would appear on top or bottom of that phase's icon - a similar system to the one that was in MODO v3.

The area below the card preview could be used either for stack or player graveyards depending on what the space between stats panels had been used for (moving the stack would help those playing on smaller resolutions, I remember having to change the card scaling factor in the config files for my laptop because i couldn't see the last card in my hand).

Also it would be cool if you could make the exile zones windows (except the ones that are holding cards exiled by cards like Banishing Light) toggable by a button like graveyards are right now.
I'm attaching a concept picture for you so you can better visualize my idea.

THIS would be wonderful!

I would like to suggest a "zooming effect" like the one implemented in DotP, applied to cards played and/or activated effects, in order to clean even more the gaming area by removing the panel on the bottom right and the preview column on the far right.

[gmzombie]

also on a side note is there a way to move the card when it is showing from the top of the deck. it always covers the life total.

[hoser]

I am generally delighted with this program. Please take the following as suggestions for improvement from a delighted user rather than displeased grumblings.

In general, I think of a board state and a game state. The board state display seems generally excellent to me.
To understand the game state I need to look at the user icons on the left upper area, the phase ladder on the upper right, the stack on the lower right, the prompt on the lower center, the chat and log on the left top and bottom.
It would be even better for me if the areas that I needed to use to understand the game state were near each other, as I currently need to look all over the screen to understand the game state.
[list=]
[*]Integrating the phase ladder with the player status block, as proposed, would really help.
[*]Showing separate phase ladders for each player, also as proposed, seems excellent. [*]I think the phase ladder for only the player whose turn it is currently should be displayed, so the phase ladders should disappear for players whose turn it is not. Please forgive me if I am repeating something I missed in the discussion above.
[*]If the stack were below the player status blocks (on the left), rather than on the right, that would make parsing the game state easier for me.
[/list]
With all the above changes, the game state except for the chat and log would all be to the left of the board state and easier to parse for me.

[muppet]

ui is fine for me. I would prefer some way to auto stop before declare blockers though in the automated go past phases options. Stopping at say declare attackers seems better to me.

[JeffHoogland]

Is there still progress being made to make this change? The expandable options LevelX listed look awesome.

~Jeff