Hey folks. I've got a few suggestions for the UI which I would like to see implemented for LH. Post your suggestions below, and I'll do my best to add them to the OP. If you particularly agree or disagree with any of the suggestions, I'll try to add a +/- rating next to each one indicating your opinion on that point.
Link to Darxim's FE UI Suggestions Thread.
Hotkeys / Keybindings
Main Strategic UI
Tactical UI
General Functionality
Tool-tips / Mouse-over Functionality
Game Options
Sovereign / Faction Creation
Diplomacy
Hiergamenon
Allow the player the option to delete sovereigns and factions on the sovereign/faction creation screens, instead of having to go to the xml files.
strategic map - quickslots for strategic spells (basically the same as in tactical maps, but for frequently used spells such as lower/raise land, tremor, freeze, pillar of flame etc.)
unit screen - option to remove buffs from selected unit (similar to city screen essence buffs - the govern>enchantments screen works alright, but i for one played the game for more than 100 hrs before i learned from the forum that we can remove buffs from units on that screen - i didn't know a way to do this until then)
Updated. Keep em coming guys.
Also adding a couple of +1's to a couple of the suggestions I particularly agree with.
Damage potential indicator (bottom right corner of tactical UI when mousing over potential target) needs to update completely especially when using spells and abilities.
While looting item change "equip" button from auto-equip to jump to equipment screen. So no more auto-equipping but, it would take you directly to the equipment screen for that hero. Or at least add another button for that functionality.
When upgrading a city, include a button to the city details screen.
I should have included the ability to edit custom sovereigns and factions (bolded above) in my post.
I'll change it in the OP accordingly.
We discused something here
https://forums.elementalgame.com/441124
Allow me to make counter-proposals when the AI contacts me with a potential trade.
How about adding the one about including an event notification when an enemy casts a spell enhancement (curse) on your city? So we have a way of knowing when it happens. Also an indicator on the city itself or similar.
Also FWIW, +1 from me for quickslots for strategic spells, and +1 for doing something to the city upgrade screen so you can see the city details.
I would like to have the possibility to make notes on the zoomed out map, but I do not know if anyone else misses that.
That would be really nice.
I really like the way xp gains are animated at the end of battle.
I would like to improve it by changing the display from "+n xp" to "Level up!" if the unit gains a level.
I believe it already does that, and makes a noise? At least I thought so...
Unit/Sovereign/Faction Check AI select menu
A system off of the main menu where you can rifle through all the available units, sovereigns and factions that player(s) have created and select which ones you want to be made available for AI use.
Default units should be additionally marked and a special button somewhere to 'reset to defaults' that will uncheck everything and then check the defaults.
There could easily be a method for deleting or editing these within this listing aswell. Obviously deleting defaults would not be allowed...but at least they can be unchecked.
1.) I would like to see a highlighted version of the target area and target itself on tactical map. If a unit is obstructed its outlines should be made visible using a contrast-rich colour (neon green or blue, like in Age of Empires). I really do have a lot difficulties with targeting sometimes on that map even with the ability to rotate since the only indicated is a feint square on the ground (not so good in town screens) and a cursor which may update or may not.
2.) Since we do have the ability to assign custom idling tasks (Produce Growth/Research/etc.) now it would be nice to have an alternate city list in strategic view where you could hide busy/producing cities and actually only have actually idle cities appearing.
2.1) In that sense it would be nice if cities which finished working on strategic resources are appearing in the event report as well.
3.) What I truly would like is an option to defer an upgrade to a city once it levels up. More often than not I can't really fully inspect unless I remember that corner on the map and its surroundings. If an upgrade is deferred then a level-up icon should appear.
4.) Destruction of buildings by enemies on strategic map is usually reported via dialog but if more than one destruction per turn happens within one turn you better have a good memory! I'd like to see an event item for this generated as well - with its location stored of course.
This please.
Updated.
Good stuff folks!
new suggestions:
* DPS equivalent rating for weapons with better(green)/worse(red) coloring for clearly better and worse weapons like WOW and Diablo. Evaluating weapons and bonuses is quite difficult right now. This wouldn't solve the issue but it would help. The game doesn't have seconds per say... but it could be adapted to initiative ticks, which I think is the game's equivalent.
* strategic view city list should list idle cities at the top. It is a pain to find your idle cities by scrolling once you have a decent number. Other alternatives would be duping idle cities by creating another list of cities there dedicated to idle cities (would avoid issues with cities jumping location in the cities list).
* better notifications:
ability to turn off certain notification types. Mid and late game building complete and unit trained notifications are just spam, they should probably be grouped by default- truth be told that would probably be enough for me to easily ignore them. I still care about enemies in my territory, undeveloped resources though, and improvement destroyed/captured. Battle victory notifications are especially worthless, I know I just fought the battle which captured the city, I don't need a notification for it... maybe this could go away completely? I can't think of a case where anyone would really want that notification. grouped notifications should display the number of notifications in the group.
* add notification for when a wildland is cleared- regardless of who did the clearing- I want to know so I can participate in the settler rush to take advantage of the newly cleared fertile land.
existing suggestions above I really like:
++ When the city leveling dialog appears, include a button linking to the city details screen
--> it should also center on the city (so you know where the city is on the map, that is mostly how I remember which city is which)
++ potential effect what resources I will gain, type of improvement
--> Everyone here probably knows what they all do already, but this is really important for newer players.
++ Option to remove enchantments on a unit from within the unit's Unit Details screen
--> Even though I know I can't do this I still find myself trying to do it anyways.
++ Quickslots for strategic spells
++ notification when an enemy curses one of my cities
-->I don't know how common this is- I actually don't think my cities have ever been cursed... but maybe I have never noticed
++ on better initiative display
The most important ones to me seem to be the city level dialogue- really hard for me to tell what I want to make the city when I don't know which city it is, and the strategic idle city list-> turns would just go so much faster with that.
also is there a keyboard shortcut for cycling through idle cities? I'm thinking the equivalent of tab for units only for cities.
Grouping notifications is a good idea. It would also be nice to have some way to go back and look through all the notifications you've received, like a game log or something like that.
I like it!
My simple suggestion (posted a couple days ago) is to sort the after battle results sov-first, then champs, then units sorted by level. The way it is now, the units are all jumbled up. I think it's the order in which they entered the army.
I have some Heirgamenon requests in this thread.
https://forums.elementalgame.com/442472
Can't let a post about UI get by without chiming in...
#1 PRIORITY for me is that the Empire Tree needs to highlight the currently selected unit/town. For micromanagers going through a long list in the empire tree, it's easy to lose your place and have to start over again. FIX IT! I had a nice lengthy post on this with pretty pictures but can't find it. Brad probably deleted it.
Here are some others.
Need to know about bad enchantment on city:
https://forums.elementalgame.com/441986
Icons are too small on hero selection screen:
https://forums.elementalgame.com/441624
Selecting multiple treaties at a time:
https://forums.elementalgame.com/441636
Tool tips should compare currently equipped item:
https://forums.elementalgame.com/441628
I like it. A few pie in the sky ideas which probably won't happen but lots of basic essentials too.
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