Wartbed:User interface

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Revision as of 16:15, 27 April 2009

Stub for detailing what WARTBED's GUI can and do look like.

Contents 1 Unit icons 1.1 The Total War games 1.2 Dark Omen 1.3 WARTBED

Unit icons

Inspirations

The Total War games

Total War titles have a very conventional RTT interface design with all units being presented in a Poker or Domino hand layout: each unit has its card (or brick) and these are lined up at the bottom of the screen. These bricks contain additional information, like unit strength and ammo left.

The Card Hand interface Advantages: At-a-glance overview of army status Fast identification of a particular unit Fast interface to work with by shorter mouse movements Disadvantages: No positional information Enemy units must be presented in a different format

Dark Omen

In Dark Omen the user interface is minimal with units being represented and identified by their regimental banners. The banners have two purposes: on the one hand they're hiding the UI buttons by letting them masquerading as regimental banners, thus increasing immersion. Secondly, they are regimental-specific dashboards acting as container for additional information.

The Banner interface Advantages: Naturally indicated the unit's position Friends and foes are presented with the same interface Blends for increased immersion with a tactical setting, especially for pre-modern warfare games. Disadvantages: Relatively slower to work with by requiring more mouse movements More restrictive a container for incorporating additional status information

WARTBED

There are several motivations for using either style of interface. One is for fidelity with the original game when designing a module. Another is that the interfaces may be argued to lend better or worse to different types of games; f.i a banner interface can be argued better for a terrain RTT while a card hand interface is better for a space game. And a third argument is simply personal preferences. The ultimate would be if both these styles were supported and selectable both as a module setting and as a user preference.