Idea: Labeling units

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OmniscientOne
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Idea: Labeling units

Post by OmniscientOne »

I was recently playing Heir to the Throne and on the mission "Crossroads" - as I'm sure most of you already know - you'll receive two loyal units warning you of the ambushes set up in the hills. Being loyal, these units are incredibly useful and the effort put into preserving them pays off later in the campaign. Unfourtunatly, I put these two with my usual level one fodder, didn't really pay attention to where they were, and I lost both of them during the course of the mission.

I propose that the player be able to label units the same way the player can label the map for him/herself and allies, by right-clicking on the unit and typing in what label they want for their unit, such as the units name. This would allow players to quickly identify specific units that they may wish to preserve that would otherwise be lost over the course of a mission due to player inattention.

Thoughts?
ducklord_time
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Re: Idea: Labeling units

Post by ducklord_time »

When I want to do this, I give the unit a title. For example, I renamed a footpad with an ankh (I forget it's name now) "bearer [name]".

A label might be more convenient, though.
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Thrawn
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Re: Idea: Labeling units

Post by Thrawn »

Welcome to the forums! Glad to see you're willing to toss out ideas, but before you do so, make sure to read the idea's forum rules, from which contains this passage:
Users should search to see if the idea that they are bringing up has already been discussed previously. If it has, and a decision was reached, do not post the same idea again. The previous thread will be referenced and your thread will be locked. If you believe you have something new to add that will change the decision, or a decision was not reached, reference those threads and expand on those previously stated discussions to show that you have actually done research.
In this case, a quick read of this thread will show you our last discussion on this topic, and perhaps even answers your question ;)
...please remember that "IT'S" ALWAYS MEANS "IT IS" and "ITS" IS WHAT YOU USE TO INDICATE POSSESSION BY "IT".--scott

this goes for they're/their/there as well
OmniscientOne
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Re: Idea: Labeling units

Post by OmniscientOne »

I hope you can forgive me for not looking through months worth of backlog and not immediatly noticing the search function tucked away in the top-right corner of the page. :)

As for the topic you posted, I read it and didn't see anything that indicated what the developers thought of the idea.
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Thrawn
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Re: Idea: Labeling units

Post by Thrawn »

OmniscientOne wrote:I hope you can forgive me for not looking through months worth of backlog and not immediatly noticing the search function tucked away in the top-right corner of the page. :)
I can forgive those. I can't forgive you not reading the stickies with the rules to this forum. (just kidding, we were all new once)
As for the topic you posted, I read it and didn't see anything that indicated what the developers thought of the idea.
And doesn't that say something in and of itself?

To be honest, I don't see what exactly this would do, besides clutter up one's screen. Usually, one learns soon enough to pay attention to which units are where, even without the labels, especially if you gave them names--when you cycle through your units, you'll notice the one with the odd name, hopefully. I can see why would want it *now* but with more experience, you'll probably think it's not as useful as you thought it was.

In addition, it's quite possible to simply go and give those units the little silver crown symbol that some campaigns use, to denote special characters---it's just inserting one line of WML ^__^

Hope this doesn't sound too contrary ;)
...please remember that "IT'S" ALWAYS MEANS "IT IS" and "ITS" IS WHAT YOU USE TO INDICATE POSSESSION BY "IT".--scott

this goes for they're/their/there as well
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zookeeper
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Re: Idea: Labeling units

Post by zookeeper »

If someone would submit a nice clean code patch that'd allow the player to do it, I'm pretty sure it'd be included. Might not be something any of the current developers are interested in, however.

Ideally, I think something like this should be done by expanding the "rename unit" dialog. That is, you should be able to set the name (unless it's an unrenamable unit, of course), overlay icons and text label through the same dialog, not have separate ones for each and clutter up the context menu.
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beetlenaut
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Re: Idea: Labeling units

Post by beetlenaut »

Thrawn wrote:I can see why would want it *now* but with more experience, you'll probably think it's not as useful as you thought it was.
I don't know--I'd still find it useful, and I have experience. (I've beaten almost all of the mainline campaigns on the hardest difficulty.) Every one plays differently. I don't really notice names. If I have three or four units identical to the loyal ones, it's possible to switch two of them in my mind. Crossroads is a good example of when that can happen. I also lose track of which merman has the storm trident, or which swordsman has an arcane blade, etc. It's easy enough to check everything, but overlays would make checking unnecessary.
Thrawn wrote:it's just inserting one line of WML
That only works if you read through the WML before playing a campaign to see when the loyal units pop up!
OmniscientOne wrote:As for the topic you posted, I read it and didn't see anything that indicated what the developers thought of the idea.
Many of them had already chimed in at this earlier topic. Several of them liked it, too. It was just never decided how to implement it. (There is an overlay there which I used in my campaign.)
zookeeper wrote:I think something like this should be done by expanding the "rename unit" dialog.
Ah! That's probably the best way to do it.
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Aethaeryn
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Re: Idea: Labeling units

Post by Aethaeryn »

Personally I'd love the idea. Maybe even just have an option that has the names of each unit displayed in the main game window as a label?
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Xudo
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Re: Idea: Labeling units

Post by Xudo »

Name can appear, when player move cursor on unit.
I imagine this like that:
Image
may be other colors and print...
And new type of [event] - name=cursor covered
Anarchid
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Re: Idea: Labeling units

Post by Anarchid »

Name can appear, when player move cursor on unit.
When you move the cursor over the unit, you already can read its name on the right panel, so that's useless.
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Xudo
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Re: Idea: Labeling units

Post by Xudo »

Colour of this frame can differ from unit's trait. For ex. "loyal" trait will have red frame. Player will think twice, when use unit as meat in battle.

EDIT: In any case player will click on unit to move it to death. Thats why:

Code: Select all

[event]
name=select
#can't remember syntax of trait filter
...=loyal
[unstore_unit]
 variable=unit
 text= _ "Loyal"
 red=225
 green=5
 blue=5
[/unstore_unit]
[/event]
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someone
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Re: Idea: Labeling units

Post by someone »

I think it would be simpler, and look nicer to have an icon for Loyal like there is for hero, or dehydrated in UTBS.
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monochromatic
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Re: Idea: Labeling units

Post by monochromatic »

Check out the new development releases. There are actually overlays for loyals now.
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