Movement markings

Deathblower · Post by **Deathblower** » March 2nd, 2006, 10:27 pm

Since Deonjo has come up with another movement idea, he gave me an idea. It's not the same, but it made something click in my head that I remember having trouble with before.

When in movement mode you position your cursor further away than your unit can reach in one go, it would be helpful to have a number next to the footprint where the unit would end up after each turn. If that's hard to follow, here's a mock up view. Sorry about the font, I don't know what it is!

Hope this works, tell me what you think.

DB

Doros · Post by **Doros** » March 2nd, 2006, 10:34 pm

I like it. I often end up trying to find the boundary for a certain number of moves, and currently the only way to do that is backtrack until you find it.

dthurston · Post by **dthurston** » March 2nd, 2006, 10:36 pm

Nice! Compared to deonjo's idea, this seems like it more accurately reflects the mechanics. Another idea would be to have some sort of visual indication at the turn endpoints (perhaps a copy of the unit with high alpha?)

Deathblower · Post by **Deathblower** » March 2nd, 2006, 10:40 pm

Doros: Me too!

That's why I would like this idea. I often backtrack my way through the course to find where I would be after x turns.

Dthurston - I like it, the image would have to be fairly high alpha, and would still need a number next to it to indicate how many turns away. If you think you can do it, or you know someone who can then please do. It sounds great!

Cheers for the support guys.

DB

dthurston · Post by **dthurston** » March 2nd, 2006, 11:43 pm

Here's a cropped version with the moving unit at 40% alpha. I'm not sure what I think. The numbers look too bright next to the unit as is.

deonjo · Post by **deonjo** » March 3rd, 2006, 3:32 am

ahaaa, i finally found your idea. yes, I think maybe this would be more fitting. It would be really convinient to have.

Post by **Dave** » March 3rd, 2006, 3:43 am

Nice idea.

This is the kind of idea that reminds me that our ideas forum is useful to have!

Now we just need someone to implement it.

David

deonjo · Post by **deonjo** » March 3rd, 2006, 3:59 am

maybe we could mix it up with my idea, or is it better just to leave it like this?

SmokemJags · Post by **SmokemJags** » March 3rd, 2006, 4:23 am

How about...
Each hex has a number showing movement expended to enter the hex.
The 40% alpha unit would be positioned for every time a unit reachs its max movement for one turn.
Change the color of the numbers to indicate distance. Greener for shorter distances, more red or black for further and further way.

All that seems like a bit of clutter though...

Post by **Dave** » March 3rd, 2006, 4:55 am

I think the KISS approach is the best: just display a number for the number of turns. No need for anything else. I.e. the original/top screenshot.

David

JW · Post by JW » March 3rd, 2006, 5:41 am

Very, very good idea. I would prefer it with the transparent units as well as the numbers, but even just the numbers would be a drastic improvement. Well done.

Post by **Zhukov** » March 3rd, 2006, 6:53 am

I like the idea of having the numbers.

However the transparent units start to make it a little too crowded for my taste.

Deathblower · Post by **Deathblower** » March 3rd, 2006, 8:17 am

Excellent.

Glad to see a quick thought could provoke so much interest!

I understand that the idea then is to have just numbers as I originally intended.

Can anyone implement it by coding a patch?

I really need to learn WML . . .

DB

Post by **Darth Fool** » March 3rd, 2006, 8:25 am

This could not be done in WML, it requires C++. I don't think the semi-transparent image would ever be used because it could be confused with other effects, for example units that are currently invisible to the enemy also are semi-transparent when viewed by their controller. Still, it is probably not a big change in the C++ code to do this.

Deathblower · Post by **Deathblower** » March 3rd, 2006, 10:12 am

Fool: We've decided against the high alpha unit anyway so that's ok.

Are you saying that you can code it in C++? That would be cool.

Thanks,
DB