Consolidate the Vehicle Customization Screen

Consolidate the Vehicle Customization Screen <-- FIXED JPG

** NOTE: If you visited this earlier and you couldn't see the picture, clear your internet temporary cache. You won't be able to see the fixed picture unless you do so. **

Right now the vehicle construction screen is organized into several tabs. This is undesirable for many reasons.

1. I feel is difficult for new players to navigate.
2. If you are in a hurry to make a custom vehicle it is easy to overlook something and make a mistake.
3. If you are trying to find a good weight balance between weapons and armor, you have to switch back and forth through tabs.

Minor issues, to be sure, but enough that I feel makes vehicle construction a chore rather than a pleasure. I suggest combining the various tabs and sections into one screen where engines, armor, and weapons are selected from drop down menus.

I made a rudimentary design of this using Photoshop. Because every idea in this forum gets shot down by people who have never done any kind of game designing in their lives, I didn't put the extra mile into the picture to make it a final product. If the devs think this idea is viable and want a more detailed design, please let me know. The rest of you may now nit pick at your leisure.

 

There is already a new concept in the works. And since I can't see yours I can't tell you which one I like better.

 

Workaround

I can see it in both firefox and ie7. What are you seeing?

Try going to URL REMOVED and see if you can view it that way.

Thanks for letting me know that there's an issue with the post.

 

not seeing anything when i go to ur link or on ur first post

 

I see nothing mate, or at your link.

 

Fixed

I cleared my cache and realized I couldn't see it either. I changed the jpg properties and I changed the hosting site. After clearing my cache I could see it again. Now hopefully we can comment on the actual picture!

 

I did that. You still have to clear your temporary internet files if you visitted before.

 

WAYYYYY to confusing--- if your going to consolidate it like htat can you please spend the extra 5 mins in photoshop so i can actually understan whats happening?

other than that topo much information in one place and thatll make me atleast way more likely to mess up a vehicle customisation

 

Okay, first thing I thought was that is was too cluttered. The weapons area would have to be very different to be able to fit in. Armour and engine could be a little more streamlines, but as a start, I guess it works.

I'm guessing you just used the normal image for the weapons page as a base for this, as the lines connecting the vehicle to the weapons look a bit odd.

What you could do is simply list the weapons on one side, then have the weapons on another side. I'd do another concept, but I don't really have the time or motivation.

 

it looks to cluttered for my linkings. The short spaces left for the display are too small for the sheer amount of weapons, say, on escort

 

I'm going to assume you meant: Keep the armor and engines on one side and the weapons on the other. That's probably the easiest way to make it cleaner.

 

Looks like that could get really ugly if you're making a heavy tank. So many slots...

 

align the vehical verticly so you have more room to the sides.

 

ya we probebly dont need that giant of a picture to see what the vehicle is, maybe a layout like you get when you are inside of the vehicle to see all the armor plates and Co.

 

I think the issue with that is that there is simply too much stuff on screen at once, it overloads you with info and there's no place to look first.

What I'd do is have the screen simple say 'Select armor, weapons, and an engine for your vehicle, then have slots on areas of the vehicle labelled either cannon, missile, MG, or engine. The armor should be selected by selecting a line around the edge of the tank. When you select a slot, a drop down box appears on either the right or left of the display with a line leading to the element you selected, the box will then display a list of items you can mount in the slot, and you select one to add it in.

If you don't have anything selected you shouldn't have a list of items, and once you select an item, the selection combo box should disappear and your choice should show up in the slot.

Basically it keeps as many things off screen as possible, which is the main issue I have with this design.



This is a basic mockup, obviously it would have the same level of graphical detail as the current one, but the interface should be simple with these lines of colour linking the elements, using one colour for each element, the actual vehicle should be similar to the current one so it fades into the background, with the slots picked out in either yellow or some other bright contrasting colour, when you select a slot it should clearly indicate and the right hand dialogue should appear.

For the armor slot, a small image of the tank should appear in the right hand dialogue with the armor plate numbers positioned around it, when you add plates they should show up as they do now around both the small picture and the main tank.

You can indicate the size of the slots by simply segmenting them as you do now, I can't fade things out in paint so you'll have to imagine that the segmentation will go under the label.

This is much cleaner and less intimidating, and it uses clear colour codes to show what you're doing at the moment.

 

to lazy and sleepy to give a fuck so here is my imo perfect solution without any drawings to it:

screen1: select vehicle type from fatass list maybe with pics

screen2: single click marks engine from list double click selects it and moves to next screen // no next button, only back; hint says double click to choose your engine

screen3:armor type same as screen 2

screen4:armor plates count and weapons selection; weapons are red in the list if they exceed the weight when added; possible to add weapons through double clicking; max armor button adds all possible plates considering the total weight, lowers plate count if vehicle to heavy; build button

 

as long as it doesnt look as bad as your concept I'm all for it.

 

Drop Downs

This is currently what the screen shows. I think when I redo it I'll make multiple screens showing the drop downs open and closed. At the moment all of them are open.

And Vess I was already thinking of aligning it vertically. Good call. That would provide the extra room on the sides for all of the weapon and armor selections.

The only thing I can't resolve is what to do with weapon button assignments. On this picture it's easy enough to put it inside the picture of the vehicle, but what to do for a heavy tank with 6 different weapons? I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks for the feedback so far. And as for the negative feedback, I've totally ignored everything you've said. Flame on losers.

 

Put it on another page like it is now, there's nothing wrong with that, multi-stage processes are fine as long as you realise what's going on during each stage.

 

How about if you have multi-screens because of space issues then have it so that if armour or enignes arnt fitted then what u do is the tab flashes red to tell you something isnt fitted. OR what u do is each of the engines has its own picture and on the main screen it shows what u have fitted and then u go to seperate pages to fit differant weapons, armour and engines.

Hope u see what I mean tell me if u dont get what i mean and i will draw a simple pic cus i dont have time at the moment because im in the middle of my GCSE's and have typed this in my 10min study break :D