Alrighty, here's 4 things I'd personally like to see modified to the Vehicle Building GUI. 1, Please add a feature that tells you when you don't have an engine or armor. I know this sounds trivial since veteran players ALWAYS check their loadouts, but for new players it is extremely frustrating. Just a simple notification that you can't build that vehicle due to a missing vital component. I know I've sometimes missed it in the quick flurry of clicks as I try to build my tanks and get into the field. Another workaround is to always give the basic engine and armor when the prior version (tech has been lost due to new round) is no longer available instead of leaving the slot empty. Or, have a permanent non-overwritable Default loadout that is set at the beginning of each round, and by customizing you create another version (use last setting Default, of sorts). 2, a question. Is there a particular reason for not starting in Customize mode? As far as I can tell, in practice there isn't much reason to start in non-customize mode except to easily display what's currently loaded (the bar on the left is trimmed down to only show types in use). While this can be helpful, I've found in practice most people either 1) just build last version or 2) customize and re-fit/optimize everything. Having a more streamlined system of letting you know what's currently loaded, but defaulting to the customize screen would be useful. 3. As much as the number readouts of stats for the final vehicle can be useful, many people just skip that page. Having a more visual system to rate things like top speed or level of armament instead of a blob of text would help streamline the vehicle customization and give better feedback as to how their vehicle should perform with that loadout. This would be akin to how in MechWarrior you get bars indicating overall relative level of heat generation, cooling, armament, armor levels, etc. Then, give more specific stats in the items themselves so that people who want to know numbers can look them up, and they would be more specific to the item you're equipping. You would actually see the bars move as you equipped and unequip certain items, tying more directly the loadout to specific performance areas. For example, want to see which engine of the two gives more cooling? Swap them in and out and watch the bars move. Oh, but notice how top speed and horsepower change too. And if you want exact numbers, just read the associated test. Of course, some of the more subtle variables don't have to be included. 4. Make special properties more notable. Bolded text such as [WONT STALL] for the Bio Engine or [REGEN] for Regenerative Armor would be pithy and catch people's attention, and for more detail they can read the text. However, it can really help new players to catch special abilities instead of reading a blob of text that explains it all. Catching their attention that there's a unique property (and giving them an idea of what it is) will really help on the learning curve. Some may seem obvious (duh Regen armor regens), but others can be more subtle (wait, plasma weapons also [DEALS HEAT DAMAGE] to the enemy tank). Feel free to flame.
Mostly good ideas that would shorten the noob learning curve. I think the reason for not starting in customization mode is that the server usually carries over your last design for the vehicle class.
But what benefit is there in that? It's an extra step to open customization if you want it, and with starting in customization there is no extra step. Also, if it's a step to allow the server to load your last preferences, maybe that should be integrated into the loading of the customization screen. Plus, since it keeps your last settings, if it is an invalid setting it just leaves an empty slot, forcing you to customize. From this simplified view, it appears to me like an extraneous step between me and getting in my vehicle. Unless there's some other reason besides helping to show your loadout (weeded out weapons on the left bar that only reflect what is loaded). Here is a quick and dirty Photoshop to show what I mean for the bars and special text. The metrics are probably wrong for a light with AC, but oh well. EDIT: Moved to OP /EDIT Something to note. If there's no engine/armor, the bars affected by them could be all black or flash red to let the player know they can't build without it. Well, maybe no armor could be allowed, it's just not very wise. =]
Something that I've since realized is codifying the Damage characteristic. After all, different weapons have different uses, so even though a MG does nothing to enemy tanks, it can destroy infantry. Unless it's a DU MG. Thus, the major flaw is 1) specific uses for certain weapons and 2) can't use pure dps measurement (unless incorporates elements such as cooling and "usefulness" in its determination). Also, the time codifying and coding this is very time consuming since it would also be unique per chassis. While MG may be less useful on a tank, it's extremely useful on an APC. Perhaps the Damage bar should also scale for different chassis. Larger chassis means more room for weapons (and armor). Making the bars dynamic based on a variable for max Damage for the chassis might help fix this if all the weapons are the same "damage" between chassis, and then a quick calculation determines how much of the bar is filled. However, this is again complicated by the other above problems. Thoughts?
great photoshop image, i think it would work great. EDIT: damn, he fixed he image. now my sarcastic comment has been turned into a supportive one.
While I agree, the space for armor, weapons, and engine doesn't appear to be there in the current configuration. Some space savings could be found by making the selection of type of engine and armor more of a dropdown menu. However, you lose the nice text describing cost and weight that is currently displayed. Another saving that I would heartily endorse would be to combine the engine and armor tabs into one page. Currently, the Engine tab is only for slotting in one engine, and that's it. For space (tab) savings why not allow it to be slotted in on the same tab as the armor? Restriction of slots by type is already implemented, so you can't stick an armor type in the engine slot, and we remove a (in my opinion) unnecessary tab. So, you would have a Weapons tab and an Armor/Engine Tab. Plus, since people are very conscientious about making sure they have armor, they will also make sure they have an engine since it's on the same page.
i like it, i really do. we can also do the same ranking thing with weapons: dmg, fire speed, reload speed, heat, range.
I was planning on those bars shown in my photoshop to be for the whole loadout. i.e. engines that produce more heat and weapons that produce more heat both affect the Heat bar. However, stats like the rate of fire, reload speed, and range measurements might be useful for noting on the individual weapons themselves in graphical form. I believe the Empires Wiki already has some of these metrics in visual form, and if these could be added to the description area it would be awesome. However, that's more of a stretch goal, the core addon is the overall bars.
