Re: [Rails-devel] Rails 2.0 discussion: Changes to OR Window?

[John D. G. <jd...@di...>]

On 2015-03-10 01:58, Stefan Frey wrote:
> to get more feedback on the UI, I will try to make some more suggestions
> how to improve the Rails 2.0 UI.

I'll toss in my $.02 as well, whether you end up making any of the
changes or not.  I'll respond to your ideas first.

> Those who tried the 2.0 beta already know that the buttons Confirm/Skip
> have been move to the top of the upgrade panel and are always visible
> (green circle in the attached image).
>
> First reason for that was to avoid scrolling down the upgrade panel to
> finalize the tile lay.

That in itself is not a bad change.  However, I would want to make it a
little "smarter" (in particular, if there's no legal tile lay or no
legal token lay -- after considering both the supply of tiles (or
tokens) and the company's treasury -- then skip that phase.

In particular, 1835 should not be offering me the Pfalz tile lay unless
(it's green phase AND that hex is unbuilt), and should not be offering
me the Pfalz token lay unless (BA has placed its home token AND the hex
still has an open city circle AND the operating company is not BA).

While we're at it:

1)  Make the top title bar of the map window SAY what it wants you to do
during each step. (During both the tile-lay and token-lay steps in Rails
2.0-beta1, the title bar says only "Select a hex", which is completely
unhelpful.)

> I realized that now one has to use the buttons at the top of the upgrade
> panel for tile/token laying, but the buttons at the bottom of the OR
> window for later actions (payout, buy trains etc).
> 
> My suggestion is to make UI easier is:
> 
> A) Remove the button panel at the bottom of the OR window.

OK, but then let's move all those buttons into that left side "upgrade"
panel.  It has the room, and it means we don't have to look more than
one place during operating rounds.

Also while we're at it,

2) Move the menu bar (where it shows "Info", "Special", and "Zoom" in
your example image) from the bottom of the map to the very top, above
the title bar.

And, dare I suggest:

3) Add "Privates", "Tiles", and "Tokens" columns to the Game Status
window (and have the companies in that window move to reflect operating
order each OR), thus eliminating any need to have a separate list of
companies attached to the map window.  This will make a HUGE difference
on small screens, where I've been used to playing 18EU through a tiny
"letter box" view of the map because the company-list part of the map
pane won't allow itself to be shrunk!!!

> B) Move the undo/redo buttons to the bottom of the upgrade panel (always
> visible)

Agree.  And keep each one in a fixed location.  No more of the present
situation where they move around horizontally during an OR.

> C) Move the action buttons (payout/withhold/buy train) to the top of the
> upgrade panel. This implies that the action buttons will change
> depending on the activity.

Agree, so long as this does not include Undo/Redo.

> Open question is where to move "Buy Private". One possibility is to move
> the buy Private button to a entry of the special menu? Or a separate
> entry of the menu? Other ideas?

"Buy Private" is one of several steps that happen so seldom that asking
the player about them every turn can be an annoyance.  I suggest we
borrow an idea from another Sourceforge game project, Colossus, and
create a large Options menu, changeable during a game, which allows the
user to tell Rails to skip asking about certain actions.  (Other actions
my group would often want to skip being asked to do include: Pay back
loans in 1856; buy or sell treasury stock in 1826 or 18EU; or take
private-company actions in all games.)

In all cases, the action so skipped should be available to players on
the "Special" menu, so they're never deprived of the opportunity to do
it if they remember.  If they want to be asked they can turn that on.