[interface]Recruit bar

[Silux]

A little bar lying on low part of the screen that lets you to recruit the selected unit at mouse location, if it is on a valid castle.Just like in the image:)
It could work either by selecting the unit in the bar and then click on the place, or select the place and then the unit.

There you could use hotkeys to select units just as you did before.

I feel it needed because now recruiting units using only the mouse require 4 clicks, while this could be done with just mouse-over and a key press.

I don't know wether it's already suggested or in development.If it is not, i might start to code it myself ^^

[alluton]

Propably you could rather easily create add-on that places picture on bottom of the screen as you descriped. However Im not sure wether you can implement hotkeys. It might need some fancy things. Also using cursors current location as recruiment target might be difficult. What if cursor moves abit or is between the hexes?(If that is even possible)

[JaMiT]

I feel it needed because now recruiting units using only the mouse require 4 clicks, while this could be done with just mouse-over and a key press.

It's kind of odd to compare a proposed "mouse-over and a key press" with the existing "only the mouse", instead of with the existing "mouse-over, key press, and unit selection". (If I understand your click count, the better comparison would be to a key press plus 2 mouse clicks.)

Also using cursors current location as recruiment target might be difficult. What if cursor moves abit or is between the hexes?(If that is even possible)

If trying to implement via an add-on, I don't know if the mouse location is available. If trying to implement in the source code, using the cursor's current location would work just as it does currently when using one of the existing hotkeys to recruit (ctrl-r and alt-ctrl-r by default). So this much should not be a problem. To me, the real questions are whether or not it is worth bypassing the unit selection window, and whether or not this new interface would be able to accommodate an arbitrary number of unit types.

[Silux]

The current recruitment windows allows to see only 7 units at time(if you have more than seven you must scroll down).
The recruit bar i'm thinking of will have the sprites of the units you want to recruit and an arrow-shaped button on the up and on the bottom to scroll the bar.

Like this
---/\--
|A||B|
|C||D|
|E||F|
|G||H|
---\/---

Press down and you will see
---/\--
|C||D|
|E||F|
|G||H|
|I.||L|
---\/---

The main advantage of this layout is to have the recruit window already avaible on the screen.
Recruiting would be a matter of clicking the keep and the bar.
Or you could recruit the units dragging the icons from the recruit bar into the hex.

I find it important to have this kind of interface because recruiting is something you do almost any turn, and up to 6 or more times per turn.
I feel strange that it requires you to right-click(which is usually reserved to advanced options) and open a popup dialog and then click again to dismiss the dialog.
Having it already open

The fastest way to recruit a unit would be to click on the castle, choose the unit from a spiral shaped menu the unit you want(unit list is sorted by the most recently used unit or best avaible unit) and click it.
No keyboard involved and a spiral shaped menu allows to browse trough a long list with the least average movement.
However it's hard to code and may be confusing to use at start.Every unit costs 2 clicks and a little mouse movement to choose the hex and then the unit.

Using the keyboard and the mouse you can just move the mouse over the hex you want and press the hotkey to recruit the unit.
If you use only numbers and first row of letters(they aren't used currently) as hotkeys there are 20 units to choose from.Recruiting 6 hex of units would take few seconds

I don't want to overwrite the current recruitment.Just offer a faster way to do it:)

[JaMiT]

The current recruitment windows allows to see only 7 units at time(if you have more than seven you must scroll down).

That depends entirely on the resolution being used. (For example, if your vertical resolution is 600, only 5 are shown at a time.) But, you are correct that the current implementation is able to accommodate an arbitrary number of unit types (by adding a scrollbar when needed). Hence the reason for checking alternatives for this ability.

I find it important to have this kind of interface because recruiting is something you do almost any turn, and [...]

I find it more useful to stop recruiting after a while so you can store up more gold for the next scenario. Oh wait a minute... you're assuming a multiplayer scenario, aren't you?

I feel strange that it requires you to right-click(which is usually reserved to advanced options) and open a popup dialog and then click again to dismiss the dialog.

Except recruiting does not require a right-click. (You can recruit with a right-click, but that is not the only way. You could use the "Actions" menu, which uses left clicks, or you could just use the existing keyboard shortcut, which requires no clicks.) So not so strange, right?

I'm not saying that the interface cannot be improved, but you are selling the current options short in order to make your proposal look like a bigger improvement than it is.

If you use only numbers and first row of letters(they aren't used currently) as hotkeys there are 20 units to choose from.

Numbers are used currently (to show hexes a unit can reach in future turns). Default hotkeys do provide definitions for r (redo), t (continue move), y (execute planned action), u (undo), i (suppose dead), and p (planning mode), leaving only four unused letters in the first row of a qwerty keyboard. From the second row, another four letters are not by default hotkeys (a, g, j, and k). Your best option for available adjacent keys is the last row of letters, as you get five unused keys there, and they are adjacent.

[lipk]

Or you could recruit the units dragging the icons from the recruit bar into the hex.

The fastest way to recruit a unit would be to click on the castle, choose the unit from a spiral shaped menu the unit you want(unit list is sorted by the most recently used unit or best avaible unit) and click it.

I find both ideas good, but these sorts of interface elements are completely alien to the game's widget system. I.e. I don't think they can be implemented without a major refactoring.

I find recruiting awful complicated, too. What I was thinking about is to add + and - buttons next to the units in the dialog window, so that you can buy multiple units at once, without having to reopen the dialog for each of them.

[JaMiT]

I find recruiting awful complicated, too. What I was thinking about is to add + and - buttons next to the units in the dialog window, so that you can buy multiple units at once, without having to reopen the dialog for each of them.

Well, technically you don't have to reopen the dialog for each of them, since there is a "repeat recruit" hot key. Admittedly, the default (ctrl-alt-r) does not work so well under Windows, but you can always reassign it to a key that does work. Just something to keep in mind when deciding if messing with the GUI is worth the effort.

(For the curious: I do not know how widespread the issue is, but "does not work so well under Windows" seems to be because the Windows version has trouble recognizing ctrl-alt- keystrokes. Not sure if there is a bug report on that, even though there should be.)

[beetlenaut]

The main problem with repeat-recruit is that it places the units automatically, and not necessarily where you want them. I would love to be able to recruit (and recall, actually) with fewer clicks. Filling a castle usually takes around 20, which is tedious, so I support this idea.

[lipk]

I'm not sure if the automatic placing is that a big problem. I use Ctrl-R a lot and I think the inability to pick the exact location is not a serious disadvantage in most of the time. The old behavior would still be available in case you need a precise placement for your recruits.

[JaMiT]

The main problem with repeat-recruit is that it places the units automatically, and not necessarily where you want them.

Move your mouse over the hex in which you want to recruit, then hit ctrl-alt-r. No problem.

I'm not sure if the automatic placing is that a big problem. I use Ctrl-R a lot and I think the inability to pick the exact location is not a serious disadvantage in most of the time.

Move your mouse over the hex in which you want to recruit, then hit ctrl-r. No disadvantage any of the time.

For completeness: This targeting works for alt-r as well.

[beetlenaut]

I wonder how I never knew that. That's helpful.

[Silux]

I didn't knew that shortcut too.
EDIT:noo it doesn't work...(keyboard fault).Remapped to "x" and it does fine!

I didn't know of the left button route.I must admit it feels way more natural to me!

I'm happy that i'm not the only one that would like to have a better system:D

I have a short experience in developing both games and interface in Flash and Windows.
Ctrl, Alt Shift keys are often a taboo.Keyboards are wired to support any two keystrokes, but very few keyboards let you to get a three key combination which is not Ctrl+alt+canc.
And these keys are often already in use for OS macros or window management(ctrl+q closes the window in ubuntu).

The recruit bar could be placed just under the menu options, with shrinked sprites.

[Chief_Chasso]

Also, and I'm not sure if this is a better/faster way to recruit units, but once you have the recruit dialogue box open, you can simply press the number associated with the unit you'd like to recruit and then enter. For instance, if you have three recruit-able units to choose from, and say a Spearman is displayed third in the list (from top down), once the recruit dialogue box is open, simply press "3", then enter.

And just like JaMit said, the unit will appear in the hex that your cursor is pointing to.

[Silux]

yes i know that.
The aim of a recruit bar would be to always have a sort of recruit dialog open.
With it you should be able to just hit "3" and the unit is recruited^^

[Chief_Chasso]

yes i know that.
The aim of a recruit bar would be to always have a sort of recruit dialog open.
With it you should be able to just hit "3" and the unit is recruited^^

Okay, I now understand what you mean

Although, having an ever present recruit bar might not be a good thing? If you don't recruit every turn, it would serve no purpose. It would just be a distracting window blocking your view.

I like the recruit system the way it is. But that's just my opinion though.