Possible recruit/recall dialog improvement

[irrevenant]

I like skyfaller's idea of combining the dialogs, but I don't like the idea of selecting them all prior to actually placing them on the map. And transferring a unit from recruitable to recallable seems confusing - if it's just placed immediately on the map then it ceases to be in either category.

I'd suggest the following approach:

(1) You right-click on the hex and select "summon unit" (or whatever) from the context menu. The active hex is highlighted.

(2) A non-modal dialog/sidebar appears. It could either contain one long list of recruitable and recallable units, or use a tabbed approach. It would default to recruitable units followed by recallable units, but could be sorted by level, etc. as per normal. This would be long, but not much longer than the recall list is now.

(3) You select the unit you want to summon from the dialog and click 'OK' (I'd possibly rename this 'purchase unit' or something since people may expect 'OK' to close the dialog). The highlight immediately moves to an adjacent empty hex, showing you where your next summon will occur. You can change the currently active hex by clicking on another one while the 'recruit' dialog is open, or just summon into the default hex.

(4) You repeat step 3 until you have as many units recruited as you want, then hit 'cancel'. This closes the dialog/sidebar (I'd possibly rename the 'cancel' button to 'done' or something). (Note that a 'cancel' button shouldn't be necessary - since the dialog is modal you can just undo unit hires).

It works essentially as Loki summarised, only you wouldn't have to click-select a hex unless you wanted to (or were summoning less than an entire keep's-worth of units).

In answer to Turin's question, the reason for making it a non-modal sidebar rather than a window was just so it would be easier to see and interact with the keep tiles. I didn't have a particular design in mind.

I've attached an example of one possible idea. Please judge the idea on it's merits and not on my crappy art/design skills.

[scott]

The tabbed approach is ok, but it wouldn't be the end of the world if there were 2 dialogs.

If it's non-modal, do the arrow keys move the map or the highlighted unit? I would click on a hex then arrow to the unit I want, but if I wanted to recruit from another castle I would also use the arrows. Hmmm...

A sidebar has the possibility of covering up the keep while a window could be moved. You can't do that now, but if you're going to click on hexes you need to see the castle.

[Loki]

My mockup skills are rather lacking, but I'd suggest a bar that comes up at the bottom of the screen. The map would be greyed out the same as when showing where a unit can move, with the keep hexes lit up. The bar at the bottom would give the same sort of information that the Unit List option shows, while selecting a unit would use the bar on the right side of the screen to display information like normal. Allowances would have to be made for recruiting and not knowing what traits the unit has yet, obviously.

Since it's just another sidebar, map movement wouldn't be affected at all.

Edit: The Unit List could actually be in the same bar, and the Recruit/Recall buttons simply be greyed out when not applicable. If that were done it might be better to call it "Current Units" or something, to limit any noob confusion.

Edit 2: I suppose a Help button would be handy as well. Damn my laziness.

[irrevenant]

I think Scott's right. If it's a window that is movable and resizable and remembers where you put it, then it meets everyone's needs.

I hadn't thought about the keyboard-cursors. I guess it would depend on whether the map or the window were currently selected (which should be easily determined visually).