Visual Display of ZoC

Post by **rogue** » March 14th, 2006, 4:22 pm

Is a unit's lack of a ZOC now displayed onscreen?

If not, I think it should be, so Level 0 units don't have "hidden rules" associated with them.

I'm not sure what sort of keyword would be good for describing this.

MOD NOTE: split from L0 unit topic

Post by **Viliam** » March 15th, 2006, 12:15 pm

rogue wrote:Is a unit's lack of a ZOC now displayed onscreen?

How about displaying ZOC instead?

One possibility would be to modify team marks. Instead of being drawn around unit's feet, they could be drawn around the hex -- inside of hex, if unit does not have ZOC; outside of hex, if unit has ZOC. The meaning is... if you step on the hex with circle, you are ZOC'd.

Post by **quartex** » March 15th, 2006, 2:35 pm

The only problem with that plan is that lots of units next to each other would create a battlefield of overlapping colored circles, like a huge venn diagram.

Post by **Darth Fool** » March 15th, 2006, 3:13 pm

Probably what is needed is a hot-key, analagous to the show enemy moves, that shows ZOC. Probably team-color-coded somehow. Preferably implemented based on finding all ZOC hexes and applying a graphic to the hex instead of the individual units. so as to avoid the van-diagram effect.

Another perhaps orthogonal way of doing it would be to have a ZOC aura displayed for units when they are selected.

-> What i might be working on · Post by **Eleazar** » March 15th, 2006, 4:44 pm

Darth Fool wrote:Probably what is needed is a hot-key, analagous to the show enemy moves, that shows ZOC. Probably team-color-coded somehow. Preferably implemented based on finding all ZOC hexes and applying a graphic to the hex instead of the individual units. so as to avoid the van-diagram effect.

Another perhaps orthogonal way of doing it would be to have a ZOC aura displayed for units when they are selected.

Personally i like the idea of ZoC display that can be turned on and off with a key. I think it would get messy to always display it.
Team color-coding ZoC would be interesting since up to 6 teams can all "control" a single hex. I've a few ideas how it might be displayed, but don't want to work on it now unless someone is serious about coding it in the very near future. I've already done graphics for a number of good ideas that haven't been coded in yet. Not that i'm bitter, i'm just trying to be practical.

JW · Post by JW » March 15th, 2006, 5:05 pm

If you work a ZoC button I'm not sure that you need it TCd. You could simply program it so that any hex your units step on that end their movement are highlighted, if that makes it easier.

Alternatively, with the circle idea, you could avoid overlaps by having the arc of the circles go through the corners of the hexes (unless my geometry is off).

Post by **Viliam** » March 16th, 2006, 3:01 pm

Should I miss an opportunity to post a hand-drawn "screenshots" of the new feature?
No.

So, the information necessary for the selected unit is this:
- where unit can go
- where unit will be ZOC'd
- whom unit can attack

For current player's unit it means what it can do in this turn with remaining MPs. For other player's unit it means what it will be able to do in next turn with full MPs.

One image uses different colors to display "you can go here", "you will be stopped here" and "you can attack them". Other image uses one color, and two icons (shield, swords). Yet another uses one color and ZOC circles.

The one idea behind all 3 pictures is -- do not use two buttons for "show enemy moves" and "show ZOC"... display both information at the same time; it is related to each other.

Post by **Noyga** » March 17th, 2006, 12:45 pm

I really like the third one : Moves and ZOC displayed by colors

JW · Post by JW » March 17th, 2006, 4:57 pm

I agree with Noyga on this one. It's clear and simple.

ps, I also think your color choice is good as well.

Post by **Darth Fool** » March 17th, 2006, 6:08 pm

Question, how would the third one look in game? Would one overlay a semi-transparent color on top of the existing graphic? Can someone mock it up. I agree that it looks best in this iconized version, but I am not sure that it will look good in game.

xtifr · Post by **xtifr** » March 17th, 2006, 11:24 pm

Darth Fool wrote:I agree that it looks best in this iconized version, but I am not sure that it will look good in game.

That was exactly my initial reaction as well. Even at present, with only one type of shading, there have been complaints about the visibility in certain terrains. I think it would be important to do mock-ups of the new types of shading against many different types of terrain, e.g. jungle, sand, mountains, ice, water, caves, keeps, etc.

My inclination--were I in charge--would be to go with one of the other proposals, just to play it safe.

SmokemJags · Post by **SmokemJags** » March 18th, 2006, 12:38 am

Wow I can post here.
Maybe I should make the most of it.

Question, how would the third one look in game?

Red Opacity goes from left to right. 10% 40% 70%.
Yellow Opacity goes from right to left. 10% 20% 30% et cetera.

SmokemJags · Post by **SmokemJags** » March 18th, 2006, 12:41 am

Here's what it looks like at 30% opacity on all the hexes, which I think is best.

And I remembered to crop the picture this time.

Edit:
Ask and you shall receive. I cut the pictures way down... though now you can't see me having fun with Mystery campaign...

-> What i might be working on · Post by **Eleazar** » March 18th, 2006, 1:10 am

This seems a little heavy handed.
Do we really need to highlight units that can be attacked?
I'd rather use red to indicate ZoC and not specially indicate attackable units.
Also The overlay should go underneath the units (if any indication is needed for unit-occupied hexes)
i suppose when you select an enemy unit you see the ZoC of you and your allies? Or when you select a skirmisher you don't see any?

I think i also want to make a non-ZoC unit's ellipse different. More on that later. (The normal ellipse will not change.)

Jags, (and everyone else) please crop your screenshots down to the relevant portion. We don't need to see the entire Wesnoth window to see how this idea would work. It's annoying to have to scroll right and left in a browser to use the forum.
Edit: thanks for the cropping.

SmokemJags · Post by **SmokemJags** » March 18th, 2006, 1:20 am

Also The overlay should go underneath the units (if any indication is needed for unit-occupied hexes)

I was just going by what was proposed in the third mock up...

I don't think the red is supposed to symbolize enemy units, but rather enemy units that are generating a zone of control.

For example, if it was a level 0 WC, it wouldn't have the red, or the yellow, or anything, yes?

It would also let the player know that even if a lvl 0 unit has yellow next to it, it would show who (unit standing near the level 0) who is actually generating the zone of control.