Select attack direction at close range.

[Alink]

On the svn trunk, I added the possibility to choose the attack direction even when you are near the enemy. Previously, a separate move was needed (note that there is also an automatic re-selection of the unit who enter in ZoC, which spare the re-select click).

This new shortcut causes the need to be more accurate when you want to attack without moving (if your unit can). You can't just click anywhere on the enemy as before. I thought it was not a problem since normal move+attack also need to precisely click on the triangle direction. For helping this, eleazar and me added an attack direction indicator (a red triangle), but this an other feature with other (smaller) problems.

However, I realize now an important flaw about this:
Some users (or all users at some times) just use "hex clicks". I mean: click on the hex of your unit, then on the hex of its destination if needed, and finally on the *hex* of the enemy. Never need to aim a triangle. This is good for users/system with low mouse precision (bad hand/mouse, tiny hex caused by screen size, dezooming etc..). I also sometimes place my units in fighting positions (which keep all the undos) before starting all the fights, so no need of the move+attack for this method.

The previous click behavior implicitly allowed the hex-clicking mode AND the triangle-clicking to choose direction for precise/fast users. I didn't understand that before, so now I want revert this feature. Any comments ?

PS: on IRC, uso suggested to use the center of hex as a special zone, for attack without move or attack with the shortest path. It's true that the center is an inaccurate zone for selecting triangle, but on the prototype that i tested, the problem was that you must know or see(hard with the unit) where is the limit of the center-zone. This also reduce the space allowed to other zones. And, of course, there is still the same main problem for hex-clicking users.

[Eleazar]

However, I realize now an important flaw about this:
Some users (or all users at some times) just use "hex clicks". I mean: click on the hex of your unit, then on the hex of its destination if needed, and finally on the *hex* of the enemy. Never need to aim a triangle. This is good for users/system with low mouse precision (bad hand/mouse, tiny hex caused by screen size, dezooming etc..). I also sometimes place my units in fighting positions (which keep all the undos) before starting all the fights, so no need of the move+attack for this method.

The previous click behavior implicitly allowed the hex-clicking mode AND the triangle-clicking to choose direction for precise/fast users. I didn't understand that before, so now I want revert this feature. Any comments ?

I don't see how the old method was any easier for the "hex-clickers", unless you reverted the attack-from-the-closest-possible-direction-to-the-triangle-under-the-mouse modification i suggested.

PS: on IRC, uso suggested to use the center of hex as a special zone, for attack without move or attack with the shortest path. It's true that the center is an inaccurate zone for selecting triangle, but on the prototype that i tested, the problem was that you must know or see(hard with the unit) where is the limit of the center-zone. This also reduce the space allowed to other zones. And, of course, there is still the same main problem for hex-clicking users.

This idea sounds awkward.

[Alink]

eleazar: no i didn't reverted anything yet (so this post to grab opinions before maybe do it). And I mean by "hex clicker" someone who never use the direction selection, but just use simple move and simple "attack without move" when he's near the enemy, so just click on its hex (the whole hex not a specific zone of it) to attack. This kind of simple use is not possible anymore, which is my concern.

Since there is 2 new linked features, I try to clarify :
- the attack direction indicator is purely visual, it just indicate the direction of the future attack, which is not always the pointed direction, as it was before (even in 1.2) and as you suggested to keep when i proposed to change it (which i agreed and did directly)

-so the only non-visual change is that now you can and *must* choose a direction in a new case(close range with all your moves). But we use the same old system when you point a blocked direction.

Btw since you talk about this, my initial idea to change this last system was precisely to force the user to always choose a valid direction and not allowing to just click nearby a possible direction. The aim was to speed up the training of the user, because I thought that allowing inaccuracy in some cases and not in other is bad for teaching automatism.

Anyway, I now prefer to don't try to teach the user and don't force him to be accurate if he don't want to be.

[Darth Fool]

Personally I like the new system. Really for a hex clicker, the only difference is if his unit starts the turn off next to the enemy he is going to attack. If he doesn't, and he clicks his unit, the hex he wants to attack from, then the only direction that his unit can now attack from is the one he is at. I would at least let it ride a little while longer before reverting.

[Sapient]

Personally I like the new system. Really for a hex clicker, the only difference is if his unit starts the turn off next to the enemy he is going to attack. If he doesn't, and he clicks his unit, the hex he wants to attack from, then the only direction that his unit can now attack from is the one he is at. I would at least let it ride a little while longer before reverting.

It also affects skirmishers and all units attacking L0's.

Personally I think this is a user interface problem for the people who prefer non-precise click (including myself). On a map with fog your misclick could easily be an un-undoable mistake and lead to a lost game in MP. (Yes, you can use delay shroud updates but updating shroud manually isn't ideal either.) All of this adds up to a real good reason not to use move+attack+redirection against enemies in the 1-hex radius, so we support both types of uses.