Suggestion: New movement hint (no movement points left)

[th1nk]

Hi everybody,

in version 1.3.13 the movement hints were improved to show colorful icons instead of a text to indicate the end of a movement via ZoC or a village. The changelog says the following:

* the "1 turn to reach" of the movement hint is now used only for multi-turns move, instead icons show ZoC and village capture ending the move.

While the new icons are really shiny, they won't appear if a unit simply runs out of movement points. This might be ok in the normal wesnoth-game but there are mods where it isn't.

One particular mod i play on a regular basis is "A New Land". Here you can build villages and such. But only if you have at least one movement point left after moving the unit. In older versions one could determine this by moving to a hex that hadn't the "1 turn to reach" hint in it. This isn't possible anymore and you have to count your steps manually to figure this out.

So my suggestion is to introduce (or better revive) a third movement hint to indicate fields where a unit runs out of movement points. This hint would only show if a unit can't go further because of this restriction. It wouldn't appear if a certain terrain avoids a further movement. This way all mod-defined actions that rely on movement points would be easier to handle for the user.

Implementing this shouldn't be to hard since the "1 turn to reach" hint existed already. As an icon the normal footsteps could be used. Overlaid with a red cross the message should be clear.

regards
th1nk

[CarpeGuitarrem]

Odd...I thought that when you clicked on a unit, the game highlighted where that unit could move to, anywhere within its range.

[Alink]

Seems that what you need is an indication of the amount of MP left. Because, for general use, knowing that you will have 1 (or more) MP left is useless since it depends of the MP cost of surrounding hexes (it was one of the problems of the old "1 turn to reach"). Also, since it's about mod support, we can assume that another mod will want more MP for bigger special actions.

In fact, I initially tried to display MP left, but it was hard to give nice clear meaning when using both numbers (turns and MP). Also the zero MP left caused by ZoC and capture needed some indications (if not, you can't know if it was caused by terrain cost). So the icons to solve these problems. Also because MP left was less important and could be better show by other indications (maybe a hotkey/option to update black stripes to show possible moves from the destination?).

Anyways, I think now that always display there an information with such rare use is not a good idea (and it takes place for other more useful future features), but the good point is that the experimental code for displaying the exact MP left is still there

Maybe use the top-right corner where we already show the MP cost? It make sense to put MP left and MP cost near each other. Only problem is again the lack of space.
Perhaps remove/change the defense% placed there, since it has some problems (not useful when moving your unit, not handy to check defense of unit under mouse and, if another is selected, sometimes confusing which unit it refers to).

PS: Sorry for the problem caused in this mod. But, on places where the MP left status is not clear, can't you just move there, check MP and undo ?

[Clonkinator]

But, on places where the MP left status is not clear, can't you just move there, check MP and undo ?

In "A New Land", undo quite often is disabled.

[th1nk]

First of all: Thanks for the fast reply, Alink!

Seems that what you need is an indication of the amount of MP left. Because, for general use, knowing that you will have 1 (or more) MP left is useless since it depends of the MP cost of surrounding hexes (it was one of the problems of the old "1 turn to reach"). Also, since it's about mod support, we can assume that another mod will want more MP for bigger special actions.

You are absolutely right. I just need to know if i have at least one MP left. As you pointed out my proposal isn't the best if you need to keep more than the one point. So a more general solution that shows the MP left for each hex would be better.

In fact, I initially tried to display MP left, but it was hard to give nice clear meaning when using both numbers (turns and MP). Also the zero MP left caused by ZoC and capture needed some indications (if not, you can't know if it was caused by terrain cost). So the icons to solve these problems. Also because MP left was less important and could be better show by other indications (maybe a hotkey/option to update black stripes to show possible moves from the destination?).

Where and how the MP left are shown is not that important to me. Another movement hint icon was just my first idea, because they look really good and are very intuitive.

Speaking of alternatives to icons i would prefer an option over a hotkey so that this feature could be turned on constantly. "A New Land" is the only mod i play on a regular basis, but i am shure there are many other (i could imagine the whole bunch of RPG-Mods uses this) where a feature like this would be handy. If a hotkey-solution turns out to be easier to realize i am perfectly fine with this.

Anyways, I think now that always display there an information with such rare use is not a good idea (and it takes place for other more useful future features), but the good point is that the experimental code for displaying the exact MP left is still there

Maybe use the top-right corner where we already show the MP cost? It make sense to put MP left and MP cost near each other. Only problem is again the lack of space.

Perhaps remove/change the defense% placed there, since it has some problems (not useful when moving your unit, not handy to check defense of unit under mouse and, if another is selected, sometimes confusing which unit it refers to).

The top-right corner might be a good place, but i agree with you that it is already to confusing to add even more information to it. Additionally the information there is often cut off due to the limited space. I have to admit that i haven't understood it completely although i play the game nearly every day. So again, i agree with you. Perhaps this corner could be cleaned up (by removing the information that already causes several problems) and filled with new, more useful information.

PS: Sorry for the problem caused in this mod. But, on places where the MP left status is not clear, can't you just move there, check MP and undo ?

As Clonkinator already said, there are many situations (liks revealing enemies that where previously out of sight) that make an undo impossible.

Don't feel bad for your changes. I think they are very good in general and the introduced problem can be fixed. It's a development version...

Overall i think we agree. The MP left is a valuable information that should be displayed somewhere but may be another movement hint isn't the right place. I also think a cleanup of the top-right corner would be positive so that could be the new place for this information. Or any other reader of this thread has a good idea where to put it.

I would be really happy to see this information on screen some day. Keep up the great work!

regards
th1nk