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Tablet GUI Feedback

Unstructured ideas, requests and suggestions for the development of the game.
Taledus
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android_version: 4.0

Tablet GUI Feedback

Post by Taledus »

I've mentioned before that I play Andor's Trail on my tablet with mini keyboard in landscape mode. While I'm not sure how many others play on a tablet, I am sure I am not the only one. So here is for some discussion feedback on the layout for the GUI for consideration on tablets.

A - Current View
Image
As you can see there is a lot of real estate there available for use. I get to see just about all of the map, which is why it appears cut off on the right side. I can fix this in preferences by scaling the view, but like this much better even though some maps appear cut off.

A-1.)I have some issues with the quick slots. They appear on the left side of the screen when I open them.

A-2.)Even though the combat status bar has opacity to see what is going on behind it, it's still annoying when I am fighting something that is in that area.

A-3.)What is not visible in this image is the toast messages. I like them over having to see the dialog box pop up every fight, but they too often get in the way while I am grinding.

A-4.)Currently to attack I simply run into enemies with the arrows on my mini keyboard...and I can keep hitting the arrows for each subsequent attack which makes for fast battles. However, if I hit the quick slot for use, bring up the Hero menu, or fight with an enemy after a dialog interaction, I am unable to simply hit the arrows because then it is highlighting the buttons on the screen. Then I have to resort to hitting the attack button, which is up top. I'm right handed so I have to reach across my view in order to hit the button which obstructs my view. The only time this is a huge issue is when I am fighting difficult enemies and I have to keep an eye on my HP to see when I have to use a meat.

B - Cheesy Photoshopped View
Image
B-1.)In this image I have moved everything down to the bottom. The combat bar would be fixed in place. All buttons are accessible from beside the edges of the screen for much better access. While it appears to be 2 separate bars (Status bar/Combat bar), it should be just 1 bar...gradient effect should go all the way, not separated like appears in the image.

B-2.)Quick slots should appear on the right side, vertical preferred because they are lined up on the side of the screen for easy hitting without reaching across anything, but horizontal would work too...just not as well.

B-3.)When not fighting an enemy it would just grey out the enemy icon, enemy HP bar, attack button, end turn button, flee button, and clear out the text in the dialog box on the right.

B-4.)Icons for Attack, End Turn, & Flee. The Hero Menu and Quick slots have icons, everything else should too for better aesthetics for the GUI.

B-5.)Instead of having toast message tell you the rewards, they could appear in the bottom dialog box as well so they do not interfere with viewing those parts of the screen. Also, color code messages so it does not all run together. If I am attacking/missing/etc, it should appear one color, maybe blue...NPC's should appear another color, maybe green.

B-6.)To the right of the messagebox could be where the Character Conditions appear. 1 condition appears as a regular icon, 2 or more get shrunk down in order to fit up to 4 in the same spot that take up no ore area than an icon, or just have them all mini icon sized...all the stuff to the left can be moved over a bit to allow more room here.

C - The Hero Menu
What brought me to the forums was not being able to have the ability to have more than one save. Being new to owning a tablet I didn't think to look at the menu at the bottom of the screen for accessing other areas. It was mention in my first post on the forums here, but I would like to take a minute and suggest alternatives for accessing additional features:

C-1.)Currently there is Overview, Quests, Skills, & Inventory. I propose an additional tab for Preferences instead of it being available through your devices menu. Future device may not have a menu option available, and this would make it a lot easier for new people to find the preferences section.

C-2.)Furthermore, I propose a tab for Save management. It would list your current save games, allow you to create a new save, or write over an old save...just like it is designed now but without it appearing in the form of a popup box.

C-3.)Red X button that will take you to the main menu, where you can exit the game from there...
Sarumar
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Re: Tablet GUI Feedback

Post by Sarumar »

nice post here... but becauce im here and there only with my phone I will not say more :?
Sarumar
..dansing left foot polka with Hirathil

Lvl 313|XP 559721474|Gold 7965188|AP 3/12|AC 516|AD 161-175|ECC 48|CM 6|BC 311|HP 591|DR 2|RoLS 3|RoL 2|ElyR 2|ChaR 45|GoLF 3|ShaF 9|SRoV 28|VSH 13|GoW 1|WMC 1
SuFiC8
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Re: Tablet GUI Feedback

Post by SuFiC8 »

That looks great on your tab, but it wont work on a phone... the quick slots would be in the way... i use my directional pad in the lower right hand corner... plus on phones it doesn't show the blank space you have on your tab... if they change the format- I hope it's only for tablets...
^SuFiC8^
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Taledus
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Re: Tablet GUI Feedback

Post by Taledus »

Well, I figure since everything else is optional, this could be too. Optional layout suggestions for both tablet and phones.

I've only seen 1 other suggestion for the phone GUI, and I don't think it went over well. Something like my layout would work for me, and I am hoping that someone else who uses a tablet can say it would work for them too.

Phones though have less real estate, which means that if this was made optional to the current layout, then people using phones could still have their same layout, or a different one that works better for them if someone wants to think it up.
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fiernaq
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Re: Tablet GUI Feedback

Post by fiernaq »

Oooh, nice. Now I want to paint.net (since I don't own photo$hop) a phone interface :D
Level: 58, HP: 102, AC: 295%, AD: 46-56, AP: 2/12, BC: 35%, DR: 4
Gold: 75235 | RoLS: 0 RoL: 0 SRoV: 0 VSH: 0
Skills: IF1, Ev1, Ev2, Ev3, CE1, CS1, CS2, Re1, WA1, HH1, Cl1, HH2, DaggerPro1, LightArmorPro1, ShieldPro1, WA2, Cl2
Equipment: Enhanced Combat Helmet, Serpent's Hauberk, Marrowtaint, Quickstrike Dagger, Remgard Shield, Villain's Ring, Villain's Ring, Leather Gloves Of Attack, Enhanced Combat Boots
Last Updated: 02-Dec-2013
Trolu
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Re: Tablet GUI Feedback

Post by Trolu »

Very nice idea. I also play AT on tablet, and I would find GUI like that more handy.

Also, I think that there is no need for hero's health and exp bars to span across the whole screen - they could also be half/one third of a screen width (like enemy's health). That way there would be more space for actor's condition icons, maybe even with some "rounds left" counters.
Lvl: 53, XP: 2734712, Gold: 6500, RoLS: 0, ElyR: 0, RoL: 0, ChaR: 0, GoLF: 0, ShaF: 0, SRoV: 0, VSH: 0
HP: 84, AC: 229%, AD: 37-38, AP: 3, ECC: 31%, CM: 5,25, BC: 80%, DR: 0
Taledus
Posts: 239
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2012 2:57 pm
android_version: 4.0

Re: Tablet GUI Feedback

Post by Taledus »

Trolu wrote:Very nice idea. I also play AT on tablet, and I would find GUI like that more handy.

Also, I think that there is no need for hero's health and exp bars to span across the whole screen - they could also be half/one third of a screen width (like enemy's health). That way there would be more space for actor's condition icons, maybe even with some "rounds left" counters.
I have been looking at the source code and the reason the HP/LVL bars span all the way across is they are set to fill on their parent container. The combat bar HP is the same way.

Once I can figure out how to properly move things to the bottom I will try to modify the bars to have a fixed width in order to make use of more efficient space for other things.

I can't promise that I will have anything able to work as I am not a Java developer, but I am getting great help on another thread with what to change in the code. I will keep this post updated.
Mino
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Re: Tablet GUI Feedback

Post by Mino »

I often switch my game from my phone to my tablet when I'm at home (I upload the file to Dropbox to share between the two). But in portrait mode, everything is similar to playing on phone, just bigger, and the quick slots don't even block any of the game screen space. I didn't take a screen shot of an attack though. How big is your tablet? Mine's just 7", so its easy enough to play in portrait mode.

Image
Lvl: 206 XP: 159262572, Gold: 1657119, RoLS: 2, ElyR: 1, RoL: 1, ChaR: 2, GoLF: 1, ShaF: 6, SRoV: 1, VSH: 6, WMC: 1, GoW: 1
HP: 241, AP: 3, AC: 562%, AD: 116-130, CM: 3.0, ECC: 38%, BC: 139%, DR: 3

QL 25, MF 3

12/26/18
Taledus
Posts: 239
Joined: Tue Aug 07, 2012 2:57 pm
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Re: Tablet GUI Feedback

Post by Taledus »

I'm running on a 9.7" fitted in a case with an attached keyboard...kinda like a mini laptop. I can run things in portrait mode, but things feel much better in landscape, so all my stuff is ran landscape.

The main issue I had was after dialog, hero menu, or quickslot icons I would have to reach across the view to hit the attack button on the combat menu because I'm right handed.

However, I wouldn't worry too much about an optional tablet GUI layout happening...I have been tweaking with the GUI through the source and not making any promising changes that work. If it ever did happen though, I would only see an alternative download being made available by someone who has Java experience and took the time to do this for all subsequent releases.
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fiernaq
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Re: Tablet GUI Feedback

Post by fiernaq »

You should be able to tap anywhere on the screen while you're in combat to attack again. The attack button itself is never actually necessary.

Oh, and Taledus, it's called a fork and assuming you can make it an option rather than a constant setting I'm sure Oskar would be willing to look into merging the branches back into each other.
Level: 58, HP: 102, AC: 295%, AD: 46-56, AP: 2/12, BC: 35%, DR: 4
Gold: 75235 | RoLS: 0 RoL: 0 SRoV: 0 VSH: 0
Skills: IF1, Ev1, Ev2, Ev3, CE1, CS1, CS2, Re1, WA1, HH1, Cl1, HH2, DaggerPro1, LightArmorPro1, ShieldPro1, WA2, Cl2
Equipment: Enhanced Combat Helmet, Serpent's Hauberk, Marrowtaint, Quickstrike Dagger, Remgard Shield, Villain's Ring, Villain's Ring, Leather Gloves Of Attack, Enhanced Combat Boots
Last Updated: 02-Dec-2013
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