Friday Facts #246 - The GUI update (Part 3)

[BHakluyt]

Hi Devs

The new GUI's seem more intuitive and thanks for fixing settings that didn't do much anymore. Part of the whole comb-over for final release I reckon.

I hope with the new GUI updates that you are considering simple icons and triggers to the HUD to display and toggle things like personal roboports in armor(on/off,) speedomoter for the vehicles (as well as enabling vehicle grids while you're at it please.)

Keep up the good work. If you add spidertron to the final game I will buy another copy...or 2.

[MeduSalem]

I like the new style...

With some minor nitpicking though...

P.S. "Play" button far too large in the final examples [...]

Exactly my thought.

ALL the buttons at the bottom should be the same size (width) for the sake of consistency... and when possible distributed horizontally symmetric.

I quite hate it when it's not like that.

[Durabys]

New resource system confirmed?

fff-246-mapgen-preview-02-tooltips.png

YAY!!!
They will be adding Angel's/Bob's Infinite Ores setting option!

[Cleany]

How you have maintained the same look, yet made it look fresh, professional and stylish is amazing.

I couldn't have imagined a better job. 11/10.

[Mango]

New resource system confirmed?

fff-246-mapgen-preview-02-tooltips.png

YAY!!!
They will be adding Angel's/Bob's Infinite Ores setting option!

I think this will never happen in vanilla.
Keep in mind that it's still work in progress.

[Kyralessa]

My wish for the new map generation GUI:

On the page for specifying ore, oil, etc., include an everything slider so I can move all the things at once instead of only one-by-one.

[nir.hershko]

"spritesheet", not "spreadsheet". I spent a long time reading this sentence until I figured this out.

;

"Everything inside the tabs is part of the preset." - it doesn't really look like it right now --
From the screenshot alone, it looks like the preset and the tabs are completely separate (there's a divider between them like the divider between the preset and the replay/seed.
Instead - what I think could help is to put the tabs in the same section as the preset selector, and even make the tabs box less wide than the preset selector.

;

When the "map exchange string" pop up is open, you mentioned "The pop-up can be closed just by clicking outside".
If that is so - all the "outside" area behind the popup should be darkened to indicate that clicking there would close it
(and the same click should not both close that pop up *and* click another control).

[CodeZ]

But little I knew, that this is actually specific to windows, and on Linux or macOS, the order is reversed:

Actually, in Linux the button order is one or another. Gnome (/Gtk) apps use the "macOS" way to put "OK" as last, "next/continue" button, but KDE/Plasma (/Qt) apps use the natural order and puts "OK" first. And both toolkits (Gtk, Qt, and actually, others) can be used on same desktop making this thing confusing. For example using (old) Firefox and Chromium simultaneously: on other the save and cancel buttons in save-dialog are ordered in one way, and reversed in the other. So which side am I clicking this time..? Seems this forum post form has its submit on right, but those buttons are kind of in order of progression. And Google decided to change the preferred order of dialog buttons somewhere around Android 4.x...
If there is additionally an Apply-button... well, that goes somewhere (middle or right, maybe left?). Reset-button?

[mexmer]

while new ui is nice (except some quirks, that have been already pointed out), there is one thing that irks me, and that's changing size of buttons.

buttons should be SAME and CONSISTENT accross application.

of course they should scale if UI scales.
Increasing width or height of window to fit more stuff is not scaling, so resizing doesnt' make sense in such situation.
also autosizing buttons just to "fill space" is bad design choice in general.

[alefu]

I'm calling it now: With the new GUI tileset, nobody will know if a value can be changed because the button and editable field look exactly the same. Notice the seed field for example, it looks exactly the same as the other buttons, making me wonder if it's a button, or a text field.

Yes, that is the main thing I don't like about that UI, that the input fields are elevated like buttons and don't look like input fields at all.

[Amarula]

I have a request -- currently the Map Exchange string is copy-able to the clipboard. Could you make it so that we can save it to a preset of our own? (So that it appears in the drop down menu). With very few exceptions, I always generate maps with the exact same settings, and it would be soooooo handy not to have to click the sliders/drop downs every time, or find the Map Exchange String and manually paste it in.

It would be great to be able to give a custom name to this new preset, (and of course have an option for deleting them).

Oh yes please, I also use the same map settings for nearly all my games!

[ske]

Looooooongbutton is long!

[RobertTerwilliger]

New GUI even WIP is so cool, that after it'll come to us, trying old one will give eye cancer (never really noticed how does GUI need an upgrade)))

Though, I have a suggestion about map preview "spoiling exploration":
How about changing window so you don't instantly see current seed (input bar empty and inactive), and preview has a tooltip kinda "this is what you world MAY be" and after hitting "start game", new random seed is generated, and exploration adventures are guaranteed : )
But if you *do* want exactly the map you see, or use someone else's seed - add a switch "random map"/"fixed seed" - selecting seed option will make seed input bar active and show the seed of current (previewed) map, allowing you to input/reroll seed.

Because

My hope is that the majority of players will open the preview, play with the settings, then close the preview and re-roll the seed before pressing play.

simply won't work due to it isn't intuitive enough.

[bobingabout]

I didn't actually read anything, I mostly just looked at the pictures, but I like the whole "Prevous on the bottom left, next on the bottom right" layout. I mean, I complained REALLY hard when Fur Affinity reversed this and put next on the left, and previous on the right, after being the other way around for a decade.

I understand that it's the other way around in windows, okay on the left, but, that's not important when you spread em like that, and I've seen it in a fair few games. Startrek online is my most recent example, create a charactor? previous on bottom left, next on bottom right, all the current buttons in the bottom middle.

Also, MacOS has a very good reason for following the Linux system, they're both based on some version of Unix. I think Linux is a conjoin of Linus' Unix. Which basically means iOS on phones is also based on Unix, and Android is too. Windows isn't.


My point: I like this direction.

[TigBits]

I think there needs to be some way of identifying the starting area in the preview image. Either mark it on the map with a border or optionally restrict the preview to only show the starting area.

[Omnifarious]

How about changing window so you don't instantly see current seed (input bar empty and inactive), and preview has a tooltip kinda "this is what you world MAY be" and after hitting "start game", new random seed is generated, and exploration adventures are guaranteed : )

But if you *do* want exactly the map you see, or use someone else's seed - add a switch "random map"/"fixed seed" - selecting seed option will make seed input bar active and show the seed of current (previewed) map, allowing you to input/reroll seed.

I really like this.

Though I still think there is a lot of value in being able to see the closest iron, stone, coal, water, copper, and maybe oil deposits. A random map generator is always going to generate some maps that are simply really terrible and not very fun to play at the beginning. But that doesn't mean I want to see where every biter nest is within a few chunks of my starting location.

And you should also know exactly which part of the preview is your starting location regardless of how much of it you see.

[HalfPastZulu]

WoW ! That new UI is looking sexy !

[ThorsDragon]

The new GUI's are SO SHINY!!!!!!

[Albert]

I'm calling it now: With the new GUI tileset, nobody will know if a value can be changed because the button and editable field look exactly the same. Notice the seed field for example, it looks exactly the same as the other buttons, making me wonder if it's a button, or a text field.

Yes, that is the main thing I don't like about that UI, that the input fields are elevated like buttons and don't look like input fields at all.

Need to clarify that the text boxes are not elevated, they don't look like a button, they are inset and really look like a text box. (look map size as an example)
What it's elevated is what I call editable display (fancy, I know).

This editable display is an object that shows a number which is the value of an external factor, like a slider or the result of a random button, or anything that gives a number as result. But not the player writing directly numbers in a text box. And the player can modify it in order to be more precise. This is why I found interesting the "buttonish" solution, it's just an invitation to interaction, but not a must.

I think quite a lot on the ethics of the GUI, and I personally find unethical when the player writes something in a text box, and this something gets changed by an external factor without advice. Here is where we need to distinguish in between both situations. Static or dynamic.
I'm aware that nothing happens if a text box change dynamically. But it takes more meaning this way.

I hope this twisted explanation helps to understand a bit better.
Another thing is if you like the actual solution or not. that's totally respectable.

[AcolyteOfRocket]

A couple of GUI requests :-

1. When previewing generated worlds, the last generated settings should be saved - having to re-input all the terrain and resource settings just to change one item is really annoying - also provide a reset-to-default button for the rare time I actually want that to happen.

2. I would like to be able to check what map settings I used after the game has started, using a menu - right now the only way I know is to make a mapgen string and input it into the map generator - sucky.

Cheers