This is the mail archive of the xconq7@sourceware.cygnus.com mailing list for the Xconq project.


Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]

Re: cNon-developer comments and reports on 7.2



   From: jan.javorsek@guest.arnes.si
   Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1998 13:09:11 +0200 (MET DST)

   doctrine comand - exits immediately

This will be fixed in 7.2.1.

   revolted city: I had a mess in wizard.g, where units in revolted city
   were still considered mine (and I had to destroy them attacking the
   city). It was very strange and, if in fact not a bug, should be noted
   like "Your (revolted) unit-type misses your 3rd knight." Other strange
   things were happening in wizard.g ...

I've experimented with wizard before, and tried to clean it up some,
but it's got a ways to go.  It's probably triggering some odd bug,
I'll take a look.

   * Errors

   copying command - did nothing

??? Perhaps you had the help window up, but behind other windows.
The copying command just switches to the GPL node in the help info.

   help and more... buttons on the left pannel get stuck (are not
   depressed when the help or option button is closed)

I'll take a look.

   embarking: a unit which lacks acp to embark reports "Nothing fort his
   unit to enter!" Perhaps a more helpul message (and a task put on the
   tasklist) would be more descriptive.

Yes, almost every command should result in a task, not an action, for
just the reason you mention.  This is a 7.3 kind of thing.

   production: in some games produciton can be started when the unit can
   not produce (like building a base insede a base in postmodern), and is
   then abandoned, loosing the turn for the unit. This is misleading, or
   I have been mislead.

Hmmm.  The construction should have been prevented in the first place,
but I'm probably missing another case.

   save games: I never managed to see a fileselector in any version of
   xconq. Is it actually possible to have it save the game with a
   different name? A simple command line option would be great. Also for
   (ver ynice) standing orders save file.

Yes, those would be good to add.  You get a choice of filenames on the
Mac version now...  This is one area where a tcl-based interface would
be an improvement over the current version...

   orders, units, side: Gerat and helpful commands, perhaps they should
   be made to a binding? A F key perhaps? It would be easier for players
   with not-so-huge X displays to have them share a single window (like
   gtk notebooks), but perhaps too tricky to implement.

I've been scribbling new interface layout ideas, I'll include the
suggestion in my thinking.

   unit list: (to the right): Could be compacted vertically (I do use 3d
   Athena, so perhaps my view is a bit distorted here) and color icons
   would be much more visible. The inverted icons are often difficult to
   tell apart. It would also be ideal place to show the "code-letter" of
   a unit, since quessing that is often difficult in new game libraries.
   I think this could *greatly* improve accessibility for new players,
   and we need new players. Those letters are just too hermetic without a
   visible clue.
 
I'm presently undecided as to whether to try to patch Athena widgets
into behaving, or to jump directly to tcl/tk and focus on getting it
right then.  You're right that the current list is too cryptic.

   unit status: production: On the task list, it would be nice to have
   estimated number of turns left next to a produciton statement since
   not always we have an actual unit there on which we could see that (in
   libraries that implement tooling up for constuction, for
   example). Also tooling up could be described there (in postmodern,
   "armor 0 of 99 x 13" could be replaced with "armor tech x 13"). Is there a
   way to see the technology a city possesses? Can it (GDL-wise) have
   more?

There are a couple wrinkles that make this hard to do right in general;
for instance, you can have two infantry building a base and complete it
in half the time (try it).

      secondary maps: Hardly useful without map close, but I suppose there
   must be a problem with implementation. In case it gets done, it would
   be great if one could have a map with no other windows in it (no
   panner, status, buttons etc), that one could resize to have a good
   overview.

Yes, for the next version it would be useful to toggle subwindows, not
just adjust the size.

   zoomed cell window: Often a user zooms in the map to see what is
   happening inside a cell and then zoom out to move the newly selected
   unit etc. A zoomed-in view of the current cell to the left of the
   unit-status window (above the buttons) would be really helpful,
   especially if units could be selected and moved there. Tricky, I
   suppose.

Not too tricky, just a matter of reserving space in the unit status
area.  I was considering just doing the unit, not trying to draw the
whole cell and contents.

   I never managed to use the config file facility or the join option
   successfully. Shuld read the doc, perhaps. Are these working?

I fixed two bugs this morning that caused bad problems for network
games, and that's without implementing the queue that's necessary
to handle large numbers of criss-crossing packets!  So that's still
in progress.

   Thank you for your attention, and please spend all your time on your
   lovely product :)

With encouragement like that, how can I do otherwise? :-)

							Stan




Index Nav: [Date Index] [Subject Index] [Author Index] [Thread Index]
Message Nav: [Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next]