Badly needed interface tweaks

**CynicalMagician** · November 28, 2006, 03:31 PM

I love M2TW but what really irks me is some of the interface stuff that either hasn't been changed since RTW or has actually been made worse. Examples:

*The faction ranking charts with the graphs. Why is there only one point every 6 or 8 turns? There should be one point for every turn on each of those graphs. I want to see exactly how individual actions affect my score and standing. Look at Civ 4, they did a good job of this.

*On the campaign map there should be a variety of hotkeys that highlight certain things on the map, such as: trade resources, AI agents, and your own agents. In any high traffic part of the map you end up with 8 billion agents running around that make it impossible to find the ones that belong to you. Finding trade resources is near impossible as well, since most have tiny inconspicuous graphics.

*The lists scroll for agents: Great feature, poor implementation. I want to have separate tabs for spies, diplomats, assassins. I want to be able to sort by general region, not just specific province. Why does the scroll close itself or reorder itself whenever you use an agent instead of just moving them? You should be able to keep this window open and just move down the list of agents, issuing orders. Instead you have to open and re-sort the list 5 or 6 times a turn by midgame to get through all your agents. Also, why did they remove the movement bar from the list scroll that showed remaining moves? That was really handy in RTW.

*Zone of control is a great idea and the rules about it are fine. However, it pisses me off to no end when I move units into fog of war and they get caught on armies I can't see. Why don't they just stop 1 square away from the ZoC and allow you to issue new orders?

*After a battle when I'm deciding whether to release or execute I want to be able to see my general's stats, specifically his chivalry/dread stat. I hate it when I execute with my highly chivalrous crusader or release with my merciless king because I can't tell who won the battle.

*On the battle map general units should show their name and traits instead of just saying 'general's bodyguard'. Not knowing who's who when you have 4 family members fighting is frustrating.

None of these things are big deals in and of themselves, but come on. The total war games have been around for 6 years. The interface should be bulletproof by now since so few of the fundamentals have actually changed.

**dearmad** · November 28, 2006, 05:11 PM

all old things I would love to see fixed too.

Although i give credit to CA for this: the responsiveness of the game (how the mouse moves and buttons click) has been increased dramatically from RTW and I LIKE that a lot. It feels more like I'm conencting with the controls now rather than manipulating them thruogh a fog.

**VaultDweller** · November 28, 2006, 05:26 PM

In battle, when resizing formations, I'd love to be able to have them resized from the middle of the formation. To clarify that, I mean when I click and drag the mouse on a move order, I wish it was possible to have the units spread out an even distance on both sides of the starting mouse location, rather than just between the starting and final position.

My main beef, though, is the difficulty in keeping track of which agents and armies have and haven't moved so far in a given turn. Civ IV had a very simple and effective solution to this: you could cycle through every unit that hasn't been given an order yet in the current turn (excluding units that have been told to go to "sleep" and remain idle in their current position until reactivated).

**Furin** · November 28, 2006, 07:30 PM

Originally Posted by VaultDweller

In battle, when resizing formations, I'd love to be able to have them resized from the middle of the formation. To clarify that, I mean when I click and drag the mouse on a move order, I wish it was possible to have the units spread out an even distance on both sides of the starting mouse location, rather than just between the starting and final position.

This is a point of personal preference. I for example like it the way it is, some people might like it from right to left (maybe lefthanders?) It would make sense to make this selectable or changeable somehow but without being too pessimistic here, I doubt we will ever see that. Better to have all the other bugs and flaws ironed out first.

**VaultDweller** · November 28, 2006, 09:20 PM

Originally Posted by Furin

This is a point of personal preference. I for example like it the way it is, some people might like it from right to left (maybe lefthanders?) It would make sense to make this selectable or changeable somehow but without being too pessimistic here, I doubt we will ever see that. Better to have all the other bugs and flaws ironed out first.

I am well aware that it is a matter of personal preference, what else would it be? I'm not suggesting forcing players to manage units as such, I'm suggesting that it be possible to do so, on those occasions where the current method requires you to pause the game and give the move order half a dozen times to get the layout you want.

**DarkKnight** · November 28, 2006, 09:32 PM

Originally Posted by VaultDweller

I am well aware that it is a matter of personal preference, what else would it be? I'm not suggesting forcing players to manage units as such, I'm suggesting that it be possible to do so, on those occasions where the current method requires you to pause the game and give the move order half a dozen times to get the layout you want.

I have to agree with Furin. Some people may like a method that is completely different from the current one and the one you want. It is just pointless to cater to something of personal preference like this. All it requires is getting used to. You don't have to pause the game and give half a dozen orders to get a proper layout. You just need to play the game for a bit and adjust to the system. There is nothing bugged or anything like that about the system either (except for when you hold down spacebar the shadows don't always appear, and when they do they often flash on and off).

For example, I hated RTW and never played it again after one campaign, and broke out MTW again. In MTW a left click gives movement and attack orders. A right click rotates the camera or brings up a menu when you right click a unit. I found it hard when I started playing MTW2 to give orders because I would always left click the map. After awhile of playing if I went back to MTW I would probably have a problem of right clicking instead of left clicking. It is all a matter of adjusting. Give it time and you will be able to set up your formations under the given system.

**Mellons** · November 28, 2006, 06:56 PM

another one are the retinues. Now that you cant transfer all of them they should have thought how to identify which ones to can trade to different characters. Like maybe a green outline for ones that you can trade and red outline for one that are stuck with the character. But nooooo you have to try each one and move generals together to find out.

**ENSAIS** · November 28, 2006, 07:03 PM

Great thread. I'd like to see all this modable stuff in one mega list so that somebody ambitious like Lusted or LT can get it going! And hopefully Icetorque is already working on a MM style map for M2TW...

....which would be really cool....

**Kontos** · November 28, 2006, 08:11 PM

When you get the faction news at the start/end of a turn, when they say "Joe Blow" has been effected ( died, plagued etc ), it would be nice to have his title (job description) included in the message.
eg. Assassin Joe Blow, or Spy Joe Blow etc.
Surley that can't be too hard to implement.

**Cadmium77** · November 28, 2006, 08:39 PM

PCs just about came into existence for financial spreadsheets. Why can't we have a proper financial spreadsheet for TW?

The financial report as is...enh...

**mercja** · November 28, 2006, 09:30 PM

I totally agree with not being able to find where your characters are on the map, its annoying when you pass by 4 turns and do not notice that your merchant's trade income has been on a severe decrease.

**Metellus** · November 29, 2006, 04:27 AM

PCs just about came into existence for financial spreadsheets. Why can't we have a proper financial spreadsheet for TW?

The financial report as is...enh...

Yeah I have difficulty making heads or tails of it. My financial report for my previous turn isn't much help, and then when I click on the pot 'o gold I get an estimated profit which doesn't even produce the stated amount at the beginning of the next turn, 'cos its factoring in stuff I don't know about, or factoring in what I bought the previous round... on the whole, confusing!