For the life of me, I cannot determine how Warzone sorts the maps in Map Selection Screen. And once you get a few pages of maps downloaded to your maps folder, it can become quite the task to find one of them. Also longer names get truncated.
So let's look at the Map Selection screen here.
Here are some ideas that I [EDIT: and others] have come up with:
Make the Map Selection Screen a whole screen unto itself, exactly like how the Limits screen is a whole screen unto itself. This will give more screen real estate to displaying map names, and other map-related information.
With the increased real-estate make each rectangle space longer. Then, maps with longer names have a better chance for the whole name to be seen. This would help when there are maps with more than one version and the names are only differentiated by one or two characters, which are usually at the very tail end of the map name and just out of view on the current Map Selection Screen.
Sort the #$%^& maps alphabetically by name for crying out loud! I would also suggest that the sort order should not be case sensitive.
Can we drop the SK- prefix from all the map names? Seriously, if every map name starts with "Sk-", then there are exactly zero reasons to display those characters.
Implement a Favorite Maps page, where the user can pin his or her favorite maps. Perhaps in the proposed full-console Map Selection Screen, each map could have a check box that enables pinning the map to the Favorite Maps page. Favorite Maps would appear both in the alphabetically sorted main map list, as well as in the Favorite Maps page.
[EDIT 1]
And also, git rid of the redundant little people icons under each map name! If the user must click a 2P, 4P, or 8P button to get to a list of maps, then the little people under each map name are needlessly taking up screen real estate and are cluttering up the interface. [/EDIT 1]
[EDIT 2]
Similar to not displaying the "Sk-" map name prefixes. Also truncate the "-T1", "-T2", and "-T3" suffixes. The user has to click a T1, T2, or T3 button to get to a list of such maps, so these characters are also redundant. [/EDIT 2]
[EDIT 3]
This one is loosely related to the map selection screen. When the user hosts a multiplayer game and chooses a map, that map becomes the default map when the user next hosts a subsequent multiplayer game. However, this helpful behavior does not apply to skirmish games, where Sk-Rush is always the default map. The behavior should be consistent for both skirmish and multiplayer. [/EDIT 3]
[EDIT 4]
In addition to a 2P, 4P, 8P, and Favorite Maps button, add Frequently Played Maps Button. Instead of the user pinning maps here, maps would bubble up to the top of the list, the most frequently played listed first. I would further suggest that this button could have a double-headed arrow icon pointing up and down. The first Click would display the most frequently played maps first, the second click would list the least played maps first. Or just make them two buttons; one a thumbs up and one a thumbs down. [/EDIT 4]
[EDIT 5]
Add a Recently Played Maps button, perhaps with a clock icon. This would be very useful when the user joins a multiplayer game with some new unknown map and then forgets what the map was named when trying to find it later. The list would only display maps that have actually been played, and go from the most recently played, backward in time. [/EDIT 5]
[EDIT 6]
This one may be a little challenging. Add a means for the user to delete a map from from within the Map Selection Screen of the game console. This would mean deleting the corresponding .wz file from whatever folder it is stored in. Perhaps maps, packaged in the Warzone installer should not be permitted to be deleted. Perhaps deletion should have a confirmation process which shows the Map Preview for the map to be deleted, then then user must confirm the deletion. It can get quite cumbersome with many pages of maps to find and delete those you really are not interested in keeping. [/EDIT 6]
That's all I can think of right now. What do others think about such ideas?
Last edited by KenAlcock on 28 Jun 2010, 01:57, edited 9 times in total.
Looks good from a user's perspective. I agree on all points. Good idea KenAlcock
I especially liked
KenAlcock wrote:e. Implement a Favorite Maps page, where the user can pin his or her favorite maps. Perhaps in the proposed full-console Map Selection Screen, each map could have a check box that enables pinning the map to the Favorite Maps page. Favorite Maps would appear both in the alphabetically sort main map list, as well as in the Favorite Maps page.
"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret."
-- Ambrose Bierce
Sorry, I don't have a scanner where I'm at. But to visualize, just look at the Limits screen image I posted above and pretend each row is one map name. The page buttons would go across the top. The Favorite Maps page could be a page button set all the way in the upper right corner (where the other maps pages start in the upper left as in the Limits Screen).
KenAlcock wrote:And also, git rid of the redundant little people icons under each map name! If the user must click a 2P, 4P, or 8P button to get to a list of maps, then the little people under each map name are needlessly taking up screen real estate and are cluttering up the interface.
Yes, They can be a little distracting and make it harder to see the more important details, like the name of the map. Although some people may argue that it's a quick way of making sure they selected the right map. However, you do seem to make a valid point.
"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret."
-- Ambrose Bierce
KenAlcock wrote:And also, git rid of the redundant little people icons under each map name! If the user must click a 2P, 4P, or 8P button to get to a list of maps, then the little people under each map name are needlessly taking up screen real estate and are cluttering up the interface.
How would a player know which maps are 2P,4P and 8P when browsing all the maps without the filtering?
"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret."
-- Ambrose Bierce
That link is the point in the Warzone2100 code where WZ2100 actually begins running, see if you can trace how the menu works. I've been trying to figure out the code, it's fun, you should try it.
"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret."
-- Ambrose Bierce
lol. I know absolutely nothing about the main function. You really don't need to trace everything from there to the UI drawing code, y'know. Start taking a look at multiint.c - that's where you probably want to start for changing the map selection screen.
Oh, and I completely forgot to add my single largest pet peeve. When you host a multiplayer game and choose a map, that map is saved and will be the default map the next time you host a multiplayer game. But the same behavior does not apply to skirmish games, which is quite annoying. I'll add this to the list up top as well.
KenAlcock wrote:
[*] This one is loosely related to the map selection screen. When the user hosts a multiplayer game and chooses a map, that map becomes the default map when the user next hosts a subsequent multiplayer game. However, this helpful behavior does not apply to skirmish games, where Sk-Rush is always the default map. The behavior should be consistent for both skirmish and multiplayer.
How about a Most Recently Played Maps list? Like how some programs have got most recent opened files in the menu...
"Speak when you are angry and you will make the best speech you will ever regret."
-- Ambrose Bierce
thanks 