Re: Terrain info

[Andrej Krivulčík <krivulcik@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 12 Jul 2005 18:38:07 +0200, Jens Granseuer <jensgr@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> On 12.07.2005 12:13, Marko Skofljanec wrote:
> > > * using the cursor image is probably not a good ide since it suggests
> > >   it's clickable in some way
> >
> > The cursor is still there, but should be replaced with a red dot.
>
> We use the dot for inaccessible terrain now.

And I think that it's good (i.e. shouldn't be changed).


> > > * the connecting part looks a bit odd, but we may need a properly
> > >   gifted person to fix that ;-)
> >
> > There's no need to extend the dialog.
> >
> > Attack and defence modifiers are shown next to the attack strengths and
> > defence value.
>
> That starts to look very crowded as sson as you come to long-ranged
> units. Artillery will give you something like "25 (2-6) +10%"...
> And since the modifiers are actually properties of the terrain, not
> the unit, I think that's where they should be, anyway.

It's not wrong IMHO, as the attack strength of the unit is still 25, but  
it's just raised by 10% (well, it is because the unit is standing on a  
particular tile, but it is changed and looking for terrain modifiers in  
another window would mean another trouble for the player).


> > > * the "terrain panel" only contains the "major" terrain types.
> > >   What do we do if the unit is on different terrain?
> >
> > How many terrain types (classes) do exist?
> > Do they differ in apperance or in attributes (movement cost) ?
>
> Currently there are 13 terrain classes (could be up to 32), but that
> number isn't important. The terrain class does not affect the numbers
> (movement or combat) in any way, and tiles of the same class can
> have hugely varying properties, so for this purpose it's best to
> think of hundreds (possibly thousands) of entirely different terrain
> types.

I was another one that thought that all the terrain falls into the 7  
categories shown in the unit info dialog :-/ (just realizing that movement  
on the road costs less than on the plains should suggest this to me...).


> > > * one question this solution still doesn't answer is "Can this
> > >   unit walk on that hex?" unless the hex is one of the major types
> > >   or the unit is already standing on it.
> >
> > A simple way is to draw a red bar over the tile (=impassable).
>
> You misunderstood me here. The question is: If I have a unit
> selected and bring up the terrain info dialog, what does it show?
> Suppose you have a tank and some infantry. You want to know
> whether the infantry can cross the hex the tank occupies. How do
> you do that? A right-click on the tank will get you the tank
> stats. We could say if another unit is selected we display the
> stats for that unit, but that'd be pretty ugly IMO.

The same idea came also to my mind and I find it quite useful. If you  
select an infantry and right-click on an empty tile, we should display  
unit info for the infantry as if it was standing on the clicked tile. If  
you right-click on a unit (be it friend or foe) with infantry selected, we  
should also display this information (just as if the infantry would be on  
the another unit's place).

If you right-click an empty terrain without any unit selected, we could  
use the unit info dialog just the way Marko proposed (the "unit name"  
should be "Terrain" or something general, unless we want all the terrain  
names (there is quite a lot of them but shouldn't be that hard to do it)).

Another way of displaying movement cost (not combat modifiers) would be  
displaying it directly in the map while selecting movement. When you click  
on a destination hex, the movement cost for the hex (or all the hexes  
along the way) would be shown. Quick and informative.

Andrej