New game uploaded: Traveller-Trader WIP

rje · Post by **rje** » Fri May 20, 2022 8:52 pm

UI REBUILD 01: SPLASH SCREEN

First is the splash screen. It is one of the most recent additions to the game, and I *think* it's okay borderless..... except for the menu, which I think needs a border, and also needs a one-key selection scheme.

RESULT: WOW... yes the one-key selector is WORTH IT.

But I have to ask myself: do I really need an experience level? I use it to gradually introduce game controls. But... is that really necessary? Does it actually make it easier to learn the game and the game controls?

I remember where this came from... it came from a guy's blog that I read a couple months ago. He said that graduating players from the basic controls into increasingly powerful controls can be like a rewards mechanism.

It's better, in other words, than an "Advanced Mode" switch, or piles of help screens (but nothing replaces good documentation).

So then, this initial menu is to allow veteran players access to more controls, while giving beginners an easier onramp.

I guess it's justified.

rje · Post by **rje** » Sat May 21, 2022 6:25 pm

UI REBUILD 02: ASTROGATION

This will be the fourth re-imagining of the astrogation interface. My assumption is that a player would enjoy moving a reticle on a small piece of the big map.

But, I'm not longer quite so convinced that it's a good idea. I also suspect it takes more main RAM than a list -- after all, there is placement code for the features of every system in the view. But I don't know if that's a major concern; I don't think it would make more than 1K difference.

Here's the current view. And here's what I am thinking:

If I keep this interactive map, then I need to center it, put a border around it, and find a reasonable way to represent the "metadata" on the left side.

Replace the map with a short but expandable selection list (per Tom's suggestion), and include the current + destination system details in this view.

I'm currently leaning towards #2.

rje · Post by **rje** » Sat May 21, 2022 6:30 pm

UI REBUILD 03: MAIN MENU

This screen suffers from not really being anything other than a dumping ground for actions. It currently holds details of the source and destination systems, but it's not really an appropriate place for these data. It IS convenient to know that a destination is set, but I don't know if the full details are important here.

Second, the current and destination worlds need to have borders, as does the alarm bar.

Third, like Tom's mockup, I'd like the game's name on the page -- maybe at the bottom.

rje · Post by **rje** » Sat May 21, 2022 6:32 pm

UI REBUILD 04: TRADE

The trade menu is still fairly primitive... it's not centered, and the colors are too dark. Also, if I'm using borders, I need borders.

I plan to use Tom's mockup as a guide for improving it.

rje · Post by **rje** » Sat May 21, 2022 6:34 pm

UI REBUILD 05: STARPORT

The starport is where you repair and upgrade your ship. This needs to be more engaging, centered, nicer... right now it is a mess.

I have no idea why I put the ship's data line at the top of the page, either. Most of that data has nothing to do with repair and upgrade.

rje · Post by **rje** » Sat May 21, 2022 6:46 pm

UI REBUILD 06: THE HIRING HALL

This bit works well, but has some problems.

If I'm moving to borders, it needs borders.

Needs a little prettying up. The colors are perhaps too muted. Maybe an icon would be nice here.

The menu doesn't work like the others. I either need to use the standard menu system, or else make this one look and act more like the others.

rje · Post by **rje** » Sat May 21, 2022 6:53 pm

UI REBUILD 07: SHIPYARD

This is where you trade for another ship. This used to be a flat list, but instead I went to a page-flipping scheme where you see ALL of the stats for each ship on the entire page. It's great for when you need detail -- and when you're ship shopping I figure you need detail.

HOWEVER... I started out with as much detail as I could fit into a 48 byte structure, in order to give me options. Now that I've filled up system RAM, I'm thinking there are some details which are not important. I'll have to think about that for a long time of course.

One major thought I've had lately is that I shouldn't list a ship unless I have an icon for it. This limits my number of ships down to maybe 19 ships... maybe two dozen if I get a couple more designs squeezed in. I currently have maybe 46 ships, and I think there's sufficient overlap still, so this is probably OK. I have over a hundred unique ship designs on hand, but their differences aren't necessarily large enough to be important.

rje · Post by **rje** » Sat May 21, 2022 6:56 pm

UI REBUILD 08: REFUEL

This is a late addition -- the ability to refuel from either the mainworld, or a local gas giant, or asteroid ice, or oort cloud ice. The latter two don't have "artwork" yet. The mainworld and gas giant are procedurally generated, and so are slow but not horribly so, and result in the same pattern given the same world data.

Again, this screen would benefit from borders.