What follows are my suggestions pertaining to the user interface - both the strategic and combat screens. I'll keep this updated as I add (or remove) other items. Here we go! Strategic / Planetary UI Need to have a button to display a list of already constructed buildings on a planet. Maybe hovering over the slots icon? Would be good to have a list of empire-wide bonuses, particularly for things you get outside of the tech tree Add zoom-in and panning on the strategic map would be good. Practical reason is zooming in when complex movement paths are overlapping to figure out what is going on. See other posts on the topic as well. Colony management - clicking on the leader name or where it says "no leader" should allow you to pick one to assign right from there. UI pop-up (system view) for selecting a target to attack (outpost or planet invasion) is clunky. Moreover, if you miss click and/or close the screen you can't go back to it and issue the intended invade order as it's permanently closed. These combat prompts for target selection should be pop-up items so the player can see them and choose which to resolve. Maybe even systems with conflicts should get a red disk underneath them. This screen is also confusing because they pop up and you can't see on the map where it's occurring. Would like to see a smaller or different way to handle the system view. Maybe it can be a smaller line of planets in a panel at the bottom of the screen with the ability to toggle on/off additional planet details? Likewise, some consistency in where fleet panel pops up would be cleaner, rather than a floating menu window that can obscure information. Again, having a zoom-able interface would let players focus their target in the center of screen and free up space on the edge for a consistent panel for selected stuff (planets, fleets, etc). Regarding the planet list on the left hand of the screen - it would be great if it could be made a little more functional. Would be great to click on a production wheel icon and get a pop-out panel to readjust the sliders right there without having to go into the main management screen (for example). The graphic style for the map overlays (territory, radar, range) should be handled differently for clarity. Suggest using territory as a solid fill color, maximum fuel range as a dashed heavy line (no fill), and radar coverage as a different color dashed line. Combat UI UI needs to remember the overlay toggle status (e.g. Show movement paths, show ranges). Really irritating having to turn those on each time! Would be great for ranges to show each weapon as a colored line at its max range so you can see all weapons at once when deciding where to move. Infinite range weapons (missiles) ignore? That's all for now!
Bumpity bump? qu'est-ce que c'est? I like the sound of that...as well as some of the suggestions you propose This in particular would be more in tune to my own style and preferences
This too is something I want to say a few words on. The current system view is perhaps my least favorite "style" on how it can be depicted. I would prefer something like this but inclined so I am not looking straight down on it One problem though with ISG is the amount of information present at the system view, it is quite a lot so I can see where this might not be practical
I can see why ISG went with the listing approach. As pointed out a lot of details is given at that level. Important details too that you use to decide what world to colonize. I think they tried to avoid the need to go into a deeper layer (like a planet view) or use pop-ups to get that information.
I would generally plead for a UI that has in mind the color blind people. Also, icons that are almost the same should be replaced by something.. more obvious, better so see at a glimpse. So for instance this here could be seen easier when the tent is only shown when it is able to be colonized. There is not need for an X when it is not colonizable, so let the tent away at all. For myself, it is hard to differ between the cross (X) and the green check mark, bcause i can not see the difference in color (too small) and the X and the checkmark only differ in some pixels at the bottom. So first is as it is, the second as it could be: It would even look better without a green checkmark (I had not time to do this). and I agree with all of what Mezmorki said. The planets as they are, look nice. I do not need any more immersion, because it happens in my head. if the solar systems are presented like konstantine showed, I would ask for more: for moving planets. wel... MOO2 did this already.. ;-)
I think that there needs to be a way to sort the type of information quickly to prevent an information overload.
