Softles Appreciation Thread + Suggestions

[Heaven]

Hello Softles,

softlesappreciationthread.png (16.6 KiB) Viewed 7565 times

Since you asked for suggestions for FAF in #aelous, I would like to request a fix of the control group related stuff. THQ apparently didn't bother to properly implement control groups since they thought nobody would use them anyways when there is strategic zoom around. This is bullshit since despite strategic zoom, functional control groups would still be welcome. A control group consists of units that were grouped via CTRL+1/CTRL+2/CTRL+3... and can be selected via 1/2/3... There are two problems with control groups right now:

(1) When you double-tap a number to quick-select and center a control group on the strategic view, the camera zoom level is affected. This is extremely annoying because the new zoom after the selection is way too close to properly give orders. The necessity to zoom out first defeats the purpose of QUICK-selection. This is why I propose a change that lets the zoom level of the camera stay constant. Hitting a number key twice still centers the units on the screen, but only if the zoom level can stay unaffected. If the player is too zoomed out so that centering the units would conflict with the world border, the units are not centered on the screen.

Purpose: Other RTS and RTT games use control groups to increase players' APM. Thereby, the double-tap camera shift is an important feature. However, the double-tap mechanic clashes with strategic zoom in FA. The only way to make control group commands work properly in FA is changing their implementation so that the strategic zoom is not negatively affected.

(2) Assigning a control group to one or multiple factories automatically assigns the same control group to every unit that is newly produced by the factory(s). Units should not "inherit" the control group of their mother factory. Instead, the control group should select the factory(s) only.

Purpose: Quickly reacting to changes on the battlefield that require new unit compositions and re-routing the factory's rally point is possible with factory control groups in other games. FA would benefit from this option, too.

Please give it a thought!

@all: please post your suggestions for Softles in here

[Blodir]

I wholeheartedly agree with the control group suggestions


tho I made thread for softles suggestions when he asked for it in aeolus: http://forums.faforever.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=12565 I guess nobody looks at contributors forum xD

[Lieutenant Lich]

Excellent idea. I thought to mention it myself - this thing is especially annoying if you have -1 in game speed (blame laptops).

[mirroredwang]

i think you have to press shift or something to only select factories/units

[Softly]

Unfortunately this seems like a subjective UI thing, and so isn't something I would feel comfortable "fixing" until I'd done some kind of survey to gauge public opinion.

In the meantime Heaven, I made a UI mod you might like:

Control Group Zoom Mod.zip

(1.83 KiB) Downloaded 590 times

Just put that in your mods folder, I hope it is enough to make up for my unsatisfactory answer.

[Blodir]

Unfortunately this seems like a subjective UI thing, and so isn't something I would feel comfortable "fixing" until I'd done some kind of survey to gauge public opinion.

In the meantime Heaven, I made a UI mod you might like:

Control Group Zoom Mod.zip

Just put that in your mods folder, I hope it is enough to make up for my unsatisfactory answer.

Amazing, thank you!

[biass]

I would love #2 to be done, i feel this is a glaring issue in the UI way of thinking to players who have played other RTS with hotkeys.

(2) Assigning a control group to one or multiple factories automatically assigns the same control group to every unit that is newly produced by the factory(s). Units should not "inherit" the control group of their mother factory. Instead, the control group should select the factory(s) only.

[Zock]

Suggestions? We can start with this, and if that's not enough there is plenty more.

Improve formation move, so units don’t walk back to meet with late units, increase the speed of units in formation move if somehow possible
Increase transport beam range for better loading process.
Make better eco income panel: Split it into mass and energy from buildings and units/reclaim/teammates/total instead of just toal like now.
Add more sound notifications
Add better default-hotkeys (hotbuild and others as default)
Allow third bind on normal keys (qwerty) if no factory/builder is selected with hotbuild
Fix zooming height when double pressing control groups
Fix insta-zoom key not working while shift is pressed (needs to be able to be assigned twice, once with and once without shift like with others)
Minimap should be on top of other UI elements
show a grid where it is possible to build/drop ( in circle of X distance around mouse pointer)
Improve hotstats (allow zooming/set shown times, maybe more stats, maybe remove some useless stats or improve UI)
Improve transport loading process for big armies
Add some order to load units in transports from factory, without unloading them after
show more infos for observer
Improve and include netlag mod
improve SCU rebuild function so it works on assist ground and you don't have to assist all the buildings
make wreckages hit shields and not go through them
transfer half built missiles when silo is given to ally

Or do you prefer client suggestions?

[Softly]

I aim to meet a few suggestions each week, and since my knowledge of the game code is limited it may be more efficient to get me to do client tasks.

However, if what people want is game fixes then that's where I will spend my time.

I checked out your list Zock, and there's a bunch of stuff that would come under subjective UI things, something that I don't have the authority to decide on. However, I did make a UI especially for you:

Control Group Zoom Mod.zip

(1.96 KiB) Downloaded 312 times

Fix zooming height when double pressing control groups

Glad I could help!

[jackherer]

I have one more suggestions, could you fix the sword bug?