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DevDiaries #36: new interface, part two
Indeed so! But the industry does not stand still, standards change, and, most importantly, in Soldiers: Arena, the pace of the game is a little faster. These means making the interface responsive and intuitive is the priority task. The old interface was occupying a good quarter of the entire screen and was doing this without days off and holidays. Most of the important buttons were in the lower left part of the command panel, which made you constantly distracted from the fight. And you had little possibilities to configure this panel. In addition, it even displayed impossible-to-use commands, which misled the newcomer and was simply inconvenient. In Soldiers: Arena the number of possible commands has become even bigger, as many new features have been added to the old functionality: entrenching, strengthening buildings, sending medics, suppressing fire, and active perks are on their way. With so many commands, it was impossible to make it work properly without the reworking the interface. We realized that the interface should be informative, intuitive and flexible. To ensure that a beginner won’t lose his mind with a staggering amount of information, and in addition we’re looking forward to enable the seasoned players to customize the interface for themselves so as to use all twenty fingers on their four hands. We have already achieved some successes in this field, but there is still a lot of work to be made.
Hotbar in Soldiers: Arena looks like this.
As you can see, only the available commands are highlighted. Unavailable at the moment are darkened. If we select another unit - hotbar will change and display other commands.
Now the hotbars are configured by types: infantry, tank, artillery. In the future, we plan to deepen this system so that each unit has its own hotbar and the player will only see the commands of the selected unit. So darkening is a temporary half-measure, but even with it you are not distracted by buttons that are inaccessible to use. While it is not entirely clear whether we will be able to do this until the start of the beta, but we are trying to do so. The possibilities for customizing the hotbar have also expanded significantly. Now you can add the commands you need from the extensive list shown below.
To call the quick access bar you need to press F button. This bar is divided into four groups. In the screenshot below, we see that a group with common commands is selected, which includes the commands of movement, shooting, inspection and so on.
A group with specific commands for vehicles / artillery, where you can choose the type of projectile, change the position from combat to marching, strengthen, etc.
Here is the group of system commands, where you can customize the displaying of other interface details: maps, battle statistics, highlighting units and so on.
As you can see some commands even have the “working” names :) And here is the group of commands for the infantry.
Hot keys are binded now, not on the functional F1-12, but the numbers 1-0. We try to make the interface intuitively understandable, and most of us still used to see hot keys binded to numbers. And F-keys are now occupied by commands for allies. Clicking them you can put a marker on the map and send a message to the chat with a call to action. So it became even easier to ask something. "Attack", "Intelligence is needed", "Urgent need of whining about health bars" - the choice of commands will satisfy up to the most refined tastes.
This does not cover all the interface, because there is also a start menu, a context menu, a development tree and the associated tool for creating an army and much more. And we will tell you about everything, but not this time. Bye!
[ 2017-04-06 18:00:01 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello friends. In today's diary, we will tell you a little about the section of user interface that helps you to control your units: hotbar and quick access bar. But remember, my friend, that everything shown on the screenshots is a working concept. To bring the interface to it’s fullest potential, we need all features to be implemented and this is possible only closer to the release. So, looking at the screenshots, remember what Confucius said at this point "If you hate an alpha-build, then you’re defeated by alpha-build”.
Why change? The old one was native and cozy!
Indeed so! But the industry does not stand still, standards change, and, most importantly, in Soldiers: Arena, the pace of the game is a little faster. These means making the interface responsive and intuitive is the priority task. The old interface was occupying a good quarter of the entire screen and was doing this without days off and holidays. Most of the important buttons were in the lower left part of the command panel, which made you constantly distracted from the fight. And you had little possibilities to configure this panel. In addition, it even displayed impossible-to-use commands, which misled the newcomer and was simply inconvenient. In Soldiers: Arena the number of possible commands has become even bigger, as many new features have been added to the old functionality: entrenching, strengthening buildings, sending medics, suppressing fire, and active perks are on their way. With so many commands, it was impossible to make it work properly without the reworking the interface. We realized that the interface should be informative, intuitive and flexible. To ensure that a beginner won’t lose his mind with a staggering amount of information, and in addition we’re looking forward to enable the seasoned players to customize the interface for themselves so as to use all twenty fingers on their four hands. We have already achieved some successes in this field, but there is still a lot of work to be made.
Easy to learn, comfy to dominate.
Hotbar in Soldiers: Arena looks like this.
As you can see, only the available commands are highlighted. Unavailable at the moment are darkened. If we select another unit - hotbar will change and display other commands.
Now the hotbars are configured by types: infantry, tank, artillery. In the future, we plan to deepen this system so that each unit has its own hotbar and the player will only see the commands of the selected unit. So darkening is a temporary half-measure, but even with it you are not distracted by buttons that are inaccessible to use. While it is not entirely clear whether we will be able to do this until the start of the beta, but we are trying to do so. The possibilities for customizing the hotbar have also expanded significantly. Now you can add the commands you need from the extensive list shown below.
To call the quick access bar you need to press F button. This bar is divided into four groups. In the screenshot below, we see that a group with common commands is selected, which includes the commands of movement, shooting, inspection and so on.
A group with specific commands for vehicles / artillery, where you can choose the type of projectile, change the position from combat to marching, strengthen, etc.
Here is the group of system commands, where you can customize the displaying of other interface details: maps, battle statistics, highlighting units and so on.
As you can see some commands even have the “working” names :) And here is the group of commands for the infantry.
Hot keys are binded now, not on the functional F1-12, but the numbers 1-0. We try to make the interface intuitively understandable, and most of us still used to see hot keys binded to numbers. And F-keys are now occupied by commands for allies. Clicking them you can put a marker on the map and send a message to the chat with a call to action. So it became even easier to ask something. "Attack", "Intelligence is needed", "Urgent need of whining about health bars" - the choice of commands will satisfy up to the most refined tastes.
This does not cover all the interface, because there is also a start menu, a context menu, a development tree and the associated tool for creating an army and much more. And we will tell you about everything, but not this time. Bye!
[ 2017-04-06 18:00:01 CET ] [ Original post ]
Soldiers: Arena
Best Way
Developer
Best Way Soft
Publisher
To be announced
Release
Game News Posts:
122
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
( reviews)
The Game includes VR Support
Soldiers: Arena will take you to the battlefields driven by the largest and bloodiest conflict of all time - World War II. This is the height of war, this is the time for real heroes.
Both new and already battle-proven multiplayer gamemodes to the original tactical gameplay are waiting for you. Interactive destructible environments and the ability to direct-control any combat unit. Steam support: matchmaking, workshop, steamcloud. Redesigned graphics, models and special effects. Conceptual new interface and convenient control, new battlefields and new opportunities.
Both new and already battle-proven multiplayer gamemodes to the original tactical gameplay are waiting for you. Interactive destructible environments and the ability to direct-control any combat unit. Steam support: matchmaking, workshop, steamcloud. Redesigned graphics, models and special effects. Conceptual new interface and convenient control, new battlefields and new opportunities.
Features:
- Revival of the “Men of War/Soldiers” game series. This multiplayer tactical RTS absorbed the best of the original series, favourite of players all over the world.
- Huge roster of units. Within a single game session, players will have access to a large number of unique units for every nation: tanks, vehicles, infantry and artillery of various types.
- The “Direct Control” mode. This mode provides the ability to play from the third person for any unit in the player’s army. The movement of the unit, firing the various guns, control of ammunition types, etc. all relying and directly controlled by player and thus the game conveys tactical action in it’s very essence.
- Destructible interactive environments. During the battle almost any object of the game can be destroyed or set on fire. Furthermore, all objects, including craters from explosions, may be used as cover.
- Atmosphere and realism. Even in large-scale game battles, it is necessary to take into account factors such as the supply of fuel and ammunition of each single unit. The precense of inventories for each unit limits the number and size of transported objects. Guns’ accuracy and penetration decreases with distance. Tired soldiers reduce the movement speed during long crossings. The influence of these and many other factors makes possible to reproduce the battles of World War II with a adequate degree of realism, most involving the player into the atmosphere of heated battles of the past.
- Modular realistic damage system. Any vehicle, regardless of its type, is composed of a set of modules that can be broken or destroyed. Types of ammunition, characteristics of guns, shooting distance, angle of armor, armor plate thickness and the threshold of material fatigue are taken into account, when calculating the piercing capability and damage caused to each of the component. Additionally, there are calculations of the probability of detonation of ammunition, engine fires, damage to wheels or tracks (which leads to immobilization of combat units). If a component is not destroyed, it can be repaired.
- Wide range of opportunities for infantry. Intelligence, combat, capture and repair of equipment, installation of anti-personnel and anti-tank obstacules of different types, construction of protective structures, health treatment, cover usage, ability to change through primary and secondary weapons, capture of buildings and territories.
- Great number of different types of weapons and ammunition. Pistols, submachine guns, machine guns, rifles and carbines, various types of grenades, dynamite, mines, knives and other items of equipment that are unique to each nation.
- Advanced Artificial Intelligence (Advanced AI). Infantry’s behaviour based on the feedback information from their own sensors (vision and acoustics), as well as allies’ signals. This allows the use of diversionary tactics, sending scouts into the enemy's rear, as well as to open the visibility with the help of special devices - observation towers, binoculars, telescopic tubes and sniper scopes. The morale of the infantry depends on the balance of forces on the battlefield - the soldiers may decide to advance or to withdraw from the fight.
- Conceptual new interface for convenient control.
- Enhanced game engine Gem2. Reworking of the game engine allows to provide a new level of graphics, the implementation of new and improvement already familiar to users game mechanics.
- OSX, Mac. Linux support.
- Full Steam support. Matchmaking, workshop, steamcloud, tradecards, achievments, steamstats, inventoryitems.
MINIMAL SETUP
- OS: Ubuntu 12.04
- Processor: 2 GHz Intel Dual CoreMemory: 4 GB RAM
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: 3D Hardware Accelerator Card Required - OpenGL 3.0 compatibleNetwork: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 5 GB available space
- OS: Ubuntu 15.04
- Processor: Intel Core i5-2.5GHzMemory: 8 GB RAM
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560 or AMD Radeon HD 7750 with 1 GB VRAM or betterNetwork: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 5 GB available space
GAMEBILLET
[ 6138 ]
GAMERSGATE
[ 3395 ]
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