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XCOMUFO & Xenocide

Accounts


Guest Jim69

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Hey

 

Here's the 1st draft of an Accounts window, this would be accessed from the main menu. Anything more need adding? Also, I don't have the list box .psd so I just did a placeholder ( I think it is a placeholder newayz coz the engine inserts the box ). Here y'a

Edited by Jim69
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Could work, I was just followin the current plan. Maybe this way will be better as u can change it if u want, maybe with different game directories 4 each user name?
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Now that I like: different save games for different accounts. Nothing bugs me more than games that just throw all save games in a pile and let you sort them out (ok, games that do that and don't even let you give your saves a name yourself bug me even more :rolleyes: )

 

Back on topic: I don't know what options you had in mind for that, but some that definitely should be included:

create account (possibly even with password, I wouldn't use it but maybe some would :unsure: )

use existing account

delete account

 

I just mention them as I don't see 'em in your pic, don't know if you intended that.

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I got the idea from CM4. The way they do it is 2 merge the use existing account and create a new 1 into 1 box. What happens is that u enter the name of an account. Some code looks 2 see if there is already an account by that name and loads 1 if there is. If not it creates a new 1. U r right about the password and delete options tho, I will add them. The box should probably start blank then, with the drop down box blank if there are no options.

 

Edit: This better?

post-42-1062863538_thumb.jpg

Edited by Jim69
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I think that they should not be popups. They should be build in windows, with will "roll" in when selected.

 

1) From the start, all buttons are darkened, exept Accounts.

2) When you press accounts, your window will come in from the left, with the selection rollout (from under the bar), make accounts button, delete account (a drop down from the top), and cancel.

3) When you press Make account, a new box will come in from the right, with the options name, password (optional though, a popup will come with password for [name] when you select it under the left one. rendering everything else darkened during this), ok and cancel.

4)When you select New game, it goes into the difficulty selection.

5) Load brings you into the load game selection.

5) Option brings you to (you guessed right), the options menu.

 

thats it.

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how about having the accounts selection replace the menu on the main screen and add a back button. putting that menu dead center makes it looks squished in.

 

another option would be making it wider horizontally to better fit in the space.

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I was planning 2 have it wider, and the reason I didn't do a whole screen menu is that it is a terrible wastse of space, with the other menu's there are other things that can be added but with this the options that will be there will be there 4 v1.0. Is it just me who thinks that a whole screen for 4-5 options is a waste of space?
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Here are my comments:

1) Start Screen must have an account name displayed. If you just started a game for a first time, you will be immediately brought to new account creation screen/dialog.

2) Keep in mind that "language selection" control must express the same purpose in many languages. Display a globe or flags or something...

3) I don't see a way to type my account name in.

 

Here are some WC3 screenshots to give you an idea...

 

 

 

P.S. Is my writing that horrible? Oh, well, I have done that page on my laps. ^_^

post-42-1062875659_thumb.jpg

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I'd prefer the WC3 styling to the footy manager screen as its very easy to navigate. The footy manager screen looks crowded (excuse the pun) and its becasue of that noisy picture that distracts from the simplicity of the menu system.

 

Concentrate on what we need for our game and use that. Mamutas has that pdf which has whats needed. Its not a difficult task to move items around using my source images that I posted.

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It isn't overcrowded, I don't think the designers of one of the best selling games of all time are wrong somehow. The point of posting it is that we need 2 drop down boxes and 2 buttons, simplicity is better IMO.

 

Edit:

 

The thing is that u r reading so much into UI design and what u think u know that u r blinding urself 2 what the actual user finds convinent. I personally know 15+ peeps who have never had a computer, never played a PC game b4 and yet they find it very easy 2 navigate thru the windows in CM4. THe point I am making is this, the Championship Manager series is one of the most popular with fans of all experience levels in PC gaming and they have no problem with the interface, so I don't know how u can tell me that it is too cluttered, they have had over 10 years experience in this game alone, and considering they have brought 1 out every year there is no comparitive game.

 

That said I will take into account the WCIII interface and come up with something easy 2 navigate.

Edited by Jim69
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It isn't overcrowded, I don't think the designers of one of the best selling games of all time are wrong somehow. The point of posting it is that we need 2 drop down boxes and 2 buttons, simplicity is better IMO.

I think you misunderstood Jim and I realise that you love your footy but just because its a best seller doesn't make it a good design.

 

What I was referring to was the pic in the background with all those kids, makes the menu look noisy. If there were less going on in the pic in the bg it would look much much better. Because there are lots of people in the picture and the human eye is subconciously drawn to human features your eyes are all over the place, making the pic a bad design choice. If there were just the goalie it'd be a much better design descision as the goalie face is right where the menu is drawing your attention to where you need to be concentrating.

 

You're right simplicity is good.

Edited by Deimos
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OK, slight misunderstanding then, I wasn't suggestin the BG should look like that, it wouldn't fit in with what has already been done. I was suggesting the layout of the btns.

 

Edit: THo I gotta say that the pics have never got on my nerves and I have played this game 4 more than 100 hours.

Edited by Jim69
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OK, slight misunderstanding then, I wasn't suggestin the BG should look like that, it wouldn't fit in with what has already been done. I was suggesting the layout of the btns.

Heh, it would confuse things a little to have a footie pic on the front menu ;)

 

The actual layout is nice, if you can adjust and replace the style with our buttonset and make it fit in with the ui it might work well.

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1 question: Would this info be available 4 viewing on the Net? Coz if it is then maybe a little more info would be appropriate, E-mail address, real name, DOB and what country u from might be appropriate. I know the btn's ave at the mo been set out just an idea 4 when the multiplayer is actually implemented as 2 set peeps apart from each other.
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OK, I've redone it. I know the second side hasn't been agreed upon, I added it like that so it is easily removed ( either permanantly or till after v1.0 ).

 

Edit: I know some of the text isn't lined up very well, not really a prob tho since there are bound 2 be alterations needed b4 it is finished so I'll leave it till then methinks.

 

Edit2: Also know the flag looks a little too bright and outplaced slightly, will alter that also.

post-42-1062961906_thumb.jpg

Edited by Jim69
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Here is how it should be shown ingame IMO. I also think the options menu ingame should be done like this, see what u think:

 

Edit: Do peeps think I should make all the btns, text boxes and list boxes a little transparent as 2 keep the look from other screens? Or is it better this way?

post-42-1062962080_thumb.jpg

Edited by Jim69
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How many flags are we going to have? English English, U.S. English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean... That is a lot right there.

Other than that, you may want to consider making the location menu one where you type in your location, unless we want to write up a large number of countries...

 

Excluding what I said above, this is a good menu.

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How many flags are we going to have? English English, U.S. English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean... That is a lot right there.

Other than that, you may want to consider making the location menu one where you type in your location, unless we want to write up a large number of countries...

 

Excluding what I said above, this is a good menu.

Why is there a need 4 US English? The only flags I thought were needed were English, German and French, maybe a few more considering whatever other languages we port this 2. Unless of cause ur objection is 2 having the English flag on the English language...

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Remember that the cross of St. George is not the union jack. It's the symbol for the english and not the flag of england as a nation as we know it today. I have no personal problem with using the Cross of St. George as a sign for english. Canadian english is different from US english and so is Australian english and South African english. I see no reason to differentiate between any particular dialect as long as we stay away from using regional idioms.
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It isn't overcrowded, I don't think the designers of one of the best selling games of all time are wrong somehow. The point of posting it is that we need 2 drop down boxes and 2 buttons, simplicity is better IMO.

I think you misunderstood Jim and I realise that you love your footy but just because its a best seller doesn't make it a good design.

Just to add something, Micro$oft's Word is a best seller too... However the UI had problems whereever you take a look... Misplaced options, overcrowding of icon buttons, and lots of other known problems... The actual users had adapted to it, however the point is that the GUI must adapt to the user, not the other way arround

 

By the way, Jim any optional (unrelated, better read useless) information request only clutters the design (not to mention code)... So I would advice to remove that data, in the game you saw I think that you will have lots of text or something like that autocompletes using your name, it is not the case of Xenocide...

 

About the flags, try to avoid using flags for idioms cause for instance Argentinian Spanish is way different to Spain's Spanish. So just put Spanish (or castellano) is enough and do not add arguments of what kind of regional language you are using (if I would do the translation I would use Argentinian Spanish, and that is not ok if you put an spanish flag, do you understand what you mean?).

 

Greetings

Red Knight

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Yeah, I know what u r sayin, 4 the first point I was simply adding the info in case it would be needed/wanted in the case of multiplayer games so that there is a little more info available about the player. The flags I included because of a request, basically so that if u r in the wrong langauge and don't know which 1 is English then u will know by the flag. Sayin that it is still hit and miss 2 find which 1 has the flag, so I'll remove it.
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You live in argentina rk? That is cool.

 

At any rate, I was just saying that having different flags for each different language would get tedious, and some people, for the reasons that RK suggested, would not like to not see just a genral spanish flag for espanol, etc.

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Jim,

 

Please try to read my writing and take a look at that directory structure doc.

We will not hardcode any languages, but we will pick up their names from the contents of language subdirectories. It could be translated to Clingon as far as I care.

 

I like flag idea, but in that case flag image must be provided by translator.

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Sorry I don't understand, insomnia is a c*** :) R u sayin that the languages would be in a mod type folder, simular 2 how Rogue Spear works, in that the code will find the names of all the folders and add them as the languages? If that is the case then the flag issue shouldn't be a problem, but it doesn't seem 2 go down 2 well at the mo. IMO the flag is a representation as 2 where the language is born, in this case England, so I don't see the trouble. It doesn't particualy bother me when there is an American flag next 2 Englsih in nearly every installer with different languages ( OK, maybe a little :D) but it may be different with others.

 

Edit: I read it, seems 2 confirm what I thought. Am I missing something tho, I don't see how this effects me particualy?

 

Edit2: Unless u r talking about the English_US part. Is it really necessary 2 port 2 both UK english and US english? They aren't that different, only a few spelling, I thought a while back it was decided that it would be international Enlgish rather than the US version.

Edited by Jim69
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I think RK's (I think) suggestion regarding the flag is best. I like having the little graphic there, but it should be left to the translator as to what graphic is used for each language. But if we're starting with "english", then who's flag gets used? I think each person would want their own country's flag where applicable. Perhaps using the UN emblem for english can table this point until after v1?

 

As to the menu sitting over a noisy background, I agree with Deimos that CM4 menu is distracting, but I think it's an opacity issue mostly. Notice that the WC3 menu also has a busy background, but the menus are much more opaque to make them stand out. Also the use of bevels (doh!) makes the WC3 menu stand out more as well, and fits with that game's design.

 

Personally I'd pass on having player info that won't be relevant ot the game. The only place I see the flag being used is when you are looking at a list of profiles to load. Next to each name would be the flag they chose. So why not just have a list of flags that are not linked to any particular language? When you type in your name, you pick what language you want to play with, and then pick a flag that you like as extra eye candy. If I like the german flag but want the game in english, I get both that way. If I want to add my own flag or other graphic I can toss the file into the relevant folder as a mod, and then pick it from the list in the game. How does that sound for now?

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Absolutly fine with me, the idea of the flag was really only 2 show which language is what so u don't get stuck in the wrong language without knowing which 1 is English :whatwhat:

 

Then I realised that the flag wouldn't change until u already selected the option which negates the need 4 the flag :hammer:

 

Also, I guess that if we ever do need the space 4 more advanced account info it could be in another screen, I was thinking of other games I played ( I think Starcraft had this type, dunno bout WCIII since I ain't managed 2 get on Battle.net yet since my graphics card is on a bender or summint and refuses 2 play games properly :o )

 

I have 2 more options that *may* be useful. An option 2 activate mods in ( ala Rogue Spear ) and a password box. Should space be left 4 these in case they are ever implemented? They seem sensible but may not make it into V1.0 so maybe just a space 4 them 2 be put in l8r?

 

Edit: And I only just got the lid on the bevel can of worms, u really want me 2 open them all over again :D

Edited by Jim69
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We never know what happens after V1, so I would not think about leaving any place for the future. Dialog like that will not be hard to reimplement, it would be much harder to fit the data he gathers into the gameplay, so redesigning of UI is not an issue.

 

My suggestion is to drop the right part of optional info completely.

 

As for language list, you will never know what languages be there, so having hardcoded flags is not an option. We may ask translators to provide flags with their translation and display those, otherwise UN flag will do in all other cases.

 

As for English and English_US. I have done lots of work in the internationalization area. I know how people are picky about spelling and using correct words. Being a programmer, I am not willing to limit the game to use only one variation of English, while we will support infinite number of languages. Here is a good example: two Chinese languages - Traditional (used on the mainland) and Simplified (used in Taiwan) - looks and feels absolutely different. So, if we are goint to support Chinese, then which one should we pick? Correct. Both. Again, even Japanese language has 2 alphabets (if not more), so there could be people willing to play in one or another.

 

Here is my suggestion:

post-42-1063044031_thumb.jpg

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My suggestion is support the International English ( Sorry u American guys but it is what is spoke as a second language in all former British colonies ) French, German and Spanish. And leave it very open if that is possible to add more languages in a new folder and it will be available in the drop down menu. The way u ave it setup Mamutus ( yeah I read ur file :happybanana: ) it should be simple 2 setup since we are adding moddablilty into the game. This allows for updates 2 include every language under the sun, everyone is happy :) Do peeps think I should ditch the flag idea? Seems 2 be a bit controversial, I don't see why but I'm biased coz my flag will be there anyway :LOL:

 

Edit: BTW, ur take on it seems a little clearer, I spose the WCIII is more suited 2 this game than the CM4 one.

Edited by Jim69
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Oh no we're not opening the which version of English we should use again are we? I thought it was all settled. We're using American English for the purposes of V1.0

 

Oh Jim, Ditch the flag. It'll cause complaints when we havn't got one that someone wants (thinks about FE and shudders ;))

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what do you mean by supporting those languages, Jim? do you say that we will guarantee the code will be working with them? are you going to look that it is followed?

 

i suggest, that we implement support for addition of any language after game release. the code will be structured to dynamically detect what languages are installed (assuming that translations followed certain rules).

 

as for the flag, i wanted to be a graphic indicator understood in all languages, which would point player to the control allowing him to change UI language. it does not necessary to be a flag, i don't care.

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Just 2 clarify, what I meant 4 languages is this: By default the game would support no languages. Code on startup would search 4 the languages folder, then 4 the subfolders inside. The sub folder is the languages name. INside that folder is a config file with the language settings in it so that the language is selected. It then adds all folders that are there.

 

 

So by doing this it makes it instantly moddable into any language, gibberish, Jamacian, Latin, Gallic, doesn't matter. See what I mean?

 

Well, if we do have a flag it would ave 2 be in the drop down list next 2 the names of the countries as opposed 2 where I ave em. THen we back 2 the problem of peeps being offended ( tho I really don't understand why ).

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Just 2 clarify, what I meant 4 languages is this: By default the game would support no languages. Code on startup would search 4 the languages folder, then 4 the subfolders inside. The sub folder is the languages name. INside that folder is a config file with the language settings in it so that the language is selected. It then adds all folders that are there.

That is exactly my plan, except that there will be a default language (English???).

 

However, that would not affect the account screen, but only how we would load resources (other discussion will be started soon on that).

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Oh yeah, sorry if that was in the wrong place it just seemed like the way u had set it up was perfect 4 that system.

 

I'll have a proper update 2morrow, this is just an idea of the layout at the mo there's still a few things need adjusting.

 

Edit: Oh yeah, what do peeps think about having the background grey out when u select menus like this, the options menu etc. Does it help bring the menu into the forground, or just get on peep nerves?

post-42-1063071665_thumb.jpg

Edited by Jim69
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We do not need cancel button for sure - all other dialogs uses a cross in top right corner for that purpose.

 

Also, with only one accept button, it could be confusing what do we accept - an existing account or a newly created one.

Also, having a label above the action button is something I did not see before. That was confusing. I am talking about delete controls here.

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I think the delete account is supposed to be a button labeled delete account. I think having a button on the left side labeled create account would be needed as well. Perhaps the cancel button could be relabeled 'back', assuming this dialog is always accessed from the main menu/opening screen. Clicking the X in the upper right would also take you back. Rather than an OK/accept label, I suggest using 'load account' instead, so the user knows what it's for like Mamutas said.

 

Perhaps this dialog could just be 1 column rather than 2? You could have the text box for a new account at the top, the 'create account' button next, followed by the list of existing accounts. Then have the load account, delete account, and cancel buttons in that order. The delete button would prompt with a 'are you sure' alert if clicked, so that should be OK to have them near each other IMO.

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If we are going to have a Back button, then we should not need to have that cross in top right corner.

In addition, all other dialogs must be updated to include Back button for consistency sake. So far, I did not see any designs with Back buttons, so I am voting against it. More than that, player will always be able to press Esc key.

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That's a good point, I doubt there are many players who wouldn't know what to do with the X button at top.
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