The User Interface thread

[Safe-Keeper]

Post your ideas for the User Interface here.

I think, first of all, that the G.U.I. should have some more information readily available so that you do not need to, say, ask for weather reports when you need them. I've got some examples here:

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/6607/conceptualpn5.th.jpg (http://img64.imageshack.us/my.php?image=conceptualpn5.jpg)
1. A window that you can pull up by hot-key and have it display various information, such as objectives, radio log, etc.

2. Current weather, with fog level, cloud cover, and so on.

3. Masts, how far they are raised.

4. Various warnings, inspired by those on the targetting reticule in the X-Wing series. These lights could light up when, say, you've got enemies firing at you, tracking you, searching for you, etc., or when you're on a collision course or in shallow waters.

And, of course, it'd be great to have various pull-out charts, gauges, etc. like in the various super-mods.

[Dantenoc]

I'd have to disagree... shure, you need to have acces to information in order for the game to be playable, but I wish that they woud develope the 3D world of the inside of the sub more instead of coming up with alternate GUIs.

Let me explain what I mean: You should be the captain, and you shouldn't have to do every single little thing for yourself... rather, you should WALK AROUND INSIDE your sub talking to various sailors and/or officers and telling them what to do. A myriad of keyboard-shortcut commands should also let you "shout" orders (or have them relayed by others) so that you don't actually have to be right next to the sailor in question for you to order him to do something. Furthermore, your officers and sailors should audibly report to you on EVERYTHING that you need to know in order to command the sub. Also, an option of clicking on a sailor or officer to have him "step away and let you do things hands-on" would be nice, specially for stuff like Sonar, Radar, Damage Control, Standing watch, and such.

That to me would give the ultimate "you're right there inside the sub" experience, and not some abstract GUI interface, which, allthough very convenient and practical (and easy to program) it only serves to remind you that your just playing a game.

To further clarify mi point, let me just say this last thing: I play SHIII almost completely in Nav-map view, with the periscope or bridge view only used for firing torpedoes after all the real work of setting up the attack has been allready done. On the other hand, "Control room" view is the least used of all views, basically because there is no real incentive to use it... This totaly kills any sense of immersion for me, and seriously, I want to play differentely, but right now, game play issues and the way the game is built FORCE me to play this way.... please Ubi, fix this :yep:

[Payoff]

I hope they will complete an in game voice command, such as Sub Command had. It would be so much easier to say "make your course 127", instead of clicking on a tiny little compass rose.

[Patboot]

Dantenoc, you would be burned at the stake by the "100% real" crowd.

I got a chuckle by the "weapon officer assist is immoral" gang.

Aside from that, I agree 100%- the captain gives orders and directions, he's not telling S1C Jones that it's naptime- the watch officer has that duty, actually I think the Chief of the watch controls rosters, yes?

[Dantenoc]

Dantenoc, you would be burned at the stake by the "100% real" crowd.

But I DO play at 100% setting, no nav-map auto update. Nonetheless, things like radio contact reports come up on the nav-map ONLY and that forces you to keep your eyes glued to it at all times. When during an attack run, maneuvering for a perfect 90degree position to the enemy's track, I also find the nav-map the most usefull way to navigate (even without the nav-map auto update), because in the command room there is no way of giving any precise commands like "turn to heading 175" or something like that :-?. Let me repeat again, I find it as a complete flaw in the game design that radio contact reports don't show up on the incoming radio messages screen and aren't in any way reported to you by anyone... the game doesn't even have the courtesy of automaticaly droping out of high TC, forcing you to diligently watch the nav map ready to snap back the TC to normal at any instant.

On the other hand, allthough I like it very much that the sub has all these working dials and gauges, I find them to be not very useful because you can't really walk up to them to get a closer look... heck, most of the time they're totatly obscured by the crew :down: (of course I know about the free-cam mode, but in order to use it to have to be punished by a lower "realism" setting, degrading your renown).

To round up on my idea: I wish I could play differently, spending all my time in the command room, periscope or even the captain's bed, but the game FORCES me to play in the nav-map most of the time because of the way the interfaces are built

[Onkel Neal]

This may not exactly be interface, but I want my XO to audibly call out "Captain to the control room" whenever anything drops the game out of time compression. I like to read while I play, when the sub is crusing at 256x... ;)

[cmdrk]

Same for me Neal, don't read but work on my laptop.
BTW Like your sig.

[Onkel Neal]

Thanks! That's an official SH4 sig :)

[CCIP]

Agreed! And even if not practically useful, that'd be a great detail to immersion!

(in fact I sorely miss a lot of sounds in SHIII that were even MADE by the devs, but weren't written into the code and are thus just left in the sound folder - e.g. coughing, "we're all gonna die", etc.)

There is one thing that the interface needs most, and one that I hope it's getting along with new crew management - so-called macros. I think we need to be able to set our sub to run certain actions autonomously - say, dive/surface every x hours, radar scans, radio messages, go to course while zig-zagging, and so on. SHIII did get a 'default action for detecting merchant/warship/plane', but I think SHIV should develop certain auto-responses beyond that. My logic is that if SH is to be a captain simulator rather than a sub simulator per se, then please let us feel more like the captain and have an intelligent crew that knows what and when we want, without needing constant reminders :yep:

[Safe-Keeper]

(in fact I sorely miss a lot of sounds in SHIII that were even MADE by the devs, but weren't written into the code and are thus just left in the sound folder - e.g. coughing, "we're all gonna die", etc.)Sounds do a huge deal for immersion. Just watch that panic scene in Das Boot (as if there's anyone here who hasn't:p) after the boat is hit by an airplane in the Strait of Gibraltar. Imagine that scene without the screaming of the wounded officer, the order to prepare to abandon ship, the cries for a medic, the instructions of the medic to his "assistant", the orders to dive (and then not to dive), and so on. Those two minutes were easily the best of the entire movie.

This may not exactly be interface, but I want my XO to audibly call out "Captain to the control room" whenever anything drops the game out of time compression. I like to read while I play, when the sub is crusing at 256x... ;)Actually a very good idea.

Thre more things:

A. If Silent Hunter IV could be as nice as allowing me to run at 1024+ time compression in 3D views the way certain mods do, it'd be nice if I had the option to see a transparent map as an overlay, just to be able to see where I was without having to hit F5.

B. All shells, torpedoes, rockets, and bombs shown on the map, or at least on the attack map, on lower difficulty levels. If you've played Ground Control, you know how awesome it looks to have a big firefight and all these little dots flying around on the map (yes, I know it sounds weird, but it's incredible, trust you me). The same with impacts, detonations, etc.

C. If you could click on wreck icons to get information on them (ship type, time and date sunk, and so on) the way you can click on regular ships, that'd be awesome.

There is one thing that the interface needs most, and one that I hope it's getting along with new crew management - so-called macros.Oh yes. In games with them, I don't know what I'd do without them. They're downright incredible. That, and the ability to "program" buttons and put them in your interface.

That, and the ability to click-and-drag your interface items to where you want them (a bit akin to how you can click-and-drag things like the stop-watch in Grey Wolves).