In the "I don't see many problems with the UI, but that might just be because I've used it a lot" camp.
OTOH, I find Therapist's help invaluable, and would like a Therapist-like grid for various other management options where many items can be set on many items (goods vs stockpiles, dwarves vs burrows, etc), for the times when the
current situation forces a lot of in-and-out of the current "select one among many of one thing, then select what thing(s), among many, that particular sub-thing needs association with" situation. Exacerbated by the need (in the case of stockpiles, especially) to track down the physical location of every one, which could be awkward unless keeping a very organised fort layout at all times. (Or keep track of which item I last scrolled down to on the... erm.. "R"oom list, is it? ...without the game in front of me my muscle memory isn't too confident... anyway, that list of rooms/furnitures/zones/etc which you need to multi-scroll down each time you enter.)
But keyboard>>mouse, for me. With the exception of a few occasional designate-digging "painting" sessions, when it's about equal (slightly faster to click, but slowed down by the need to discover where I'd managed to nudge the mouse off my desk to...)
Militarily, while I like the current Uniform definition and assignation system, I'd also like something of a replica of the schedule copy/paste situation, for taking one trooper's kit and replicating onto another. Or even a single item-definition (fully qualified for material), so that copypasting the "leather cloak" can be done quicker than selecting cloak, then material for each item (or "cloak, cloak, cloak..." across a unit, then go in and 'Material'ise each generic cloak item across each
Adding one extra leather cape to each and every trooper (some of whom have just one, some might have a couple already, etc) could definitely benefit from this sort of improvement. (Or if the general make-up of each soldier's armour is identical, and the addition is the same additional item then I would be happy with using Uniform if there was an option in the Uniform designation to not touch (add/remove/change) the weapon-slot when applied. To stop me needing to update a half-dozen identical-save-for-weaponry uniforms and then apply them judiciously to the units/unit-members to which that weapon-type applies.)
Like I said, on the whole the UI and its keyboard-intense operation works for me. (It helps w.r.t. the input interface that I've been using computers (PCs and pre-PCs) for many years and I know the keyboard
better than the back of my hands. Indeed, while I can look downwards to examine both, I rarely do unless for some reason
O#br dp,rjpe djogyrf ,udr;g pmr lru pbt. eoyjpiy esyvjomh yjr dvtrrm.)
Where it
doesn't work so simply, I work around it (and/or suffer, normally in silence), knowing that the problems that I have are so
specific to the way that I play that I probably need to explain what I do/want the UI to do in long, rambling detail, and attach the half-dozen ways in which I might expect to gain a cure to my pains. Witness the above.
So, anyway, I'm definitely a fan of the UI (qualified by a few hesitant change-wishes).
@Boltgun: What I'd add to the Trading interface is a filtering system (similar to the "Move goods to trade" one) so that you don't have to do a lot of scrolling through (or, as is often easier, reverse-scroll warpping past the bottom of the list) to the anvils, and you can get to see every Leather bin without the cloth bins in the way and the sacks (optionally
just the ones that empty, or with seeds/dye etc) without having to scroll through the chests, etc. Or "all iron items"/"have 'iron' in the name", which could be bars, toys, weapons, various classes of armour, anvils, tools (and probably some other things), each sub-type which I can guess where in the list they are if aiming specifically for one of them, but if one is desperate to review
all iron items available it means a lot of scrolling and scanning to make sure none has been missed. Include item quality bracketing (similar to skill-level selection for workshop 'P'-management of who gets to work there) or value-ordering (like the Goods-move-to-trade selection has) and make sure that it works (independently) on each side of the trading floor (your stuff, their stuff... your side contains only masterwork bracelets[1], their side contains only non-empty cages, or whatever).
But I don't understand the inability to move items in bulk... Unless you mean something
other than the possibility of selecting multiple items (on either/both side of the screen) when composing your various swapsies. (For truncated names... tried "v", I think, on a selected item? You probably don't mean
that problem either, but FYI in case you've missed that anyway...)
[1] That's for
self-selection possibilities. If you've previously included no-quality earrings to the current bargaining round, before applying/changing the filter, or the traders up the ante by suggesting you add those stone mugs that you've been keeping in reserve then they could also feature (perhaps in a different text-colour). (I've long ago learnt that if I
really want to keep some trade-goods in reserve, then I should come out of the direct trading screen, into the goods-for-trade one and (temporarily, at least) deselect the things that you don't want the "Good start, but how about also..." discussion[2] to indiscriminately add... then (assuming you have
enough left in reserve to avoid the "You don't even have enough!" complaint) they'll pick up something else that you're keeping in (less of a) reserve, should your lack of bargaining skills require them to make such choices.
[2] The 'filtered+selected' display would also allow you to easily find the one masterwork marble amulet among many that they've tried to sneak into the bargaining... waiting for you to adjust accordingly.
Author
Topic: Dwarf Fortress' UI: I kinda like it? (Read 5116 times)