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[Draco18s]

I kind of hate waiting on new versions, though.  When the new version comes out, you're going to have to wait for the bugfixes for whatever new wacky crash will be put in with the new stuff.

I think that's why I didn't actually play the last version...

[SirHoneyBadger]

I gave up playing DF until we get a more stable version, and started writing fiction about it. I put that on hiatus in order to mod DF, that I might play it some more, and through that become inspired to write, but had to stop and learn how to mod, which will only be of benefit as far as the next version doesn't change all the rules. 

How's that for a tantrum spiral?

[Reganomics]

Okay, so I'm new and I thought dredging up an old thread as this seemed like the most appropriate place for my 2 cents instead of making a new thread.  IMO, the interface and the non intuitive nature of the controls is the only difficult part of learning the game.  Tonight I'm going to customize my hotkeys, but that will only help so much.  I really wish all the controls for movement and navigation were consistent with each other and the same with the contextual menus.  It's very nice to see what I can make at a glance on the smelting menus and some workshops but, again it's not consistent.  I don't mind checking the stocks but if I can get accurate info from one menu rather than 2 or 3 it would be super cool. I realize this and the ht issue are pretty hot-button issues and I get that but I think the difficulty of the game should be in design of our forts and accomplishing the goals that we set for ourselves, not fighting with the interace and digging through menu after menu.

[slowpokez]

I've been thinking about suggesting a way to use mouse instead of hotkeys but since everyone gets mad here when you bring up an already existing topic I decided to simply bump this one. Btw is something along these lines already planned?

[RAM]

The last that I heard there was already some mouse support. I have a preference for the keyboard in a lot of ways so any suggestions to replace keyboard commands will likely be considered detrimental by some, but if you have an idea for a mouse system that would work well, feel free to share it. Note that mouse interfaces tend to be more visual than the keyboard requires, so watch out for menus that obscure the screen and multiple windows that are arranged in a way that would be difficult to navigate by keyboard...

[slowpokez]

Well what i was personally thinking about was sort of a mix between the keyboard commands we have now and mousecontrols. The mouse would bacically be used to move around over the map (like WC3), scrolling through menus and raising and lowering a number(which we have the + and -key for now).The mousewheel would be used to scroll between z-levels. Well, while i'm still at it I might aswell add the ability to designate a digging over multiple z-levels(no more designating 140 stairs just to get to get ur magmaforge some fuel). 

[Silverionmox]

Well what i was personally thinking about was sort of a mix between the keyboard commands we have now and mousecontrols. The mouse would bacically be used to move around over the map (like WC3), scrolling through menus and raising and lowering a number(which we have the + and -key for now).The mousewheel would be used to scroll between z-levels. Well, while i'm still at it I might aswell add the ability to designate a digging over multiple z-levels(no more designating 140 stairs just to get to get ur magmaforge some fuel).

While mouse alternatives are always fine, some people will always prefer the precision of a keyboard. The best use for a mouse is to point to places on the screen that are not easily reachable in succession by straight lines, as the keyboard tends to do. Indicating zones/burrows/designating and the like in freeform rather than squares, for example. But we'll always need the keyboard for making exact designations.

[ayoriceball]

Well what i was personally thinking about was sort of a mix between the keyboard commands we have now and mousecontrols. The mouse would bacically be used to move around over the map (like WC3), scrolling through menus and raising and lowering a number(which we have the + and -key for now).The mousewheel would be used to scroll between z-levels. Well, while i'm still at it I might aswell add the ability to designate a digging over multiple z-levels(no more designating 140 stairs just to get to get ur magmaforge some fuel).

That sounds amazing.

[gislegron]

Interface despair.

As my older friend pointed out when i demonstrated df for him: "this is terrible, it reminds me of the first game i programmed, where i just set keys at random for testing purposes"

"uuuughh, there are different keys when you navigate submenues?!"

these are minor issues that a seasoned user does not notice, because we know the controls by heart, but now that i have noticed how arcane the interface really is i really want to do something about it, and i guess voting is all i can do.

Please toady, upen up for third party components, or do it yourself, somehow the interface must become less userhostile.

[Drago55577]

snippity snip


snips


snips and snails

its perfect.

[miauw62]

Your new interface doesnt fit into dwarf fortress alot...
Everything is ASCII and should stay ASCII, tough a reorganization would be nice.

[NW_Kohaku]

Your new interface doesnt fit into dwarf fortress alot...
Everything is ASCII and should stay ASCII, tough a reorganization would be nice.

Who are you talking to?  If it's Jiri, be aware that he made this argument 2 years ago.

And the game isn't in ASCII.  It's in graphics that, by default, use ASCII-like characters, and uses True Type, as well.

The menus that Jiri is talking about and displaying here are using True Type... which is already in the game.

[Beyondrepair]

Old threads & reiterating the already said ftw: My biggest beef is that interface elements that could be (and look) clickable aren't clickable. This unfortunately includes most things except a couple of corner cases. Considering how easy mouse support is to add (literally, you can add it to whatever base class you have for rectangular GUI elements in < 1 hour with SDL) it sort of irks me. Of course it's might be harder to do in a fully developed game at a late stage depending on how the GUI code is written, but even two-three days spent would be a small cost for this feature.

[Jiri Petru]

Mouse clicking at this point wouldn't really help. The menus are organised in such a way that mouse clicking is actually the difficult and complicated thing to do. I'm pretty sure everyone would still keep using the keyboard. The game needs to have all the menus and screens reorganised.

[NW_Kohaku]

Yes, I was honestly thinking of gearing up for a specifically "rearranging data in menus" thread, remembering this as a more dramatic change thread than it was...

I'm not sure if I should just start posting in this thread, or write a new thread, and have it linked, here.