A couple of suggestions to improve the GUI. Let me know what you think.

1. Player Skill

Currently the Player shows the players' board ranking. I often go and check out the players' global ranking because the board ranking is not really meaningful unless the player has played a lot of games on this particular board. And I want to know who I am up against.

It would be more convenient if that information was directly accessible, in a column right next to the board ranking.

2. Card Scale

On boards which have an alternating card scale (e.g. 4, 6, 8, 10, 4, 6, ...) it is really important to know the current set value. 

It would be more convenient if this information were displayed next to the cards button and not hidden behind it. At least the current and the next set value should be displayed.

3. Add Visual Indicators for Key Rules

I find myself often calling up the rules overlay to double check on the rules. If you play 40 games at the same time and 5 on the same board with different rules it's easy to forget the particular rule set for each game. By the way, those overlays are fantastic! It's very convenient. However, there are a few rules that are more crucial for gameplay than others and at the same time more frequently adjusted by board designers. These include:

1. Return to Place/Attack/Fortify
2. Abandon territories
3. Abandoned territories revert to neutral
4. Fortification type
5. Team unit placement
6. Team unit transfer
7. Capture cards
8. Elimination bonus

So I wonder if this information can be included in the game toolbar without cluttering the interface. A good example of how something similar has been done is the number of attacks/fortifies, which is displayed in parentheses in the turn-phase section. One glance tells you if you have unlimited attacks, and if not, how many you have. Another good example is the Options column in the games list view, which displays the games' options using easy to understand symbols. 

I am thinking a combination of these two methods could be applied to the above mentioned rules:

• (1) Could be displayed using tiny little arrows inside the turn-phase buttons. A right pointing arrow on the left of the button is the standard. A left pointing arrow on the right of the button says you can go back.
• (2) and (3) could be combined into one icon: The icon is grey if abandonment is not allowed, and has one of three colors depending on the mode of abandonment.
• The same for (4). Although a grey icon would only appear if the number of fortifies is set to zero.
• (5) and (6) could also be combined because they both concern teamplay, but here a simple color coding wouldn't work because the options are not mutually exclusive. Here we could use an icon that is split in two. If it's all grey both options are disabled, if one side is colored the corresponding option is enabled and if both sides are colored both options are enabled.
• The same for (7) and (8). Here it would be great if the value of the elimination bonus were included.

In total we'd need a little adjustment to the phase buttons and only 4 icons to display all the relevant information (unless I've missed another important rule) in the toolbar. I don't think that would clutter things up horribly and the upside is you'd have all gameplay-relevant rules right there at one glance.

I assume this is the flash player?  Native player has a nice list of upcoming card values.

Good suggestions.  I use the native player 90%+ of the time now, so I'd love to see these changes there too.  Also on mouse over, you should get some popup text telling you the relevant rules.

Ozyman wrote:

I assume this is the flash player?  Native player has a nice list of upcoming card values.

Good suggestions.  I use the native player 90%+ of the time now, so I'd love to see these changes there too.  Also on mouse over, you should get some popup text telling you the relevant rules.

Actually I was referring to the native player. I don't think it displays the card values until you click on the cards button.

I've never used the flash player. I am not a big fan of flash. Do people still use it? The native player feels so much sleeker.

poq wrote:

I've never used the flash player. ..... The native player feels so much sleeker.

> Actually I was referring to the native player. I don't think it displays the card values until you click on the cards button.

You are right.  My mistake.

I prefer the native player also.  It's much faster for me.

Ozyman wrote:

> Actually I was referring to the native player. I don't think it displays the card values until you click on the cards button.

You are right.  My mistake.

 

I prefer the native player also.  It's much faster for me.

Do you guys find that the native player *correctly* shows the upcoming card value?  If so are you generally launching the player each time you check your game?

It generally does not for me, perhaps because I leave the player open all the time (in a tab) for each of my active games.  I have to open the game info page to see the next set value.

it doesn't update in the middle of a game. needs a page refresh to be current.

Another idea: Turn Numbers

http://www.wargear.net/forum/showthread/2903plast/Turn_Numbers