<URL: http://bugs.freeciv.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=40742 >
In these days of widescreen displays, we need to be more conservative in the
use of vertical room, and we can compensate by being more generous wih the
horizontal space.
=================================================
At the far right (right of both the main area and the bottom area), you
could have
a place where one or more panels could be docked, with adjustable width
and/or
scroll bars. This would be a great place to put the panels with long &
narrow
contents (Units & Economy). Also, Chat & Messages could go there
(with word wrap, & horizontal light-grey divider lines between mesages).
Demographics, Historian's Report, & Traveler's Reports could go there if you
made it wide enough.
You could have the whole sidebar taken up by one tall panel, or by
two panels (top & bottom), or by multple panels stacked as tabs.
=================================================
Default layouts offered or suggested could include
"Normal/CRT" (aka Traditional layout)
"Widescreen"
"Widescreen with Right Sidebar"
The right sidebar and bottom area should be toggled on/off
when more space is needed.
Individual panels should have a choice of locations at startup, in the
save-able options,
and in-game:
main area (where View, Cities, etc., are now)
bottom area (where Messages, Demographics, etc., are
now)
right sidebar (if multiple panels are here, make them
tabs)
right sidebar - top (if multiple panels are here, make them
tabs)
right sidebar - bottom (if multiple panels are here, make them tabs)
For example, all of these tabs except View could go at the bottom,
making better use of that space.
Or, all these tabs could go at top (where View, Cities, etc., are now),
allowing the View to use the full screen height.
If the Cities panel were not in the main area, then you could
have the view automatically centered on the selected city,
or have that city flash on screen.
If the Units panel were not in the main area, all of the units of the
selected type (or cities containing one) could flash or be highlighted.
If the Economy panel were not in the main area, all of the cities
containing that improvement could flash or be highlighted.
=================================================
The Research window is too long & narrow, especially with the
Researching & Tech Goal taking up vast space across the top.
The Research panel could be made much smaller by separating it
from the Tech Tree panel. The new Research panel should always
appear with the Tech Tree, but there are many times when I don't need
the whole Tech Tree, just the basic info. In fact the Tech Tree could be
toggled on/off from the Research panel.
The new smaller Research panel could be placed in the right sidebar,
bottom area, or even below the Turn Done & current unit info
(with the adjustments below):
Below the Turn Done button, we don't need to use so much space
to provide info about the currently active unit. For one thing, put the
unit's icon directly below the unit type (left of Moves & the terrrain
type it is on).
While we are in the Research tab (or any tab except the View tab),
we can get by with less info about the currently active unit,
and skip the icons of other units at the same location.
With those changes, we could then move the drop boxes for Researching & Goal
to below the Turn Done button & current unit info. Also the turns/advance,
bulbs/turn,
progress bar, # of steps, # of bulbs, & # of turns can all go there.
In fact, the progress bar could be the BACKGROUND for Researching,
and the # of steps/bulbs/turns could be included on the dropboxes like
below.
____________
| Turn Done |
---------------------
Settlers
<settler Moves: 0
icon> Plains
Bristol
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Progress Rate: |
|
3 turns/advance (28/bulbs/turn) | <box> Help |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Researching
|
Iron Working (51/80 bulbs 2 turns) |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal
Genetic Engineering (8 steps, 1513 bulbs, 55 turns) |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to keep the Tech Tree & Research panel together, you could just
make the strip across the top narrower, like below
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Researching
| Goal
|
Progress Rate:
| |
Iron Working (51/80 bulbs 2 turns) |
Genetic Engineering (8 steps, 1513 bulbs, 55 turns) | 3
turns/advance (28/bulbs/turn) | <checkbox> Help |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------
You could also use the wasted space on the Menu bar (the right 2/3 or 3/5 of
it)
=================================================
The Reports (Demographics, Traveler's, & Historian's) should have the
year of the report at the beginning of the tab Title, since they are
snapshots.
In these days of widescreen displays, we need to be more conservative in the
use of vertical room, and we can compensate by being more generous wih the
horizontal space.
=================================================
At the far right (right of both the main area and the bottom area), you could have
a place where one or more panels could be docked, with adjustable width and/or
scroll bars. This would be a great place to put the panels with long & narrow
contents (Units & Economy). Also, Chat & Messages could go there
(with word wrap, & horizontal light-grey divider lines between mesages).
Demographics, Historian's Report, & Traveler's Reports could go there if you
made it wide enough.
You could have the whole sidebar taken up by one tall panel, or by
two panels (top & bottom), or by multple panels stacked as tabs.
=================================================
Default layouts offered or suggested could include
"Normal/CRT" (aka Traditional layout)
"Widescreen"
"Widescreen with Right Sidebar"
The right sidebar and bottom area should be toggled on/off
when more space is needed.
Individual panels should have a choice of locations at startup, in the save-able options,
and in-game:
main area (where View, Cities, etc., are now)
bottom area (where Messages, Demographics, etc., are now)
right sidebar (if multiple panels are here, make them tabs)
right sidebar - top (if multiple panels are here, make them tabs)
right sidebar - bottom (if multiple panels are here, make them tabs)
For example, all of these tabs except View could go at the bottom,
making better use of that space.
Or, all these tabs could go at top (where View, Cities, etc., are now),
allowing the View to use the full screen height.
If the Cities panel were not in the main area, then you could
have the view automatically centered on the selected city,
or have that city flash on screen.
If the Units panel were not in the main area, all of the units of the
selected type (or cities containing one) could flash or be highlighted.
If the Economy panel were not in the main area, all of the cities
containing that improvement could flash or be highlighted.
=================================================
The Research window is too long & narrow, especially with the
Researching & Tech Goal taking up vast space across the top.
The Research panel could be made much smaller by separating it
from the Tech Tree panel. The new Research panel should always
appear with the Tech Tree, but there are many times when I don't need
the whole Tech Tree, just the basic info. In fact the Tech Tree could be
toggled on/off from the Research panel.
The new smaller Research panel could be placed in the right sidebar,
bottom area, or even below the Turn Done & current unit info
(with the adjustments below):
Below the Turn Done button, we don't need to use so much space
to provide info about the currently active unit. For one thing, put the
unit's icon directly below the unit type (left of Moves & the terrrain
type it is on).
While we are in the Research tab (or any tab except the View tab),
we can get by with less info about the currently active unit,
and skip the icons of other units at the same location.
With those changes, we could then move the drop boxes for Researching & Goal
to below the Turn Done button & current unit info. Also the turns/advance, bulbs/turn,
progress bar, # of steps, # of bulbs, & # of turns can all go there.
In fact, the progress bar could be the BACKGROUND for Researching,
and the # of steps/bulbs/turns could be included on the dropboxes like below.
____________
| Turn Done |
---------------------
Settlers
<settler Moves: 0
icon> Plains
Bristol
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Progress Rate: | |
3 turns/advance (28/bulbs/turn) | <box> Help |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Researching |
Iron Working (51/80 bulbs 2 turns) |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Goal
Genetic Engineering (8 steps, 1513 bulbs, 55 turns) |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to keep the Tech Tree & Research panel together, you could just make the strip across the top narrower, like below
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Researching | Goal | Progress Rate: | |
Iron Working (51/80 bulbs 2 turns) | Genetic Engineering (8 steps, 1513 bulbs, 55 turns) | 3 turns/advance (28/bulbs/turn) | <checkbox> Help |
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------
You could also use the wasted space on the Menu bar (the right 2/3 or 3/5 of it)
=================================================
The Reports (Demographics, Traveler's, & Historian's) should have the
year of the report at the beginning of the tab Title, since they are snapshots.
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