While working on the place map label features for the map editor some
problems with them came to my attention:
1. The label implementation can not handle sides which are in more than
one team.
It will treat team_name="team1, team2" as a new team leading to
labels from a side that is only a member of
team1 or team2 to not being displayed for it nor shown to the other
sides.
2. Labels introduced by the [label] wml tag which are immutable do block
a hex-field for user specified labels.
But exactly those hex-fields marked by the campaign designer might
be candidates for team labels to coordinate the strategy.
3. Large labels on adjacent hexes are drawn over each other resulting in
unreadable clutter.
4. Only one label per hex is shown. So team labels overwrite global ones
(user defined global ones or designer set but mutable ones).
And newly set team labels overwrite the previously set by another
team member.
5. Labels can only be cleared all at once, or by modifying the current
accessible one by setting it to a an empty string.
On the implementation side labels are a map of maps so it is quite
possible to have several labels per hex, namely one per team +
a global one without changing the inner structure of the class.
I would like to find a solution to all of this issues but I am uncertain
how to design a better working map label handling.
So I like to define some goals I consider reach-worthy:
1. Private labels only shown to the player who defined them.
2. Multiple global labels per hex field, one per side, colored in the
side's team color or colored in neutral color for preset ones.
3. Multiple team visible labels per field, one per side, colored in the
side's team color or colored in neutral color for preset ones.
4. Each hex field can be cleared from owned labels by a context menu entry.
5. Cluttering must be avoided.
One possible solution:
1. Labels preset by the designer are always shown on the map.
2. If there are multiple labels to be displayed on a hex field mark the
field by a string like "..." or an icon.
3. If the player wants to read all the labels hovering over the hex
field displays them in the side menu or in a tooltip.
Regards,
Fabian
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