[crossfire] Client proposal: redo inventory/look widgets

[Lalo Martins]

On the quest to "ungeekify" the client... ;-)

Based on recent discussions and a comment from Mwedel, I'd like to 
propose a revision of the inventory and "look" areas, and the 
introduction of three new things.  (Of course I'm volunteering to write 
the code for this.)

The question being: do people really *USE* all those 10 tabs?  Very 
occasionally I use "unlocked" to sell stuff, but most of the time I use 
"icons" and the first one.  And really, neither is the ideal UI for what 
I actually want to do.

So here's the proposal: Currently we have an inventory notebook and a 
"look" table.  I propose to replace them with two other widgets: what I 
call the "stuff notebook", and the "shortcut area".

The "shortcut area" is really Mwedel's idea.  It would be a 10x2 or 10x3 
(or even 10x4) table, and you drag either equippable items or spells to 
that area.  Each "slot" essentially manages one keybinding; so if I put 
my axe on 1,1 and small fireball in 2,1, then pressing "1" does "apply 
axe" (well not really, but you get the point), and "shift 1" does "cast 
small fireball".  The rows correspond to no mod, shift, ctrl, and alt.

Then the "stuff notebook"; I imagine it has a control (checkbox or toggle 
button) that chooses between "details" and "icons" mode, regardless of 
tab (I think the choice applies to all tabs).

First tab is "look"; the objects on the floor near you.  Second is the 
plain, unfiltered inventory.  Yes, the filters are occasionally useful, 
but IMO, not often enough to justify polluting the UI.  Fourth tab is the 
spell list; this is an awesome addition to the game, IMO it's about time 
it gets a more permanent space in the UI (and it's somewhat necessary in 
order for the shortcut area to be useful for mages).

The third tab deserves its own paragraph :-) what I'm proposing here is a 
"body diagram" similar to what many computer adventure games have.  Yes, 
it would require some tinkering, since we have IIRC 3 or 4 different 
combinations of body parts... but I have an idea how to do it and I'm 
willing to write the code.  Here, you'd have a rough outline of a body, 
and for each "body slot" your character has, there would be a space where 
an icon can be drawn; if you equip an item on that slot, the 
corresponding icon appears there.  Clicking a slot (with or without an 
equipped item) would bring up a menu with the items that can be equipped 
there.

Since it's a notebook widget, it would be hard to drag items from the 
inventory to the body diagram; but then again, I have no idea why you'd 
want to do that, since you can double-click it on the inventory :-)

I think hovering an icon on any of those widgets, if you are on "icon" 
view, would display the rest of the information (what you would have on 
"detail" view) on a tooltip.

Thoughts?

best,
                                               Lalo Martins
-- 
      So many of our dreams at first seem impossible,
       then they seem improbable, and then, when we
       summon the will, they soon become inevitable.
                           -----
personal:                    http://lalo.hystericalraisins.net/
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