[crossfire] GTK V2 client default layout and map size
Mark Wedel
mwedel at sonic.net
Tue Feb 12 23:44:02 CST 2008
Quick thoughts/past notes:
I expect that the preferences will be driven a lot by what actual hardware
folks are running on.
If you only have a display that does 1024x768, then the Oroboros is the likely
winner. But if you have a higher res display, that probably isn't a first
choice, as you have a lot more display area than it uses.
Now it may be that the client should try and be smart and choose a best
default layout based on various factors, like screen resolution. Same could be
said for things like map size.
A better approach may be to have a basic configuration program (or window)
that is used first time client is run by user (no .crossfire file). A fair
number of commercial games use that approach - configure the display
resolution/quality you want to use, configure sound, etc.
That, however, is a fair amount of work, and ideally, the configuration
dialogs used within the client match those initial configuration ones (don't
duplicate code, but also easier for an end user perspective - if you see one set
of configuration dialog the first time you run it that doesn't match the one you
see later, may be harder to know what config options you used before, etc)
Note that one reason I put the map window in the upper left corner is that to
some extent it made using different map sizes easier. But I do have to say I
don't find it ideal either (but I'm not sure what I find ideal).
I'm also not wild about the way the stats are displayed in all the layouts
(which really isn't changed) - that is to say being in a single row:
Str 5 Dex 6 Con 10, etc
as that never seems really easy to find for me, and I can't think of any other
game that displays them - doing them as a column, with column to the right (or
maybe several) may be more readable and more effective use of space, eg:
Str 6 Speed 0.50
Dex 10 Weapon Speed 0.80
Con 18 Damage 15
Int 14 WC 6
and so on. As an aside, since exp now has its own statbar, there really isn't
much reason for there also to be a display in the stat area.
More information about the crossfire
mailing list