Interface questions
Posted: Thu May 23, 2013 10:48 am
Hi,
I've played only a few hours so far and have enjoyed what I saw for the most part. I have started as a Wanderer, now have a posse of 8 people and a small house in Brink, but I'm not sure what to do next. I find myself constantly fighting against the interface and it takes away a lot of the enjoyment.
I understand that to select people I press a number key. How do you do it with a group larger than 10 people?
Also, how do you guys manage people when building a compound? Right now I recruited 2 engineers, so in the room I bought I thought I would start crafting and researching, and for that I need to keep the engineers there. But if I start running around with the other 6, gaining fighting exp and looting, it's a real PITA to try and select, again and again, the 6 people who are not working in town. Do you guys separate your group or do you just throw everyone at the building tasks, increase game speed and read a book? Or am I doing something wrong and/or have missed an obvious option?
If that is the way it is working currently, I'd suggest creating groups like in an RTS or Towns. Or, if it's easier to implement, make it so a toon that was assigned to building or the research machine is not selectable by the 'select all' command, one would need to double-click on him to gain focus then right-click to cancel or change the task.
Another issue is the merchant window. Right now I am running around looting stuff. Then, when I am back in town to sell, I need to play some kind of weird tetris game with all the town merchants to try and sell my loot. I am so happy when one of them has enough room for more than two swords! How are you guys selling stuff? By drag-dropping from your inventory into an empty and large enough space in the trader's inventory? Not only is this interface is awkward to use, but it is not working well. Say I put my sword too close to an item (and it is not obvious how many squares it is occupying), I drop (e.g. sell) my sword, but for some reason I now have this item I don't want on my cursor. So I put it back and tadaa, I bought my sword back with the trader's markup. So, am I doing something wrong or this is the only way to sell.
If it is then I suggest something like a right-click to sell, of a black hole dropbox in the trader's window. I don't think the current Tetris-like sale window adds anything to the game experience.
So, am I doing something wrong? If not, then maybe we can suggest to fix these usability issued before adding more bells and whistles? Having me fight against the interface is the best way for a game to drive me away quickly. I started typing this because I was about to send my crew on another fighting-looting tour, then I thought to myself: "Why do it, it's going to be a PITA to sell it all again, and the toon select is a going to be a chore too, nah, I'll do something else".
Also, is it me or is Brink "broken"? I mean I can't go from the city gate to the Trader house directly, there is an invisible wall that makes my toons go around a house near the opposite city wall.
I've played only a few hours so far and have enjoyed what I saw for the most part. I have started as a Wanderer, now have a posse of 8 people and a small house in Brink, but I'm not sure what to do next. I find myself constantly fighting against the interface and it takes away a lot of the enjoyment.
I understand that to select people I press a number key. How do you do it with a group larger than 10 people?
Also, how do you guys manage people when building a compound? Right now I recruited 2 engineers, so in the room I bought I thought I would start crafting and researching, and for that I need to keep the engineers there. But if I start running around with the other 6, gaining fighting exp and looting, it's a real PITA to try and select, again and again, the 6 people who are not working in town. Do you guys separate your group or do you just throw everyone at the building tasks, increase game speed and read a book? Or am I doing something wrong and/or have missed an obvious option?
If that is the way it is working currently, I'd suggest creating groups like in an RTS or Towns. Or, if it's easier to implement, make it so a toon that was assigned to building or the research machine is not selectable by the 'select all' command, one would need to double-click on him to gain focus then right-click to cancel or change the task.
Another issue is the merchant window. Right now I am running around looting stuff. Then, when I am back in town to sell, I need to play some kind of weird tetris game with all the town merchants to try and sell my loot. I am so happy when one of them has enough room for more than two swords! How are you guys selling stuff? By drag-dropping from your inventory into an empty and large enough space in the trader's inventory? Not only is this interface is awkward to use, but it is not working well. Say I put my sword too close to an item (and it is not obvious how many squares it is occupying), I drop (e.g. sell) my sword, but for some reason I now have this item I don't want on my cursor. So I put it back and tadaa, I bought my sword back with the trader's markup. So, am I doing something wrong or this is the only way to sell.
If it is then I suggest something like a right-click to sell, of a black hole dropbox in the trader's window. I don't think the current Tetris-like sale window adds anything to the game experience.
So, am I doing something wrong? If not, then maybe we can suggest to fix these usability issued before adding more bells and whistles? Having me fight against the interface is the best way for a game to drive me away quickly. I started typing this because I was about to send my crew on another fighting-looting tour, then I thought to myself: "Why do it, it's going to be a PITA to sell it all again, and the toon select is a going to be a chore too, nah, I'll do something else".
Also, is it me or is Brink "broken"? I mean I can't go from the city gate to the Trader house directly, there is an invisible wall that makes my toons go around a house near the opposite city wall.