AGEOD Forums

Mostly I would like to call on some sort of improvement in the UI and also, again, refresh the need for some major rework on the MC/transport system (in screenshot).

1) I think the battle overlay is excellent, there's a lot of info and it's much easier to see and enjoy than it used to be in AACW. The problem is that it goes just above the map and you can't see WHERE the battle is taking place. Basically... you read the name of the location but you will recognize major locations (if you don't know where Atlanta is, you shouldn't play this game) but you can't make out the entire USA without seeing it. I think the battle overlay should appear after the battle is over so that you see where the battle is taking place (focus on battle location) and then the game should pause (if you wish it to in settings) to show you the battle results. Things right now are difficult and right now the best thing to do is just look at the battle at the beginning of the next turn (hit on the ledger and you'll be teleported to the battle location when the overlay appears, you close the overlay and look, then you open it again... as you see it's a mess).

2) Is it possible to change the buttons of the recruitment screen? I think they should match the department filter, exactly as the color filtering of the department filter (I think it's the "6" key?). We have MA (Mid Atlantic) which IS a department but then we also have CT Connecticut which is a State. Again... messy.

3) Perhaps it's pointless to allow showing the units you can't recruit (the ones with a red line in its name) for lack of resources. There's an ocean of units to be recruited, I think they should also be set in 2 lines (not just one as it is now) and with smaller unit cards. If we take out the non-recruitable, most will be shown in a single shot. Handy.

4) Again with the recruitment screen. We know the brown/green color filter overrides any filtering applied to the map. However... we have got the mini map which has no filters (sad). Considering the recruitment screen still allows movement of armies (it's in the same "game mode" unlike GGWBTS where building units doesn't allow you to move the existing ones because it's a completely different game phase), I think this screen should be completely rebuilt in a way that when it's selected you have no longer the messages screen or ANYthing else but the minimap and the big map. If the thing is organized in departments as I said, the engine could auto unzoom to allocate the entire area on screen. It's truly a mess the way it is now and this scheme is valid for the regional decisions as well.

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And now to the transport and Military Control.
According to me this you see in the screenshot shouldn't be happening.

So... while I am moving 200 different units throughout the nation, there's just a locomotive for me that will take me to the neighboring region in just one day... despite the fact I have only 25% MC there so I am completely "in the wild". And yet again... in case I met someone the train would stop pretty nicely, allow my men to disembark and fight with LESS penalties (since cohesion is less handicapped when moving by rail) when compared to the enemy who's marching on foot.

Imagine the situation... if I can do this with 25% MC then the enemy has an even easier way to do it because it has 75% MC. What happens if we both travel by rail, the trains will stop one in front of the other and the troops will say "wait for us to disembark and when you're ready whistle. When we're ready we fight, ok?". It's pretty insane if you ask me.

The hidden activation rule here comes at hand. ANYTHING may happen during the movement phase, a train may break down... but here I think if you haven't got 75% MC it's better not to allow movement by rail. I always said it... move by rail should be allowed in the back lines but when you are in the front line as in this case it's a crazy thing this game shouldn't allow. Armies didn't march like that... I could march (and I do) MC Dowell, 1200 combat factors... the mere supply chain to keep them fed would take half the trains of the entire United States...

Is there something that can be done here?

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Here's an example of an non-cooperative UI.
The SW filter is applied (in fact you can see the rangers unit) but when you select the flatboat, the recruiting locations pop up in NY.
Well... those flatboats shouldn't be there in the SW filter, that's the problem and I think I've spotted a few more units that shouldn't be there in their selected filters.

For example... what are the units coming frmo MI and WV doing in the Old NW filter? WV is not in the Old NW theater, is it? I think VA is Atlantic Theater and perhaps WV is also there or in Mid Atlantic but surely not Old NW?

Also as I mentioned above, there's a NE filter here. If NE is a theater name it is also a state name but this surely falls into the Atlantic Dpt so it should be removed. It's all easy changes for the better in this case. Me thinks with smaller unit cards, the right filter names (abbreviations) only on the dpt. and the dpt color ALSO present in the minimap this UI would be rocking. What I mean is that the selected filter should be color coded (in this case BROWN and GREEN for recruiting) and the rest of the map should go BLACK (delete it right away, make sure only the Dpt is visible. What do I make of a huge map I can scroll but where it's all brown and I can't recruit? I am just looking for the green here!).

Final tip: Are you sure the Counter-Intel decision has something to do with the Loyalty decisions? D'oh.

I like the idea of smaller icons for recruiting, although for my computer processing the map can be slow, so more icons might make this worse.

I like to be able to see in red units I can't recruit because it tells me what I missing out on in case I want to change my mind about some spending decisions I've already made during a turn.

One note about the filters issue where you see flatboats from the SW recruitable in the MA. Flatboat recruiting is from a single pool across all states, so if you recruit 1 boat in the SW, that is one fewer you can recruit in the MA. So it makes some sense that the SW filter includes flatboats and allows them to be recruited from anywhere. You are right that it isn't clear, but it isn't 100% wrong to me. More wrong to me is that support units such as HQs can only be recruited using the ALL or MA filter (at least for the Union), but can be recruited from all regions (except RK, since there are no large cities in that region and most (all?) of the support units require large cities).

NE is New England, maybe its a holdover from BOA etc. I like having it so I can recruit, send to Boston and then ship down the seaboard, just like Butler and Banks.
I think West Virginia is in ONW to seperate it from the rest of Virginia in AI events and affinity settings. It ties in with the fact that most of the troops who went there in 1861 were from Ohio and Indiana (The existing units that appear should reflect this instead of being PA. ,Patterson's Army should be Pennsylvanian militia).

S!

That recruiting screen is just a mess the way it is.

1) The double click is not that useful.
2) The filtering should be the same as the one of the map overlays for theaters because it's less confusing.
3) The mini map overlays should be activated to match the big map brown/green colors.
4) There should be a major rework of the training centers, armories and foundries.

MO didn't have (just to make an example) the capability to produce artillery in so many different places which is why some cities are more important than others, strategically.

Now with units you can't recruit due lack of resources there could be an extra filtering button.

The possibilities are infinite but the UI is very important and I don't think it's been developed to match the complexity of the choices at hand.