Interface

[GlobalExplorer]

Interesting suggestion, but I do want to be able to read from which state the unit comes from. Is it readable, the units seem rather small...

Ok, that's true, cutting them in half is perhaps too much. You'd have to play with the graphics a bit to find the best size.

I just quickly slapped together an image in Photoshop, you cannot expect perfect results

But on the other hand the icons were much smaller in AACW, and still perfectly readable, so there is shrinking potential.

[Overparduffer]

I don't spend a lot of time playing this gamebut I actually don't mind the new unit recruitment. I remember playing ACW as the Union and eventually I would reach a point where I would quit recruiting new units because it was a pain in the rear and I clearly had a large enough force to win. Yes, the interface in CW2 could be better but being able to choose their exact formation location is well worth it IMO.

The filters were a little annoying at first but once I figured out what some of them were (i.e. Old Northwest, was that really a thing?), they help a good bit. I typically recruit a division at a time so it's easy to switch to NE and then pick the 8 to 12 cards it takes to get 18 units. You can always get one cav unit included with an infantry card and you can sometimes get a sharpshooter unit the same way. That means you only have to switch the filter to artillery once to add some heavier caliber guns. Granted I'm not OCD on the makeup of my divisions but I try to follow the general guideline.

[GlobalExplorer]

Hello, Overparduffer I'm not sure I understand. It is a pain in the rear and you don't mind?

I don't spend a lot of time playing this gamebut I actually don't mind the new unit recruitment.

eventually I would reach a point where I would quit recruiting new units because it was a pain in the rear and I clearly had a large enough force to win.

[Ace]

Read carefully, last quote was not about cw2

[GlobalExplorer]

Yes, my bad

[Gray Fox]

Pocus, I don't understand what you would lose if the panel would look like that all the time:

FYI, I haven't changed anything and I already get the 10 unit wide panel on my laptop. On my desktop, with the 32 inch wide screen I get the 12 unit wide panel. Maybe this problem is based on individual hardware constraints and not the program?

[GlobalExplorer]

No, that was not the issue. I also have 10 units visible, and 12 with tripax method.

What I was referring to is that the flyouts should stay expanded (optional if you want), and not flap back into the closed state automatically,
otherwise the number of clicks doubles for no reason.

[tripax]

FYI, I haven't changed anything and I already get the 10 unit wide panel on my laptop. On my desktop, with the 32 inch wide screen I get the 12 unit wide panel. Maybe this problem is based on individual hardware constraints and not the program?

Right, my change is only a workaround of constraints based, I think, on the screen resolution you have when you start the game. If you change the FrontEnd, you can get a 12 unit wide panel on your laptop without losing too much in terms of the panel covering critical elements of the game (that is the change that GlobalExplorer made). I could change the resolution on my laptop and perhaps get the wider panel, or I can change the FrontEnd-GUI file. I was messing around with the FrontEnd-GUI file, so I presented this change. It saves having to reset the resolution every time I play.

[Pocus]

Flyouts are perhaps not warranted for build units interface indeed. They are more useful with the stack panel which also has to support the stack name and be compatible with small size monitors.

[GlobalExplorer]

I am playing AACW now, it is imo the better game. The good thing with CW2 is that you have another version that does the same thing, with a different approach to interface.
But I hope something changes for the coming games, especially TAW.

The problem could have very easily solved with rally points. What I do in AACW is that I recruit in States that have only 1 city, Massachusetts and Connecticut.
I end up with 10-20 new units in Boston, which can be easily ferried to their destination by ship.
Only if I play Confederates or if I recruit in other states, the problem arises.

If all States had a configurable rally point, the whole circus you did would have been unnecessary, and we could have kept the great interface from AACW.

[ArmChairGeneral]

I have had issues with the build interface in the past, but I think that the changes instituted in the two 1.04 patches have helped tremendously in cutting down on unnecessary clicking and scrolling. Leaving the flyouts expanded (a la the map filters) is a good idea, and demonstrates that even tetchy-sounding threads can provide germane and useful insight if we are patient enough to examine the merits of the arguments. Thanks, GlobalExplorer! (BTW as a regular reader of Tacticular, I think you would be doing my fellow readers a disservice by not reviewing this title: no other game about this conflict even comes close except for AACW. Yes, I am an AGEOD fanboy, but still....)

Side note: One of the drawbacks to the current interface is that playing on a touchpad is next to impossible. But I think the touchpad interface is almost impossible to use in ANY program. Thank heavens for wireless USB mice.

[ArmChairGeneral]

GE:

OOPS!

I see now that you did review it!