Welcome to World War II online - Battleground Europe : Free community contributions to a new User Interface design

Oct. 2009

Please sit back, relax, throw some food to the fishes, and take a hour to discover the content of this blog.

The purpose of this input is to introduce new gameplay concepts that could contribute to a fix of persistent issues highlighted during the last couples of years, with a special focus on the User Interface (UI).
Though it will confuse established players, I believe it will be alot easier for new players to understand.

The blog (creative) layout has been designed to make the reading more comfortable (you can easily pause your reading thanks to feature #IDs) as to make search & discuss easier. Use the labels to select a single part, or use the tree on the right to find a specific feature back.
If you are in a hurry, you may just have an attentive look at the screenshots which should be intuitive to understand. The text is just pointing out drawn features or detailing the context.

All opinions and suggestions are welcome. Please, provide feedback (here) in the official forum . Remind that the whole content is a free gift to Playnet.

Since English isn't my main language, please apologize for the mistakes. I hope you will still enjoy the reading.

ZEB
-Un0fficial gameplay architect, advises concepts since 2002-

1.4. Side HQ - Platoon selected


[SIDE HQ]
    - Welcome screen
   - Squad selected
   - Town selected
   - Platoon selected 
[PLATOON HQ]
   - Mission member display
   - Mission leader display 
[BRIGADE HQ]

____________________________________________________________

  Learning about current active missions, either for the player that wants to join or for the leader who wants a situational awareness, is currently a complicated task since you need to join every brigade one by one, and then jump throughout every missions. The new design allows you to access valuable mission information by simply going through the mission list of the side HQ.


 
Typical side HQ display when selected a platoon in the list

#31. In opposition to the current system where you can't get any valuable information about a mission without joining it yourself, the new system allows to display instantaneously extra information by selecting a mission in the list. The following extra information should be found:
  • Quick button to send a private message to the ML (swifter then typping /m);
  • Current target - if selecting a platoon only (support missions have none (feature #1a), and selecting a squad mission doesn't provide such an information at the side HQ level (feature #21)). Note that there's no origin mentioned (feature #2);
  • A map focusing on the current target
  • Mission type (feature #50a);
  • Countdown before expected deployment;
  • Platoon stats : duration since creation, platoon kills and deaths. Initially this feature was designed for the case where players would still be allowed to join a deployed platoon, since such informations could help them evaluate the current effectiveness of the platoon. Though this has changed (feature #3), this information could still serve to the OIC and the ML as his leadership points could eventually make use of it.
  • Orders - if selecting a platoon only : One of the most important information that should be made available without needing to join. This will provide a good situational awareness both to the OIC and to players looking to join. Also notice for how long the order has been posted.
 Mission members list is avoided at the side HQ level but will be displayed when selecting a mission in the brigade HQ level (feature #52). Other content could be added in the feature.

#32. If you selected a town on the interactive map, the search filter isn't canceled when you go through the different missions. A reset button allows to display the default screen back.
posted on 7.10.09

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