Feedback/Modification - I & S - The Resource Bar

[Mello Tonin]

I don't know about you guys, but one of the first things I do each time I start a new game is spend a few minutes reorganizing my resource bar. It would be really helpful to have this either stay the same based on your last config, or have some option to configure the resource bar to keep a certain selection.

This is how I always set my bar:

[Sebt]

Yeah, current resource bar is really messy. It contains different resources for different use and some of them are missing. During game development there will be more and more resources and items, so I hope we will have items divided into groups and one of them would be a building materials group (ATM only production menu has resources assigned to certain groups). Than we could switch between resource groups and choose which group of resources we would like to see on upper resource bar, as well as having a custom resource bar - that we could set during the game and after doing that it would be saved to Dwelvers AppData, so later it could be automatically loaded in any game mode we chose.

PS. What do you mean by organizing your resource bar anyway? When I click on any resource and try to move it with mouse nothing happens.

[Mello Tonin]

I just go into the Items menu and click on the item I want on the bar, then click where on the bar I want it.

[Sebt]

Thanks. I realized that we've talked about that years ago.

[Mello Tonin]

You're welcome. I think most might try to drag and drop. I think I discovered that by accident.

[Rasmus]

This could be really good. But I also agree with Sebt that it is very messy. Perhaps having categories / groups as you said Sebt in the top that can be clicked to show a bar below it with all the items. Then the player would not have to categorize it. What do you think?

[Sebt]

This could be really good. But I also agree with Sebt that it is very messy. Perhaps having categories / groups as you said Sebt in the top that can be clicked to show a bar below it with all the items. Then the player would not have to categorize it. What do you think?

Yes, switching between categories coudl be helpful, also some shortcuts for quick switching between resource tabs would be awesome to have (like in DK 1 when you could switch between menu tabs on the left side of the screen with F1-F5).



Also I would like to propose additional small features that would help with production chains much more:

1. Tooltips for resources on upper resource bar would help with identifying resources showed there.

2. Hovering on specific resource in upper resource bar could also tell the player (in a form of tooltip) how much of that item is produced and consumed per time (cycles?). So you could tell if you produce too much or too low of that item.

3. Crafting items could also be made from upper resource bar:
a) Go to the crafting resource tab in upper resource menu - you'll see that each of the item there have an additional number added after "/" like 12/1 (which means you have already 12 of that item and 1 is in queue for production).
b) To the right of that number there are two small icons: "+" and "-";
c) Clicking on "+" increases amount of certain item to be craft, and "-" button decreases that number;

4. A Mello Tonin's suggestion for customizable bar would than look like this:
a) Switch to "Custom resource bar" and than click on "[+]" to begin adding resources to clipboard for custom resource bar;
b) Switch between resource bars and just click on any item to add it to the clipboard. Click than on the next item(s) you want to have in your custom bar. Second click on chosen item will deselect it, remove from clipboard.
c) When you done click [Save] button that appeared below the resource bar (there could be also a [Clear] button next to the [Save] button to clear all selections you've made);
d) Clicking [Save] also saves the configuration of chosen items for all other games you'll play in the future. Also it displays what name you want to have for this configuration, so you can have more of these configurations and each time you start a new game you can chose any of your saved configuration of items from the List, which will appear in custom resource bar tab.


I think such short information showed in upper resource bar could eliminate need of having Production menu - or actually... move current production menu to the upper bar. IMHO actual Production menu takes a lot of the screen space. What do you think?

[Rasmus]

I love it! I see no need for the production menu if this gets implemented. Great suggestion :-D

[Rasmus]

If we just could change the trading menu like this as well :-) Perhaps move it to the trading room's info menu.

[Sebt]

I love it! I see no need for the production menu if this gets implemented. Great suggestion :-D

If we just could change the trading menu like this as well :-) Perhaps move it to the trading room's info menu.

Glad you like it, I hope it would really make everything faster, especially producing things.

The only menu that would left after implementing this is Creature and Trading Menu (which consists of separated trading routes menu and world map).

About Trade Routes I wrote here, because I don't have idea how to implement it into upper resource bar, it's too many to choose. however this may a little change the way trade routes are working now.

[Rasmus]

I've been thinking a bit about this... How should we categorize the items?
I came up with this:

Production materials lv 1

• Bone
  
• Fish
  
• Leather
  
• Mouse
  
• Iron  
  
• Rope
  
• Water
  
• Wood
  
• Rock
  
• Coal
  
• Gold
  
• WaterBlock
  
• LavaBlock
  

Production materials lv 2

• Antroot
  
• IronIngot
  

Production materials lv 3

• Flour
  

Craftables

• KnightsHammer
  
• BarbarianAxe
  
• BarbarianShield
  
• BarbarianSword
  
• BentSword
  
• BoneArmor
  
• BoneAxe
  
• Cleaver
  
• HideArmor
  
• LeatherArmor
  
• IronArmor
  
• IronFist
  
• Pitchfork
  
• SpikedGauntlet
  
• WoodenClub
  
• WoodenShield
  
• CannonBall
  

Food and drinks

• Beer
  
• Bread
  
• RoastedFish
  
• RoastedMouse
  

And why just have items? We could have constructions and rooms as well that will show the amount you have, and that they are clickable for zoom in.

Rooms

• Bar room
  
• Bed room
  
• Metalworks room
  
• ....
  

Constructions

• Well
  
• Wooden ladder
  
• Mouse trap
  
• ....
  

Actually, now when I think about it, perhaps creatures should go up there too? So we can keep it organized that way...

What do you think?

[Sebt]

Hmm, should we give levels to production items? I mean how could I recognize which level are they and will they have the same level if used in production in not yet implemented rooms you'll add later to the game?

Is there a need to have that many resource tabs for production materials or would it better to have them as little as possible? So all production materials to one group, but all food items also to their own respectable group.

And why just have items? We could have constructions and rooms as well that will show the amount you have, and that they are clickable for zoom in.


Actually, now when I think about it, perhaps creatures should go up there too? So we can keep it organized that way...

What do you think?

You know I think that's a good idea, it seems a menu like in Dungeon Keeper is an inevitable thing to have.  

[Rasmus]

Actually I didn't think about the DK menu here at all
This is a mockup I made. I was thinking some more buttons up there to lower the amount of items under each category. Like having weapons and armors instead of both under one category.



So what do you think?

[Sebt]

Actually I didn't think about the DK menu here at all
This is a mockup I made. I was thinking some more buttons up there to lower the amount of items under each category. Like having weapons and armors instead of both under one category.

So what do you think?

Fantastic work Rasmus.

You even add "+" markings to make it easier for player to read that this means number of items being produced. Good work Rasmus, this is what I was thinking about.


I have 2 suggestions:

a) I think that actually these icons of "+ / -" could stay hidden, so they would appear only when player click or hover mouse on one of the item. To make more space for more items on the bar mark of "+ / -" could appear on icon image and that image would be their background colour. So instead of having them in separate brackets they could appear on actual item icon, what do you think?

b) Do you think it could be a good idea to have production counters colour-coded - so +1 could mean productions of that item is in top-shape, +1 that something is a little wrong with our production of this kind of item and finally +1 mean there's halt in the production of this item.



I also have few questions:

1. If we go to rooms tab and we want to check our rooms, we can just click on room icon so game will be jumping into these rooms, one by one?
2. The pouch icon to the left will be left for Trade menu I guess, and the right creature icon menu will take player to Creature and Equipment menu, right?
3. What if we have more weapon items? Will we just get an additional, new row under upper menu?
4. Will there be a resource bar for customizing items showed on the bar like we could do that before?

[Rasmus]

a) I think that actually these icons of "+ / -" could stay hidden, so they would appear only when player click or hover mouse on one of the item. To make more space for more items on the bar mark of "+ / -" could appear on icon image and that image would be their background colour. So instead of having them in separate brackets they could appear on actual item icon, what do you think?

I think it's a great idea! I believe that if the player aren't planning on using a feature, then there is no reason for showing it. Having the buttons there constantly only gives the player unnecessary options. I'm really looking forward to expanding the analytics tool so that I can get information about what buttons are being pressed mostly etc. This could really help me with the UI, because the buttons that are rarely pressed should be more hidden than the once that are pressed often.

b) Do you think it could be a good idea to have production counters colour-coded - so +1 could mean productions of that item is in top-shape, +1 that something is a little wrong with our production of this kind of item and finally +1 mean there's halt in the production of this item.

Also a great idea

I also have few questions:

1. If we go to rooms tab and we want to check our rooms, we can just click on room icon so game will be jumping into these rooms, one by one?
2. The pouch icon to the left will be left for Trade menu I guess, and the right creature icon menu will take player to Creature and Equipment menu, right?
3. What if we have more weapon items? Will we just get an additional, new row under upper menu?
4. Will there be a resource bar for customizing items showed on the bar like we could do that before?

1. Yes
2. Yeah, for now. I actually want to get rid of them both if possible and make the options in there more "reachable". Also, I don't like big menus covering the screen...
3. Yeah perhaps, or we will make more categories in the top. Like one handed / two handed weapons. I think we can address this in the future.
4. Not sure what you mean, I can't remember we having a feature that could customize items.