Interface improvements

[Asfex]

Sorry, i want say:"focus activate units with order first,then
focus to the next activated unit with no order. "

Its becouse I often need to build road first, then move units along the new road. Or explore area by magic spirit first (go to order) then think for the other units. Or explore area in order to find invisible units first then think about the rest.

Every new turn i must press "wait" button on overland map to force units with orders to make its work (goto and road building) . Then i can plan the other activities, form stack of units and other.

The other thing: Imagine situation: the long road with stack of unit on it.I want to go with the other stack of 7 hammerhands throug the road.
I want set order "goto" for the stack of hammerhands.
If there are other stack with more than 2 other unit on this way, then my stack of hammerhand will not go through the road,but try to bypass the unit with the 2 other unit. I cannot see the way my stack of hammerhands will travel before i set its order to goto. So the way the stack of hammerhands will travel become unpredicable. The option "show the way the stack will travel by first click ,then set its order to "goto" by the second mouse click" may be useful.
Note that i cannot move my stack of 7 hammerhands by "one square per click" becouse: if there is a unit with the flag:"reached the destination" then my stack of hammerhands will loose all movement points and stop. The order "goto" can bypass this obstacle. Especially on the enchanted road.

May be, the option "the unit do not loose all movement points when it meet unit which had moved already" is more desirable.

[Belphagor]

Having installed the 1.40m patch today, I would like to make a few suggestions about the game interface:

• The Escape key no longer works with many of the game dialogs. It would be very nice to have it back.
  
• Clicking a hotkey should not move the mouse cursor on top of the corresponding button. At least not in the Combat screen.
  
• Make it possible to stop automatic combat with the 'A' hotkey.
  
• Increase the upper limit for mana/gold transmutable through the Alchemy dialog from 999 to 9999 points.
  
• Make the amount of mana/gold to be transmuted to round down to an even number if the player doesn't have the Alchemy retort.
  
• Assign a hotkey to the Cities button. 'T' for 'Towns' will do nicely.
  
• If possible, make the game return from the City screen to the Cities list if the city was accessed from there.
  
• Also make the game remember the last position of the Cities list at least until the end of turn.
  
• As it was already mentioned before, adding the hotkeys for cycling between the cities in the City screen would be very useful.

[Asfex]

All this suggestions are good.
Just want to add button to skip all rest units in the combat -to give turn the AI.

[Belphagor]

Some more suggestions about the game interface:

• Return the Previous Item Icon button to the Item Maker screen.
  
• Make the History screen display power graphs for banished/defeated wizards.
  Make their current power level go to zero when they are defeated.
  
• Make the game save and restore the knob states of the power distribution staves in the Magic screen.
  
• Make the game check the actual item properties before displaying "This unit will drown if the item is removed" dialog.
  
• Make the game ignore mouse clicks made during enemy turn in the Combat screen, if the mouse cursor is above the buttons level.
  This will prevent fast but fragile heroes from charging into the enemy midst instead of using their ranged attacks.
  
• While in automatic combat:
  • Make the game display info on the enemy unit that player's units are currently attacking.
    
  • Reduce the duration of the "Enemy spell has fizzled" message display by half.
• In the Chancellor dialog [F6]:
  • Add notification about the cities reaching their maximum population in the City Growth list.
    Change the message format to "<Cityname> has grown to a max. population of #" or add an asterisk at the end of the line.
    
  • Make clicking on the city related messages open the corresponding city screen.
    This should include the "The outpost of <Cityname> has grown into a hamlet" and the random event notification dialogs.
    
  • Make clicking on the unit related messages center the overland map on the (former) unit's location.
    
  • Highlight the clickable messages that haven't been clicked on yet.

Update #1:

• Add a warning about mana underrun at the end of turn.
  
• Add a warning about mana underrun when casting spells in combat.
  If you have 20 mana points with the net income of -10 mp/turn and try to cast a combat spell that costs 15 mp (including the range modifier), the game will warn you that "This spell will overspend your mana reserve by 5 mp. Cast anyway? Yes/No".
  
• Add Previous/Next Item Icon Subtype buttons to the Item Maker screen for quick switching between amulets, rings, orbs, etc.
  
• Add a Reminder hotkey that opens a dialog which allows player to enter a number of turns and a short description like "Buy Animists Guild" or "Send army to repel raiders".
  After the given number of turns the game will open the city screen / center the overland map on the location where the hotkey was pressed and display the message.
  Reminders should be processed after cities and units that need new orders.

Update #2:

• Add a Hold or Patrol button/hotkey for units in combat.
  Units set on patrol will not ask for further orders unless selected manually, attacked, or have an enemy unit adjacent.
  If all player's units are on patrol, the combat will proceed the same way as if they were immobilized with Black Sleep or Web spell.

Update #3:

• Add a Random setting to the buttons in the Game Options screen.
  
• Add a Random button to each of Wizard Creation screens.
  
• Add a hotkey combination for quick exit from the game.
  
• Make the Cities list scrollable with PgUp/PgDn keys.
  
• Make the Surveyor (F1) display the tactical combat mana multiplier for inspected tiles.
  
• If the player has the Detect Magic spell active:
  • Make the game announce the caster of instant overland spells like Ice Storm or Raise Volcano.
    
  • Make the game announce when other wizards' harmful enchantments on player's cities are dispelled.
    
  • Make the game announce when other wizards' global enchantments are dispelled.

[b0rsuk]

I'm not sure it's been proposed, but I would greatly apprieciate "no Wizard magic autocombat". I press the button, and my units advance and shoot without my input. Many fights, especially late game, are trivial but a) I don't trust strategic combat b) auto combat would ruin my mana.

[FrancoK]

It seems pretty minor. Thanks anyway, sometimes these tiny problems hide something bigger. I will have a look.

Maybe I can help about this fix.

Impact: Game do not crash, can be solved by actions in game.

Description: When you click on the last city of the city list, the game opens another city. Only the very last is opened correctly.

Replicate: Start a game with ten or more cities, click on the last visible city of the list, another city will show up.

More details: It seem when you click on city #9, the game will show city #10.
If you click on city #11, city #12 will show up, and so on. So apparently clicking on the last city of the list wll open the next city.

[Asfex]

About alchemy without this retort: its be better to offer 30 GP to alchemy into 15 MP,instead of 31 GP.

[FrancoK]

About alchemy without this retort: its be better to offer 30 GP to alchemy into 15 MP,instead of 31 GP.

Agree.


When an outpost becomes a city could be much better to go directly to that city screen to change the next building.

[slafochmed]

...
I totally forgot an old request from dragonsword: A hotkey that ends your turn without the necessity to click-through your units. That would really help.
...

That would be great! I wanted to suggest this and thought: That must have been suggested already.