I just started playing Cataclysm DDA this week and I love it so far, but I also have many crazy suggestions to make.
The first is to change that little readout that lists creatures that are in your character’s view but not on your screen. It gives a cardinal direction and then a note like ‘Bear’ or whatever. It’s kinda useful, but I always have to look and scroll over to it to see what’s going on anyway. And often I forget to check it because it’s over in the corner and I’m looking at my map.
Instead, around your viewing area there could be border of tiles, highlighted in some b/g color like blue or grey, which showed all creatures and buildings in your character’s long-range vision, things in sight but not yet on the screen. Basically, anything outside the would have it’s letter scooted forward to show up in this border. Here’s a scaled down pic of how it could work:
It wouldn’t give perfect information, like how many zombies are in a big group. And you could do fun stuff like giving a camouflage ability to a creature. Like the triffid, because it has trees behind it, would be hidden until it came into your short-range vision.
Maybe a set up like this would confuse people? I don’t know. But for me, this–or something similar–would be easier to read and would fit a lot more info into a smaller space.