I’m not a fan of current vehicle interaction menu, so I’m thinking of some changes.
How it looks now:
New menu:
Why I want to do that? I’ve prepared a picture with notes about changes:
I want to make another one annoying interface option, something like “vehicle menu: vertical (old), horizontal (new)”, so you will be able to choose the view which fits better for you.
I’m still not sure anyone except me will use this option, so, folks, I’m asking your opinions about that.
I find having the stats on the right listed vertically …surprisingly more legible. A lot of items have been moved to spaces where I anticipate such information being displayed, and… yeah. More legible for my trained brain.
EkarusRyndren, you’re right, it’s just draft from photoshop, and I’m sorry for possible confusion.
Rivet, yeah, it’s kind of tricky: in json blueprints as well as in my sketch above, right direction is from rear-to-forward, but in standard engineering practice left side view is used; here is some random example of blueprint from google (arrow is mine):
So, current state of blueprints in Cata is weird, but I’m not ready for reversing all existing json blueprints. Conclusion: your idea is great! Check this out the updated version:
Another option is just an arrow showing fwd direction, something like this: “->”; will test the both cases and show for comparison.
Okay, I didn’t hear any objections yet, so let’s try to do it in code.
Arrows help my derpy head greatly, especially as I already have to convert vehicle appearances in my head as they turn anyhow. I WOULD LOVE TO SEE A FUNCTIONING DRAFT PLEASE all of the happyfaces.
There is a reason why vehicles are sideways in the JSON and vertical in the interaction pane. It’s not a GOOD reason, because it’s a legacy hold-over, but it is a reason:
For some insane, nonsensical reason, the JSON assumes that the vehicle is facing to the right. Hence all vehicles and blueprints face that way. But vehicles themselves assume they face north, and so the co-ordinates get reversed in many, many places. It’s hideous and needs to go away but would take a lot of work to fix.
Note that the blueprints in JSON are not used by the game, and are purely there for the reader to see what a vehicle looks like. You can edit the blueprint field as much as you want, or even remove it entirely, and it won’t affect a thing. You’ll have to actually change the coordinates of every vehicle part if you want to flip them around. (should be a matter of just flipping the minus sign on every x-coordinate)
Ian Strachan, someone on git, maybe you, told me about blueprints purpose in json earlier. Your idea about inverting of X axis sounds really interesting.
[quote=“Ian Strachan, post:14, topic:4035”]There is a reason why vehicles are sideways in the JSON and vertical in the interaction pane. It’s not a GOOD reason, because it’s a legacy hold-over, but it is a reason:
For some insane, nonsensical reason, the JSON assumes that the vehicle is facing to the right. Hence all vehicles and blueprints face that way. But vehicles themselves assume they face north, and so the co-ordinates get reversed in many, many places. It’s hideous and needs to go away but would take a lot of work to fix.
Note that the blueprints in JSON are not used by the game, and are purely there for the reader to see what a vehicle looks like. You can edit the blueprint field as much as you want, or even remove it entirely, and it won’t affect a thing. You’ll have to actually change the coordinates of every vehicle part if you want to flip them around. (should be a matter of just flipping the minus sign on every x-coordinate)[/quote]
Can’t the JSON and the vehicles themselves be made to assume the same facing?