Originally posted by ControlFreak
Umm...maybe I'm missing the point here but,
Why would you ever need to type the word worker? PTL is supposed to be logging every unit action, right? Eventually include filters for this even, to allow logging only what you want. You're worker movement and actions would be logged without typing Ctrl+W, W1 or even worker.
I can see the advantage, if SpiderZord can't get the diplomacy stuff automated, to automatically typing words like "Trade with Egypt". There could be a "Trade with" button and a drop down menu of active civs, or something like that.
This brings up a good point - the timing and flow of the PTL interface. I'm going to throw down my initial thoughts on the interface so the community can think thru how best the interface should work.
As I have worked thru the code, the doc items seem to fall into two categories:
1) Full turn items - Turn, Gold, QSC Score, Totals for shields, food etc. - no brainer items that require no documentation
notes.
2) Real Time items - changes to research and entertainment sliders, technology researching, goody hut results, (some?) unit actions, etc. - items that would need a user
note.
With these two categories in mind, it suggests that the category 1 items are simply totaled and logged automatically at the end of the player's turn. For category 2 items, it seems an event based flag would be helpful. I have set up the Main PTL 'bar' with Rufrydyr's icon on the left side. I have created a PTL Event Flag that triggers the icon to start blinking, indicating there is a pending event that needs a note. The player clicks the blinking icon and the form pops up to indicate the event (all of the relevant automatically generated info) and provide the text field for the note. I had the goody hut event triggering the note form, but it was obstructing the game screen and the actual result was sometimes difficult to catch and it seemed an annoying interuption. Now the PTL icon starts blinking when a goody hut event occurs. Once the event completes in the game, the user can click on the blinking PTL icon and it brings up the "Goody Hut at X,Y resulted in" form. I think this works for changes to the sliders too - the player may be adjusting the slider back and forth checking gold totals/ turns to complete and would not enjoy the "explain slider change" form popping up to block your view - the PTL Icon just starts flashing when the change is determined.
As far as unit action notes - how often are explanatory notes used to accompany unit actions? I have the flag that indicates the active unit in the game. What if I provide a 'Log Unit Action' button that will place a watch on that active unit. The player then performs the moves/worker action and when the unit loses the active flag, then pop up the note form? That seems a good way to control which important moves are included in the main log. (BTW, I intend to have an option to log all unit moves to a separate text log (CSV) that a spreadsheet could easily filter to a unit and track it's movements through the game).
As far as the items I don't have located in memory yet - I have created a 'Data' form which contains all of the info that is read from memory. I have the place holders for Contacts, Embassies and Technologies known, etc. and their 'state' can be altered by the user. This will act as the bandaid until I can track those remaining items down in memory space. The user toggling those settings will create the PTL Event and the appropriate note form will appear (i.e. User toggles contact with Romans - initiates event that pops up the form for 'trade' details).
I have rambled a bit, but hopefully this creates a starting point for everyone to be thinking about how the PTL interface should be HELPFUL and not an annoyance. Back to programming - I'll check back...
- but I'd rather not rush the first pass. (Go ahead, throw the popcorn 
