Requests for new components (and features)

I'll take a look at them. The Dawn of Man screen just makes it so if you start in a later era, it still pops up the Dawn of Man Screen. Is there any changes made to the screen itself, or just when you start a game in a later era?

There is no link or file for the centering mod.
 
No other changes, only the pop up in later eras at gamestart.

As I posted above, I wasn't able to find a specific thread for the era screen's centering.
 
I looked at the Dawn of Man mod, and it contains all the standard components that we've rewritten in BUG (CvModName, CvPath, CvCustomEventManager), so I just wanted to catch you before you started.

Ignore it all except the actual DawnOfManEventManager.py file (I'm guessing at the name, should be obvious). It defines a single event for GameStart. This is the only piece you'll need to put into BUG (centering code is separate, I didn't look at that yet). I'd even be tempted to make this non-optional.

Seriously, who's going to say, "OMG, I can't believe I have to dismiss that damn Dawn of Man screen when I start a game in the Modern era. BUG is so limiting!" I know, Cammagno is gonna slap me silly, but there is a point where too many options is actually a bad thing. There are many users who haven't looked at the options screen because it's just too daunting to figure out what things do what. This is a case where there's no reason to turn it off.

But feel free to add an option using the BUG way. ;)
 
Why is there no Code or Spoiler option in the simple interface??

Code: 
# center screen begin
		screen.setDimensions(screen.centerX(+24), screen.centerY(-44), 1024, 768)
# center screen end

That's all the center screen mod contains.

As for options, I completely agree and think we should maybe slim down the option screen slightly, and make the ones which seem like they'd be used the most in there. Keep it in the ini(s)*, but take them out of the ACO screen.
 
EmperorFool said:
. . . that we actually care about? :p
Click to expand...
Don't has to be optional, I think it's a "must have".
alerum68 said:
Why is there no Code or Spoiler option in the simple interface??

Code: 
# center screen begin
		screen.setDimensions(screen.centerX(+24), screen.centerY(-44), 1024, 768)
# center screen end

That's all the center screen mod contains.
Click to expand...
I dunno why. If I'd knew, I also would have given you a link ;)

I use that code fragment since 1980 ;)

Take it as your own code, this is a thing, everyone could have thought about.
 
EmperorFool said:
I know, Cammagno is gonna slap me silly, but there is a point where too many options is actually a bad thing. There are many users who haven't looked at the options screen because it's just too daunting to figure out what things do what. This is a case where there's no reason to turn it off.
But feel free to add an option using the BUG way. ;)
Click to expand...

Oh, but not all the option should be in the option screen... My best choice would be to have everything optional, but only the important or average option in the option screen, while the minor one can be left in the BUG.ini file without problem... For the even minor options, I can live with the idea that they are not optional :), but if it is a full mod (even if a small one) I prefer (if possible) to provide some reasonably simple way to disable it... I hate to have to write in the help file "this mod can't be disabled" :)
 
Some programs have a beginner and advanced (or beginner, intermediary and advanced) option. This determines the number of options that can be accessed in the various options screens in these programs. That could be a solution for you, although I admit it might take some work to implement. In that case, I would for instance shift the exact layout of the scoreboard to the advanced options.
 
Roland Johansen said:
Some programs have a beginner and advanced (or beginner, intermediary and advanced) option. This determines the number of options that can be accessed in the various options screens in these programs. That could be a solution for you, although I admit it might take some work to implement. In that case, I would for instance shift the exact layout of the scoreboard to the advanced options.
Click to expand...

That's a great idea. :goodjob:
I'm not eager to remove options that are already there and had cost a lot of effort to implement them. To fiddle with the INI again is just not an option, IMHO.
 
NikNaks said:
It's a definite no to removing options from the screen for me. I don't want to have to dig up the INI to change some settings.

The beginner/advanced idea works, though. Great idea! :goodjob:
Click to expand...

Just to be clear ... I don't want to remove options from the Option Screen :)
I sugested that maybe for future minor options, we can not include them in the option screen, instead of not doing them optional at all...
 
We shouldn't change our option screen one little bit. Hmmn - ok, maybe a very little bit. We already have the most advanced unit naming options out of the option screen and in its own ini - that was because of the huge number of options. I would suggest that have an 'Advanced' tab and move the more complex options there. The only one that currently comes to mind is the scoreboard.

This whole conversation started because we thought the option screen was too big and daunting for new BUG users (did any of them actual say that?). This issue is addressed, not be removing options, but by putting together some help information that shows the impact of each and every option (with lots of 'before' and 'after' pictures.
 
NikNaks said:
I still don't agree that we should leave options off the options screen. That's backwards if anything.
Click to expand...

If the choice for a new feature is "not optional" or "optional only by modifying INI manually", which would you prefer? That's what Cammagno is addressing; he wants the latter if the former is the only other option (no pun intended).

I love the idea of an advanced view. So, who's going to design new layouts for the non-advanced options screen, including which options is has, and code it up? :)

I don't want to simply move a bunch of options to a new Advanced tab and leave it at that. Doing so would require looking at two tabs to find all options related to a feature, e.g. the scoreboard. Rather, I'd want two views of each tab or an entirely new screen designed with a bare minimum set of options. I suspect this is probably more trouble than it's worth, but I do like the idea.

As to whether or not people are asking for it, I can only say that from my experience as a software developer and consultant -- i.e. dealing with actual real users in person -- people tend to fear options screens. Granted the sample space is low, but 15% (3 of 19) of the votes in my poll said they didn't know they had a choice about the advanced layout, and 25% use it but don't customize it. I think that's fairly significant, considering that the percentages for people not voting or reading the forums is probably higher.

I agree, Cammagno, that a good walk-through of the options with screenshots would be ideal. If anyone has some time to devote to this (you don't have to do it all! Just do one tab), we'd be very grateful.

Right now I'm completely rewriting how BUG is initialized and events and options and tabs are hooked up. This will allow other mod makers to more easily include BUG in their mods as well as allow -- wait for it -- multiple INI files. :) Perhaps this will make hand-editing an INI file less painful.
 
When I proposed the idea for a beginner and advanced version of the options screen I was thinking along the following lines:

A beginner screen without tabs or maybe 2 tabs, not more. This screen would have the most basic changes to the bug mod that would be used and changed the most by users. That of course requires a judgement call. Such a screen would resemble the Firaxis Options screen in complexity. Note that I must often remind players in the Quick Answers/Newbie thread that there even exists something like the Firaxis options screen. They never even looked at it, knew nothing about its very existence. Of course, mod users are typically a bit more knowledgeable about computer use, but still it's an eye opener about the average knowledge about computer programs.

This beginners screen would have a button called 'advanced screen' somewhere at the top or bottom which would turn the whole thing into the options screen that is available now.

Whether it's worth it? I don't know. You're the designers, you decide. It was just an idea to solve the issues with how far the complexity of the options screen may go. When there is a beginners screen in place, then you can more freely add things to the advanced screen without worrying too much about the complexity of this screen and making the Mod less accessible to first time users.
 
Don't get me wrong. I think a beginner's screen is a great idea -- especially if it's just one or two tabs at the most. My question is this: do most people just not know about the options screen, meaning they would also not know about the beginner's option screen, or do they get overwhelmed by it and simply not use it?

If they just don't know, different versions won't help. I added the reminder when BUG is first installed so they would know about it. I could also make it open the options screen instead of showing a reminder. This would force them to see it and learn how to disable it (a checkbox as there is now) to stop from seeing it every time they started a game.
 
On my copy of BUG, I have reversed the meaning of the scoreboard power ratio from the default "us/them" where high numbers are better for you to "them/us" where low numbers are better for you. That method just makes more sense to me and makes AI-AI power comparisons easier for me. I would like to see support for this as a general option although a couple changes would need to be made. I can think of several ways to do it but the simplest from a code point of view is the following:

  1. Add an options screen checkbox for "Reverse Power Ratio" on the Scoreboard tab.
  2. Rename the current options for "Good Ratio Color" and "Good Cutoff" to "High Ratio Color" and "High Cutoff."
  3. Rename the current options for "Bad Ratio Color" and "Bad Cutoff" to "Low Ratio Color" and "Low Cutoff."
  4. When the reverse option is checked you could add something like the following after the current fPowerRatio calculation:
    Code: 
    if (bReverseRatio):
	if (fPowerRatio != 0):
		fPowerRatio = 1/fPowerRatio
	else:
		fPowerRatio = 99.9
    The rest of the code can basically stay the same as the comparisons still make sense if you interpret good as high and bad as low.
Advantages to this method are minimal code change and the contents of the cutoff menu options remain the same; only the labels for the options screen actually have to change. From a user standpoint, you just turn on the reverse option, tweak the cutoffs to your liking, and then switch the colors so that high is red and low is green (or whatever your prefs).

Disadvantages are that because the labels do change the options screen might be a little more confusing, especially when first experimenting with the reverse option. Perhaps some help or hover text could be worked in to remind that in the default situation high means good and in the reverse situation high means bad.

Also reading the Python might be a little confusing since "Good" in the variable and function names would really mean "High" and could actually be Bad when using the reverse ratio option.
 
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