View Issue Details
| ID | Project | Category | Date Submitted | Last Update | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0019266 | AI War 2 | GUI | Oct 31, 2017 12:02 am | Nov 2, 2017 2:54 pm | |
| Reporter | BadgerBadger | Assigned To | keith.lamothe | ||
| Severity | minor | ||||
| Status | resolved | Resolution | fixed | ||
| Product Version | 0.528 | ||||
| Fixed in Version | 0.601 | ||||
| Summary | 0019266: Timing menu | ||||
| Description | Does the timing menu actually need to exist? I don't actually have any idea what Frame Frequency does. Frame Size seems to control how fast the game is going, so just bind that to +/- like in AIWC and call it a day. I can't imagine anyone actually wanting to navigate through multiple menus to manually click on those, or the pause button when you could in principle do that with a single click. You would just need to include a little +X or -X next to "Time" in the Resource bar, which would be easy enough. Also you can't slow time down past real clock time which is an unfortunate loss of functionality. It was really helpful to be able to play a huge battle slowly. | ||||
| Tags | No tags attached. | ||||
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Frame Frequency is what AIWC did. It just waits less time between doing sim frames. So if you're already in a situation where the frames are taking more than 100ms to compute (or, rather, the longest-running offloaded thread is taking longer than 100ms), increasing that doesn't change anything. Frame Size is a new way of speeding things up, which makes the frames more "coarse". Everything moves twice as far per-frame as it would have, takes twice as much time off the build-clocks, consumes/produces twice as much resources, etc. Not the way you want to go if there's a huge battle on, but very effective at fast-forwarding a slow build up. I agree that the primary way of interacting should be via keys (P, +, -). I'm not sure how to map both types of speed control. Perhaps holding shift or ctrl while pressing + or - controls Frame Size, and it's shown differently on the resource bar ("Coarse 1", "Coarse 2", etc). The timing menu isn't really necessary. I do like having all functions discoverable in-game _somewhere_ without knowing the magic key, but that could be handled with some out-of-the-way "other functions" button that brings up the obscure stuff. |
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Oh, on slower-than-normal frames, I can probably add that, though it may look weird in the display layer. |
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One way to help would be in the tutorial. Lets add having the user build a starship constructor on their first planet, then say "Lets use the speedup buttons so you don't have to wait as long." I think ctl/+ and ctl/- would be fine for the coarse sim steps. So talk to me about why I might prefer coarse-steps over fast-steps. They feel pretty similar in terms of "making time pass quickly", but is there a time when one is preferable over the other? |
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Coarse is preferable when your CPU can't give you any more "fast". |
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For 0.601: * The Timing menu has been removed, and its functions are now performed simply by: ** P already toggled pause. ** Equals (plus) now increases frame frequency (the way AIWC sped things up, more or less) ** Minus now decreases frame frequency. ** Ctrl+Equals (ctrl+plus) now increases the frame size (a different way that is more effective but makes the sim more coarse). ** Ctrl+Minus now decreases the frame size. * Decreasing frame frequency below Normal is now possible, similar to how you could go into "the minus speeds" in AIWC. * The top row of the "Time" section of the top-bar GUI now says what % speed you have set the frequency to, if it's not 100%. It also uses a different display if you're using the coarse-simulation mode of increasing the frame size. Thanks :) |
| Date Modified | Username | Field | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 31, 2017 12:02 am | BadgerBadger | New Issue | |
| Nov 2, 2017 11:23 am | keith.lamothe | Note Added: 0046555 | |
| Nov 2, 2017 11:24 am | keith.lamothe | Note Added: 0046556 | |
| Nov 2, 2017 11:36 am | BadgerBadger | Note Added: 0046557 | |
| Nov 2, 2017 1:27 pm | keith.lamothe | Note Added: 0046560 | |
| Nov 2, 2017 2:54 pm | keith.lamothe | Assigned To | => keith.lamothe |
| Nov 2, 2017 2:54 pm | keith.lamothe | Status | new => resolved |
| Nov 2, 2017 2:54 pm | keith.lamothe | Resolution | open => fixed |
| Nov 2, 2017 2:54 pm | keith.lamothe | Fixed in Version | => 0.601 |
| Nov 2, 2017 2:54 pm | keith.lamothe | Note Added: 0046561 |
