Documentation of resource GUI elements (GNA #6164)

[wesnoth-bugs]

Original submission by anonymous on 2006-06-13

As a new player, I find the in-game documentation lacking mention of the GUI elements on the top of the screen - the resource indicators. Specifically the meaning of some of the resource indicators at the top.

I would suggest several things:

1. Adding a bit more description to the tooltips of the resources. * For example, instead of just "Upkeep", writing something like "Upkeep - the amount of gold deducted each turn. The number in parentheses represents the upkeep if you lose control of all villages" (I admit it's not a very clear description, just to get the idea).

• Should the flag icon tooltip really give the name of the hero? It should state what the numbers 4/24 mean. For example: "Turn number - The game ends when the maximum turns are reached". With that description, there's no room for the current player's name. Perhaps it should not be a tooltip, but a text that is always displayed near the flag - "Konrad's turn".

• Tooltips should be activated when hovering over the entire black rectangle, not just the icon.

If the description is too long, maybe "Detailed tooltips" should be a option in the menu for new players to toggle. (I think it worked well in Warcraft III).

2. Adding a GUI section to the documents that either has a picture of the game area with numbered arrows alongside a description for each, or different pictures of the GUI elements with descriptions on the same line.

3. Just like the "Time of Day" and "Orb" sections, adding a picture and description of the Income and Upkeep resource indicators to the "Income and Upkeep" section.

I am willing to help implement my suggestions once I play the game some more. Please let me know what you think.

(Reproduced on Linux)
Release: 1.0.2
Priority: 5 - Normal
Severity: 3 - Normal

[wesnoth-bugs]

Modified on 2006-06-13

javabean wrote:

I agree with some of these suggestions. The tooltip should appear for the whole black rectangle, not just the icon. I'm not sure if really verbose tooltips are the way to go, but having something in the help file would be helpful. I still don't understand what the upkeep icon means, after reading through that section of the manual a few times. So the tooltip reading "upkeep" is not very helpful.

[wesnoth-bugs]

Modified on 2006-12-31

anonymous wrote:

My 2 c:

Yes, the flag tooltip really should give the name of the hero. That's what the flag and its colour represent, and the information is often not easily available elsewhere in the game.

The turn numbers black rectangle could very well have its own tooltip.

[CelticMinstrel]

I'm not seeing these tooltips at all on current master. (More precisely, I saw them in one game out of about five.) Any idea what might be causing this?

[CelticMinstrel]

Okay, this has been partially addressed in c2c65dc.

[CelticMinstrel]

I have no plans to implement points 1b, 2, or 3, so I'm going to unassign myself. Furthermore, 1b is next to impossible in the current ThemeWML, and 2 and 3 involve string changes, so these can't be done before 1.14.

[Wedge009]

As Celmin already covered in that issue, part 1 is related to #1060.