Remaining Action and movement indication IMPLEMENTED

[Sligo]

A problem I've run into multiple times, especially when armies get large, is that I don't know which action a unit has left - move or attack. It has done one, but not the other, and there's no way to tell. What happens often is a knight will attack an adjacent unit and destroy it. It's still lit up (full color, not greyed out) because it still has its move action. I'll jump to another area of the screen and move/attack some units then I'll come back to this knight who's still showing as "active". I'll move it into a position thinking I'll be able to attack, but alas, it's already used its attack!

So what I suggest is a two-state graphic. Sure, this would entail a lot of coding and fixes throughout the game, so I don't expect it to happen any time soon, but here's what I'm thinking:

When it has both actions available (move+attack), it's lit and has its weapon raised (or bow string drawn and bow is bent)).
If you move without attacking, it turns grey, but still shows its available attack.
If you attack without moving, the weapon drops (or bow straightens).
After both actions, it's in its final state of grey and dropped weapon.

If this is too much, a simple hover-text with available actions might work just as well.

[Stratego (dev)]

The idea is good i also wanted to solve but did not came up with good idea.

When it has both actions available (move+attack), it's lit and has its weapon raised (or bow string drawn and bow is bent)).
If you move without attacking, it turns grey, but still shows its available attack.
If you attack without moving, the weapon drops (or bow straightens).
After both actions, it's in its final state of grey and dropped weapon.

we cannot color the weapon since the engine does not know a hack about the image parts - i mean he will not know where is the weapon.
dropping weapon/bow: this would also require many many secondary images that i will not have time to make - however this could be a solution: totally different images of the unit for these:
- all actions available
- no actions available (maybe the graying is ok for this)
- only attack action is used image
- only movement action is used.

But is tried to came up with ideas that does not need secondary images for all.

if you could come up with good idea that would be cool!

daniel

[Sligo]

Is it possible to have 3 layers of grey-scale?

[patroid]

Hi
My idea is to have greencolored if moved red if attacked and
Grey if all is done...
Yust heigher red or green or all three in rgb code of image...

Patroid

[COOLguy]

Or maybe a small icon above, like the waypoint marker?

[Sligo]

I like that. Two icons, actually: "M" for move and "A" for Attack. Put one in one corner and the other in the opposite corner. When the action is completed, the icon goes away.

[ejm29]

If thats possible (coding wise) that sounds great.

[Stratego (dev)]

Two icons, actually: "M" for move and "A" for Attack

I dont vote for this, this would ruin all icons at the beginning of the turn. i am also thinking...

[balint]

I have an idea!

What about, if you add an icon nwxt to the status icon, which is red if you can attack and blacknif not...

this is not the full idea, but I am in a hurry..

So: next to the status button, when you selexted the unit, it would show 2 more buttons. one with a boot, and one with a sword. if you have attack/move they will be x colour. if you move/attack, the colour will turn y colour...

is it possible?

[ScorpioGreen]

I just wonder if there might be a different alternative to the two-state graphic image for units that would satisfy what we want to achieve - ensure that we do not leave units idle at the end of turn or move units into an attack position only to find they have no attack remaining.

Why not have a button on screen which selects the next unit that has either movement or attack moves remaining. It could highlight the selected unit and display a small window showing its critical stats (Movement status, attack status & remaining hit-points).

We could also have a similar button that selects the next TC that is not producing.

Actually if these features were both added I think I would base my whole turn on continually moving through these two cycles until all my units and TCs have completed their actions. The beauty of this is that at the start of the turn selecting this button will scroll through all your units but after each unit has used up its actions the list of units gets much smaller as each of them uses up their actions. Then just end your turn when there are no items left to select.

[balint]

Next Tc : this is a good idea.

what about if the unit have icons, such like the poison to indicate, that it still has actions.

[COOLguy]

Two icons, actually: "M" for move and "A" for Attack

I dont vote for this, this would ruin all icons at the beginning of the turn. i am also thinking...

balint, that idea was mentioned but Daniel didn't like it. But maybe if they appeared after the action was completed...
Next tc: Good idea... I've seen it in a game somewhere, but I can't remember when...

[Nykidxxx]

Is it possible to have 3 layers of grey-scale?

What about this guys idea? It seems a lot more reasonable coding wise, instead of new images, we just change the color! ... unless the grey colored unit is a new image lol

If all the colored units are separate images, then the game files will only get bigger an bigger, can we try to optimize this right now buy teaching the system to hack the colors? Being able to change colors on parts of units will in insanely useful for every problem we have.

[Stratego (dev)]

(i have renamed the topic to have better naming.)

instead of new images, we just change the color!

this can be a way, do u have specific color suggestions?

buttons idea: if we have many units the buttons are not so useful - there are many units in a game which intentionally is not doing anything (eg. waiting good timing for attack, or simply defenders)

[Nykidxxx]

this can be a way, do u have specific color suggestions?

We don't need to different indicators for attack and move, so long as we know the unit has done one of the two, it's simple to tap on it and check for movement ability.
I'm not sure how this works but there can be two possible solutions, one is to make half of the unit's color grey after one of the actions are done, the other is to somehow make the units color darker, either a different darker color or like add a light layer of grey on top of it to show a color difference.

[CharlieFleed]

This is a really annoying problem also for me. My proposal is that when the player selects a unit that has already used its action, the reachable tiles are highlighted differently, like darkened instead of lightened. It's not perfect, but should be simple enough, requires no additional graphics, and it's better than nothing.

[Alexander82]

Can't we just add this info into the unit details?
We already have that kind of button to see the unit stats, we might just add two boxed (moved and acted) wich will be flagged if the action already occurred
I'd also place ni the information the player who owns the unit, because sometimes someone create games with players that share the same color

[balavian]

I think the main problem is that we cannot make difference between:
- a unit that can move and attack
- a unit that can move but not attack as it may lead to difficult situation

So maybe just put a red dot (or red cross) on bottom left of units that still can move but not attack...

[Stratego (dev)]

I think it is ready with the current red and grey dots on image bottom right. - is it?