In my Micro Management Tester map, I'm going to put in the ability for the User to generate Computer AI to fight if they wish to play it alone, instead of with another player. I've come up with three approaches I could use to obtain this. My question is: Which approach do you like best? Or, if you don't like any of them, what would you suggest?
Approach 1: Buttons with Preset Unit Groupings Pros
This would be by far the simplest approach. I would just make a list of buttons with preset units on them, something like pressing the button creates 20 zerglings or 10 mutalisks or 5 mutalisks and 10 zerglings, etc...
Cons
This approach is very limiting, and, as a designer, I strive to constantly give the user as much flexibility and options as possible. In other scripts that I have done for much simpler programs, I often make very complicated scripts for simple things in order to accomplish two things: User flexibility and User friendliness. I feel that people should be able to intuitively use something, and that is should provide them the most options for customization possible. Thus I am disinclined towards this option.
Approach 2: Unit Buttons Pros
This is the option I am most favoring currently. Each race would get a separate page in the Dialog, and each Unit would get its own button. One could easily create as many units in any mix they wanted by simply clicking the appropriate buttons the proper amount of times.
Cons
This is going to be a decent bit of work, as I have to create three separate "pages" in the Dialog and let the User seamlessly switch between them. Also, if I want to maximize space and still make it friendly, I will have to learn how to create buttons with icons so I can put the unit icon on each button. Additionally, this option would also be rather unreasonable if the user wanted to make, say, 50 zerglings, as they'd have to click the button 50 times.
Approach 3: Unit Buttons with Text-Box Pros
This is by far, in my opinion, the most user friendly option. Each unit button would have a little text box next to it, allowing you to enter up to 3 characters in the box in order to create X amount of units. Instead of pressing the button 20 times for 20 zerglings, you could type 20, click the zergling button, and have 20 zerglings.
Cons
This would also be the most complex option and uses a lot of things I haven't learned yet. In addition to what I need to learn just to create the basic unit buttons, I would need to learn how to make text-boxes, how to limit them to 3 characters, how to check to make sure the value is a number, and how to throw and error if it is not. And that's just what I can think of off the top of my head.
What do you think? Keep in mind that if you choose something more complicated, I may be asking for help or directions to tutorials quite a bit! ;)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
In my Micro Management Tester map, I'm going to put in the ability for the User to generate Computer AI to fight if they wish to play it alone, instead of with another player. I've come up with three approaches I could use to obtain this. My question is: Which approach do you like best? Or, if you don't like any of them, what would you suggest?
Approach 1: Buttons with Preset Unit Groupings
Pros
This would be by far the simplest approach. I would just make a list of buttons with preset units on them, something like pressing the button creates 20 zerglings or 10 mutalisks or 5 mutalisks and 10 zerglings, etc...
Cons
This approach is very limiting, and, as a designer, I strive to constantly give the user as much flexibility and options as possible. In other scripts that I have done for much simpler programs, I often make very complicated scripts for simple things in order to accomplish two things: User flexibility and User friendliness. I feel that people should be able to intuitively use something, and that is should provide them the most options for customization possible. Thus I am disinclined towards this option.
Approach 2: Unit Buttons
Pros
This is the option I am most favoring currently. Each race would get a separate page in the Dialog, and each Unit would get its own button. One could easily create as many units in any mix they wanted by simply clicking the appropriate buttons the proper amount of times.
Cons
This is going to be a decent bit of work, as I have to create three separate "pages" in the Dialog and let the User seamlessly switch between them. Also, if I want to maximize space and still make it friendly, I will have to learn how to create buttons with icons so I can put the unit icon on each button. Additionally, this option would also be rather unreasonable if the user wanted to make, say, 50 zerglings, as they'd have to click the button 50 times.
Approach 3: Unit Buttons with Text-Box
Pros
This is by far, in my opinion, the most user friendly option. Each unit button would have a little text box next to it, allowing you to enter up to 3 characters in the box in order to create X amount of units. Instead of pressing the button 20 times for 20 zerglings, you could type 20, click the zergling button, and have 20 zerglings.
Cons
This would also be the most complex option and uses a lot of things I haven't learned yet. In addition to what I need to learn just to create the basic unit buttons, I would need to learn how to make text-boxes, how to limit them to 3 characters, how to check to make sure the value is a number, and how to throw and error if it is not. And that's just what I can think of off the top of my head.
What do you think? Keep in mind that if you choose something more complicated, I may be asking for help or directions to tutorials quite a bit! ;)