NOTE! graphics and naming conventions related to the UI are preliminary. Therefore, this thread should be seen as a discussion of the general UI and behavior of the interface, not an in depth "it will absolutely be in the game this way and here are all the ways it impacts gameplay" type discussion about individual elements.
Now that I have had a chance to explain the new Commands interface, it's time to talk about the rest of it. Here is a shot of the main UI that sits along the bottom of the screen and behaves, in many ways, just like you're used to in CMx1. However, there is a lot more going on!
The component pieces are:
1. Non-unit Interface - this area shows buttons which correspond to various parts of the game that do not have to do directly with the currently selected unit. The little numbered buttons along the bottom toggle the buttons in groups of 3, thus allowing for 12 possible functions. Currently we don't foresee the need for more than 4-6, but the room is there if we need it to be.
2. Commands Panel - I've already explained this one in some detail here so you can check that out if you want more info.
3. Organization Panel - shows info related to the organization of the unit. The unit's position in the Order of Battle is displayed as either a graphical or a NATO type icon. In this example we have 1st Squad, 2nd Rifle Platoon, A Company. The blue dot on the right signifies whether the unit is Core, Attached, or Assigned. This has implications for C&C as well as Campaign play. Basically, Core can be relied upon better than Attached, Attached more than Assigned. The rank of the current Leader of that unit is shown in graphical format.
Below the rank/formation stuff is a rainbow indicator light that shows Suppression Level. The more bars you see, the worse off your unit is. The Suppression Level goes up and down depending on combat conditions and the unit in question. Better units will see their Level go up slower and down faster compared to a worse unit.
Below this is a LOS check button which allows the unit to check LOS independent of any selected Command. This is no different than CMx1. We just wanted to have a graphical button instead of just a hotkey or menu option like before.
4. Unit Info Panel - this is the meat of the unit's attributes. This is too tough to boil down into a few sentences so I'll post separately about what all this stuff means. Some of it should look familiar to you guys anyway
5. Soldier Panel - This is where you get your information about the status of the Soldiers within the unit. There are three columns which allow for up to three Teams of Soldiers. In this example we have a Rifle Squad that has two Fire Teams by default. A "task oriented" organization might have it divided up into three Fire Teams, so the space is there for this when need. Each Soldier is represented by his primary weapon, his speciality ("MOS" in US military lingo), and health status indicator. The latter is either Healthy, Lightly WIA (Wounded In Action), Seriously WIA, and KIA (Killed In Action). Serious WIAs and KIAs are dropped out of the display of the parent unit.
For all non-Squad units this display changes quite dramatically. The first column is filled by the Soldiers (up to 7) and the other two columns are replaced by a display detailing whatever that unit is. The other possibilities are HQ, Heavy Weapon, and Vehicle. The UI for these three other types of units is fairly similar, but tailored to the specific needs of the different categories. Within each category the formatting is identical, though the information displayed will vary from unit to unit. For example, all Vehicles have the same basic UI, but a M1A2 SEP Abrams will have a few differences from a M1A2 Abrams to reflect things like 2nd Gen FLIR targeting capabilities vs. 1st Gen FLIR found on the stock M1A2 model. I'll post info about these things in the weeks to come.
6. Controls Panel - the familiar CMx1 "GO!" and VCR buttons are here as well as "PAUSE" and "RESUME" for RealTime play.
Well... there you have it in a nutshell!
Steve
