I'd like development of the User Interface to be considerate of the power of community development for a game. This isn't a request to have a fully mod-able interface a la World of WarCraft. Ideally, having all of the relevant information in-game have the ability to pop-out of a borderless mode window so it can dock on other monitors would be amazing. However, allowing the community to produce tools that help players enjoy the game would be another huge effort to creating a thriving community outside of the client. An API that allows tech-savy members of the community to create web-tools that provide such things in a web browser like: -A live map overview (See when the Orks are making a push and respond while still fighting in-game) -A listing of members of your squad and their loadouts. Such info would be too much to have in-game at all times, but available in a second monitor a reference would be great. -Number of players on each server -An "Armory" so people can compare skills, kills, etc. -Chat windows for faction/strikeforce/squad leaders to communicate where it doesn't clutter the main game. Leave the bloody action for the main screen. What this will do is empower leadership roles to be able to play and command simultaneously as well as provide multi-monitor support. to give an idea of what I'm trying to stumble through saying, I've attached a mock-up.
It's not about "needing" three screens, but allowing users who do have multi-monitor setups (an increasing number of people), to use them as they would like.
Yes, so much yes. That has been irking me with an increasing number of games. A lot of them suppoert multi screen setups but don't let me dettach seperate windows (maps, scorebords and whatnot) from the main screen onto other screens. I'd love if that'd be possible here.
I,m not sure if we will build the game with detachable windows in mind as we are trying to integrate the screens so they both work on console and PC (or PC in Big Screen mode). But having side Apps or Web tools is a really good idea - I'm gonna talk to the Lead Coder about this possibility, that's for sure (I see this being very useful even if you only have one screen as I often play at lower resolution in a Window - nothing would also prevent us to access these on a Mobile or Tablet device I guess).
Sounds awesome, thanks for getting back to this thread! Looking forward to hear the input of the Lead Coder, I can imagine it being a hassle to integrate such a feature while having to keep consoles in mind. You mentioned some connectivity to phones/tablets, would that be primarily viewing data or also using it as input device?
This is something I'd like to make, depending on the scale of the API of EC to create e.g. a combat-map to have on a second monitor. I hope something like this will be possible.
