Posted: Mon, 30. Jan 12, 19:50
User Interface
More and more of you are using large, high-resolution screens to play X-Universe games, but until now the in-game menus have remained resolutely small, often taking up only a tiny proportion of the available space. While we were sorting this out, we also took the opportunity to make a few other little changes to make those menus easier to read and use.
Sizing
All the in-game menus were checked to see which ones could benefit from being bigger. As a result of these checks, many menus remain the same size as before, one or two are fixed in height but are taller than they were before, some will expand to use as much of the available screen height as possible but remain the same width, and a special few expand both height- and width-wise to really take full advantage of your screen.
Maps
The menus that have changed the most are the maps. These now expand to fill as much of the screen as possible while still retaining their overall shape.
The Galaxy Map now fills as much of the screen as possible so that you can get a broader overview of where you are in the galaxy. The information panel to its right doesn't have all that much on it, so this doesn't expand. The other big change on the Galaxy Map is that navigation to a sector whose name you know is a lot easier than before. Just start typing the name of the sector you want to find and you will be taken there! If there are several sectors matching the letters you've typed then they will be listed in the information panel; you can either keep typing, or select on one of the names in the list using the normal mouse or keyboard menu controls. Pressing Escape or simply waiting a few seconds will clear the typed text and the list. One final, smaller change in the Galaxy Map is that sectors that are in a state of war are shown in orange.
The Sector Map also now fills as much of the screen as it can. Since the list of objects in a sector can be quite long, the panel to the right of the map itself expands to fill as much of the screen height as possible; it won't, however, overlap your radar, so it may sometimes be a little shorter than the map. Other than that the Sector Map hasn't changed significantly.
If you find that the new large maps sometime block your view too much then you can use the new Resize button (F5 by default) to switch between the old and new sizes. There's also a little resize icon in the bottom right corner of the map that you can click on with the mouse if you prefer.
Menus
Familiar menus that now make much more use of of the available screen height include:
• Property
• Trade
• Adjust Station Parameters
• Stock Exchange
• Best Buy/Sell
• Message Log
• Wings
• Controls
• AL Options
• Script Editor
• Mission Director
Like the maps, graphs are also displayed using as much of the available screen space as possible, but the side panel containing the description and key for the graph doesn't expand. You also can't resize graphs down to a smaller size, as this would make most of them pretty much unreadable!
Several menus have also had the same treatment applied to them that was given to the information panel to the right of the Sector Map. In other words, ships are listed next to their icons and more information is shown to help you identify them at a glance. Menus that have had this treatment include:
• Trade (for shipyards)
• Adjust Station Parameters (for the Player HQ)
• Landed Ships
• Owned Ships
[2.0] Oh, and the long-standing frustration of trying to type repeated characters in names and numbers has finally been laid to rest! No more "Thereshal*pause*lbewings".
More and more of you are using large, high-resolution screens to play X-Universe games, but until now the in-game menus have remained resolutely small, often taking up only a tiny proportion of the available space. While we were sorting this out, we also took the opportunity to make a few other little changes to make those menus easier to read and use.
Sizing
All the in-game menus were checked to see which ones could benefit from being bigger. As a result of these checks, many menus remain the same size as before, one or two are fixed in height but are taller than they were before, some will expand to use as much of the available screen height as possible but remain the same width, and a special few expand both height- and width-wise to really take full advantage of your screen.
Maps
The menus that have changed the most are the maps. These now expand to fill as much of the screen as possible while still retaining their overall shape.
The Galaxy Map now fills as much of the screen as possible so that you can get a broader overview of where you are in the galaxy. The information panel to its right doesn't have all that much on it, so this doesn't expand. The other big change on the Galaxy Map is that navigation to a sector whose name you know is a lot easier than before. Just start typing the name of the sector you want to find and you will be taken there! If there are several sectors matching the letters you've typed then they will be listed in the information panel; you can either keep typing, or select on one of the names in the list using the normal mouse or keyboard menu controls. Pressing Escape or simply waiting a few seconds will clear the typed text and the list. One final, smaller change in the Galaxy Map is that sectors that are in a state of war are shown in orange.
The Sector Map also now fills as much of the screen as it can. Since the list of objects in a sector can be quite long, the panel to the right of the map itself expands to fill as much of the screen height as possible; it won't, however, overlap your radar, so it may sometimes be a little shorter than the map. Other than that the Sector Map hasn't changed significantly.
If you find that the new large maps sometime block your view too much then you can use the new Resize button (F5 by default) to switch between the old and new sizes. There's also a little resize icon in the bottom right corner of the map that you can click on with the mouse if you prefer.
Menus
Familiar menus that now make much more use of of the available screen height include:
• Property
• Trade
• Adjust Station Parameters
• Stock Exchange
• Best Buy/Sell
• Message Log
• Wings
• Controls
• AL Options
• Script Editor
• Mission Director
Like the maps, graphs are also displayed using as much of the available screen space as possible, but the side panel containing the description and key for the graph doesn't expand. You also can't resize graphs down to a smaller size, as this would make most of them pretty much unreadable!
Several menus have also had the same treatment applied to them that was given to the information panel to the right of the Sector Map. In other words, ships are listed next to their icons and more information is shown to help you identify them at a glance. Menus that have had this treatment include:
• Trade (for shipyards)
• Adjust Station Parameters (for the Player HQ)
• Landed Ships
• Owned Ships
[2.0] Oh, and the long-standing frustration of trying to type repeated characters in names and numbers has finally been laid to rest! No more "Thereshal*pause*lbewings".