SP - UI Party screen redesign suggestion

[[BRE] Hildebrand]

One of the things I'd love to see in Bannerlord is a better group and unit management. There are a couple of things I come up against constantly that I find frustrating:

• When upgrading a unit I'm not sure which upgrade to pick, because I don't know how many units of individual type I already have.
• I frequently forget to assign units to correct groups, specifically companions.
• My 4th group filled with heavy infantry are referred to as "horse archers"
• At the start of every battle, I have to repeat the same formation commands.

I came up with some UI changes (see picture below) that are centered more around groups and attempt to solve the issues mentioned above. Some of the suggested features would require deeper changes to the way groups work, but hopefully, nothing too complicated.

In short, the goals of the redesign:

• Make it easier to see what group a unit belongs to.
• Make it easier to manage a larger number of units.
• Reduce repetitive formation commands when starting battles.
• Add an option to have multiple groups of the same type.

 

[darksoulshin]

+1
I agree with the way you suggest the UI should be. Perhaps a further addition could be the arrangement, on a plane, of these various groups, so that on the map they will already be arranged in their relative positions.

 

[[BRE] Hildebrand]

+1
I agree with the way you suggest the UI should be. Perhaps a further addition could be the arrangement, on a plane, of these various groups, so that on the map they will already be arranged in their relative positions.

Didn't want to add too much at once, but yes, that would be cool too. Like a small grid popup to arrange the groups maybe.

 

[darksoulshin]

Didn't want to add too much at once, but yes, that would be cool too. Like a small grid popup to arrange the groups maybe.

you have perfectly understood my suggestion

 

[Terco_Viejo]

I like the idea to set up the option of troop formations appear in this UI. It would really be interesting for me to be able to control the disposition of the troops in a way analogous to what we had in the PBOD mod.

As for the charts and units, their vertical disposition does not bother me; however, this organization by subgroups (Infantry I, Infantry II...etc) I would like to see it implemented as a drop-down accordion menu.

 

[niekdegrijze]

Good idea, would like to see it implemented

 

[[BRE] Hildebrand]

I like the idea to set up the option of troop formations appear in this UI. It would really be interesting for me to be able to control the disposition of the troops in a way analogous to what we had in the PBOD mod.

I think you could achieve the same effect with the kind of "grid popup" i pasted above and maybe adding commands like "follow me" and "hold fire" somewhere.

As for the charts and units, their vertical disposition does not bother me; however, this organization by subgroups (Infantry I, Infantry II...etc) I would like to see it implemented as a drop-down accordion menu.

Good point. My thinking was that if unit cards were smaller was you'd be able to see more of them at once and reduce the amount of scrolling. But yes, having a drop-down menu would be more in line with the game's UI design.

 

[iha10512]

I like the Ideas here. But I think the group number "II" in "Infantry II" should be choosen by the player and a direction of the group formation on the grid should be added as well.

 

[MRay]

• When upgrading a unit I'm not sure which upgrade to pick, because I don't know how many units of individual type I already have.

I'll bring this up internally I'm sure we can find a solution to this in the current design.

• I frequently forget to assign units to correct groups, specifically companions.
• My 4th group filled with heavy infantry are referred to as "horse archers"
• At the start of every battle, I have to repeat the same formation commands.

We're working on a feature related to this and it would address these issues you're having. Soon ™.

 

[[BRE] Hildebrand]

I'll bring this up internally I'm sure we can find a solution to this in the current design.


We're working on a feature related to this and it would address these issues you're having. Soon ™.

Great, thanks! Looking forward to seeing it in the game

 

[Mike86563]

Two things I think would go a long way to making upgrading less tedious is:
1: Show the party composition icons present in the parties menu in clan management on the party management screen (the icons showing the flat number of infantry/ranged/cavalry, with the hover ability to see individual types), because this information is most relevant to this screen for the player.
2: Have a submenu that opens off the side of the party list or so that shows units with enough XP to upgrade only (maybe recruitable prisoners as well), because generally you want to upgrade troops after every single battle or more, while redesigning your entire party order is secondary, so it's often useless information you just have to dredge through, and can really bloat up if you're replacing losses through consecutive battles by whatever means available. If the units you upgrade them to were also present in the sub menu directly after promotion if no such unit yet existed in your party and you could drag them to wherever you wanted in the main party composition, that would also help you manage your party order, as currently taking a unit from near the bottom of a diverse party of units to near the top is not ergonomic, while with two separate menus you would have to do a lot less dragging and scrolling.

 

[MRay]

2: Have a submenu that opens off the side of the party list or so that shows units with enough XP to upgrade only (maybe recruitable prisoners as well), because generally you want to upgrade troops after every single battle or more, while redesigning your entire party order is secondary, so it's often useless information you just have to dredge through, and can really bloat up if you're replacing losses through consecutive battles by whatever means available. If the units you upgrade them to were also present in the sub menu directly after promotion if no such unit yet existed in your party and you could drag them to wherever you wanted in the main party composition, that would also help you manage your party order, as currently taking a unit from near the bottom of a diverse party of units to near the top is not ergonomic, while with two separate menus you would have to do a lot less dragging and scrolling.

Something like this is in the works, stay tuned

 

[Mike86563]

Something like this is in the works, stay tuned

Brilliant, thank you.

 

[menuisier100]

I know it's not related to formations but this party mod has been my favorite quality of life ever. Saving me late game lot of times and unnecessary clicks. Can you guys look into allowing players to automatically selection and sort troops, garrisons and inventories?

 

[kreamy]

One of the things I'd love to see in Bannerlord is a better group and unit management. There are a couple of things I come up against constantly that I find frustrating:

• When upgrading a unit I'm not sure which upgrade to pick, because I don't know how many units of individual type I already have.
• I frequently forget to assign units to correct groups, specifically companions.
• My 4th group filled with heavy infantry are referred to as "horse archers"
• At the start of every battle, I have to repeat the same formation commands.

I came up with some UI changes (see picture below) that are centered more around groups and attempt to solve the issues mentioned above. Some of the suggested features would require deeper changes to the way groups work, but hopefully, nothing too complicated.

In short, the goals of the redesign:

• Make it easier to see what group a unit belongs to.
• Make it easier to manage a larger number of units.
• Reduce repetitive formation commands when starting battles.
• Add an option to have multiple groups of the same type.

Is this design part of a mod? If so, what is it called, I would like to download it!

PS Good Suggestion!

+1

 

[[BRE] Hildebrand]

Is this design part of a mod? If so, what is it called, I would like to download it!

PS Good Suggestion!

+1

It's not, I photoshopped it.

 

[Premackattack]

Happy to find this thread! Manually counting how many archers/infantry/cavalry I have is super tedious but it's the only way to see the balance of your party composition. Will love to see any sort of category summary like thIs!

 

[Mike86563]

Happy to find this thread! Manually counting how many archers/infantry/cavalry I have is super tedious but it's the only way to see the balance of your party composition. Will love to see any sort of category summary like thIs!

You can see it on the parties screen currently, it's split into the main 4 categeries, and you can hover over the icons to see the exact troop makeup within that category, it's just annoying to have to go somewhere unrelated to view it, especially if you just beat up an army holding an excess of prisoners and want to get a good balance of the available troops which will become unavailable upon leaving the screen. You can just take all and then dump them afterwards but that can get very complicated within categories when thinking of who needs to be dropped, not to mention can be quite tedious, but there IS a category summary like that for you.
I think you can also hover over yourself on the map to see this information and hold alt to see the details.

 

[Premackattack]

You can see it on the parties screen currently, it's split into the main 4 categeries, and you can hover over the icons to see the exact troop makeup within that category, it's just annoying to have to go somewhere unrelated to view it, especially if you just beat up an army holding an excess of prisoners and want to get a good balance of the available troops which will become unavailable upon leaving the screen. You can just take all and then dump them afterwards but that can get very complicated within categories when thinking of who needs to be dropped, not to mention can be quite tedious, but there IS a category summary like that for you.
I think you can also hover over yourself on the map to see this information and hold alt to see the details.

Oh my god I hadn't thought of viewing my own party in that window! THANK YOU.
Devs please just put that exact "(Name)'s Party" information from the clan tab into the actual party tab (eg. Sword/bow/horse/horsebow icons, with troop summary on the hover) and that'll make life easier!

 

[LuciusDomitiusAurelianus]

+1