SP - UI Troop Type organization, missing icons and Troop Tree UX enhancements

[LuciusDomitiusAurelianus]

This Suggestion is borne from my recent dabbling in modding to add Cav into the Empire as well as properly assigning units into their sub-types (Skirmishers, Light Cav, Heavy Cav, Heavy Inf). I mention that only because I would not have seen it otherwise. These three suggestions in the title are all related, so it was easier in one post.

Troop Screen organization by Type
I propose a (preferably toggleable) sub-organization UX element for Troop Types / AI Profile Assignments (maybe both). Currently, when you are raising a warband (this is more pronounced with a multi-cultural roster) it gets really busy. You have HAs, Archers, Infantry, Cav from all different culture groups in various stages of upgrade.

I would like to have an option that can add drop down menus that shows the groups by the Troop Type from XML as a primary sorting mechanism to have all of my Archers, Infantry, Cav, etc. grouped up. It would (IMO) make it easier to sort and (micro)manage, and would be a great way to fork in the party composition (showing rollups) into the Troop Menu. This will also help me decide what needs to be upgraded, especially when both HAs and Cav require horses/war horses and I want to "min-max" the upgrades over time.

Another option, and one that may be better for actual gameplay, is to have a similar drop-down organization except by which AI profiles I have the troops assigned. Without using mods or editing the XML yourself, you will likely have troops categorized as Infantry, Archers, Cav in Skirmishers or have Elite Cataphracts and Vlandian Banner Knights in Heavy Cav. Being able to swap between the two views would be great!

Missing Troop type icons
I noticed that outside of Ranged, Cav, HA and Infantry - none of the other troop types have finished Icons. This is a bit annoying (and more pronounced) when looking in the Encyclopedia seeing troops categorized as Ranged or Infantry when I assigned them to be skirmishers. The odd part is that this subcategorization is accounted for when you hover over Parties / Enemies on the World Map - you can see Skirmishers, Light Cav, etc. in their troop composition there.

These Icon gaps also extend into actual Battles, when hit Alt, it is really hard to tell the difference with mounted units which can be Cav, Light Cav, Heavy Cav, or Skirmishers. It would be a better immersion and UX experience if the missing Icons were populated in the Party, Encyclopedia, Clan and Battle UX

Troop Tree UX (in encyclopedia)
Again, harkening back to my recent modding experience, the viewport / sizing of the troop trees in the encyclopedia is fixed which leads to troops being cut off or unable to see depending on how many branches and sub-branches you have. I propose a dynamic viewport for this screen so the icons are resized when viewing it. Very minor, but it is well pronounced when adding new troops

Here is a screenshot of what that crowded experience looks like without breaking the "No more than 2 upgrade targets". I get this will likely only affect modded gameplay, but having one default viewport is pretty ugly IMHO.

 

[MRay]

Troop Screen organization by Type

I explained here even though I agree that sorting would be a good QoL improvement why it's not as straight forward as it looks:

For sorting, I'm aware the lack of sorting is felt while playing the game but until we improve the "selecting which troops will spawn in the battle size limit" process, we're probably not going to implement sorting in the party screen. Because the order of troops that are selected in the party screen determines the spawn order in the battle. That means if the player sorted ascending(low to high) by tier in the party screen, their lowest tier troops will spawn first and they will probably lose all those troops. I hope I explained what I mean with this.

Missing Troop type icons

Well they're not in the game because we don't use them. So for vanilla it wouldn't show up as missing because they're not used. I guess we assumed if ppl are going to use those they would add their icons too. I'll take a note to add them but they would be low priority.

Troop Tree UX (in encyclopedia)

Dynamic 2 dimension scroll muddies the UX sadly. A simple scroll wouldn't be enough anymore and we would need to add a SHIFT + Scroll for horizontal and/or mouse hold movement for moving the tree. I can bring this up internally but same thing as the "missing troop type icons", would be low prio.

 

[LuciusDomitiusAurelianus]

Thanks for the reply @emrozdemir !

I do realize the stuff is low priority but it is a cool immersion feature. For the Troop Icons - I noticed that in the Battle map, there is a symbol for the Skirmisher - I have not tried to others. At the very least, I would like the current assigned AI profile to appear other than what the Unit Type is described in the XML. Right now it's hard to distinguish different formations using Alt - for instance - if I split cavalry into Skirmishers, Light, Heavy they are all the same icon.

Oddly, it seems companions will have their icons changed appropriately?

And for the Troop Tree in the encyclopedia, I like the Shift + Click & Drag. I think even a zoom in / out could help if not.

I know these likely won't come for a while, if ever, appreciate the responses!