The number of locations in the game is quite large, and it is a regular occurrence that the player needs to work out where a particular location is. There are a handful of hotlink features that exist to aid in this sort of activity, and there is always the track feature in the encyclopedia as a last resort - but there is more clicking than there needs to be for a common task. Suggestion to improve this flow:
1. When the encyclopedia is opened, since there do not appear to be any hotkeys active, the cursor should be live in the search field by default. There is nothing else the user will be using their keyboard for other than hitting Esc to exit the encyclopedia, so they should be able to start typing a search immediately without needing to mouse click into the field first.
2. The autocomplete feature in the search field is a great idea, but incomplete. It is currently only possible to use the mouse to select an option from the suggestions that appear as you start to type. There are established practices and standards for using the tab key, cursor keys and enter to allow selection from such lists using the keyboard (where the user's hands already are) without needing to return a hand to the mouse, identify the location of the pointer, move the pointer to the desired selection and click.
3. The track feature is useful, but the most frequent use I have for it is just to find a location, and once I've eyeballed where it is I immediately turn it back off again. The eye button as present in the Kingdom interface, Army tab for armies other than your own would be ideal. Clicking such a button (which would reside near the existing Track feature) would close the encyclopedia and take the user to the location of the fief. The campaign camera should transition from its current location and zoom level to the fief's location with a moderate zoom level rapidly, but slowly enough that the user comprehends where they have been taken relative to where they were last looking on the campaign map (which is usually, though not always, their current location).
Bonus feature request: I would so love to be able to hit Ctrl+F on the campaign map and enter an autocompleted location name to have the camera transition there.
I note that automatic camera movement for such things would need to deal with the edge case of when the camera is locked to current location, such as when you are in a town. imo, the locking of the camera while in a settlement needs a rework anyway so dealing with the exception case would be subject to what that rework produces.
1. When the encyclopedia is opened, since there do not appear to be any hotkeys active, the cursor should be live in the search field by default. There is nothing else the user will be using their keyboard for other than hitting Esc to exit the encyclopedia, so they should be able to start typing a search immediately without needing to mouse click into the field first.
2. The autocomplete feature in the search field is a great idea, but incomplete. It is currently only possible to use the mouse to select an option from the suggestions that appear as you start to type. There are established practices and standards for using the tab key, cursor keys and enter to allow selection from such lists using the keyboard (where the user's hands already are) without needing to return a hand to the mouse, identify the location of the pointer, move the pointer to the desired selection and click.
3. The track feature is useful, but the most frequent use I have for it is just to find a location, and once I've eyeballed where it is I immediately turn it back off again. The eye button as present in the Kingdom interface, Army tab for armies other than your own would be ideal. Clicking such a button (which would reside near the existing Track feature) would close the encyclopedia and take the user to the location of the fief. The campaign camera should transition from its current location and zoom level to the fief's location with a moderate zoom level rapidly, but slowly enough that the user comprehends where they have been taken relative to where they were last looking on the campaign map (which is usually, though not always, their current location).
Bonus feature request: I would so love to be able to hit Ctrl+F on the campaign map and enter an autocompleted location name to have the camera transition there.
I note that automatic camera movement for such things would need to deal with the edge case of when the camera is locked to current location, such as when you are in a town. imo, the locking of the camera while in a settlement needs a rework anyway so dealing with the exception case would be subject to what that rework produces.
