View other player's units in lefthand pane - while in-game

[Sinney]

Since the pane on the lefthand side of the screen is currently designated for your own player (unit avatars + life status), I think it would be really cool to be able to click on any player in the "Players" list and bring up the unit statistics for that player.

It would be especially helpful for seeing number and status of units for a particular player, especially in multiplayer matches, where a quick view of your teammates' (or enemy's status) could assist in planning.

- sinneytsur

[Ross Przybylski]

Hi sin,

If you click the "Users" tab and select a player, a "View Profile" button will appear.  Click this and the player's profile will appear, allowing you to view stats for all of their units.

Let me know if this helps!

~Ross

[Sinney]

Hmm... I think we're  far apart on this one.

I'll try to explain better!  I see in the View Profile menu what you are talking about (the ability to View Hero Stats).

I was thinking about something quicker that you could do during the match to help with your assessment of the battlefield.  

Similar to selecting individual Units(Heros), and having that Unit's information pop up in the right-hand pane; it would be a situation where you could select a Player (not Unit), and in the same place where it currently shows your own Hero information in the left-hand pane, it could swap out and show the selected player's Hero information.

That way during battle, let's say if I was teamed up with PlayerX, I could click his name from the user list, and in the left-hand pane, it would show me his Units, and their health status, etc.  And the same if I clicked on an enemy Player.

Does that help clarify a bit?

- sinneytsur

[Ross Przybylski]

Sin-

Yes, that makes sense.  Oddly enough, this feature was one of the original intents of the interface (to be able to switch between different player's units using the player buttons) but I disabled the functionality fearing it my confuse new users if they accidentally clicked on a player button.  Maybe what I could do is add a menu option that would allow you to "Enable Player Buttons" that would activate the player buttons so you could toggle between unit views as suggested.  This way, you'd have to make the choice to activate the feature, so new players wouldn't have the issue of accidentally clicking a player button and losing view of their own units.

[Sinney]

I agree!  I thought of the potential confusion as well. 

What about if the view of your own units stayed in the top left permanently (as is now), and JUST below that, in the empty space, there would be a display for target player units.  That way, target player units could be seen by either clicking on a target player's unit, or by clicking on their name in the Players list?

[Sinney]

Just thought of a problem there too.... summoned pets typically fill that void in the left-hand pane, and this could be especially problematic with the Summoner as she gets more pets.  Hmmm....

[Ross Przybylski]

Ah, the joys of interface design, lol!  The user interface is often overlooked as a no-brainer, but building an effective interface that clearly portrays all the information and functionality in an easy-to-use fashion is one of the most challenging aspects of application design.  A lot of thought and care went into the design of Hero Mages interface - it's evolved immensely from the original design.  One of these days I'll have to post screenshots so you can see what the early prototypes looked like.

I'll put some more thought into your suggestion; I'm sure we can come up with a solution that offers the additional functionality while still being user-friendly.  Anyone else reading feel free to share your input as well.