Oolite Bulletins

Where is the Like button when you *really* need it?

Good work PG, but I agree with Eric that we need to consider extending a bit the OXP visibility so that we won't have to rely on text inside inhabitants' descriptions to make the most of them and of this neat feature.

Speaking of features and, although we are officially still in feature freeze, I think we need to also look into ways of lifting it for continued development. We are already working on such ways, so hopefully this feature would be a good one to go in as soon as development is resumed.

another_commander wrote:

Where is the Like button when you *really* need it?

Good work PG, but I agree with Eric that we need to consider extending a bit the OXP visibility so that we won't have to rely on text inside inhabitants' descriptions to make the most of them and of this neat feature.

Speaking of features and, although we are officially still in feature freeze, I think we need to also look into ways of lifting it for continued development. We are already working on such ways, so hopefully this feature would be a good one to go in as soon as development is resumed.

Can't wait - although there's plenty to do in the meantime .

Wyvern Mommy wrote:

i like it.

a suggestion though, with 4 symbols now, it would look better in two rows i think.

I thought about that too, but I think the linear layout will be easier to read when you have a lot of systems clustered closely together.

another_commander wrote:

Where is the Like button when you *really* need it?

Good work PG, but I agree with Eric that we need to consider extending a bit the OXP visibility so that we won't have to rely on text inside inhabitants' descriptions to make the most of them and of this neat feature.

Speaking of features and, although we are officially still in feature freeze, I think we need to also look into ways of lifting it for continued development. We are already working on such ways, so hopefully this feature would be a good one to go in as soon as development is resumed.

Thanks A_C. Given that to get that number I use a text search in the species description for each entry in the 4th list in the inhabitants dictionary in description.plist (ie looking up each of "Rodent", "Frog", etc in the species description) to see which matches; and if none match it must be Human Colonists is not really the best way to do this. It was the easiest. Please note this number is one of the details that gets cached so Oolite isn't recalculating it every time you press "i" in the Short Range Chart. If we added a base species number to the SystemInfo object then that could be used instead and my text searching code can be dropped. I have taken a quick look at the code for JS SystemInfo method and it's looking rather complicated . (Probably simple when you understand it.)

If you are in code freeze at the moment that will be fine as I doubt I will get my head round the SystemInfo / JS stuff that soon

Wyvern Mommy wrote:

A suggestion though, with 4 symbols now, it would look better in two rows i think.

. I can see your point. Not that that would stop overlaps; two rows of two would be just as at risk of that, but it would mean you can more easily relate the symbol to the appropriate system. (I see CommRlock78 disagrees) I will have a look and see if it works.

PhantorGorth wrote:

Wyvern Mommy wrote:

A suggestion though, with 4 symbols now, it would look better in two rows i think.

. I can see your point. Not that that would stop overlaps; two rows of two would be just as at risk of that, but it would mean you can more easily relate the symbol to the appropriate system. (I see CommRlock78 disagrees) I will have a look and see if it works.

Actually, because of the way systems are distributed, you’ll get much more overlap with two rows.

This is what two rows of two for the info looks like:



It would be better for two systems very close horizontally to each other as less would overlap but I am not 100% sure it is easier to associate the symbols to the correct system.

Phantor

Edit 25/4/2017 - fixed image URL.

JensAyton wrote:

Actually, because of the way systems are distributed, you’ll get much more overlap with two rows.

hmm, It may just be the location I chose for the above screenshot but that looks to me as evidence to contrary.

PhantorGorth wrote:

JensAyton wrote:

Actually, because of the way systems are distributed, you’ll get much more overlap with two rows.

hmm, It may just be the location I chose for the above screenshot but that looks to me as evidence to contrary.

Maybe reducing slightly the size of the icons would make things look more consolidated, even when using one row of them? I don't think that readability would be affected that badly.

another_commander wrote:

Maybe reducing slightly the size of the icons would make things look more consolidated, even when using one row of them? I don't think that readability would be affected that badly.

Ok here is an example with the symbols at 90% their normal size:



This may work in the above example but if you look at the systems in the TECEA area in G6 this may not help.

A proper solution would be to have a space finding algorithm that placed the info in closest "space" (no overlaps) with possible connecting lines if unfortunately moved too far. This would be a difficult and likely time consuming algorithm.

A possibly "easier" solution would be dimming the overlapping symbols of other systems to the closest system to mouse cursor; so that bringing your mouse close to the system of interest dims out the information of other systems. (Likely done using a semi-transparent black background behind the symbols of the closest system.)

Phantor

Edit 25/4/2017 - fixed image URL.

Looking at that particular chart, I think I prefer one row instead of two.

Cody wrote:

Looking at that particular chart, I think I prefer one row instead of two.

It's a hard call, but I'd say I still prefer the single row .

Yeah! Single row. 2 symbols to the left of the star, 2 symbols to the right of the star.

Also not sure about the rodents with fluffy tails. Could just be me being biased about how rodents should look, what with my Cmdr coming from Maises in G1.

Tricky wrote:

Yeah! Single row. 2 symbols to the left of the star, 2 symbols to the right of the star.

Also not sure about the rodents with fluffy tails. Could just be me being biased about how rodents should look, what with my Cmdr coming from Maises in G1.

Brilliant !

Tricky wrote:

Yeah! Single row. 2 symbols to the left of the star, 2 symbols to the right of the star.

I'll do a version like that and post here.

Tricky wrote:

Also not sure about the rodents with fluffy tails. Could just be me being biased about how rodents should look, what with my Cmdr coming from Maises in G1.

Not all Humanoids looks like a Grey; whatever I do it will be wrong to someone. There is a thread about doing images of each inhabitant for the system details screen. I am not doing that!

But what I will say is that I am working something more sophisticated than what I have done so far so watch this space.

PhantorGorth wrote:

Tricky wrote:

Yeah! Single row. 2 symbols to the left of the star, 2 symbols to the right of the star.

I'll do a version like that and post here.

The image of the inhabitant could replace the star which would mean all other information is displayed as before.

PhantorGorth wrote:

Tricky wrote:

Also not sure about the rodents with fluffy tails. Could just be me being biased about how rodents should look, what with my Cmdr coming from Maises in G1.

Not all Humanoids looks like a Grey; whatever I do it will be wrong to someone. There is a thread about doing images of each inhabitant for the system details screen. I am not doing that!

But what I will say is that I am working something more sophisticated than what I have done so far so watch this space.

Doh! Just done a search. I know why it looked odd, it looked like a squirrel which IS a rodent. I actually didn't know that until just now. Sorry.