[Edit]: Well, I wish I'd known how much you could customize screen buttons before...I never tried them before now because I thought ugly flashing buttons like the final campaign misison were all they could be used for.
I've officially tucked the tech tree buttons away where the control group used to be and the Achievement tab is now up top, disguised as a menu button. Player Status is about to get removed to make way for a minimize/maximize button. The Formation dialog I'm still working on a place for.
Possible. Right now, quite a few of the dialogs are already tabbed together. The upgrade and building tech tree dialogs are linked and the achievement dialog is really four dialogs in one with different tabs.
I'm currently trying to make the multiboard less obnoxiously large. After that I'm going to try and move those tabs on the left to another location. I still can't find the image used for the menu button at the top of the screen, despite a lot of searching.
Well, I'm thinking achievements should pretty much always be there. The unit tech tree needs to be as well. The multiboard can be minimized to just show a standard timer window by clicking on player status. I was thinking the player status tab could probably be switched to a small icon and moved over the multiboard.
When the tip dialog is minimized, it goes off the screen so only a tiny icon is remaining, so it can be maximized again. I'm not sure why I chose that particular part of the screen, I just liked how it looked there.
The building tech tree dialog is already removed when it's not necessary.
I think one of the best ways to save space would be to move those tabs on the left to a location where their rectangular shape and size can be concealed better. Like I said, if I knew of a way to make one of those tabs look like the Menu tab at the top of the screen, I'd just throw it up there beside the Chat button. If anybody knows the image associated with those menu buttons, please let me know!
Another thing I thought of was making those tabs smaller and square, with a little icon and a tooltip instead of the text, but I worry that people won't figure out what they buttons do that way.
Well, the building tech tree, unit tech tree, unit upgrade, and achievement dialogs are all linked to tabs, but they're currently on the left side of the screen. They look really ugly (I intend to make them look better soon), but they're also really in the way. If I could change the achievement tab to somehow look like the FX menu buttons at the top of the screen, I could do that to save some space. I'll attach a screenshot so you can see what I've got.
[Edit]: Here is the first revealed screenshot of the massive formation defense rework I've nearly completed. In this image, the tip and multiboard dialogs are maximized and everything else is minimized. The tutorial is not open at all. The multiboard would obviously be much bigger with the max of seven players.
So just with the tabs, the tips and the multiboard, you can see how cluttered it looks :(. You'll also notice the Scouting Dialog I was trying to shoehorn in where control groups usually are.
So I go to make a new dialog for one of my projects and realize..."There's no more damn space on this screen".
I mean literally no more space. I have an Achievement Dialog, two tech tree dialogs, an upgrade dialog, a tutorial dialog, a tip dialog, a custom made multiboard, and one more dialog that is specific to my game. Plus the ridiculously large and clunky frames default to Starcraft II. Thankfully, I've managed to make all of them minimizable (is that even a word?), but it's still just...cluttered.
It's all necessary and I wouldn't want to cut anything out, but I'm completely out of space now...does anybody have any advice for uncluttering the screen? Maybe an alternative to using a multiboard?
My most recent attempt to cram another dialog in here is to hide the control groups frame and place the dialog there, between the command card and minimap panels, but it feels really invasive and doesn't really fit with the rest of the default frame.
For crying out loud...look at this and read the last post...http://forums.sc2mapster.com/resources/tutorials/13317-trigger-fake-menu-button/#p3
I just wasted soooo much time.
[Edit]: Well, I wish I'd known how much you could customize screen buttons before...I never tried them before now because I thought ugly flashing buttons like the final campaign misison were all they could be used for.
I've officially tucked the tech tree buttons away where the control group used to be and the Achievement tab is now up top, disguised as a menu button. Player Status is about to get removed to make way for a minimize/maximize button. The Formation dialog I'm still working on a place for.
Progress! :)
Possible. Right now, quite a few of the dialogs are already tabbed together. The upgrade and building tech tree dialogs are linked and the achievement dialog is really four dialogs in one with different tabs.
I'm currently trying to make the multiboard less obnoxiously large. After that I'm going to try and move those tabs on the left to another location. I still can't find the image used for the menu button at the top of the screen, despite a lot of searching.
Well, I'm thinking achievements should pretty much always be there. The unit tech tree needs to be as well. The multiboard can be minimized to just show a standard timer window by clicking on player status. I was thinking the player status tab could probably be switched to a small icon and moved over the multiboard.
When the tip dialog is minimized, it goes off the screen so only a tiny icon is remaining, so it can be maximized again. I'm not sure why I chose that particular part of the screen, I just liked how it looked there.
The building tech tree dialog is already removed when it's not necessary.
I think one of the best ways to save space would be to move those tabs on the left to a location where their rectangular shape and size can be concealed better. Like I said, if I knew of a way to make one of those tabs look like the Menu tab at the top of the screen, I'd just throw it up there beside the Chat button. If anybody knows the image associated with those menu buttons, please let me know!
Another thing I thought of was making those tabs smaller and square, with a little icon and a tooltip instead of the text, but I worry that people won't figure out what they buttons do that way.
Well, the building tech tree, unit tech tree, unit upgrade, and achievement dialogs are all linked to tabs, but they're currently on the left side of the screen. They look really ugly (I intend to make them look better soon), but they're also really in the way. If I could change the achievement tab to somehow look like the FX menu buttons at the top of the screen, I could do that to save some space. I'll attach a screenshot so you can see what I've got.
[Edit]: Here is the first revealed screenshot of the massive formation defense rework I've nearly completed. In this image, the tip and multiboard dialogs are maximized and everything else is minimized. The tutorial is not open at all. The multiboard would obviously be much bigger with the max of seven players.
So just with the tabs, the tips and the multiboard, you can see how cluttered it looks :(. You'll also notice the Scouting Dialog I was trying to shoehorn in where control groups usually are.
So I go to make a new dialog for one of my projects and realize..."There's no more damn space on this screen".
I mean literally no more space. I have an Achievement Dialog, two tech tree dialogs, an upgrade dialog, a tutorial dialog, a tip dialog, a custom made multiboard, and one more dialog that is specific to my game. Plus the ridiculously large and clunky frames default to Starcraft II. Thankfully, I've managed to make all of them minimizable (is that even a word?), but it's still just...cluttered.
It's all necessary and I wouldn't want to cut anything out, but I'm completely out of space now...does anybody have any advice for uncluttering the screen? Maybe an alternative to using a multiboard?
My most recent attempt to cram another dialog in here is to hide the control groups frame and place the dialog there, between the command card and minimap panels, but it feels really invasive and doesn't really fit with the rest of the default frame.