HUD and Information Display Windows

I have seen posts regarding this, but some of them are hard to read so hear is my attempt at it :smile:

SUPPLY/POSSESSIONS/CURRENCY INFORMATIONAL WINDOW:
Though a player’s basic currency and constructable resources should be visible at all times on a HUD, I would also like to see all of my possessions in a window I can open which can be filtered in tabs of “See All,” "Tools/Weapons, “Clothes/Armor,” etc. I would also like that window to display my currency and resources (i.e. Gold, wood, stone, etc.). I am picturing the window you get when you open your bank in WoW or your Pipboy in Fallout.

The display for the food should show supply and demand (I don’t know the exact numbers so don’t go off what I say, go off what I mean), so, if a villager needs 10 food per day, and you have 10 villagers, the demand is 100 food per day which should be displayed as 000/100. (000= food supply, and 100= food demand). After harvesting 500 food like a boss, your food display should look like: 500/100. or something to that effect to help the player judge where they are at with meeting the food demands.

COMMUNITY INFORMATIONAL WINDOW:
I don’t want to see a hungry icon over every villager when I’m running low on food. If I have a food meter on my HUD (as mentioned above), it can turn red as an indicator like when I run out of money for my city in Sim City. What I WOULD like to see is a Community Informational Window that I can open and see general info such as overall hunger, satisfaction/status with other things like total members, progress towards getting new members, available upgrades and progress towards them, relationships with other players/factions (when it gets to that point). This could show the total community members as well as the divided totals in each profession (i.e. Total: 20, Workers: 10, Farmers: 2, Blacksmiths: 1, Trappers: 1, Fishermen: 1, Soldiers: 5, etc. This informational window may be the one that needs to display animal information on a separate tab or?

BUILDING BLUEPRINT/CUSTOM BUILDING CRAFTING WINDOW:
There is already a button for this, but I would like to see it as a window that opens and provides more detailed list of building types, need-to-know building information (i.e. how many people does it house or what perk does it provide and how?). For example, I should be able to click open the building window, sort/search for dining hall with a kitchen which will tell me what it will cost to build it, how many community members it is designed to serve, and that it will increase the effectiveness of my food by 10% (for example) due to improved cooking and dining conditions. If I find that building type but I don’t want that exact building, I should be able to select “customize” which will allow me to custom-build the same thing, but show an itemized list of what is needed for that building to be recognized as, and provide the same perks as, the prebuilt dining hall with a kitchen.

I would also like to click on a building to see its condition and its rating, kind of like clicking on a hospital in Sim City. I can use that information to see if I need more food silos, more barracks, etc. The individual building report should not be in the building informational window I don’t think, but a collective report could be, or there could be a tab in the informational window that lists all of the current buildings owned with a basic display of each building’s name, health (87/100), and effectiveness rating (91/100). It could look like:

NAME:____________RATING:____________HEALTH:
Throne Room ______87% _______________ 50/100
Dining Hall ________ 98% _______________ 99/100
Food Silo _________ 70% _______________ 86/100

In case you’re not pickin up on what I’m puttin out, I like buildings and people to have health meters so things can be damaged, destroyed, repaired, upgraded, etc.

PROFESSION/CRAFTING INFORMATIONAL WINDOW:
A sortable one-stop-shop professions/crafting window that will display everything craftable sorted into crafting-type categories, kind of like a workbench in Minecraft or a professions tab in WoW etc.Most people don’t like having to bounce around to see what CAN be crafted and what IS being crafted. the items crafted should move directly to the SUPPLY/POSSESSIONS/CURRENCY INFORMATIONAL WINDOW. The more of these items that can be tracked as data-only in an inventory rather than as multiple 3D items lying around the map slowing some peoples graphics (such as a bunch of floating log-cubes after cutting down a tree rather than them being collected in an inventory). Craftable items should be able to be previewed before crafting, something like the WoW item previewer window if shift+clicked (maybe just have a preview button so if someone has two crowns or two armors able to be crafted, they can see what they look like before they craft it).

GAME MENU OPTIONS WINDOW:
You already have this window by pressing escape, but I would rather see it as a button right along side the other buttons/windows listed above for uniformity and ease of access. Unless I missed it, there isn’t anything that says to push escape if you want that menu, so someone like my wife who would enjoy playing the game but doesn’t know escape is the general go-to for menu options, could still find the menu by clicking on the button.

SUMMARY:
Anyone who was played Sim City 3/4 or The SIMS 3/4 knows just how many menu items you can have open and hidden at the click of a button which allow you all of the information you want when you want it, and then almost nothing but a full-screen visual of gameplay with just a couple little buttons or small HUD in a corner somewhere. I use those games only for examples of overall screen and menu organization, not a comparison of gameplay, content, graphics or anything else.

2 Likes

Seems like a very interesting take you have on this. I take it you’re big Sims fan?

There was a time, but not so much now, but I do give them credit for a nice HUD and menu windows. Organized and easy to follow.

As for the health meters for buildings and such, I should have included that Command and Conquer, total Annihilation, Starcraft, Warcraft, etc. do the same, but I guess I did focus in a bit on Sim related games lol.

I don’t blame ya, when I first looked at stonehearth I thought of The Sims myself