This issue was already discussed on the forum but the thread got mixed
up a little thus I try here in a more cleaner way.
Most modern strategy games whether real-time or turn based use a
different UI system than Wesnoth's.
I think we should go with the time and consider to replace our old
system by a different one.
Using different mouse buttons for selecting and execute actions is common.
Commercial games which give a good example are the latest Civilization
game (finally hex fields made it into the series :-),
and BattleWorldsKronos to mention only hex based ones.
The main advantage is that the UI is more fail safe.
Just browsing the map (and see which unit can go where) is already error
prune since you might trigger a move instead of another select.
Dedicating a mouse button to selection *only* does much better.
I have tried the following setup:
Left Mouse Button:
Select hex field in question.
Selecting a hex field again leads to deselection.
(Note that you always select a hex field, even if there is no unit on it.
The game is just not giving you any feedback about it, the player
believes that the concept is "Select Units".)
Right Mouse Button:
Move/Attack unit if an own unit is selected.
Show the context menu otherwise.
This was a horrible and disturbing experience in the first few minutes.
I was used to deselect with the right mouse button which now triggers
unwanted moves.
I got used to the new situation after two scenarios.
Be careful with the right do what you want with the left.
First, I missed the option to deselect with the right.
But soon you realize that there is no need to deselect that often.
Clicking right is mostly done to bring the game back in a safe state to
continue browsing.
But with left dedicated to browsing only there is no need to do so.
Still you can deselect quite easily.
Just clicking on an empty hex does (or better, it looks like deselection).
Clicking again on a selected unit for deselection means that in worst case
(when you hover over another unit) a double click
(technically it is not a double click - the time between the events does
not matter) is enough
(while it won't hurt on an empty field where one left click is enough).
Having to deselect before the context menu can be brought up with the
different button
did not cause much problems anymore soon.
I bet most new players are used to this kind of interface anyway and do
better with it from the beginning.
This change can be included as an option (would prefer otherwise),
but then the huge improvement legitimates it being the new default.
Regards,
Fabian
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