Preview of new lobby and request for feedback.

[Hammer]

Hi everyone,

As we've teased in the coming soon thread. We are working on some lobby improvements. We want to share some more images and pose this question.

What improvements would you like to see in the lobby?

To be clear we are talking specifically about the lobby screen or things no more than one click away. For example the Random Army screen not remembering it's dimensions is something we'd look at. Rebuilding the Advanced search not as this time, plus it's 2 clicks away.

As for an ETA on this we are aiming for early in the 0.49.x development cycle.

Also quick update on the stable we anticipate 1 more Release Candidate then 0.48.0 Stable will be ready.

Now for some pics.
GENERAL LOBBY STUFF
Main Lobby


Main Lobby with Force Planner (this is very very early proof of concept)


Player Settings


Unit Quirks


Compact View


Compact View Force Planner (this is very very early proof of concept)


Team Overview


Team Overview - Detached



MORE SORTING OPTIONS IN THE LOBBY
Bar Sorting - Player/Transport/ID


Bar Sorting - Unit ID


Bar Sorting - Unit/Name


Bar Sorting - Unit/Type


Bar Sorting - Player/Tonnage


Bar Sorting - Tonnage


Bar Sorting - C3



MAP STUFF
Select Map Overview - know with Drag and Drop


Planetary Conditions


Random Maps


Assembling Maps

[Kojak]

I know I would get a ton of use out of being able to see what kind of ammo and how much of it each unit has at a glance.

[GreekFire]

This just reminded me of a persistent issue I've noticed: when dragging the unit information headers (unit, player, pilot, or BV) left or right, the header moves to its new location but the information displayed underneath it remains the same.

This bug also applies to MML in its "Current Loadout" section of the Equipment tab.

I'm not sure if this has been fixed yet, but if not lemme know and I can open a ticket for it.

[Simon Landmine]

One suggestion that some made over on the Discords was to be able to searh maps by name/part of name without setting the map size first, e.g. if you knew the name of the map but not the size. Appreciate that this might run completely counter to the way that the software generates the map lists.

Would it be possible to include the Team allocation on the Player Settings window, as that's the other parameter that often needs adjusting in the Lobby during 'player' set up, especially when using multiple 'Role-Bots', so it would be useful to be able to adjust that at the same time as the start location. (The current drop-down Team selecter seems to behave oddly occasionally, but intermittently and unreproducably, for me, when the 'selected player' snaps back to the first player, resulting in their Team being reallocated, so having it on the Player Settings window might prevent that.)

[strategoslevel3]

It would be great to have the following features in the MegaMek lobby.

-Being able to reorder units and if possible have a folder system for formations so you can se our your force in lances etc.

-print option/export to csv. Lots of us use MegaMek for force building for tabletop games, so a way to print/export force lists would be great.

-tonnage column on the compact view.

-A way to return to the lobby if you start the game the realise you need to change something rather than having to quit the whole game.

[ArcFurnace]

Whenever I open the MM lobby itself with "Start Game", it always starts as not-maximized. It would be nice if it could remember to start maximized.

Also, an option to disable the "Do you want to save the game before quitting Megamek?" window.

[Hammer]

A way to return to the lobby if you start the game the realise you need to change something rather than having to quit the whole game.

Type /reset in console. You’ll need to set up maps but faster than everything.

[Juliez]

Would it be possible to include the Team allocation on the Player Settings window, as that's the other parameter that often needs adjusting in the Lobby during 'player' set up, especially when using multiple 'Role-Bots', so it would be useful to be able to adjust that at the same time as the start location. (The current drop-down Team selecter seems to behave oddly occasionally, but intermittently and unreproducably, for me, when the 'selected player' snaps back to the first player, resulting in their Team being reallocated, so having it on the Player Settings window might prevent that.)

I have put that in the right-click menu of the player list and I could make that list allow multi-selection which would probably be even better for a longer bot list?

[Hammer]

I know I would get a ton of use out of being able to see what kind of ammo and how much of it each unit has at a glance.

Like this?

[Kerfuffin(925)]

Like this?

I like that

[johnboyjjb]

I'd kind of like an option to redefine bot targets at every initiative phase which you would toggle from the lobby.

[Plinythemechwarrior]

Lobby improvements, yay!

I know I would get a ton of use out of being able to see what kind of ammo and how much of it each unit has at a glance.

Agreed. I would suggest something like how armor/IS is shown in green/yellow/red, depending on how depleted the ammo is.

-Being able to reorder units and if possible have a folder system for formations so you can se our your force in lances etc.

Yes! It's been a nightmare making up units for the Battle of Tukayyid Online, in part because of the difficulty in sorting units in MM.

-print option/export to csv. Lots of us use MegaMek for force building for tabletop games, so a way to print/export
force lists would be great.

Exporting would be awesome! I use Megamek for a local campaign while we're unable to meet face-to-face, and right now I'm doing a lot of manual entry into a spreadsheet.

A way to return to the lobby if you start the game the realise you need to change something rather than having to quit the whole game.

Definitely. Some way to save the state of the lobby when the game starts so you can return to it if you screw up a map setting or what have you, rather than re-making the proverbial wheel. I'm sure all of us have done it at least once 

[Wrangler]

Is the armor type going to be shown in different colors such as heavy ferro or harden armor?

[dgorsman]

One suggestion that some made over on the Discords was to be able to searh maps by name/part of name without setting the map size first, e.g. if you knew the name of the map but not the size. Appreciate that this might run completely counter to the way that the software generates the map lists.

Something that just occurred to me, would be meta-tagging maps with various features ("Flat" "Wide urban" "Tunnel maze" "Landmine shore map"  etc.) so they can be searched/displayed by a set of terms.  Could also help with more consistent random selection of multiple-map playing areas with a standard set of meta-tags.

[dgorsman]

Type /reset in console. You’ll need to set up maps but faster than everything.

Hammer, does doing this still return correctly to MekHQ at the end?

[Hammer]

Hammer, does doing this still return correctly to MekHQ at the end?

This strictly resets a Megamek match back to the lobby screen. But you'll still need to double check options and maps before you restart.

[pfarland]

I'd kind of like an option to redefine bot targets at every initiative phase which you would toggle from the lobby.

That would be a great feature to simulate the Clans. A simple "Restrict Princess Targets to Player Defined". If that could be done, especially with a "lock on" effect.

[Simon Landmine]

I have put that in the right-click menu of the player list and I could make that list allow multi-selection which would probably be even better for a longer bot list?

Woohoo! (When I'm playing solo against Princess, I tend to spin up a full set of 'Role' Princess instances for more 'realistic' behaviour, so being able to multi-select for Teams (and maybe Starting Edges) would be excellent.)

The 'variable deployment depth' RFE implementation would probably fit into the new Player Settings pop-up, although I know it's not implemented yet.

[Kojak]

-Being able to reorder units and if possible have a folder system for formations so you can se our your force in lances etc.

I couldn't agree with this more, and I'm glad you brought it up, this has bugged for so long and I can't believe it didn't occur to me to raise it as an issue. Yes, for the love of Kerensky, let me drag and drop my units around in the lobby to reorder them.

[Stormforge]

Like this?

Any chance this shows pilot SPAs too? Or add a tool-tip to the pilot like this?

[ArcFurnace]

It would be nice if the Unit Selector was able to display weapon-specific Quirks. Currently these show up, but only once the unit is actually in the lobby. E.G. the Hollander shows as having Unbalanced and Reinforced Legs on the unit selector, while in the lobby tooltip you can see it also has Stabilized Weapon on its Gauss Rifle, or the Enforcer-4R having Barrel Fists on both arms but also Improved Cooling Jacket/Ammo Feed Problems/Fast Reload on its AC/10 once in the lobby.

[Hammer]

Any chance this shows pilot SPAs too? Or add a tool-tip to the pilot like this?

Kinda like this...

[SLDF_Gunslinger]

The 'variable deployment depth' RFE implementation would probably fit into the new Player Settings pop-up, although I know it's not implemented yet.

I have to second this sentiment...but I also proposed the RFE 

[Stormforge]

Kinda like this...

Exactly! Very nice 

[dgorsman]

Speaking of SPAs, can the ones like Human TRO and Weapon Specialist show which the option?  Currently (47.16) I have to dig through the unit/pilot configuration in the lobby to see anything other than just "Human TRO".  Once in-game there isn't a way to tell at all.

[Iceweb]

Reading this I just had a thought.  Would it be possible to list the number C3 nodes per player/team?  (can you even link C3 nodes to another player who is on your team?)  I don't know if a counter at the bottom would work, or it would be better to be a hotkey for a window to pop up.   

If it could tell me at a glance how many C3 (boosted) slaves, (boosted) Masters, and iC3 I had and how many were linked it would be nice.  Sometimes when you randomly make an army you don't know at a glance how much C3 is in the force and you want a hint to make sure everything is linked, or even planning how to link it.   

Another thought might be to mark units in lobby to be placed via assault drop.  My memory isn't so good and it is easier to remember in lobby which ones I want to assault drop, than getting the units one at a time in turn 0. 

[Ogra_Chief]

Thank you for your efforts.

Sort, sorted, sorting, and more sorts; the ability to sort and find people/units - making finding what unit or pilot I'm looking for easier. Also, the ability tab through separated (assigned) forces w/ arrow keys /or bound keys.

Also, odd request, can you add an "Exit" selection to close out the Lobby area when finished playing, like any other app. An add to the 'to-do' list five years from now. Regardless love the work, thank you. 

P.S. Additionally, a way to export the condensed Lobby view of MM.

P.S.S. A BIG ONE - the ability drag and drop units into position regardless of numericals assigned; that force units into fixed positions. So if you are swapping a unit out it places it at the bottom of the list because of its' assigned numerical but it belongs to the lance  five units up. Basically, I want to be able to drag and drop units anywhere on the list I chose and not MM. My OCD demands this.

[Snimm]

Have Deep deployments been removed entirely?  Or do you have to enable that option in MM first to see them?

[Stormforge]

Sadly I am just realizing that the popups for the unit and pilot are already there, just not as detailed as above. Never let my cursor hover over the units. Always just hurried and clicked on them to do any customizing. 

[Hammer]

Have Deep deployments been removed entirely?  Or do you have to enable that option in MM first to see them?

No its an option that has to be enabled.