Old unit portrait mechanic

[Lag]

I really tried giving it a go but unless I am playing noobs, the new portraits make it unplayable for me as I rely on it to select units for retreat and give order. I'm sure there are people who are annoyed as well, but that there are also people who really like it and enjoy it.
So, here is the simplest way to determine how the people feel about it.

Edit: This is not about new portraits, but about portrait mechanics. These are portraits aligned on the right side of the screen which are changing position according to the binds (new system) or ordered in chronological order of when a unit was made (the old system).

[Asmon]

The craftworld embraces it.

[Torpid]

I'm Torpid about it, don't really remember what it was like before tbh. IDC, I'm a banana!

[Orkfaeller]

Love it.

Try taking it away from me an I'll cut you.

[Forestradio]

Thanks to some new portraits, I can recognize most of the squads by their faces anyway.
It might have been a problem before, with tacs/devs being the same thing, but I think it's fine now

[Lag]

This is not about new images. This is about the mechanics of the portraits aligned on the right of your screen. I wish people read the title at least.

[Dark Riku]

Thomas. Is there maybe a way to make this feature an option?
So everyone can be happy :p I don't care either way. I'm a banana.

[Forestradio]

This is not about new images. This is about the mechanics of the portraits aligned on the right of your screen. I wish people read the title at least.

I know exactly what you're talking about and yes I read the title.

The swapping units portraits was a bigger issue when the portraits looked very similar to one another. It made it hard to keep track of your stuff.

Now that the portraits don't look so similar to one another, I really don't care about it.

[Jazz-Sandwich]

Jazz-Sandwich; now in banana flavour.

But honestly, I aint pushed either way.

[Arbit]

I like it. Having the portraits go gm/sent/gm made the OCD part of my brain itch. Now it doesn't matter what order I build things, I can have my GM next to each other! Oh boy!

[MaxPower]

Im with riku, make it optional if it is possible.

[Toilailee]

I dunno how you've played this game all this time without using numbers to select units.

Only thing I dislike about the new mechanic is that it comes with ~1 second lag. So when I want to swap unit key binds, say for example guardsmen from 3 to 4 and sentinel from 4 to 3, I click on the portraits on the right and change them. So when I change guardsmen to 4 sentinel loses its keybind and drops down to last, and it happens right when I try to click on it, making me miss the click and me having to take extra half of a second to click on it.

So I'd like the mechanic either not have lag or have 1+ second longer lag.


I hope manage to understand what I was trying to say, other than that I'm a banana.

[Lag]

I do bind units, but I re-bind them mid battle to adapt to new priorities. If I retreated my Warboss but my Sluggas are still potentially the most useful unit in the middle of the fight - I will bind them to 1 until something else is the most important.

AFAIK it can't be set up to have both options. It is either one or another.
I guess this is it for me then. Hf guys, nice playing with ya.

[Asmon]

I don't understand how the new system prevents you from doing what you're describing. You can still reassign unit numbers.

[Lulgrim]

Only thing I dislike about the new mechanic is that it comes with ~1 second lag.

Thomas could decrease it (it was a cautionary performance thing to make the script update like that) if the delay is a problem. I expect it's pretty light compared to all the big stuff going on, in any case.

I'm not sure if the script can be made optional. Maybe with a custom UI button it could.

I do bind units, but I re-bind them mid battle to adapt to new priorities. If I retreated my Warboss but my Sluggas are still potentially the most useful unit in the middle of the fight - I will bind them to 1 until something else is the most important.

I'm trying, but I just can't understand your problem. None of your descriptions explain how it makes your game harder. It sounds like the rearrange script would in fact specifically help in this situation, as the visual layout corresponds with your mental priority and key layout.

[Lag]

The way they rearrange when I re-bind is unpredictable and my mind set is "I have a mess in binds but at least I know where which unit is due to them being arranged so nicely on the portrait interface". Sure, I can still reassign units, but when I want to select a specific unit to retreat or bring back to the field without moving screen to base it takes me 1-3 seconds to find the one I need (depending on the number of units) because they aren't in the order I can predict which breaks my flow and leads to late reactions.
When I play pub games this is not an issue, but playing high level games where 1-3 seconds make a difference between saving and losing your high level units - I just get angry at something I relied so heavily on being changed.
I respect that people like it so I'm not gonna whine about it any further. Just wanted to explain myself.

[Lulgrim]

The way they rearrange when I re-bind is unpredictable

Well #1 comes first then #2 below that and #3 below that etc., it doesn't get more predictable than that surely?

[Lag]

If I had something bound on 2, and then took something else and bind it to 2, the boundless stuff mixes with the other boundless stuff. Even if I had everything bound and knew which was which - it would still take me time to find the one unit I am looking for, instead of just knowing that the second GM squad is on my fourth spot, or that my freshest, least experienced Slugga squad is not the one on the second spot, and that I will then send it to cap instead the experienced one. Sure I can just select them and check XP, but that breaks the flow and makes me spend time doing something that needed no time doing before.

TBH I don't see the point of people discussing this with me. I know how much it fucks up my game. Anyone saying "but it is easy" doesn't change the fact that my play style revolved for the past year (and a half? hmm) around having fixed portraits.
If my controls in FPS games are esdf instead of wasd, my space is secondary/zoom, e is jump and mouse 2 is +forward (like it is), and a new multiplayer game gives me no other option but to use wasd because I cannot change it - I will not play it.

[Indrid]

I've also never understood Lag's issue. Constantly re-binding units seems like it just adds unnecessary micro. It's not any quicker to hit 1 than it is to hit another number, so I'm not sure why you'd have your most important asset always bound to 1.

Anyway, we'll see if Thomas can do anything.

[Vapor]

Could this be made into a steam launch option perhaps?

[Lulgrim]

No.

[ThongSong]

this poll is funny because I actually am a Banana.

[TomastheTankEngine]

I have know I haven't been around very much. I have a newborn girl and I am also swapped my writing my PhD thesis. Any spare time I do have I try to relax with.

The lag is caused by a timed event which triggers ever 2 seconds to test the control group to the portrait binding. This is not ideal. Ideally one should be intercepting the control group change event but this can't be done through SCAR. I have left it at 2 seconds because I didn't expect people where changing the control groups very often.

There is a theroy I have for an option to switch off the bindings but I have not tried it yet. I will give a quick blast over the weekend. I can also reduce the lag on the switching if wanted.

I am hoping my partner will be taking our little one to visit her grandparents in the new year which will give me time to work on the speech editor program. I have come some way with it but it is no where in state that people can use it.

[Lag]

Congrats man!
And thanks for some new hope.

[sk4zi]

yeah congrats papa

[Pandemic]

I don't really know what the update to the portraits is, could someone explain? i mean, i don't see any difference while I'm playing.

[Indrid]

Unit portrait tabs (right side of screen) now automatically change position depending on their control group.

[Orkfaeller]

^

The Unit Portraits on the right side of your screen will now take order the way you key bound your units.

[Lag]

Thomas does it again. Thank you sir!

[TomastheTankEngine]

I was able to write some code which makes the control group reshuffle depended on a flag. With Lag's help I tested yesterday and seems that it does not cause a sync error. In the next update people may turn off the control group shuffle by altering the flag in the skirmish scar file. I will write a description on how this can be done closer to the next patch.