I've been pondering for some time on the usability of Angband. In short, it sucks. The game has improved much in the recent years, but it is still very difficult for a newcomer to grasp all the keys and concepts at once, and the confusing interface does not help. Angband is currently mainly a game for command-line-users/power-users, with a steep learning curve. I think we can still improve much in the direction of intuitiveness of the interface and user-friendliness.
I suspect that many of you will think "this is heresy", "this is not how we've done things up to now", or "I am not used to this, it would be annoying" when they read the following list, but if you're used to something else, you can always enable it back in the options screen. We should focus on first-time users and provide sensible defaults for them.
==Commands==
1) Mouse movement on by default. No one is going to play that way for long, but it helps to keep the two moments "learn the game basics" and "learn to play with the keyboard" separate.
2) We need a unified keyboard "use" (zap wand/rod/staff, equip weapon/armor, throw arrow, read scroll, quaff potion) command. This is how people are used to interact with computers nowadays. You click on it, it does the right thing. We should have a primary mouse "click" mapped to it and a secondary "right click" action to open a context menu for everything else.
3) easy_alter and easy_open should be on by default -- this is a no brainer IMHO.
4) hide_squelchable and squelch_worthless should be on by default. On the "squelch setting" (=s) screen, we should have a label warning that squelched items are not destroyed, just hidden: if you mess with the settings and squelch the wrong thing, you can always have it back by changing them -- as long as you don't leave the level.
5) the game is currently unplayable on a laptop, as you need the numeric keypad for diagonal movement (don't tell me "you can press 1379"). Unless you use the roguelike keymap. So, I think it should be on by default. Desktop users can move with the numeric keypad and just ignore those crazy VI-like keys. What is the drawback of the roguelike keymap, apart from "we're just not used to that"?
6) the mess with inscriptions + roguelike keymap should go away (I throw my arrows with "t", so why do I have to inscribe them "@f1"?)
==interface==
1) multiple terms with useful stuff such as the visible monster list (really, who plays without that?) should be on by default
2) in fact, multiple windows are currently deprecated in term of usability. We should have a single window with several sidebars/statusbar/top-bars/bottom-bars containing most useful stuff (message recall, monster list, and inventory should be enough). At least on Windows, X, and Mac OS.
3) Tooltips. Waving my mouse on a monster/object should open a tooltip balloon window with the monster/object recall.
4) "Your 'sex' does not have any significant gameplay effects". So why do you ask for it? Remove.
5) Let's think about tiles on by default. I don't like tiles, and I'd like to encourage newbie not to use them, but let's discuss it.
6) total damage/turn display -- not damage/blow. With the caveat "assuming all blows hit the target".
7) race/class descriptions on the "choose race/class" screen, describing their abilities
Some of this stuff is not easy to implement, or may raise problems on some "exotic" platform. But I think newbie usability is an area in which Angband could still be improved much, and I just wanted to raise the problem and give some suggestions.
Just my two cents
I suspect that many of you will think "this is heresy", "this is not how we've done things up to now", or "I am not used to this, it would be annoying" when they read the following list, but if you're used to something else, you can always enable it back in the options screen. We should focus on first-time users and provide sensible defaults for them.
==Commands==
1) Mouse movement on by default. No one is going to play that way for long, but it helps to keep the two moments "learn the game basics" and "learn to play with the keyboard" separate.
2) We need a unified keyboard "use" (zap wand/rod/staff, equip weapon/armor, throw arrow, read scroll, quaff potion) command. This is how people are used to interact with computers nowadays. You click on it, it does the right thing. We should have a primary mouse "click" mapped to it and a secondary "right click" action to open a context menu for everything else.
3) easy_alter and easy_open should be on by default -- this is a no brainer IMHO.
4) hide_squelchable and squelch_worthless should be on by default. On the "squelch setting" (=s) screen, we should have a label warning that squelched items are not destroyed, just hidden: if you mess with the settings and squelch the wrong thing, you can always have it back by changing them -- as long as you don't leave the level.
5) the game is currently unplayable on a laptop, as you need the numeric keypad for diagonal movement (don't tell me "you can press 1379"). Unless you use the roguelike keymap. So, I think it should be on by default. Desktop users can move with the numeric keypad and just ignore those crazy VI-like keys. What is the drawback of the roguelike keymap, apart from "we're just not used to that"?
6) the mess with inscriptions + roguelike keymap should go away (I throw my arrows with "t", so why do I have to inscribe them "@f1"?)
==interface==
1) multiple terms with useful stuff such as the visible monster list (really, who plays without that?) should be on by default
2) in fact, multiple windows are currently deprecated in term of usability. We should have a single window with several sidebars/statusbar/top-bars/bottom-bars containing most useful stuff (message recall, monster list, and inventory should be enough). At least on Windows, X, and Mac OS.
3) Tooltips. Waving my mouse on a monster/object should open a tooltip balloon window with the monster/object recall.
4) "Your 'sex' does not have any significant gameplay effects". So why do you ask for it? Remove.
5) Let's think about tiles on by default. I don't like tiles, and I'd like to encourage newbie not to use them, but let's discuss it.
6) total damage/turn display -- not damage/blow. With the caveat "assuming all blows hit the target".
7) race/class descriptions on the "choose race/class" screen, describing their abilities
Some of this stuff is not easy to implement, or may raise problems on some "exotic" platform. But I think newbie usability is an area in which Angband could still be improved much, and I just wanted to raise the problem and give some suggestions.
Just my two cents
Comment