Is the HQ bar needed?

[wosung]

When deploying new units on the map, all HQs of the players side are displayed on the left of the screen as a vertical HQ bar. There are pros and cons to it:

Pros:
The bar is useful, when numbered units are to be placed to their parent HQs without need to search the parent HQs on the map.

Cons:
The bar is redundant, because you can place the units directly on the map.
The bar nearly covers Scapa Flow, while placing units there.


So should the HQ bar remain on board or not?
What do you think?

Regards

P.S.: Maybe Rafiki wants to move this thread for topical order? OTH here is the most public place for it.

[Rafiki]

[color="Blue"]Yeah, but as long as it a discussion about how to improve the game, it belongs in the forum set aside for that purpose.[/color]

However, since thise seemed like a fairly straight-forward "either/or"-question, I took the liberty of adding a poll to help find out how people feel about it

[PDF]

Voted against the bar, I also consider it too big and not very practical.

[Syt]

Something else that bugs me about the bar is that if you want to add two units to an HQ that's a fair bit down you do this:
- scroll down
- drag/drop unit
(list resets)
- scroll down *again*
- drag/drop

[igor7111]

I haven't been able to place reinforcements into the HQs on that bar.
If I could, it would be useful. But since I can't, might as well do away
with it.

[Motomouse]

I like the bar, it is working for me.

Recommanded Improvements for the bar:

If I click a HQ the map should be centred on the HQ

Perhaps if I select a nations reinforcement it should only display the HQs of this country (You would not have to scroll a long list that way)

Regards
Motomouse

[vonRocko]

If I click a HQ the map should be centred on the HQ

That would be nice!

[Sean E]

Maybe an option to turn the bar off?

For me i don't like it as I look at which HQs need reinforcement first on the map then decide who gets them. Always easier to drop directly to HQ while inspecting.

[calvinus]

In addition, I believe that this bar is useful for smaller scenarios, where you have a little number of HQs... In campaigns you have instead a wider range of HQs, and I think this bar is really useless: you have always to scroll the list (the mouse wheel works ok, but the scroll arrow are almost invisible! :bonk ...

[Offworlder]

Well the good thing about the bar is that one can easily see what forces make up an army. This really helps when one wants to reinforce certain armies for forthcoming offensives etc. Since armies rarely move from one front to another, it also makes a rapid evaluation of the force levels on a given front that much easier, without looking at the map directly. Remember that in a GC, when corps get knocked out, it is difficult to remember to which army they belonged to in the first place - especially those that are not tied to a particular army.

Maybe I played too much and have already adapted to it...

[db99]

I like the bar but I wish it were all the way to the left side of the screen instead of right over the middle of the reinforcements tray which puts it sort of in the middle of the map.

Maybe because I'm running widescreen at 1680 x 1050 it's not all the way to the left?

Request: Clicking on HQ in the bar centers map on that unit. Would be very useful.

[06 Maestro]

I have delayed voting until I can play well into the second year of the war (hopefully that will be soon).

From my experience in the first 4 turns of the game, the HQ bar does not help very much. I find that I still have to go to the location of the given army to check out its actual situation-to see if it warrants available units. Granted, it does make it convenient to dump corps into their required locations-for some of the new units.

I have considered the strong possibility that the HQ bar will be very useful later in the war. With a static situation everywhere, it would be convenient to just drop units into armies w/o having to scroll around the map.

Any change request should be postponed for a while IMO. Let us see how this thing works in the long run.

[Sean E]

How about only having HQs that can accept reinforcements in the bar? (ie. not ones that are full)
This would save some time and space.

[Le Ricain]

How about only having HQs that can accept reinforcements in the bar? (ie. not ones that are full)
This would save some time and space.

It appears that you need the HQ bar in order to place generals.

[calvinus]

Mmm... No. You can drag & drop general over the HQs on the map too.

[Le Ricain]

Mmm... No. You can drag & drop general over the HQs on the map too.

Perhaps so, but I have has absolutely no luck in dragging and dropping a general onto an HQ.

[Marquee]

I'm not so sure the HQ bar needs to be eliminated as much as its functionality needs to be enhanced. I'm sure we can list the current problems involved in using it in hopes of getting a more useful tool.

[Le Ricain]

Perhaps so, but I have has absolutely no luck in dragging and dropping a general onto an HQ.

Yes, you are correct. Generals can be dragged and dropped onto HQ's.