New Server Browser Design

[Ender]

I've been working on the Tremulous server browser design. Originally it was going to be a project for a design class, but that feel through. Anyways, I'm posting here to get people's input on it. Try not to get held up on the graphics - they are sort of placeholders, sort of not, but mostly designed to give a feel of my general direction, like a sketch.

http://www.tremfusion.net/trac/wiki/NewServerBrowser

-Ender

[Sap]

Quite frankly, it looks very nice and promising.
I like the way it depicts that extra piece of information (esp. the 'time' column ) and all those filters one can choose. 

What are those green bars beside server names ? Also, is it practically feasible to implement a mini 'server status' type section inside the game to keep check on one (or maybe 2) more servers ? 

[UniqPhoeniX]

Server browser definitely needs to change, here are some of my ideas:
IMO Get new list and Refresh list should stay. Maybe automatically get new list when you go to that screen and it is empty; while it is updating list, show loading bar instead of last refresh time, which should be near those buttons.

What are all those buttons on the left for?
Server list
Wider server name and map columns; scroll bar like in other programs so you can quickly see how long the list is; lighter background behind every 2nd line; ping next to flag; align players column by /, align ping & time to right. If SD, just change time column background to red and still display time.

Filters
Save/Load filter on 1 line, additional options above them; the checkboxes should not have "X" in them if on. Either different color or a check mark ☑. Allow mods = Pure? If yes then it should be "Pure". Region = USA? if you separate all countries, the list will be huge. It should be North America, and I guess it would fit better in additional options. Maybe Voip and Bots can fit on one line. If you can choose "any" for game type, then it won't need a checkbox. There should be a "Needs password" option, which should also be shown in server details and maybe in list.

Server details
No timelimit? I hope we'll get score instead of deaths/kills. Title bar isn't really needed. It shows humans and aliens, but where are specs?

[khalsa]

Some neat stuff. Definitely put it on bugzilla when you get a nice patch.

Khalsa

[Asvarox]

As trem player for  quite long time, this serverbrowser design is great. But as newb i would run away and never come back 2 versions of list (simple and advenced) selectable in options would be nice.

[Ender]

As trem player for  quite long time, this serverbrowser design is great. But as newb i would run away and never come back 2 versions of list (simple and advenced) selectable in options would be nice.

Thanks Asvarox, I hadn't thought about what a new player might think. It is overwhelming

Some neat stuff. Definitely put it on bugzilla when you get a nice patch.

Khalsa

You'll have to define what you mean by 'a nice patch'. Patching all of this stuff in would be enormously complicated, as I'm sure you know, and probably not very clean or nice. What will likely happen is that this design will make it's way into TremFusion - you're welcome to pull out a patch if you like though.

@UsaKilleR
Thanks for your thoughts, you're going into a depth here I hadn't really thought about, and I appreciate it. Why do you think new list/refresh list should stay, rather than being automatically controlled by the game on a separate thread?

Left column buttons are for managing favorites/friends/clans - should be in the text below the picture.

Allow mods = Pure, yes, mostly.

You're aboslutely right about the regions - the idea is to allow people to specify where they want servers coming from to improve their latency, and doing it by country doesn't make as much sense. Of course, if they are looking to play a server in a specific language, things might be different. Good point on the 'any' game type. Good point on the needs password option.

@Sap
The green bars indicate a server's popularity, and are designed to help a player determine server quality. If a server is popular, and usually has many players on, it is probably worth checking out. Yes, this is a heuristic and not always accurate, but I think it would help.

[Bissig]

1. Rank stuff should only appear ingame scoreboard (unless you are or need to be a showoff)
2. Too many filters
3. Using up/down arrows is a commonly used way to depict sorting options in webpages and software. Use that style of a pictogram. Multi-column grouping would be extra sweet. F.e. First sort by ping, then by BP. Needs an "ungroup"/"clear" button of course

4.

Bots are not that widely used. Just give those servers an extra icon to indicate "bots on the server"

Suggestions for filters (scrap the others):

- Gametype
- Max BP
- Max ping (what do you need "minimum ping" for anyways?)
- Turn "Need download" into an icon depicting the need to download server specific qvms/whatever
- VoIP.. again make it an icon. Since you can turn on/off VoIP ingame, what is the reason to have it as a "filter" for the server browser?
- Region? Scrap it
- Missing: Option or filter or icon as an indicator for "lagged", "unlagged" servers

Put the few filters I suggested on top of the server list and widen the server list to leave a bit space for the extra indicator icons ("Info" column)

5. Autoload new server list on client start. Autorefresh when not ingame every 5-10 minutes. Leave a refresh link so someone can check if the others really went to the new server or that the new server is really up and working

[Undeference]

Originally it was going to be a project for a design class, but that feel through.

The purpose of a UI is to provide as many easily accessible options as necessary to be globally useful while not overwhelming the user. Bonus if the end result is aesthetically pleasing. Of those points, your design gets "easily accessible".

It looks like you tried to cram everything you could think of into a single viewable area. You design makes prominent many features that are not useful to 99.9% of users as well as things that are not even remotely practical—at least for Tremulous.

What will likely happen is that this design will make it's way into TremFusion - you're welcome to pull out a patch if you like though.

I imagine the reason that some moderators remove posts about Tremfusion has to do with your behavior and attitude more than anything else. Your post is about your potential server browser rework, and you ask for the Tremulous community's input. When a Tremulous developer shows some interest, you say that you'll be doing the work, but not for Tremulous. But he's welcome to do extra work, if he likes.

[Ender]

@Bissig - Thanks for the ideas. Terse, and appreciated.

@Undeference - Thanks for the pointer on how to upset moderators.

You're right about me trying to cram everything I could think of into a single viewable area - much of the complexity on the screen could be wisely hidden behind some popup dialogs or preference screens. Especially when you take into account Asvarox's suggestion about new players being daunted by the information presented and plethora of options. Could you list some of the things you think are not useful to 99.9% of users or remotely practical?

[Syntac]

I think it would be a good idea to just have a server list with columns for title, map, players, ping, gamename, etc. Then you can click on a server and it pops up some detailed info stuff, like the names of the players and a cvar list.

[UniqPhoeniX]

Get new list and Refresh list are useful when you are waiting for a server to come online, also the list wont suddenly change while you are viewing it.
If you make name and map columns wide enough for current server & map names, you will barely have any room left. For the small arrows used to show how list is sorted seen in most programs, you could use a gradient background. For clan tags in names we would need a log-in system, or anyone could pretend to be in a clan.

[Amanieu]

We have a plan for making clans a part of the game, with authentication & all, but it still needs refining.

[Roanoke]

This would be the server browser to end all server browsers if properly implemented.

[atomic1fire]

I think it could use a graphical adjustment of some kind,
Maybe a human symbol on one end, and a alien symbol on the other?