Units (function) keys : one multiplayer bug and F11/F12 ???

[Artighel]

I've just player a multiplayer game as a commander on dune, with 3 wingmens.
Bug is : during the whole game, I cound't select the F8 slot player, though I could select the F9 and F10 slots players. I'm talking about selecting only (for instance, to see what units he own), not sending units to him (that action worked perfectly). I would add that there were several players successively taking the F8 slot during the game. But pressing the F8 key had no effect whatever the player. I hope it will help GSH and NM to fix this bug.

Moreover, I have a question : it is very frustrating to not be able to use the F11 and F12 keys as unit slots. I thought the problem would be fixed in the 1.3beta, but apparently this is not the case. Is there a technical issue or something preventing the use of these two additional units slots ? Anyway, when we play a game as a commander with several wingmens, we feel quickly limited in units slots, and both F11 and F12 keys would be welcome.

[Speedy]

F11 and F12 aren't used because they won't fit in 640x480 resolution. The original artist who designed the icons during the original development was too lazy to resize them so that those two extra icons would fit. Its too bad but thats the way they are now.

[Artighel]

Is this the only technical reason ? Seems quite ridiculous And how much players are playing in 640*480 resolution now ? Very very few, I think.
So I have some suggestions :

- In 640*480 resolution, F11/F12 icons could be put UNDER the F10 icon ; in higher resolution, they could be put AT THE RIGHT of the F10 icon (F1 to F12 aligned).

- If putting F11/F12 icons UNDER the F10 icon is too problematic, why don't we suppress the 640*480 resolution possibility ? Any graphic card can handle a 800*600/16 bits, can't it ? Thus we could add F11/F12 icons at the right of the F10 icon, as it should be.

Obviously, GSH and NM have to tell us if such a modification is possible (maybe a FE graphist could help them to do the work). Honestly, adding these two additionnal units slot would be very, very welcome for the game.

[Artighel]

hooo sorry, I talked about GSH(who is NM) and KM

[Fishbone]

I would like to see f11 and f12 in there as well.
as far as I understand it, it is not as easy though as you think it is.
there is config file for the hud (or 2) and those are the same for all resolutions. They use relative coordinates to display the icons. if f11 would turn out under f9, it always will, whatever the resolution.
Now, you could mod so you would have to select what resolution you are using before installing the patch. than a 640 install would show the icons under f9/f10 while a >640 install would place them in a nice row. both Nathan/Ken know this (much better than I do). Here my knowledge ends and my guess is that there is more to it, than just an arrangement of icons.

[Artighel]

Nice answer Fishbone. If Nathan/Ken could affect F11/F12 icons positions depending on the resolution (first case - 640*480 ; seconde case - any higher resolution), it would be fantastic.

(one precision : in 640 res, I meant put the F11 under the F10 and the F12 under the F11 - in order to continue the units slots on the right vertical edge of the screen, seems more logical )

[Weevil]

Perhaps just off-screen in 640x480 ? On a machine that can't handle 800x600 res, I don't think that one would be able to handle as many units either. And I guess, if there was a little text note about that somewhere in the graphics menu, everyone would get that. But ok, I don't really have a clue

[Tempest Storm]

Or we could jsut resize the icons a bit..., 32x32 pixels is kinda small, but I think it would survive.

[technoid]

I read somewhere (or just my imagination) that f11/f12 was possible.  We all know that tweaking the icons is the easy part.