So a while ago we came up with the exact range of pitch speeds for any given pitch based on the pitcher's attributes. It was also indicated that this would be a more convenient way to edit speed attributes in the editor. I'm trying to come up with a way to make that work and not look like ass, but so far I'm not having much luck.
Here's an example ... http://nightwulf.rbicentral.com/pitchspeed
It doesn't necessarily look bad in Firefox, but it doesn't excite me either. And it looks like absolute ass in IE, probably because IE doesn't support CSS correctly, but I'm too lazy to find a workaround to make it look right in that shitty browser at the moment. It's also pretty dependent on the user having a large enough browser window. Once again it looks like complete ass if the window is too small.
I'm open to suggestions ...
Nightwulf
Can you have a dynamic selection for the pitcher speed? Like once you select 153 via the drop down, a box below called "Sinker Range" shows 67-75 mph. Ditto for the other two, the plus would be less clutter in the one box...
Another idea is to get rid of the rating itself. Just show the speed range with mph at the end. They don't really need the number, as the range is the exact application of it...
Showing the range underneath is a possibility. It'd add more "vertical clutter," but I'm more worried about "horizontal clutter," so that'd be a better option.
I like having the rating itself still shown because there's a lot of overlap. For example, 105, 106, and 107 all equate to 45-52mph. Showing three "45- 52" lines without displaying the actual rating may not make sense. I could condense those to one line, but would I pick 105, 106, or 107? There'd be no difference at all gameplay-wise until stamina is depleted; having the higher rating could mean getting an extra pitch off before stats start to drop. It's subtle, but I don't like guessing at options as opposed to allowing the user to be more specific.
Edit: Ok, that's not entirely true. There is a difference between 105-107, but the range of the displayed speed of the pitch (in mph) would not change, and the difference in pitch speed would only be seen in extreme situations (when the pitch is as slow or as fast as it can be), and certainly wouldn't be noticable by the human eye.
Nightwulf
Good point about not showing the actual rating, I didn't pay attention to overlapping ranges. Scratch that idea...
Wouldn't you also want to allow the full range of possible speeds (not just 100-219)?
i think the look of it looks great. i'm in IE so take it for what it's worth. i had no problems comprehending the interface. i think it looks fine.
Quote from: Dryden on 05/20/05, 11:52:21 AM
Wouldn't you also want to allow the full range of possible speeds (not just 100-219)?
That's something I'm a bit torn about. I've always been for the idea of giving the user total control over the attributes (regardless of how unlikely they may be), but in this instance adding all the "nonsense" values to the drop-down makes it even bigger and bulkier.
Nightwulf
Ok, how about this? http://nightwulf.rbicentral.com/pitchspeed2
Note that there isn't a lot of scripting on this page (or the last), so don't expect the page to Do The Right Thing (tm) if you don't enter a valid pitch speed. That functionality will come later; this is just working on the UI.
Nightwulf
I think that's an improvement. IMHO, the speeds should go first, especially since you preface "by mph" - would make it a little easier to understand...
I agree with Gantry - the mph should go first, since I think that's what most people are conceptualizing when they input attributes, not the numbers that the game uses.
Good job on this - a step forward in RBI ROMs, to be sure. Now, if we can just figure out what the fuck the two unknown pitcher attributes are...
Ok, changed the drop-down boxes to only show the speed range. I think that works fairly well, since the actual value will be displayed above. I do want to use a drop-down box or something similar (I also thought about just displaying all the possible values in a table on the page) to show them all at once. Simply showing a box with the resulting speeds is still a bit of a pain for the user, as they'd have to play "guess-and-check" to get the speed range they desire.
Nightwulf
Looks good nightwulf... FYI your dashes are a little funky, "67- 71" , probably should do "67-71" or "67 - 71"
Quote from: Gantry on 05/21/05, 12:51:40 PM
Looks good nightwulf... FYI your dashes are a little funky, "67- 71" , probably should do "67-71" or "67 - 71"
Actually, that's by design, intended to keep everything lined up. Unfortunately, Firefox doesn't seem to give a shit about extra spaces in select boxes, even when they're using a fixed-width font. I'll do something with it.
Nightwulf