MekWars interface

From MegaMekNET

MekWars is a java swing program. Its user interface is fairly straight forward. It allow the player among other things to chat with other players, find a game, manage her hangar, purchase new weapons or pilot, watch an ongoing battle...

This article describes the basic 0.2.6.x user interface and will not detail the administrator interface.

Contents 1 Regions 1.1 Menu bar 1.2 Player status 1.3 Player list 1.3.1 Player name and color 1.3.2 Status logo 1.3.3 Tooltip 1.4 Top Panel 1.5 Main Panel 1.6 User Input 1.6.1 Special case commands 2 UI Configuration

Regions

There are 6 main region in the MekWars interface, each one associated to a defined usage :

• Menu bar, is the region where menus are housed. Most of the MekWars client commands can be called from this.
• Player status, is the region where current user informations are displayed.
• Player list, is the region where the online players list is displayed.
• Top Panel, is the region holding the most important game tabs.
• Main Panel, is the region holding all the game tabs.
• User Input, an input text box located in the bottom side of the application. Allow you to input chat or commands.

Menu bar

The menu bar allow you to call most of server commands.

Player status

The player status region sits in the top-right hand corner of the MekWars Client Window. It displays alot of important player information, such as:

• The Name of the Player.
• The Current Duty Status of the player - (Reserve Duty, Active Duty and Fighting.).
• How much Experience (XP) the Player has earned.
• The Amount of CBills you have to spend.
• The Amount of Influence you have within your Faction.
• Your Bay status, which includes:
  • What Bays you have left open.
  • How many Bays you have in total.
  • The cost to maintain the units within your Bays.
• How many idle Techs of each experience rating (Green, Regular, Veteran and Elite.) you have for repair work.
• What Reward Points you have available to use.
• The Seconds until the next Tick.

Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/lib/mediawiki/images/2/21/Tips.png': No such file or directory.	Display your own logo
	It is also possible to display your own logo. In your MekWars client, get to the configuration editor (File > Configuration). Get to the "user" tab and check the "View Logo" option. That's it you can now see your logo.

Player list

The player list region is located on the right side of the MekWars client. Its purpose is to display the players that are online and to access their current status.

Player name and color

Each player name is colored according to his faction (or hiring faction for Mercenaries). For instance Draconis Combine player color is red, Federated Suns player color is yellow. A player name prefixed with an asterisk is a campaign moderator.

Status logo

On the left side of each player an icon details the current status for each players :

• Image:MekWars ui status fighting.gif Fighting
• Active (searching for a game)
• Reserve (online but not up for a game).

Depending the server configuration, you may not be able to see people who are in reserve in order to preserve attack options to rat the opponent's identity before the game starts.

Tooltip

You can hover the player name with your mouse in order to display a tooltip. This tooltip describe the player with extended details such as experience, elo or fluff text... The data publicized by tooltip is tightly associated with the server's policy. You may not be able to access your opponent ELO on MegaMekNET.

Top Panel

Top panel is the one of the two large region in the UI. Top Panel intend to home game related informations.

Available tabs :

• Headquarters
• Black Market
• Faction Status
• Battles
• Map

Main Panel

Main panel is the bottom large region of the UI. All informations tabs can be accessed from it. A tab that is already in top panel disappear from the main panel.

Available tabs :

• Headquarters
• Black Market
• Faction Status
• Battles
• Map
• Main Channel
• Faction Channel
• Role Play
• Private Channel
• Personnal Log
• Repairs
• System Log
• Miscellaneous

Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/var/lib/mediawiki/images/2/21/Tips.png': No such file or directory.	Adding/Removing a Tab
	You can add or remove a tab from the tab list by the configuration dialog : "File > Configuration > File Layout". Checking a tab in the "Top Panel" or "Main Panel" column will add a tab, unchecking it will remove it.

User Input

The user input is associated with the active tab in the main panel. Each text that you'll input there is computed in the active tab context. For instance sending a "HelloWorld!" string with the Main Channel tab active will send a message in to this public channel. On the other hand, you can send a message to your faction private channel (all your team mates) by selecting the Faction Channel and sending your message.

Special case commands

Every string starting by a slash "/" is interpreted as a server command.

For more information, check the chat guide.

UI Configuration

The configuration can be found in the menu "File > Configuration". Most of configuration keys are explicit and/or commented (a tooltip is raised if you don't move your mouse over a field).