HEXIT Devlog 04: A Tactical Interface That Answers Questions
Team rosters, hover explanations, contextual ranges and combat feedback reduce the effort required to understand a tactical decision.
One hover reveals Vector Hook’s target, range and remaining uses. Both team panels remain visible, including the friendly unit already eliminated from the board.
Less searching, fewer unnecessary clicks
The player should not have to inspect every figure to answer basic questions about their own army. How many units remain? Which one is wounded? Has its ability been used? These are recurring decisions, not occasional details.
The battle HUD now includes persistent friendly and enemy roster panels with portraits, names, health and ability state. Eliminated units remain in a stable list rather than disappearing and forcing the player to remember who occupied a row. The enemy panel respects deployment visibility instead of revealing the opposing formation prematurely.
This layer is based on match snapshots, not just the existence of visible actors. A destroyed visual representation is not a reliable substitute for a complete match record.
Three levels of information
The interface separates information by how often it is needed.
Always available: phase, objective progress, both team summaries and the current planning action.
Contextual: the selected unit’s effective stats, legal ranges, a planned destination and a combat matchup.
On hover: definitions of stat keywords, ability targeting and usage details. Long explanations do not need to occupy the screen for the entire match.
The vocabulary also matters. Movement distance, movement speed and attack speed are different stats. Labels and shared tooltip definitions make that distinction available where the player encounters it, rather than relying on a separate manual.
Preview the question the player is currently asking
During movement selection, the immediate question is “Where can I go?” The current unit therefore shows its reachable area rather than covering the board with its present attack range. When the player previews a destination, the threat range can be shown from that projected position.
The planned-unit ghost is a presentation of intent, not a second live figure. Its holographic treatment includes a local scan-band effect. Keeping that effect attached to the ghost is essential: a movement preview must not recolour the whole environment or look like a global post-process mode.
Ability targeting has its own yellow range perimeter and action hint. Range, valid targets and an affected area have different jobs; a bright outline alone is not sufficient evidence that every tile inside it is a legal target.
Ability mode in the current build. The yellow boundary changes the interaction’s visual vocabulary without replacing the health, objective and action-state information.
Input is part of the visual design
A tooltip or panel that looks solid but lets a click pass through can accidentally issue a board command. Mouse-wheel behaviour can be just as disruptive if scrolling UI also moves the camera.
The UX pass includes input shielding over the HUD, consistent hover behaviour and separation between UI interaction and board input. Ability access also had to stop conflicting with camera controls. These fixes are less spectacular than a new effect, but they directly affect player trust.
Feedback that survives the moment
A resolved attack needs an immediate signature and a persistent record. Sequential impact feedback communicates the event in motion. Floating text makes the applied amount legible. A minimal portrait-based result card explains the exchange, and the compact combat history preserves it afterward.
The roster then provides the strategic consequence: a wounded unit, an unavailable action or an eliminated figure. These layers should reinforce one another rather than each becoming a competing dashboard.
HUD scaling, reduced-motion behaviour and alternative colour presentation are also part of the readability work. Text and state labels must still carry meaning when colour or motion is less useful to a player.
What “better” needs to mean
The current local HUD was checked at 1600×900 and 1280×720 during the recent iteration, alongside automated roster and tooltip checks. That is a useful checkpoint, not comprehensive accessibility certification or proof that every viewport is finished.
The next useful test is observational: ask a new player to identify an available ability, explain the likely result of an attack and plan a move without instruction. If the UI cannot support those tasks, adding another panel is unlikely to be the answer.