Transport Tycoon Forums

Hi,

I hope this wasn't discussed before. But I often think that some drop down menus don't need their own button. Why? Becuase they have exactly one single entry or they have the exact same topic as another one.

For example subsidies: One Big button opens a "menu" with one single line. Same with the town names list. Couldn't these two buttons thrown away and the menus from them will be under, for example, the Map menu (where they would fit better in my opinion)? These two are the ones I remember without starting the game for now, I will look for other re-grouping ideas later.

By the way, why are there single-line drop down menus anyway? If they have only one entry they could be normal buttons. Like the zoom buttons, for example.

maststef wrote:By the way, why are there single-line drop down menus anyway?

Because it was like that back in plain TTD. Go ask Chris Sawyer.

Anyhoe, I think your suggestion is useful for low-res devices. For hi-res devices such as pc's, I think it's best to stick to the way it is now, for easy access to those functions you like to group.

I started with the original TT back in the old days. I was wondering the same thing back then. But OTTD is no plain copy, it adds additional features, has bugfixes, makes things better and so on. So I don't think the argument "it was also in the original" can be applied here.

OK, it's nothing major, but I still would like to see some optimisations to the menu somewhen in the future.

Of course I can use that argument You asked why those buttons are there, I say because they always have been there. Since the day that OpenTTD was born until now nobody had the urge to change that Back in the days, OpenTTD actually was a plain copy of TTD.

What still doesn't mean that it couldn't be changed nowadays.

A change for a change is silly.
Unless it gives a plus-value to the system.
Otherwise, leave it as it is.

And can you guarantee us that there will not be any new entries into that button menu in the future?

@belugas:
The plus would be the cleaner menu and more space on the screen. It would also mean less work for the graphic artists (less icons to design).
And if there will be no re-grouping (as it looks according to the reactions ), could at least the one-single-entry menus get changed to normal buttons?

@athanasios
And can you you guarantee that there will be new?

The plus would be the cleaner menu and more space on the screen. It would also mean less work for the graphic artists (less icons to design).

Cleaner is a matter of opinion (I'm not sure how you even want to define it), and space (i.e. resolution) is hardly an issue on any platform officially supported by the devs. As for graphic work, the menu buttons have been redone.... 3? times (OpenGFX replacements, 32bpp graphics, and the Locomotion-based menu. I'm sure there have been more smaller ones, but hey..). Two buttons out of how many thousand other sprites won't make a difference.

And if there will be no re-grouping (as it looks according to the reactions ), could at least the one-single-entry menus get changed to normal buttons?

They work exactly like normal buttons. You don't have to 'select' the option from the drop-down menu. On the other hand, moving them as you suggest would add multiple steps every time I wanted to open either of those windows.

And can you you guarantee that there will be new?

Of course not, but to remove the option on the assumption it will never happen, without good reason, is just asking for trouble later on.