Button and tab layout suggestion

Currently you have side tabs for Espionage, Chat and Province List and a button for the newspaper, Diplomacy/Messages & Trade and research, plus the join alliance button and the other few in the bottom right corner.

One issue I find irritating is you can’t see the map while using some of these tabs/buttons.

My suggestion for a layout change is that you remove everything, but the market tab, like the Info/name box in the top left corner and all the side tabs and buttons.

You then put a control bar down the right side or the screen, which would be about half the width of the current Info/name box thing. On the Control bar you would have all the buttons and side tabs bits down this control bar. Plus game time clock with day etc.

The real difference would be when you use a function from the control bar.

For instance when you press the chat button the control bar would move out like the current side tabs do, for example like the Espionage one does, and the bottom half of the control bar would become like the current chat tab with any buttons etc. moving to the top half of the control bar.

If you press the Espionage button the control bar moves out and the current looking Espionage tab is beside it. But the key difference is that the map window gets smaller and the tab doesn’t go over the top, it is beside the map window.

If you press the Province List button or the newspaper, Diplomacy/Messages & Trade or research tabs the control bar moves out to halfway across the screen and you then have the control bar strip down the middle and a window on each side one is a map window which is still fully functional and the other is for whichever tab you want to use, this would allow a better work flow

But in the Messages & Trade windows instead of a list you build of Countries and players down the side, you create a tab for each country that goes across the top with only their flag and name on it. In the tab you have all your communication like normal, but it would also have that player’s details and country stats etc. but also including thing like their local time, where in the world they are located, their online status and things like that. But a player can control what information from their profile can be seen etc.

I hope you understand and get what I meaning