Usability suggestions
Hello,
I like Hedgewars and how it improves with every version. The game is great on its own and succeedes in not to be too much of a clone.
Here are some small suggestions, I definitely would love to see implemented to make playing with Hedgewars more relaxed, especially for newcomers. These are mostly usability improvements.
Game Frontend: Make the button to access the options dialog more obvious.
Scheme Editing: Make scheme editing accessible in the the options dialog.
Team Editing: Add a confirmation dialog before deleting a team. It has occured twice to me that instead of clicking the 'editing' button, I accidently hit the 'delete' button which wholly discarded the work I put on editing it without asking.
Weapon Editing: Add a tooltip or labels for weapons in the weapon editing dialog.
Teams: Ship some default CPU teams with Hedgewars, I would say one team per CPU difficulty is adequate. Also make a clear indication that a team is controlled by CPU, for example by prefixing the team name with [CPUx], where x is the difficulty level. I have made an example how I imagined this could look like. You can download these teams here. Put these files into ~/.hedgewars/Teams to use these in-game.
The following is just my opinion. Don't put too much weight on it.
AI: I noticed that there is generally little difference in difficulty levels. A level 1 CPU lands a perfect hit almost as often as level 5. Maybe their accuracy could be a bit lowered but don't dumb it down too much.
Weapons: I find the Homing Bee to be very inaccurate, the Napalm Strike is too heavily affected by wind, and the UFO is clumsy to maneuver.
That's all. Lastly, I would like to say thank you to all developers who take their time responding to or implementing player's suggestions. You rock! 
Regards, bzt
Hello there.
Ok, first of all, Hedgewars is not a clone. This seems to be a common mistake, but Hedgewars was written from scratch and no numbers (reference to how physics work differently) or whatever were taken from the most known Artillery game I think you're referring too. They just share the same genera, like Call of Duty and Halo are First Person Shooters. Sure it has a bazooka and grenades, but hey, even the referred Call of Duty and Halo have those in a way or another.
You might want to check this thread I wrote not that long ago: http://www.hedgewars.org/node/2516
Regarding the frontend I have to agree, it's inappropriate in several points and you mention a few ones that do need attention, because features just kept being added on top to.
It would probably be a good idea to open a thread just for full frontend suggestions and redesigns to improve functionality and make them even more intuitive.
I'm guessing frontend will only be the main center of attention when the dev's finally decide Hedewars should change to\reach version 1.0.
I remember suggesting default teams not long after I started playing Hedgewars and loving the game myself too, tho I cant seem to remember the reason not too anymore.
Anyway, you were more eager to receive a dev's opinion and not mine, an old player, so I leave you these lines to munch while waiting,
and have fun.
Note (curiosity): A few weapons work in similar ways to that other known Artillery game BECAUSE players keep asking for them over and over and over again, until actually usually one of those players develops one of them for Hedgewars and they end up being added.
Hi again,
Yes, I am aware that Hedgewars is not a clone which is what I meant to say. I am deeply sorry if I was not clear enough. There are certain similarities without a doubt, but there are also additional features - those listed in that topic of yours - that make HW stand out. I think the similarity actually helps HW gaining popularity - just like me who was informed about HW in the forum of that other game.
I concur that a lot more of frontend suggestions could be done - these are just the ones that immediately come to my mind. In this regard, an application/game can rarely start too early expanding its graphical interface. In the last releases, HW has already done some great improvements in that area such as the weapon chooser help text and the newly introduced end-game screen. My suggestion is to gradually introduce such features with every new version.
I would like to hear whether default teams were suggested previously and what the general reaction was. From a perspective of a newbie, I would feel a little bit unsure whether there is an AI at all in this game. After the initial confusion comes the realisation that you have to create CPU teams by yourself - a nuisance that can be solved easily.
Anyone can feel free to comment on my suggestions, as you did. I meant to say who does not love getting the attention of a developer to his ideas?