From my first game (111 turns).



And, THANKS. I wouldn't have taken the time to write all this if I didn't see greatness in SE. Neither would I have done this if I didn't greatly respect your invitation to comment. Games2Gether is an awesome idea. Respect!

• How does food surplus affect population growth? Could you add some sort of tooltip or progress bar to make this more clear?
  
  
• The text that describes the effect of the industrial-scientific conversion project is grammatically incorrect. It says "50% {gear} converted in to {science}". Literally, this means that your production will be split in half, and one of those halves will be used for science. This begs the question, what happens to the other half of your production? Consider rephrasing as "Convert {gear} to {science} at 2{gear}:1{science}". Same thing applies to the text for the effect of industrial-dust conversion. (Not UI, but I think it would be nice to have an industry-food conversion too)
  
  
• The empire management screen. I think you're trying to put too much information into one screen, and that's making it hard to follow. Some things are left out, and some are incompletely explained Consider splitting this into two screens, one that shows empire-wide information (the top half of the current screen) and the other that gives a summary of systems (bottom half of current screen). Consider using a heirarchical/tree format. Example: Under the empire-wide benefits, you might have an item that says "+20% dust", you could click a bubble to the left of this item to see the source of each part of this bonus. You might have +5% from a monopoly on a resource, and +15% from an empire trait.
  
  
• The tax rate. It's a good game mechanic, but the information is presented in a confusing way. For example, at the moment, a 40% tax rate corresponds to a 0.7 factor on dust. That sounds fine. I understand that I'm getting less dust than I could, but I'm still getting dust from taxes. But then when I mouse-over the dust total of a system, there is a negative bonus from taxes. How can positive taxes be taking away from my income? Eventually, I figured out what was going on, and it makes mathematical sense, but it's presented in a very confusing manner. The subtraction is correct, but it appears random and arbitrary. Instead, of this subtraction, you should just list the 0.7 factor: (first line) +100 from planets (second line) *.7 from tax rate (additional lines) any other bonuses/penalties. I think this is generally true of lots of FIDS information. When there is a percentage bonus/penalty from something, you should show the percentage.
  
  
• When looking at heroes in the academy, it would be nice to have a stronger visual emphasis on the center hero. The center picture is slightly enlarged, but not by a lot. Consider increasing the size of the center picture. Or even better, dim the colors on the non-center pictures.
  
  
• In system view, the blue bar under population is confusing. My first instinct was that this was a progress bar, showing something about population growth. But it's not. Instead, this bar simply shows current pop / max pop. First, this feels unnecessary. The UI already provides this information with the little-person icons to the left of each planet. Second, the symbology itself is confusing. You're using a continuous bar to show an integer quantity. If you feel that it is really important to present the population information twice, then you should use the same little-person iconography in both. That's a good symbology. However, I do miss having a population-growth progress bar. I think it would be better to replace the current population-ratio bar with a true pop-growth progress bar.
  
  
• Hero inspection. On the inspection sceen, I would like to see both the employment status (hired by player, or not hired) and also the assignment (if hired). There's lots of free space on this screen, and I think you could easily find a place for this info. Perhaps in the top-right black bar? The one to the right of the hero name?
  
  
• Hangar/disband/scuttle. I find it confusing that the 'disband' button has two uses. I think it would be better to have two different buttons: a "Dock" button that sends a fleet to the Hangar, and a "Scuttle" or "Scrap" button that would remove a fleet from service.
  
  
• I'd like notifications when fleets have completed orders. For example, when I tell a fleet to move somewhere, I'd like a notification when it arrives. This doesn't mean that stationary fleets must give a notification every turn. If I want a fleet to wait around somewhere, then I should be able to tell it to "Rest", "Alert", or "Interdict". It just means that I'd like the UI to help me be aware of the many different parts of my vast empire.
  
  
• The game should require players to select a research project, or if no project is selected, do something useful with the research points. e.g. research points converted to dust at 2:1. At the moment, it is possible to end a turn with no research project. There is no warning that you are doing this, and those points are just wasted. Yes, it's a dumb thing to do, but in a long and complex game, even smart people will sometimes do dumb things, and I'd appreciate the warning. It would be a kindness.
  
  
• Similarly, the game should require all systems to have something in the build queue at all times, even if it's just ind-to-something.
  
  
• Longer ship design names. Long names can be clunky, and there's you won't be able to display all the letters, but players should have that option.
  
  
• I'd like a notification when pirate or enemy ships are observed.
  
  
• In the research screen, I'd like to be able to shift-click or ctrl-click to create a research queue.
  
  
• I'd like to be able to add notes to the map. e.g. Hit some button combo, click on a location (likely a system, but not necessarily) and be able to add a sticky-note to that location.
  
  
• The influence system needs much more info. I feel like you've purposely hidden that info to try and keep the interface simple, but the result feels mysterious in an unfriendly way. How often will influence grow? When will it grow? Could we get a progress bar? A timer?
  
  
• Movement points shouldn't be wasted, except at the specific direction of the player. For example, suppose I want to send a scout to a system that is 10 parsecs away, and that scout moves at 4/turn. I'll choose the scout, then right-click on the system. At the start of the third turn, the scout will be 2 steps from the target system. In that third turn, if I right click on the system, the scout will finish the journey, and have 2 points remaining, meaning that I can move it 2 steps towards the next system. However, on that third turn, if I instead I ignore the scout (or forget), and instead click on 'end turn', the scout will finish the journey, but stay on that target system. My turn will end, and the scout's last two move points will be wasted. What I would like to happen is this: If there are queued movements, the the 'end turn' button should instead be a 'finish moves' button. When I click it, queued movements would happen, new notifications would be generated, and I would have the option to respond to any new notifications or events. My response might involve queuing up additional movements. So there could be several iterations of this. But basically, I don't want to have to micromanage ship movements. If there are fleets with available movement points, then I'd like to know about it.
  
  
• What's the colored bar below systems? It clearly has something to do with invasion resistance, but the exact meaning is unclear. I'd like to be able to mouseover the bar and get detailed info: relevant numbers, and anything that modifies those numbers.
  
  

In the research screen, I'd like to be able to shift-click or ctrl-click to create a research queue.

For me shift-click does create a research queue, based on current research being done.



If I open up the research screen and just left click on another tech, it replaces the current technology to research then alternative left clicks build up the queue until I close the window.



Not sure why this wouldn't be working for you.

Movement points shouldn't be wasted, except at the specific direction of the player. For example, suppose I want to send a scout to a system that is 10 parsecs away, and that scout moves at 4/turn. I'll choose the scout, then right-click on the system. At the start of the third turn, the scout will be 2 steps from the target system. In that third turn, if I right click on the system, the scout will finish the journey, and have 2 points remaining, meaning that I can move it 2 steps towards the next system. However, on that third turn, if I instead I ignore the scout (or forget), and instead click on 'end turn', the scout will finish the journey, but stay on that target system. My turn will end, and the scout's last two move points will be wasted. What I would like to happen is this: If there are queued movements, the the 'end turn' button should instead be a 'finish moves' button. When I click it, queued movements would happen, new notifications would be generated, and I would have the option to respond to any new notifications or events. My response might involve queuing up additional movements. So there could be several iterations of this. But basically, I don't want to have to micromanage ship movements. If there are fleets with available movement points, then I'd like to know about it.

The explanation you give is slightly hard to follow due to the length of what you're directly suggesting, but it seems it can be cut down and summarised as "If a ship has movement points left, when I click end of turn I get a prompt saying 'this fleet has movement points available, do you wish to use them'... that the gist of it?

What's the colored bar below systems? It clearly has something to do with invasion resistance, but the exact meaning is unclear. I'd like to be able to mouseover the bar and get detailed info: relevant numbers, and anything that modifies those numbers.

Not sure which bar exactly you're referring to, but when you first colonise a system it is treated as an 'outpost' rather than a full colony. A bar is added to the system information in galaxy view which displays how much further the system has to go before it changes from outpost status to system status.



Is that the bar you mean?

Re tech queues: Weird. I'll click around some more.



Re: extra movement points - almost. But there are details. That's how the post got so long. If I set a ship to "Alert" or "Interdict" or some such, then I don't care if it has extra movement points, and I don't want to be notified about that. However, when there are ships with nothing to do, then yes, I'd like to know.



Re: Bar. The bar is different than influence. Influence is the colored circle that grows with time. It starts out as zero (for outposts), then grows over time. The bar has to do with system invasions. Directly under the name of most star systems, there's a colored bar. When I invade an enemy's system, the amount of the enemy color in the bar decreases. When all of the enemy color is gone, the system becomes mine. I'd like info on that bar. How big is it (a number, hit points? population points?) how much is it growing/shrinking each turn? How does that relate to the planetary defense? e.g. is {change in bar} = {attacking fleet strength} - {planetary defense}?

Tech Queues: Maybe you are using the right shift button. I don't know why, but I can only queue techs up, if I use left shift + click. Same with selecting multiple fleets and the ctrl buttons.

Love the ideas, but have a few comments on them and one or two additions.

TimBur wrote:

How does food surplus affect population growth? Could you add some sort of tooltip or progress bar to make this more clear?

Agreed, all that I have noticed is that the food in a single system only effects that system and like in civ the more food you have the faster you get more pop to work with. The only way I found this out was by watching the little turns left thing on the system view or empire view (look for the birth rate next the population). However, that tooltip doesn't give a lot of information on how it is calculated.

TimBur wrote:


The empire management screen. I think you're trying to put too much information into one screen, and that's making it hard to follow. Some things are left out, and some are incompletely explained Consider splitting this into two screens, one that shows empire-wide information (the top half of the current screen) and the other that gives a summary of systems (bottom half of current screen). Consider using a heirarchical/tree format. Example: Under the empire-wide benefits, you might have an item that says "+20% dust", you could click a bubble to the left of this item to see the source of each part of this bonus. You might have +5% from a monopoly on a resource, and +15% from an empire trait.

I disagree, I like this screen with all this information. Players like myself will use this in late game. I am on turn 232 right now with a game and it is my main source of finding out what systems need my attention. Right now SOTS2 has the issue where the "empire" screens dont give me the information I need and I end up having to remember or clicking every system every turn.

TimBur wrote:


In system view, the blue bar under population is confusing. My first instinct was that this was a progress bar, showing something about population growth. But it's not. Instead, this bar simply shows current pop / max pop. First, this feels unnecessary. The UI already provides this information with the little-person icons to the left of each planet. Second, the symbology itself is confusing. You're using a continuous bar to show an integer quantity. If you feel that it is really important to present the population information twice, then you should use the same little-person iconography in both. That's a good symbology. However, I do miss having a population-growth progress bar. I think it would be better to replace the current population-ratio bar with a true pop-growth progress bar.

I am unclear on what that little blue bar is too actually...

TimBur wrote:


Hero inspection. On the inspection sceen, I would like to see both the employment status (hired by player, or not hired) and also the assignment (if hired). There's lots of free space on this screen, and I think you could easily find a place for this info. Perhaps in the top-right black bar? The one to the right of the hero name?

Also on leveling up the hero can you make a way to "undo" when selecting traits if you havent closed the screen? Kind of like a select then commit process for leveling up.

TimBur wrote:


Hangar/disband/scuttle. I find it confusing that the 'disband' button has two uses. I think it would be better to have two different buttons: a "Dock" button that sends a fleet to the Hangar, and a "Scuttle" or "Scrap" button that would remove a fleet from service.

You can unfleet them? News to me. Knowing that, I agree with where you are coming from here.

TimBur wrote:


I'd like notifications when fleets have completed orders. For example, when I tell a fleet to move somewhere, I'd like a notification when it arrives. This doesn't mean that stationary fleets must give a notification every turn. If I want a fleet to wait around somewhere, then I should be able to tell it to "Rest", "Alert", or "Interdict". It just means that I'd like the UI to help me be aware of the many different parts of my vast empire.

I disagree, the civ series made their system like this and they now have like 10 orders you can give to a unit. Having the fleet screen show you what ships are idle should be enough. Having every unit give an update would get into information overload for the right panel area. A lot of 4x games have done this and if you look at SOTS1 the information screen will have on the upwards of 50+ per turn notifications at late game. This is like walking into a crowded room.

TimBur wrote:


The game should require players to select a research project, or if no project is selected, do something useful with the research points. e.g. research points converted to dust at 2:1. At the moment, it is possible to end a turn with no research project. There is no warning that you are doing this, and those points are just wasted. Yes, it's a dumb thing to do, but in a long and complex game, even smart people will sometimes do dumb things, and I'd appreciate the warning. It would be a kindness.

A warning would be nice yes.

TimBur wrote:


Similarly, the game should require all systems to have something in the build queue at all times, even if it's just ind-to-something.

A warning or default it to dust creation... you can never have enough money

TimBur wrote:


I'd like to be able to add notes to the map. e.g. Hit some button combo, click on a location (likely a system, but not necessarily) and be able to add a sticky-note to that location.

Agreed 100%, loved this with SOTS1.

TimBur wrote:


Movement points shouldn't be wasted, except at the specific direction of the player. For example, suppose I want to send a scout to a system that is 10 parsecs away, and that scout moves at 4/turn. I'll choose the scout, then right-click on the system. At the start of the third turn, the scout will be 2 steps from the target system. In that third turn, if I right click on the system, the scout will finish the journey, and have 2 points remaining, meaning that I can move it 2 steps towards the next system. However, on that third turn, if I instead I ignore the scout (or forget), and instead click on 'end turn', the scout will finish the journey, but stay on that target system. My turn will end, and the scout's last two move points will be wasted. What I would like to happen is this: If there are queued movements, the the 'end turn' button should instead be a 'finish moves' button. When I click it, queued movements would happen, new notifications would be generated, and I would have the option to respond to any new notifications or events. My response might involve queuing up additional movements. So there could be several iterations of this. But basically, I don't want to have to micromanage ship movements. If there are fleets with available movement points, then I'd like to know about it.

I disagree with fleets shooting out notifications like a twitter feed. It causes that feed to get very clunky and unusable. An alternative could be this. If there is a fleet that is in motion from a previous turn's command, have the end turn button replaced with "Fleet Movements". Instead of ending the turn it would do the auto moves of those fleets, after that it would go back to the end turn button. This way you can let all your fleets do the moves then do any follow up actions as you see fit before you end turn.

TimBur wrote:


What's the colored bar below systems? It clearly has something to do with invasion resistance, but the exact meaning is unclear. I'd like to be able to mouseover the bar and get detailed info: relevant numbers, and anything that modifies those numbers.

I am unclear on what that little blue bar is too actually...







Also I would like to add to this list is



1. I haven't found a way to insert into a build queue. AS in I want to build something right away but I have some 10 things lined up and I cant just move or insert something at the top of the queue.



2. On the system screen there are times where you can build a system items that dont apply. For example: If I have system items that can make all moon produce 3 food, why is it an option on a system that has no moons? I would just want a little icon or something that tells me that the system wouldn't gain anything from it.



Like this (Yes my mspaint skills suck, im a programmer not a graphics dude )



vs

Cheet4h wrote:
Tech Queues: Maybe you are using the right shift button. I don't know why, but I can only queue techs up, if I use left shift + click. Same with selecting multiple fleets and the ctrl buttons.

Wow! That's it! Left-shift works, but right-shift doesn't. I guess not too many lefties have tried playing the game yet. I'll add this to the bug list.

Most of the time, not knowing when my fleets are idle (or having to look it up) doesn't bother me. What *does* bother me is when I have an idle colony ship sitting somewhere (hangar, orbit, etc.) and I don't know about it, because that has serious ramifications for efficiency. So some sort of notification of idle colony ships would be useful, or perhaps an interface to order colony ships to move to and colonize specific planets as a single instruction.



What currently happens when a system has no production task? Does industry get turned into some other good, for example food?



As to research, it appears that points spent on "no research" go into a pool that then gets assigned when you switch to another technology, unless I've been confused somewhere. That being said, an explicit warning if you try to end your turn without an assigned research project would be useful.



I agree with the comments about tax and other multipliers in the interface; the origin of the number is not readily apparent or intuitive.



Similarly, I agree with the population display; the bar is effective for the empire view, though.



As to heroes... the inspection screen currently shows a hero's assignment (it's on the left, under the classes...). A commit function for assigning hero abilities would be nice.



TL;DR Version:

1. Icon indicating that there are colony ships without orders, clicking will take you to the first such ship.

2. Icon indicating that there are systems without production orders, clicking will take you to the first such system.

3. Indicate when FIDS or happiness effects are the result of multiplicative factors, and what the relevant multipliers are

Additional thoughts:



1) The approval section of the system window is unclear. When I mouseover approval, I get a number, followed by some informational text, then a section that says "Effects". I think this organization is confusing. The things listed under "Effects" are actually the modifiers that lead to that approval rating, while the effect of the rating is not actually listed. In the end, I'm left wondering why I should care about approval, simply because the FIDS effects of high/low approval are hidden. I'd rather see something like

Approval Modifiers:

+50 from Empire

-0.7 from population

_________________

49.3 Approval

Effect:

+/-zz% to Dust

+/-zz% to Science

(etc.)

You could then have a little question mark button in a corner to bring up an explanation of Approval. That explanation need not be shown all the time, as most players will only read it a few times.



2) In the Empire Management screen, the shape of Star System table doesn't scale to my monitor. I have more systems than the table is willing to display at once, and so the table gives me a scroll bar on the right side of the table. That would be fine, except there's still a bunch of blank space below the bottom of the table. In a big empire, you'll eventually need a scroll bar, but it would be nice to make maximum use of monitor space, and not add the scroll bar until it's absolutely necessary.



3) In System Management, you can move people-units among colonized planets. However, you cannot decolonize a planet. In the shuffling of people-units, the game requires that you leave at least one people-unit on every colonized planet. Could you color code that one differently, to make it clear that it is special, and cannot be moved? Specifically, you could make the lowest people-unit on each colonized planet a darker shade of blue?



4) I would like to have access to every hangar in every system from the map screen. At the moment, if there's a fleet in orbit around a star, I can click on the fleet, and see the hangar. But if there isn't a fleet, then in order to look in the hangar, I have to go into the System Management screen. Consider adding a hangar icon to every system, or at least to those systems without fleets, so that I could access all hangars via the map screen, without having to sidetrack into System Management.



5) FIDS symbology above planets in System Management screen is inconsistent. The FIDS listed above a colonized planet show the actual/total FIDS produced by that planet. On the other hand, the FIDS listed above a non-colonized planet show the base FIDS per person that would be produced if the planet was colonized. So although all these FIDS icons look the same, they have different meanings. I don't have a quick idea on how to fix that, but I feel that the player should be able to sum the FIDS above all planets in a system and get the 'from planet' FIDS values reported in totals in the upper-left corner. Right now, that's not possible, because some of the FIDS values are 'potential' rather than 'actual'.



6) Those planet-dots to the right side of the system name in the map view. I like the idea of a code to show the number of colonized/colonizable/uncolonized planets. But I suggest you tweak it a bit. I keep thinking red dots mean lava planets, and blue dots mean arctic/tundra planets. What about a hollow dot for an uncolonized-but-colonizable planet and a filled-dot for a colonized planet? Also, consider using dots of different sizes. E.g. small dots for "tiny" and "small" planets, medium dots for "medium" planets, and large dots for "large" or "Huge" planets.

Good on you, TimBur, for collecting your thoughts and posting them for the benefit of the reader.

-Empire management screen is fine as it is. Just being able to drop down/expand the top part would be sufficient. Also, a way to access terraforming options, moon surveys, anomaly reduction, and colonization choices from empire management screen is necessary. Otherwise, you have to scroll through all of the planets&systems one by one, which is tiresome.



-In system view, the missing thing about blue bars or numeric values is, the max. population that the system can have. In other words, blue bar representing "populated", empty representing "will be populated", and some other color representing "can be populated (after colonization)". Same goes for numeric values. I'd like to see current population, available room, and max population in other words. And you can see when your population will expand, there is an numeric indicator for it in system view.



-They should move the research button to upper-left side of the screen, and add the queue info to there aswell. Maybe even the short summary/ big icons of the technology that is currently being researched, along with small icons of the queued ones.



Aside from my additions,

-You can already queue research.

-You can already see employment status on hero screen.

-You can already see the invasion resistance & recovery stuff as you hover your mouse over systems.

Ill just add my own UI issues here.







Add a retrofit button to this interface





When you click on those should take you to the thing where your hero is.





This thing is way too small to comfortably scroll trough. Make it bigger !(so it shows more at once)





Needs to be bigger so it shows more rows of support additions at once





This screen is pointless. It could just take you to the UI that lets you spend the skill points directly instead making you click on the heros image to get there, not like anyone is going pass on using the skill point anyways.



And now for the most important thing



There has to be a third way of combat! for multiplayer the cinematic option is just not at all good.At this time you would either end up wasting many hours in the course of a single game or alternatively throwing the whole rock paper scissors angle of fighting away in multiplayer. This can be fixed by adding a quick combat option where you get to choose your strategies in the battle is imminent screen and then go straight to the results.