Just playing through my first game, and I have a list of areas the interface is a bit clunky and could be improved:



* The status bars for construction in a system banner should show turns remaining instead of a progress bar (when visible).



* Double clicking on the name bar of a system should bring up the system menu just like double clicking on the star graphic.



* In fairly zoomed out views to see more than 2 or 3 systems, the clickable area for fleets and systems is too small and unforgiving.



* If you follow a "construction complete" alert to a system screen, choose new construction, then close the system screen, you should be returned to the window that shows your completed constructions, not back to the top level.



* Exploration events that give a minor effect, like +10 dust or +10 research should show that effect in the mouseover for the event on the side of the screen above the end of turn button. Having to open the window to see it and close it is tedious.



* There should be a list of colonizable worlds I've discovered that I can sort, etc, and "Send colony ship", as per Moo II, and/or Pax Imperia II. Right now I have to keep a manual paper list of all the planets to see which ones I want to colonize next or manually click through 30 star systems. Tedious.



* Mousing over the Approval bar in the system screen should show the factors that are contributing to the approval rating instead of requiring a trip to the empire list.



* Black Marketeer says "making due" instead of the correct "making do". (See http://grammarist.com/usage/make-do-make-due/ ) (This one's a bug, technically.)



More as I find them.

* Exploration events all have the same long-winded generic reminder text about how exploration events work. It's the same for minor ones (+10 dust!) and major ones (some stack of bonuses to leaders for 5 turns). This feels like it is placeholder text that was meant to be replaced by descriptions for each event. "You find ancient knowledge." "A wave of patriotism enables your heroes to be more effective." and the like. Text should be cut to something short if it is supposed to be reminder "Exploring X system grants you:" or replaced by individual descriptions. As it is, opening the exploration window for a +10 bonus and a paragraph of the same reminder text is anti-climactic. (Ties in with #5 above).



* There should be a game option to put new ships to a fleet automatically upon construction. (Or at least for colonization ships.) I have found several of my colonization ships idling in hangars unintentionally. Since they're not in a fleet, the "idle ship" warning never shows up for them.



* The combat interface is far too slow. if it's meant to be turn-based, don't give me a timer, and don't make me wait through the phases. Maybe a "quick combat" option in the game options which lets me just pick my strategy cards turn by turn and then resolves them. Apologies to your artists and animators, when I'm combatting 3-5 times a turn, I don't want to sit through the animations every time. I just want to resolve combat.



* The combat interface is misleading. I will get a result pop that says "no ships lost" when I choose the retreat option, but my ship is destroyed anyways. I find this out by the reminder on the lower right side that says "Your retreat was unsuccessful, ship destroyed." Why didn't it list the ship as destroyed in the combat results window that popped up after combat?



* The option to transform a planet has a misleading mouseover. When you mouseover Lava Transformation while on a planet's screen, for example, it shows bonuses from the improvement, but doesn't show what you'll be losing (such as food production). It looks like a lossless gain, but is more of a tradeoff.

Some of these I agree with and some of them I don't. Certain things that are issues for one person may not even bother another. Its all personal preference, but I do believe that there should be a way to customize the interface in a way that makes it comfortable for everyone.

Spartan: For those you disagree with, could you be specific about why the improvement I suggest would actually be worse than the current interface?



Revisiting one: "* Mousing over the Approval bar in the system screen should show the factors that are contributing to the approval rating instead of requiring a trip to the empire list." > After further play, this does happen, but the mouseover area is small (just the bar, not the entire box), and the tooltip delayed just enough, that for my first tutorial game, I didn't think there was a mouseover, despite trying to find it. So, modify this to:



* "The entire Approval box for contentment should be a mouseoever hotspot, not just the bar."

and

* "The game options should have an option to set the tooltip delay." (The current delay feels unresponsive to me, but may be just right for others.



New issues:

* Double clicking on a hero should bring up inspect (in the Academy)



* Can't recruit a hero while inspecting them.



* Would like a game option to disable the warning on disband to hangar. (Would still want a warning on disband to scrap.)

* Effects stack? I see a small arctic with Dustwater and Microfactories. The mouseovers say they give +2 and +1 food per person respectively. The planet says it only produces 2 food per person in the FIDS readout above it. Other arctics have 1 food/person, so it looks like Dustwater isn't being counted in to the FIDS readout above the uncolonized planet.



* Tooltips have odd wrapping sometimes. Microfactories wraps the title in the tooltip at "Microfactori-es" despite having plenty of room in the tooltip for the rest of the word in the title.





* While I'm waiting for the half-minute to one-minute break between turns, the interface should be set to "View only" instead of "Do nothing". In other words, I should still be able to look at my heroes, examine systems, view fleets, read research trees, etc, just not issue commands. As it is, the time is wasted while I wait. This would be extremely helpful in multiplayer with timed turns, so that I can be planning my next colony run while I wait, instead of twiddling my thumbs.



* Revisiting "Exploration events": Wonders give a lovely picture and a flavor description in the exploration event. But I have to go hunt down the system it's in to read the actual mechanical effect. This should be present somewhere in the Exploration event popup.

Arrataz wrote:
* If you follow a "construction complete" alert to a system screen, choose new construction, then close the system screen, you should be returned to the window that shows your completed constructions, not back to the top level.

I too find this to be annoying. My solution was to simply dismiss the "Construction Complete" menu, then go to the empire management screen. I sort production by the time left, then I either directly enter new construction orders from the screen or I bring up the system window from here. Backing out of the system window takes me back to the empire management window, with the same sorting as before.