Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

I'd like to propose some interface improvements:

1) There needs to be some way to sort the vehicles list in the Scrap/Analyze/Mothball/Self-Destruct window, and/or to filter it by fleet. I sometimes have literally hundreds of ships & bases at my homeworld (where there are lots of space yard bases, and I mothball all the old little ships against future emergency). The current screen seems to put them in some random order, even where you built several ships of the same class in the same turn.

2) The fleets on the Ships/Units window won't sort by name. Individual ships do, but fleets are in some random order (maybe by the default name before I typed in my own name, I'm not sure).

3) A filter in the Planets window similar to the "No Sys to Avoid" filter, which would be "Only Systems I Claim". I often don't want to make those alien systems "systems to avoid" because then I can't order my exploration ships through their warp points from a distance. However, I don't want planets in them cluttering up the list when I'm deciding where to colonize next. This is particularly a problem in that the program does not "remember" that Last time you had a ship in the system that planet had an alien colony on it.

4) Have the program remember the state of explored systems as you Last saw it as far as alien colonies go. If you click on it on the galactic map and bring up its system map, the alien colonies should appear as of the Last time you were there. A message should appear at the bottom of the screen saying "as of Game Date xxxx.x" or some such. Planets that were, the Last time you saw them, occuppied by aliens should not show up as "Empty" on the Planets window.

Re: Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

I agree to all points and they where in a very long list I sent to MM based on the demo. Some things on that list made it but not these. Mail it to them again.

Re: Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

I would like a couple of very small, very minor interface enhancements:

Right now, when you click on a spot on the scrollbr, it moves you right to that spot. But the default behaviour in Microsoft Windows is to scroll down a page.

Also, when you have two list boxes open and click to move an item from one side to the other, the list should maintain its current position. Right now, it puts you back at the top of the list.

Other than those two minor pet peeves of mine, I am quite impressed with the interface. I think the programmer is a genius to have considered so many angles and given us so many extremely useful ways to view information.

Re: Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

Also, when you design an empire in game setup there is no WARNING that you have not selected a design names file. It's a bit annoying to start designing ships and discover that you forgot this. And when you do select one, the txt files are not sorted by name as files are in nearly every other part of the program. This can make it hard to find the one you want when you've added many to the directory.

Finally, as someone pointed out in another thread, when empires are generated randomly they don't seem to stick with the design names file put in their general settings. Instead they select randomly. Now, if TWO empires have the same file I can see making a substitution, but this always random change disturbs part of the "character" of the empire by changing the design names unecessarily.

Re: Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

I would like if the planets window did not display any planets that there is no known path to. For example, if you shut off yourself by closing warp points, yet know about several systems outside your holdings, those planets should not show up in the planets screen because you cannot get to them. Perhaps this should be an option, though I cant ever think of any situation where you would need to see the planets you can't travel to. It would make colonizing a lot easier when you close yourself off from the rest of the galaxy.

Re: Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

I'm pretty new at this game,so there might be a way to do some of these already that is not in the manual,but I'd like to see the following:
1.Unless I'm upgrading designs don't show ship names already in use so I don't get a you can't use this name message.
2.Allow retrofits from the Ships/Fleets screen.
3.Show some type of indication what the other empires might like to trade for or what they have that I need.

These are more setup than interface-

4.Allow a random 2000/3000/5000 empire to be given to me as it already does for the computer.
5.Allow me to save a favorite type of game setup.
6.After I choose my empire and game setup and begin the game, allow a reroll of the map only, without making me start a whole new game if my starting position is horrid http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

I agree, these are great suggestions.

Re: Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

Barnacle Bill - I too agree with your suggestions (particularly 3 and 4).

Must admit though that I've never had enough ships for pts 1 and 2 to be a major problem (I tend to play in small or medium galaxies).

Re: Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by God Emperor:
Must admit though that I've never had enough ships for pts 1 and 2 to be a major problem (I tend to play in small or medium galaxies).<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I play in huge galaxies and mothball rather than scrap ships I can’t afford to maintain. I also build lots of space yard bases, usually keeping one on permanent “repeat build” of more of its own type. So I end up with lots of ships, especially at the space yards where all those space yard bases and mothballed ships pile up.

BTW, there is no need to ever stop production of new ships because you are resource strapped. Just keep building and, if everything but your current production class is already mothballed, mothball those brand new ships the turn they are completed. If they stay mothballed for just a few turns, the cost to de-mothball is less than what the maintenance would have been during those turns, and they can be de-mothballed much faster & cheaper than building new ships (instantly, if you have the resources). So, you have a 0 maintenance reserve that can rapidly be brought up to replace battle casualties or (at the expense of construction because of the increased maintenance) expand the fleet temporarily for a war.

As to the ones that get obsolete while in mothballs, you can scrap mothballed ships without de-mothballing, so they are a form of resource storage. Remember, if your storage facilities are full any unused resources go to waste. So, keep building at all your shipyards all the time if you can afford it & mothball what you can’t afford to maintain. BTW, the same strategy works for satellites but they have to be in space at a planet with a shipyard to scrap them. This will let the non-shipyard planets get in the resource storage act, but you’ll need to send transports around to collect them. You can then scrap all those obsolete satellites & mothballed ships at need to get resources for de-mothballing your modern ships in a crisis.

Re: Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

There should be some kind of drawback to mothballing, it's to easy to mass huge backup fleets now.

Ships that are mothballed for too long should receive some random damage, (no maintenance so it actually makes sense) or at least should need a short repair time before they can be used in action after being unmothballed ( maybe no actual "repair" but it should take a turn or two before the ships can be used again).

Re: Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Lloyd Heilbrunn:
3.Show some type of indication what the other empires might like to trade for or what they have that I need.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is a good suggestion. But only if the empires have a trade alliance already, right?

It would be very helpful to know that a hostile empire is running low on a particular resource. http://www.shrapnelgames.com/ubb/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

I second Raynor's idea, again (brought this up in another thread somewhere)...

Also, THUMBWHEEL capabilities... I've b/c so used to using that little device on my mouse that being w/o it's abilities drives me crazy.

more suggestions:

1) Sort ability in production screen by what's bein built like in MOO2

2) Ability to limit the systems that will show colonizable/special planets in the planet screen to a limited selection. If you want a mind numbing experience, set a trait advantage of Ancient and then try to find the best planets to colonize using the planet screen. YOU CAN'T!! It literally shows every stinkin planet in the game that you can colonize.

3) in the game setup, when you select an existing empire to add, the default setting is Human control. Some way to toggle that to be default of Computer would be better. I tend to add any AI races that I want to be in the game via the add existing race option instead of letting the computer set them randomly and having to edit each race to be under AI control after I add them is a tedious process.

4) maybe some way to sort ship lists by ship status would be nice - one list shows all mothballed ships, one shows all ships under some standby order (maybe the sentry order), one shows only ships assigned to a fleet, etc

I tend to have lot's of ideas while playin but forget to write em down - guess I need to start doin that

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Character is best defined as that which you do when you believe nobody is watching.

Re: Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

WhiteHojo, in response to #3: I'd like it if you could toggle between human and AI without going into the race itself. A little checkbox in the add races screen next to each race maybe.

Re: Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Zanthis:
WhiteHojo, in response to #3: I'd like it if you could toggle between human and AI without going into the race itself. A little checkbox in the add races screen next to each race maybe.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I'm with y'all. It is a real pain having to edit each race to change it to computer control. This idea to put a checkbox in the Add Races screen is excellent!

Re: Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

I'd like to see some improvements to the all-colony construction page (the one that shows the build queues of all your colonies, shipyards):

1) column sorting doesn't work on this page, and this should be added.

2) I'd like to be able to filter the list to only show currently colonies/yards with active queues or empty ones, only ones running on emergency build, only ones with shipyards, only colony ones, only colonies with open facility slots, or some combination of those, like only showing colonies with open facil slots and an empty queue. In other words, those filters would all be checkboxes, so if you checked multiple ones off, they would all be active.

I'd also like to have a screen that showed all colonies and ALL facilities in them, in a sortable fashion, and also search/filter-able. so you could select only those colonies that had spaceports, say. The current colony screen is pretty worthless for this.

Re: Interface improvement suggestions for patch
 

The check box would work for me - anything to keep from having to switch back/forth for each race

Also, minor point that I personally find annoying.... Somehow set as either default or make it selectable, but if a colony is set to build as emergency, then give that colony PRIORITY when allocating limited resources in the construction queues. Nothing more agravating than having a colony run up several emergency build turns only to find that nothing has been built because other colonies were ahead of it in whatever priority format the computer uses in assigning resources to construction projects
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Character is best defined as that which you do when you believe nobody is watching.

[This message has been edited by WhiteHojo (edited 29 January 2001).]