[Taqwus]

Interface thread. Must... post...

Some things that I wish could be changed, and are interface foo (in that changing these wouldn't change the actual mechanics of the game, just how they're accessed):


* I would like the 'Repeat Build' option to repeat the LAST item rather than the first. You don't lose any flexibility since with the current option, there's no point in having multiple objects in a RB queue.

* Bookmarks. Maybe just as simple as, for each 'event log' window (counting the different filters), the Last event clicked on is noted -- and an button/hotkey exists to go back to that event. Ditto for ship/colony lists.

* Stronger linkage between display and command. For instance, I can *view* a colony's facilities from the colony list by right-clicking -- but to *scrap* said facility, I have to leave the colony list, select the planet in the system view, and hit the scrap facility button.

* As a convenience, click-drag to reorder ship components in the design window, or some .txt file that specifies order. For instance, when upgrading a normal design to an MC design, there's no way to put the master computer at the beginning (where I like to see control stuff) without removing/re-adding all components. More importantly, this allows adding in shield depleters BEFORE normal weapons once you get them, without popping the whole stack, et al.

* A 'find system by name' option would be nice if there isn't one (I don't recall there being one).

* Better information highlighting. This is vague, but a few examples --

- When the mouse is over the ship or colony lists, highlighting the system in the quadrant window may be appropriate.
- An option to put color-coded circles around ships/fleets may be useful in a game with rampant Crew Insurrection.

* An per-class option for automatically toggling on the minister. This would be useful for, say, solar-powered colony ships and minelayers.

* An option to have the 'Next Ship' option skip minister-controlled ships.

* More information for which I shouldn't have to do a lot of clicking:

- When an alien race surrenders to me, how about highlighting the systems that they were in, or providing a colony list filter that works?

- When a minefield is detonated, tell me how many mines are used up and how many are left. Right now, I only get told how many are swept.

- When a build queue is exhausted, indicate this in the build completion so I don't have to check manually every turn for idle queues. Likewise for research and intelligence queues, although the latter *shouldn't* (IOW, I should always be running counterintel on repeat if I've got any at all).

* The 'only one needed per system' message does not take into account facilities in build queues. Arguably, it should (or a separate message should ("You have already arranged to build one in this system").

Even better, being able to select a system and find out which system-wide facilities are present would be nice.

* Being able to filter for colonies that are domed and have no atmosphere converters and aren't building them (and don't have them queued) might be useful.

* Being able to add a 'Replace Facility' command to the build queue would be useful, because right now the only way to maximize production while switching from regular to monolith is to do your scrapping and building *one at a time*. Search-and-replace for facilities would be nifty (e.g. if you've got all tech (!), replacing all Research with Intel, say, with varying scope of colony versus empire).

* The 'build one turn's worth of units' should result in a 'One Turn's Worth' item in the queue, not just one turn's build capacity at the time the order was queued since production rate fluctuates with population.


The ultimate interface foo, of course, would be being able to export empire status information to text files and then import text commands ('scrap facility FOO on colony BAR', 'queue facility NNN on colony BAZ'), say, which would be Nirvana for scripters. That would eliminate much of the nastiest micro, like staggering atmosphere converter production so your empire doesn't completely starve in terms of organics or radioactives.


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-- The thing that goes bump in the night