Understanding battle strategies...newbie question

[Hank]

A poor User Interface design choice is to use check boxes that change their label based on the state of the check box. Also another poor design choice is (as you pointed out) having the default state being a negative.

Proper design would use a radio button to switch between two different descriptions (labels) or one label describing a positive state and default it to on or off.

These design decisions are due to the fact that this is that it is a 1-man show. Having the programmer make, review, and fix UI design decisions only puts one set of biased eyes on the issue. Having the Users of SEIV checking the UI flaws is not the best situation either...

Edit: and just so I am not too negative, I am absof*****glutely addicted to SEIV so any UI flaws are only cracks in the icing on a very tasty cake!

[ August 21, 2002, 21:54: Message edited by: Hank ]

[tbontob]

Hank states:

A poor User Interface design choice is to use check boxes that change their label based on the state of the check box. Also another poor design choice is (as you pointed out) having the default state being a negative.

Proper design would use a radio button to switch between two different descriptions (labels) or one label describing a positive state and default it to on or off.

These design decisions are due to the fact that this is that it is a 1-man show. Having the programmer make, review, and fix UI design decisions only puts one set of biased eyes on the issue. Having the Users of SEIV checking the UI flaws is not the best situation either...

Finally someone who understands what I am complaining about!

I am addicted too. I am not trashing the game. If I had a choice between this game with all its warts, and no SE4, there is no choice.

[tbontob]

Well...here's the results of the scenario

On the first combat turn the captured cruiser runs away.

On all the following turns, it attacks the planet.

Changing the Secondary Movement Strategy in the "Movement" tab to any other selection results in the same thing.

Do you guys actually like doing all this multiple testing?

[Fyron]

Originally posted by tbontob:
2) We decide who is to “chair” the presentation. My own personal choice is Fyron, but being a newbie, there could be a better person.

Umm... how did I get involved in this?

[tesco samoa]

Secondary should be set to don't get hurt as well.

That way you will retreat...

Also make sure you set your planet value to 0% on the damage screen. This way it will avoid the planet.

And did you know if you do not put any weapons on a ship and set it to ram... it will ram.

This way you will reteat and the missle ship will come to you

IF you wish to engage the missle ship set your primary to maxium range and your secondary to do not get hurt... try it out and see what happens.

[tbontob]

Hi Fyron:

In your quote, you did leave out a detail...

2) We decide who is to “chair” the presentation. My own personal choice is Fyron, but being a newbie, there could be a better person. We would, of course, require the agreement of the individual of our choice.

As I said, you were my own personal choice. What wasn't said was that I personally found your communications to be particularly concise, cogent, and informative.

So I/we were not planning to railroad you... It appears the situation is moot...as no one is taking up the gauntlet with me.

[Fyron]

I wasn't expecting to be railroaded.

[capnq]

no one was able to answer the other questions I put

Most of the answers are either "It depends" or "No-one knows for sure".

Do you guys actually like doing all this multiple testing?

I personally don't enjoy testing things just for the sake of testing them. I just play the game, try my best guesses, and if they don't work, try something different. After owning SE IV for over a year and a half, I can't really remember how and when I learned most of the things that I do know.

[tbontob]

capnq has this to say:

I personally don't enjoy testing things just for the sake of testing them. I just play the game, try my best guesses, and if they don't work, try something different. After owning SE IV for over a year and a half, I can't really remember how and when I learned most of the things that I do know.

And tesco samoa had this to say earlier in the thread:

I think this area needs to be explored more... Or are we all holding back our strategies here... I am holding mine back

I am beginning to feel there are at least 2 approaches to using the battle strategy menu:

1) The easy going player who learns as he goes, who eventually gets most things right with time (but not all?), and may or may not know how he got there.

2) The more determined player who really wants to understand the nuances of the strategies menu, so much so that he is willing to spend a lot of time testing the various options in order to apply the correct selection to whatever scenario he is confronted with.

All things being equal, I would think the second type of player would win more battles and more games.

In both cases, but probably more so in the second, the knowledge is so hard won that there is an understandable reluctance to share it.

And maybe the reluctance even extends so far as to not being interested in having MM explain how the strategies menu works because then the playing field would be levelled and the advantages gained through 1) experience and 2) effort (testing) would be negated.

[tbontob]

Hmmmmmmmm….

Here’s something for us to think about.

If most of us do not understand how the strategies menu works and the one’s that do are being quiet about it, then we cannot expect any significant improvement in how the AI conducts itself in a battle.

Basically, we do not even know what to ask for in order to improve the strategies menu because it is so little understood.

It is only when the “something” is no longer a secret but becomes universally known and understood that giant strides are made in advancing our knowledge and the application of that knowledge.