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Gilmoy's 0.40 Nags: UI improvements and feature requests

Posted on Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Odds and ends from my "Bene Deux" game.

1.  (UI request) Planet Manage screen displays each axis's total bonus in header bar

When I micromanage a planet, the most common action is to reassign excess production, i.e. from the main axis (one with highest +% bonus) to the secondary axis (2nd highest bonus).  But I can't tell the secondary from the tertiary without hovering.

  • A forgeworld with mp +180%, rp +45%, bc +20% should spend most of its effort producing mp.  Excess capability should be assigned to rp.

However, you can't tell at-a-glance which is a planet's secondary axis.  And when you zoom through a list of 10+ planets once every turn, you can't remember them all.

  • Current work-around: For each planet { for each axis { hover }; compare }.  This sucks.
  • Sweeping your gaze without effort = win.  Display-on-demand introduces a cognitive burden.  Drilling, clicking, or hovering all defer information until you act, and then you can see only 1 at a time.  Both restrictions chafe.

Hence, some decision-critical information should be always-visible.  Details can remain in the tooltips.

  • For each production axis, display its total bonus % in its header bar.
  • You could also define this total bonus % widget to be the tooltip hover target (for the detailed bonus breakdown).  That would solve the aggravating/time-wasting UI flaw of peekaboo tooltips.

Axis bonuses in header bar