End Turn Warnings

[sven]

We've been putting in a collection of changes to the game's handling of event notifications.

The biggest of these is the "Are you sure?" warning that now pops up if you click "Next Turn" before all urgent notifications have been dealt with.

A number of smaller UI details have changed as well; for example, it should no longer be possible to issue move orders to a fleet that is under attack.

The core goal of all these changes is to eliminate most of the remaining confusion around end-turn autoresolve behaviors.

Let me know what you think of the changes.

[Arioch]

The research screen still auto-selects the next project, but then the end-turn warning complains that you haven't selected a new project.

[sven]

The research screen still auto-selects the next project, but then the end-turn warning complains that you haven't selected a new project.

Yeah, that needs fixing. What do you think the correct behavior is?

Right now, I'm thinking that the research project should be set to nothing when the current queue runs out. And, if you click next turn without changing it, it will stay set to "nothing", and generate a new "research ready" report on the next turn.

Planetary production is a somewhat similar case, though, because you have far more planets than research teams, I think this is one where the end-turn auto-resolve behavior is probably worth handling differently. In the case of planetary production, when production completes, you'll have production set to "None". But, if you then end the turn, ignoring the auto-resolve warnings, your advisors will choose some production for you (probably either research, lab, or factory). Right now, that choice happens silently -- but, I'm starting to think that your advisors should probably be sending you a second notification in that case, one that basically says "I decided to start building a lab/factory/whatever."

[Arioch]

I think that research should be set to null when the current research is complete. However, if the user deliberately clicks past the warning and ends his turn without selecting a new research target, I think it's fine to select one for him. There's no harm to doing so, and the research would be wasted otherwise. Similarly, I think the current behavior on production is appropriate; warn, but then auto.

I don't see any need for an additional notification on auto-select; the user already received a warning and dismissed it. I think we need to be careful about notification spam; we are already near a point where I think there are too many unnecessary notifications.

[sven]

I think that research should be set to null when the current research is complete. However, if the user deliberately clicks past the warning and ends his turn without selecting a new research target, I think it's fine to select one for him. There's no harm to doing so, and the research would be wasted otherwise. Similarly, I think the current behavior on production is appropriate; warn, but then auto.

Well, under the current mechanics, research is something you accumulate, regardless of whether or not you're actually researching something. So, it's not actually wasted in the case that no project is set. Because of that, leaving it unset, but then re-showing the notification, doesn't actually punish the player. And, because it's just, at most, 1 extra notification, it's not really that "spammy" as a policy. And it would cut down on the number of important choices we're implicitly making for the player, which is probably a good thing...

I don't see any need for an additional notification on auto-select; the user already received a warning and dismissed it. I think we need to be careful about notification spam; we are already near a point where I think there are too many unnecessary notifications.

Yeah -- I could go either way on the production autoresolve behavior. Notification spam is bad, but so is hidden automation.

[Arioch]

Well, under the current mechanics, research is something you accumulate, regardless of whether or not you're actually researching something.

I think that's both unrealistic (the work potential of idle research personnel doesn't accumulate... if the scientists have no research target, they play videogames instead) and exploitable (if you can stockpile research points and then spend them lump sum to insta-research that artifact you just found... is that a good thing?).

And if I have no research target set, and if I'm allowed to accumulate research without a target, I will get a warning dialog every single turn. And if I don't get a warning every turn, a new player may accidentally skip past the first warning and then never research anything. I don't think allowing research without a target is a good option; it doesn't add to gameplay and creates a number of potential problems.

Yeah -- I could go either way on the production autoresolve behavior. Notification spam is bad, but so is hidden automation.

But it's not hidden -- the player was given a warning dialog in addition to the notification of the completion of the previous item. I don't see any need to notify the player a third time about the same thing.

[sven]

And if I have no research target set, and if I'm allowed to accumulate research without a target, I will get a warning dialog every single turn. And if I don't get a warning every turn, a new player may accidentally skip past the first warning and then never research anything. I don't think allowing research without a target is a good option.

Switching between these two options is easy -- so I've been trying it both ways. I think your way may be best -- the repeated end-turn warning dialogs do get spammy -- and if a player honestly doesn't care about their research goals, 1 warning, followed by an auto-research behavior, probably is sufficient.

[Gyrfalcon]

I don't like the way that notifications disappear when I choose production. For instance, I got a notice that a planet was done building a shipyard and accidentally picked a terraforming project next. Once I'm back to the main view, the only way to find that planet is to hunt through the production list. I'd much prefer if the list at the bottom of the screen stays constant, particularly retaining all the events of the turn. Having the list on the right get smaller makes sense, but having the events disappear entirely is not something I like.

[sven]

I don't like the way that notifications disappear when I choose production. For instance, I got a notice that a planet was done building a shipyard and accidentally picked a terraforming project next. Once I'm back to the main view, the only way to find that planet is to hunt through the production list. I'd much prefer if the list at the bottom of the screen stays constant, particularly retaining all the events of the turn. Having the list on the right get smaller makes sense, but having the events disappear entirely is not something I like.

So, to be clear, there are 3 places where production reports can be "listed".

(1) In the large icon list at the right-hand side of the screen.
(2) As a small icon next to star system in which they occur.
(3) In the list of reports navigable via the orange wedges at the bottom of the screen.

I think you're suggesting keeping the implicitly dismissed production reports in both (2) and (3)? That would give us a more SOTS-like set of conventions, which I'm not entirely opposed to, honestly. The current behavior is more Civ-like -- and I've always found Civ's way of handling production notifications a bit uncomfortable.

[Gyrfalcon]

So, to be clear, there are 3 places where production reports can be "listed".

(1) In the large icon list at the right-hand side of the screen.
(2) As a small icon next to star system in which they occur.
(3) In the list of reports navigable via the orange wedges at the bottom of the screen.

I think you're suggesting keeping the implicitly dismissed production reports in both (2) and (3)? That would give us a more SOTS-like set of conventions, which I'm not entirely opposed to, honestly. The current behavior is more Civ-like -- and I've always found Civ's way of handling production notifications a bit uncomfortable.

I like having some list that keeps track of which items I've already addressed, as the right-hand notification stack currently does by removing icons once something is dealt with. Although it should probably also remove double wrench icons, too, once I've looked at them. But having the notification disappear in all three places makes it hard for me to go back and look at something later if I change my mind or forget what I did.

With the current UI, keeping all notifications at (2) makes sense to me. I'd actually like to see notifications removed at (3), which would make it easier to keep track of what still needs to be done in a turn by glancing at the map.

[echo2361]

I like the SOTS way of handling things, with a stream of events you can scroll to review all the events of the turn. The only thing I'd like to see change with their system would be to have an event somehow indicate when I've clicked on it to help me keep track of what I've addressed and what still needs my attention. Maybe a check mark appears or the event turns grey.