Arioch wrote:We are debating whether or not to make the graphs a normal UI option during the course of the game. The concern is that it might be too much information while the game is still going on.
What do you think?
When I saw the question, I immediately had to emergency-register for a forum account to deliver you the answer of
definitely YES! Earlier on, I especially requested for graphs on the Steam forums (I'll copy-paste it below). The tl;dr version is this: seeing the numbers game helps players to refine their strategies by allowing them to find out exactly WHY and WHEN they are losing or winning. Without access to the math, you're basically playing an optimization game blindfolded. The graphs alone can help new players to pinpoint what they are doing wrong and old players to develop better strategies. Currently the game is making me do all my decisions by "gut feeling" instead of giving me access to the relevant information. Imagine a space empire run without a single mathematician or economics graduate - that's the current state of SiS for you.
You can put the graphs under the diplomacy screen, they shouldn't bother anybody there
too much? They are there to help you evaluate who to ally with and who to compete with - diplomacy is all about the numbers game, so it's a logical place for the graphs.
Please, PLEASE add the graphs! "Too much information" isn't the current issue, it's "too little information". You can't make decisions without access to information. The lack of relevant info is taking away from player involvement (e.g. you might as well flip a coin for a decision if you have no way of evaluating the consequences) and hindering players from getting "better" in the game (as they can't identify what they are doing wrong). The graphs would also make balance-testing much easier as you can see macro-level changes in economies, faction strenght etc. at a glimpse.
Thank you! If you finally
do manage to get the patch out, I've considered delivering a new review of it to one of our game magazines - there seem to be such major changes being applied that the game is much different from what it was a year ago. Looking forward to it!
The original Steam post follows:
1) GRAPHS
"Do you keep losing all your games without really understanding why? Do your neighbouring empires seem ridiculously OP, although Arioch keeps telling you everything is fine? If that is the case, Interstellar Space Economics can solve all your problems! Order our handy graphs today, and never again will your empire fail without you understanding exactly what you are doing wrong!"
We need basic in-game graphs of the super-important Numbers Game, i.e. wealth, production, science, population, fleet size, number of systems/planets owned... and you already have all these numbers in the game, it just isn't represented anywhere in a meaningful form. The diplomatic screen has some of the info, but it is missing the most important factors of GROWTH and the ability to COMPARE these to your empire/others. So we need GRAPHS! These will help you choose the right strategy and hopefully teach you what you did wrong at the stage when everybody drove past you in the numbers game.
At least I'm struggling with the current game balance on normal/hard, as normal makes it too easy to keep above the production curve while hard makes it too difficult (but not consistently, which is why I would like to see the numbers to analyze what is going on). Science on normal on the other hand seems balanced, while on hard I keep getting really, really far behind at mid/late-game stages. Same goes for population. I'm done complaining about game balance - the problem is most likely the lack of feedback from the game itself, as this leads to the continued appliance of unoptimal strategies. It's hard to make enlightened choices if you're blindfolded. So please give us the numbers in a readable form on the diplomatic screen!