Imperial Stockpile -Indicate how much PP is wasted (%-based)

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Ophiuchus
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Imperial Stockpile -Indicate how much PP is wasted (%-based)

#1 Post by Ophiuchus »

This feature would be great for imperial stockpile

Usually you get a warning if you waste PP, which is really helpful.

Sometimes PP are wasted, and you know the reason (e.g. your enemy cut off planets from supply network) and more or less the amount how much is wasted.
So in this case the warning is useless.
If somewhere unexpected also PP get wasted, you dont get an extra warning. So you either have to check every turn where the PP are wasted or risk not noticing extra wasting.

I suggest adding a visual clue how much PP get wasted in terms of percentage of total production PP.
So e.g. you have a disconnected planet wasting a small amount of PP. E.g. 5PP of a total of production of 90PP (i.e. ~6%) this leads to a "green/yellow" clue. So for some turns you ignore this (as you know you cant do anything about it). Suddenly the clue switches to "yellow" (>10% PP wasted). Now you know something changed and you need to have a look where this PP get wasted.

This would help in the normal case, but especially if you are using the imperial stockpile (where you "waste" PP with intention to transfer some PP into the stockpile).

Im not sure what that clue might exactly look like, maybe one more visual person than me has a suggestion.
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Ophiuchus
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Re: Imperial Stockpile -Indicate how much PP is wasted (%-ba

#2 Post by Ophiuchus »

bump - anybody can help with the idea or implementation?
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Dilvish
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Re: Imperial Stockpile -Indicate how much PP is wasted (%-ba

#3 Post by Dilvish »

I'm a bit dubious about how helpful the particular color-coding you've focused on would really be-- if your empire is big enough that it's not obvious where PP is being wasted, then having warning color changes when crossing just one or two certain % wasted threshholds would probably only cover a small fraction of problem situations.

Your mention of the stockpile, though, make me think of what seems would be a more useful variation in the warning -- one form of it when there is excess/unused PP but not enough to max out the stockpile, and then a second form if there is so much that the stockpile will have spillover. That first form could be yellow and then the second one be like our current red warning, but (keeping in mind color-blind folks) we also try to avoid UI elements where the only distinction between two states is color. So I think there should be some other variation between the two forms besides just the color.
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Re: Imperial Stockpile -Indicate how much PP is wasted (%-ba

#4 Post by Ophiuchus »

Dilvish wrote:I'm a bit dubious about how helpful the particular color-coding you've focused on would really be-- if your empire is big enough that it's not obvious where PP is being wasted, then having warning color changes when crossing just one or two certain % wasted threshholds would probably only cover a small fraction of problem situations.
The reasoning is that a small (procentual) waste of PP is negligible, that it is not really important if you miss it.
Dilvish wrote:Your mention of the stockpile, though, make me think of what seems would be a more useful variation in the warning -- one form of it when there is excess/unused PP but not enough to max out the stockpile, and then a second form if there is so much that the stockpile will have spillover.
:) I really like this idea, this could be helpful
Dilvish wrote:That first form could be yellow and then the second one be like our current red warning, but (keeping in mind color-blind folks) we also try to avoid UI elements where the only distinction between two states is color. So I think there should be some other variation between the two forms besides just the color.
How about rectangular shape for the yellow warning and a equilateral triangle (i.e. "Danger!")for the red warning?

Taking inspiration at international traffic signs https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gefahr) and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna_Co ... nd_Signals.
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Dilvish
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Re: Imperial Stockpile -Indicate how much PP is wasted (%-ba

#5 Post by Dilvish »

Ophiuchus wrote:How about rectangular shape for the yellow warning and a equilateral triangle (i.e. "Danger!")for the red warning? Taking inspiration at international traffic signs...
So, a yellow diamond (at least that's what I seem to glean from those traffic sign references) and then a red triangle? Sounds reasonable to me, although I'd be inclined to first just add the yellow diamond and then later consider changing the red circle to a red triangle (which, if changed, seems to me should be changed for both production and research even though the existence of the production stockpile would mean the symbols had slightly different meanings for the two resource types).
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Re: Imperial Stockpile -Indicate how much PP is wasted (%-ba

#6 Post by Ophiuchus »

A diamond also means "attention"/"danger", but i think this is more on a "notice" level. The diamond means the same as the triangle, just in a different culture.

What I meant was a box, not a diamond.
How about keeping the circle, make it yellow for the "notice" (maybe put a small triangle inside).
I think the research circle is also on a "notice" level - meaning that you didnt specify how to use your RP, but they dont go completely wasted.

And for "warning" putting a triangle around the circle (not sure if there is enough screen space though), so shape and size would be different
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Re: Imperial Stockpile -Indicate how much PP is wasted (%-ba

#7 Post by Ophiuchus »

Just saying, as we removed the stockpile limit, there is no need to differentiate between.

And in another test game i had to check every turn how much PP was wasted.

Instead of a color/shape how much PP is waste/put into the stockpile, we could also add an entry to the top of the map window showing e.g. how many PP the stockpile changes(? e.g. +3.5 or -5).

Im not sure this is good. But having to hover above the waste indicator every turn sucks, so I want a solution for that.
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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Imperial Stockpile -Indicate how much PP is wasted (%-ba

#8 Post by Geoff the Medio »

Ophiuchus wrote:...add an entry to the top of the map window showing e.g. how many PP the stockpile changes(? e.g. +3.5 or -5).
Yes, it is necessary to show on the map screen / toolbar the current PP output, current PP stockpile, and the predicted change in the stockpile on the next interturn.

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Re: Imperial Stockpile -Indicate how much PP is wasted (%-ba

#9 Post by Ophiuchus »

Geoff the Medio wrote:
Ophiuchus wrote:...add an entry to the top of the map window showing e.g. how many PP the stockpile changes(? e.g. +3.5 or -5).
Yes, it is necessary to show on the map screen / toolbar the current PP output, current PP stockpile, and the predicted change in the stockpile on the next interturn.
done. Think its ok screenspace-wise.
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