Maybe the way I worded it was incorrect. Yes, I understand the reply you wrote in connection with the events bar in the lower corner and how a player can miss info. Thats why I suggested that it be a screen centered popup window. "Hostile Forces have entered orbit around Planet _______" Would you like to send forces to intercept them? Here would be 2 boxes Yes or No.......If you click yes....It displays your fleets for you to select which to send. More than 1 fleet may be chosen. Once you've selected which fleet(s) to send. You would then click a "Issue Orders" button. This system would also re-act with Reinforcements......Now as stated before, It would have the options of disabling both systems or 1. Maybe you want Defense but not Reinforcement enabled.
I like the idea of voice commands..But that would take some serious programing for voice recognition and implementation into the game.
no no no, i wasnt saying we need to have voice commands, i was saying i want the game to vocally 'say' "there is a strike force inbound", or, "our colony ship is under attack" etc etc. i wasnt talking about the player saying, send fleet X to planet Y, i agree thats way too hard.
so, o your other points, im simply pointing out that there is a current framework for info to be displayed for you, im also saying the current system leaves much to be desired. personally, i think a pop-up in the center of the screen would be distracting, perhaps having the info box say you have incoming bad guys and letting you go to another window to respond, much like the way pirate bidding was done before the update.
however, i also think that, in the current style of the game, the computer asking you which fleet would you like to send seems really superfluous, after all, you have all your fleets right there in your empire window, and im sure most people also number their fleets (i.e. you press number one on your keyboard and it selscts a fleet) meaning this pop-up window asking for orders is rather, as i said, superfluous, and really stops becoming RTS and more TBS or even a bit like pokemon cards (i.e. he will use this card, what are you going to do to reply, you will do that? okay boss, ill do that during our next turn)
personally, i wont use your system of ordering fleets around using a popup window. id much rather relevant, detailed info telling me how many ships are coming my way, and then letting me deal with it in my own time. i mean, if 20 or even 30 ships come into one of my highly fortified grav wells, im not that fussed, and i dont need a pop-up window asking me what to do, especially if im in the middle of a pitched battle elsewhere, or fervently fortifying a planet to repel an invasion.
long story short, why would you want a convoluted popup system when you can just as easily (or even more easily) select fleets and send them on their way, the time it takes to select each individual fleet is really offset by how much time it takes them to turn around, charge their engines and get to your planet.
i also dont like the reinforcement idea a whole lot, its very complicated to try to figure out what kinda info you would want to be displayed, and even more so than defense, if you are micro-ing for your life, you might like a popup to tell you your other fleet is getting nailed, or it could just be very irritating. in any case, you want to make it easier for the attacking fleet to do its job, its not supposed to be easy, it should be a real decision to stand of a bit longer or move in and be prepared to take losses. to be honest, if you cant monitor your fleets close enough to tell when ones going to get nailed, you should multi-task less
like i said before, alot of your ideas are really good! just these too sound alot like removing the responsibility from the player and simply pressing buttons to make things go boom while the computer does all the work. next thing will be saying, right, now, if mor ethan this many ships enters, run, i not, attack, if there are fewer than this many ships, start attacking structures or planets, if the repair bay in the area is making destroying ships too hard, take that out. if a phase stabiliser is bringing in more and more ships, or a nano-weapon jammer is too annoying, take that out. i mean, you can send in a fleet to a highly fortified world, go away and have lunch, come back and have won. simply because the computer fought for you. not my idea of fun, yes, you said it can be shut off, but then if the other player has it turned on, then im just fighting AI, and, due to the human input, possibly losing because AI can think and react faster than humans, and the priority target info given by the human makes the AI much more effecient.
i realise none of this ws in your original idea, im just saying if we start on this path then thats where it COULD lead, and thats not what im interested in, sorry.
no offense, i realise i my sound a bit hostile, sorry, no hostility intended, just trying to get my point across
also, i would love to know how many ships are coming, except i think it may be difficult. sometimes fleets dont always jump together, and sometimes 2 fleets will jump at the same time or right after the other and it may screw things up a bit. i was sorta hoping to get around that with arbitrary number assignment, but ultimately, if Ironclad could get around those issues, yeah exact numbers would be great.
