Context Needed For Popup Messages

from GalCiv4 Forums

Background:  Players have the ability to send ships on journeys that will take more than 1 turn/month to complete.  When the player clicks on the icon to go to the next turn, the game will automatically move those ships as far as they can go in one turn.  At some point, the ships arrive at their destination during these automatic moves that occur at the end of the player's turn.  When that happens, the game will display a popup window either informing the user of the arrival (Treasure Hunters and Research Missions) or asking the user to make a decision (Asteroid Miners and Colony Ships).

Issue:  If I have sent multiple asteroid miners to asteroids that are more than one turn away, when I go to the next turn where the asteroid miners arrive at their destination, I get one or more screens that look like the one below.  The issue is that the game is asking me to make a decision by clicking Yes or No, but it is not giving me the context with which to answer the question.  Specifically, to which asteroid cluster is the game referring?  I just completed a turn where I received 4 of these messages with no change in the background.

Issue:  In the mid to late game stages I may have 10 or more Treasure Hunters reporting the results of their mission resulting in having to click through a separate popup for each mission.  Why can't you group these together in a single popup reporting the results of all Treasure Hunter and Research missions in one window?  I made this request in previous test versions, but it still has not been "fixed". Please put this on your list of things to look at and fix for the next version.

galactic civilizations iv
10,249 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

I think informational messages (e.g., your treasure hunter finished) should be left panel messages, not popups.
I don't even think the game should ask you to confirm asteroids, colonies, etc. You sent the ship there. You don't have to confirm supply ships and freighters...

Reply #2 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

I am open to different ideas on how to provide the information to the players.  My main point is that the current method is repetitive and annoying and, in the case of asteroid miners, confusing.

I think the higher-level suggestion is to combine all of the things that happened between when you chose to end your turn and when you can select objects (ships, planets, etc.) again on your next turn in one popup window or, as slarjy suggested, in the form of left panel messages.

Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Instead of giving you a yes/no or choice question, the game should treat the issue the same as it treats auto moved ships that still have movement points left. This  would also then allow the player to look around, check out resource screens, respond to survey completed questions, new colony founding events and invitations to go to war to war (hmmm, why is this memory game. why did I bother to buy a computer, if I can't look up things when answering diplomatic or trade requests).

Reply #4 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

Quoting PaulLach, reply 2

I am open to different ideas on how to provide the information to the players.  My main point is that the current method is repetitive and annoying and, in the case of asteroid miners, confusing.

I think the higher-level suggestion is to combine all of the things that happened between when you chose to end your turn and when you can select objects (ships, planets, etc.) again on your next turn in one popup window or, as slarjy suggested, in the form of left panel messages.

For the asteroid mining specifically, there should be a "yes to all" button, so that it never asks you again.  The yes/no is potentially important when it's at turn 5, but at turn 200 it's really not at all.

An auto-mine for asteroid miners has been a feature request - this would also largely remedy this issue.

Reply #5 from GalCiv4 Forums Top

We're aware of some things on the UI needing work. There are plans for helping to manage events too but the code requirements mean some of these things will be post-release features and improvements we want to implement.