Reviewing my planets--how about less clicking?

from GalCiv2 Forums
Please save my arthritic finger.

1. About every turn, I go through the planet list by clicking on the planet button to
see if there is anything I should quick-build. If something looks like a possibility,
I click on the planet to see what the buy cost should be. That takes a click.
Then when I go back to the planet list to continue my top to bottom search, I have
to reclick the planet list and start at the beginning and click my way down to where I was
before.

One way around this, is that on the planet list you can click on the improvement and
ship and it brings up info. It lists how long to build it from scratch, not how long is
left and you can click on another button for the build it now cash price. This does
keep the planet list from moving and starting over from scratch but it would be
nice if the build price now was available without having to click several times.

At the beginning of the turn, it lists ships ready to be launched. There are
times when you may not want to launch right away, but usually you do want to
launch immediately. You should be able to launch with a button on the initial
list without having to go to the planet.
5,818 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Sorry for the double posting. When I sent it the first one, the site gave me
an error message saying that whatever I was doing didn't work.

So I posted again.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Don't double click on the planet in the list. Click once on the ship or building being built in the list.
Or did you know this and I didn't quite understand?

-Wade
ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yes, that was my second way. When you click on an improvement, it gives you the
opportunity to buy it now. But you have to click again to see what the buy it now
price. The initial click shows how long it takes to build it from scratch, not how
long it will take to do the current improvement. I would like to see that and the
buy-it-now listed on that immediate screen (after clicking on the improvement
in the planet list).

I know this is just a couple of clicks but the interface should cut down on that.
After a while, my finger literally hurts and I have to shift to my left hand. This
game though is not as bad as others.

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yes, the planet and colony management UI definitely could use some improvement. It's not bad if you have only a few planets to manage, but in a game like my current one, in a huge galaxy where I have nearly 200+ planets to attend, it really needs some improvements.

Some improvements I'd love to see:
- On the colony management screen, *please* remember the currently selected planet and the position of the scroll bar and restore them when the screen is exited and then re-entered. If you're going down the list of planets to make a change on each one, you currently have to remember where you were on the list and scroll back down to it every time you leave the colony management screen. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but it becomes painful if you need to keep flipping from the colony management screen to the planet screen and back dozens of times per turn, and every time you have to refind your position on the list.

- Speed up the time it takes to display the colony management screen. With ~200 planets, it takes 5-6 secs to come up *every* time. Again, it doesn't sound like a lot, but it becomes painful if you need to keep flipping from the colony management screen to the planet screen dozens of times per turn.

- On the colony management screen, show the focus setting for every planet and allow it to be changed from there. (Highlighting the approriate box the Mil/Soc/Res production columns with each planet's focus and allowing clicks there to change the focus would be perfect).

- There should be a way from both the planet and colony management screens to make the main view center on the selected planet. Owning many planets in a huge/gigantic galaxy, it's hard to remember where every system is located and it becomes a pain to have to search around the map for where, say, Wardell III is located. (If there's already a way to do this, I'd love to know it!)

- Being able to sort the planets by various columns on the colony management screen is very useful and is, for example, a great way to find all planets producing, say, Enhanced Factories and then maybe quick-buy them. It's be even more useful if the previous/next planet buttons on the planet management screen followed the same sort order. That way, you could sort the planets into groupins as you need, then select the first planet of interest, go to the planet management screen, and from there, just click next to get to the next planet in the list *as it is currently sorted*, without needing to go back to the colony management screen first.

- It'd be nice if the colony management screen at least showed if each planet had any ships in orbit (ie: a showing shield symbol), or even better, showed the number of ships, or even better than that, had a popup where you could view and launch ships without having to go back to the main map.

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The initial click shows how long it takes to build it from scratch, not how
long it will take to do the current improvement. I would like to see that and the
buy-it-now listed on that immediate screen (after clicking on the improvement
in the planet list).


Just look at the blue bar with the time left to build in the list .

When you choose buy now you must be presented with the payment options.

The time to build is shown as from the start so that you can consider how far along you come in the building processin a number sense as opposed to the blue bar sense.

-Wade
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I love the game, especially since the patch and applaud all those involved but a bit less click click click deep into the game would be kind to my forearm which is beginning to look like popeye's