Ideas for Two Small Enhancements to the planet screen

First I am new to the game, and have only played a couple of games, but I noticed two real annoyances with the planet screen. First I would like the ability to "zone" tiles like in SimCity. I mainly want this so I don't have to go back in to build after a planet enhancement has been built. I'm not sure that made sence. I want to be able to dictate some tiles to factories, which can include yellow, orange, and red tiles, which will build their factories once the proper improvement has made the square green. I would also like this feature to include defences so I can set aside a few tiles on a planet when I get it and the defences will be built there when I get the tech.

The second idea should be clearer. When I conquer a planet I rarely like its setup and have to rebuild most of it. I would like to beable to select multiple tiles at once and be able to issue them the same order all at once.
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Reply #1 Top
I understood the second Idea, typically I do not like what was built either and it takes awhile to restructure the planet. This would save some time in that area, so I agree.

The first idea was unclear to me.
Reply #2 Top
He means he wants to pre-designate what to build on tiles that have yet to be terraformed to a usable state.

Personally I don't see how this would really reduce tedium, it only gives you the option to do the work at the start instead of the end, meaning you can ignore your planet more. It doesn't really save you time by my reckoning.

Though maybe a simpler way to introduce this feature, and that would really hit to the core of the problem it means to address, would be to allow you to re-designate terraforming operations into normal planetary improvements. IE, you can change Soil Improvement to Factory; it would add together the cost of both these improvements and when both are 'paid' for, boom, you have a factory. This would allow you to go around to all your planets the turn you discover a terraforming tech, and make certain that all the tiles are put to good use the moment they're available.

That said, with the grim cloud of the possibility of the Epic Generator being cut.. I feel acutely aware that developer resources are finite. Unless there's some terribly useful purpose for pre-designating non-terraformed tiles, I'd really rather they devote their time to features that add to the fun.

Multi-selecting tiles could be more useful, though even then it only saves a small amount of time.. but, it sounds (to my uneducated guess) like a feature that would require a lot more development time. Multi-selecting tiles could for instance produce a myriad of interface bugs, as it sounds like a moderately powerful tweak to a central game mechanic.
Reply #3 Top
Stromko, you are right in what my first idea was, and you are right they should focus on the major stuff first, but depending on how their programmers are organized and how the code itself is written it may just be a half hour task for someone without much to do.