Uranium - 235 Uranium - 235

"Information Overload" is unbearable - A complaint and solution in one!

"Information Overload" is unbearable - A complaint and solution in one!

One of the most irritating, annoying parts of this game is that at the end of nearly every turn, I have a horde of pop-up dialogs to click through. There's always one bit on each, and I've had over 8 'click actions' between turns just to get to the next turn.

Amongst other things, I'm informed of such trivially useless bits of information, like that a mining starbase belonging to the Korx just defected to the Torians (this happens at LEAST once a turn by the midgame). Let me be frank - it's not MY starbase, I have absolutely NO reason to care.

Another annoying screen are the 'war' and 'truce' espionage popups, like "Our agents have reported that X is paying tribute to Y", or "Our agents in the Y government have reported they have declared war on X."

First of all, I don't need a special popup about my AGENTS telling me who declared war and who slept with whomevers mother. I'll get that information on the news screen anyway. Secondly, if I have no espionage, why am I getting these reports?

Another thing are anomaly reports. Turning them off leaves you TOO blind, as you have no idea where your flagship ran off to, if it's still working, or if it's stuck. However, leaving them on bombards me with worthless discoveries (1bc, for example) and most infuriatingly, it centers my screen on the flagship every time (which should definitely be fixed).

It sometimes takes longer to get through the endless wave of popups than it does to perform actions on my turns. With all the endless dialog boxes popping up unnecessarily, I feel like I'm using windows Vista with user control still enabled.

However, about the information overload, I propose this - the greatest idea ever for this game.

Each section can be expanded or collapsed (and if there is no information, it's not even there). Economic Situation contains all those pop-ups about new trade routes, canceled trade routes (that'd be headline news, actually), and mining starbase reports.

Colony news can contain minor information, like if a planet has an overpopulation problem, a report will show up in there letting you know, as it's easy to miss something like that.

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Vaguely unrelated jibba-jabba:


Furthermore, I don't want to, nor SHOULD I be told, that Race X is going to war with Race Y because the Drath paid them off. Let there be some mystery to the galaxy.

1) Unless I am friendly with a race, it sort of kills immersion a bit that they tell me every part of their political game.
2) When I haven't even DISCOVERED a race, I get popups from them about who they're going to war with.
3) Espionage should dictate all this as well. If I have no espionage invested in the Drengin, I should never know who is paying them tribute, and how much. I shouldn't know about the wars they are in either. I shouldn't know about their mining bases or their planets flipping.

Honestly, I don't think we should be able to see anything on the 'reports' screen either. We should be able to see who has wars going on the Treaty screen, but not their treaties or trade, not without some espionage invested.
44,617 views 69 replies
Reply #26 Top
While we're fantasizing, let's be able to drag this info display to a second monitor :D
Reply #27 Top
I support this! Can we get a shout from one of the devs, perhaps? Just a teeny one, saying that this is doable or not and wheter or not they're going to look into fixing it?

Pweeese, Stardock?
End of quote


I've made a few feature requests myself. Unfortunately, the devs said that they were too busy with the TA betas to add in any more features. I suggest that you revive this post for 2.0 when the devs have more time.

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I have something to add. I don't know about you guys, but I would like to have the ability to reopen these news windows (or just the one news window as is being suggested here) after closing them. Sometimes I want to get something done before I forget about it, so I often close these windows so I can do something, and then I later realize I now want to know more about what it said.
Reply #28 Top
You made that "fake screen" with Photoshop?!? ;) ;)

Hooked me on the basic reasoning behind structured flow(s) of information(s) via an entirely new function (revised and focused by simply picking off the ball and running through your idea and coding it) and its required pop though!

It IS possible to fix a dxpack with such features, but at the very heart of this concept is the need to scan incode values, transfer any to procedures, distribute the output accordingly.
I, too wish for some SD designers to give a serious consider to such a thing.

Mostly, it would be a sort-of-Report/Manager (Yup, i can already read a loooooooong list of multiple colors nice icons, parsing through events, take out the research-blues, etc) on steroids.

Key is here to try convincing THE coder(s) to tackle this "project".
So, please & PLEASE!

-Zyxpsilon.
Reply #29 Top
i agree... this would be an excellent idea, but lets wait until the Devs have finished the Beta... or maybe one of the Modders out there might be able to code it?

Reply #30 Top
Something perhaps easier, would be change the popups into boxes off to the right. (like ship build notifications.)
Reply #31 Top
/signed
Reply #32 Top
I would like to have the ability to reopen these news windows (or just the one news window as is being suggested here) after closing them.
End of quote


I support the core idea of the OP, this related request, and Mumblefratz's reminder that trash talk is no way to encourage constructive attention from the devs. I'm sure history is littered with good ideas we'll never know about because the person who had them irritated TPTB rather than intrigued them.
Reply #33 Top

I would like to have the ability to reopen these news windows (or just the one news window as is being suggested here) after closing them.


I support the core idea of the OP, this related request, and Mumblefratz's reminder that trash talk is no way to encourage constructive attention from the devs. I'm sure history is littered with good ideas we'll never know about because the person who had them irritated TPTB rather than intrigued them.
End of quote

Anyone who gets offended over the internet needs to do some growing up.

(Of course, without offending people to the point of anger, I'd have no where near the amount of fun I do in religious threads)
Reply #34 Top
Bump. This idea still kicks ass.
Reply #37 Top
Oh yeah, that's a cool looking GNN, I'd love to see this in GalCiv.
Reply #38 Top
Streamlining weekly reports and popups? Sounds like the best innovation since toasters and microwave ovens.
Reply #39 Top
After a successful invasion you might get pop-ups about buildings that were destroyed because you used mass drivers or because you don't have the tech to use them. That info is completely useless. What do I care about improvements that are *NOT* on the planet?
A planet that had trade routes going to it will spawn several useless pop-ups as well. Those were not even my trade routes.

So I support this request for less useless information and better organization of the important news.
Reply #40 Top
Anyone who gets offended over the internet needs to do some growing up.
End of quote


You miss my point. I'm not trying to protect the sensitive, I'm testifying that in my experience you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.
Reply #41 Top
Your "screenshot" showed 95 weeks to research enhanced miniaturization. Thats some slow research...
Reply #42 Top
Hadn't let it get to me, but this certainly would be much easier on the eyes and the mouse button finger. Hope someone can bring it to the game.
Reply #43 Top

Anyone who gets offended over the internet needs to do some growing up.


You miss my point. I'm not trying to protect the sensitive, I'm testifying that in my experience you get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.
End of quote


How about if the guardians of the good manners here on this forum get over it? Uranium's post may sound a wee bit indignant but never got offensive or disrespectful. The more important question is how to bring his ideas to the attention of the devs.
Reply #44 Top
How about if the guardians of the good manners here on this forum get over it?
End of quote
Reminds me of an ex-girlfriend. If you yelled at her to get out of burning building she'd stand there and burn to death because you didn't say please.

Reply #45 Top
The game wants to spam you to death. I play with all notifications off that can be turned off. Some of them still insist on appearing. A few are important to me, such as who declares war on who and any special projects that build. Those I need, but too many of the notifications are unnecessary and only cause distraction. I do use auto-survey notifications in the beginning when they can have a big impact on the game, but later, I shut them off. When they're on, it's highly distracting the way they cause the main map to switch focus.

Any improvement in the area of player notifications would be great. You have my vote.

Reply #46 Top

Your "screenshot" showed 95 weeks to research enhanced miniaturization. Thats some slow research...
End of quote


I mushed together photoshops using ntitial gametime, some old games, and some cheats.

Notice how the Thalans are building one of their 'starter' buildings (ie: in Week 3 or prior), but I've already somehow declared war with the Iconians and have warships built? :P
Reply #47 Top
When they're on, it's highly distracting the way they cause the main map to switch focus.
End of quote


Isn't the auto-focus another option you can switch off? I think it is one I immediately forget b/c I always turn it off. On the bigger maps, that jumping around can easily make me forget what I was doing in a sector if I wasn't paying attention to which sector it was...

p.s. If I wasn't so lazy, I'd start a wiki page for this class of options--it needs one.
Reply #49 Top
Isn't the auto-focus another option you can switch off?
End of quote

Yes, it can be shut off, but try playing without it on gigantic. You get lost a lot. Some things you do need the auto-focus for, survey ships finding anomolies is not one of them.



Reply #50 Top
I almost always play gigantic, but I guess I've been playing with autofocus off for so long that I've adapted. I just TAB to my next active ship.

Since this thread started on a good wish-list point, I guess I'd add a complementary one for GC3: we need to be able to define a map view (center coordinate + zoom level) as a region in a list that we can use to scan theatres of action on the larger maps.

With something like that, you could switch quickly between a view of most or all of your territory, your core systems, your frontier with X, frontier with Y, the Far Resources, etc.