Topic: Building costs preview
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Gannaf
Joined: 2010-06-21, 23:10
Posts: 47  Pry about Widelands Location: Germany, Bird Mountain |
Posted at: 2010-11-20, 22:51
Thank you But what is the problem about mixing these two kinds of information (requirement and availability of wares) by coulered numbers?
All the little hovertexts and failure messages tell you all the time about missing wares, which is very usefull - so why should'nt this preview do this as well? What about a switch for "coulered/standard yellow" figures then? 
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Nasenbaer
Joined: 2009-02-21, 17:17
Posts: 828  One Elder of Players Location: Germany |
Posted at: 2010-11-20, 23:03
I fully agree with SirVer: First of all players should know about wares themselves and second the information wouldn't be that useful, as some ware might be produceable on demand in a short time. Generally I think we should not clutter the interface and as construction time depends on the number of wares that are needed for construction, I would even leave out the time stuff. So simply the list of wares, no more would be cool (my opinion)
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nsh
Joined: 2010-11-08, 19:30
Posts: 27 Pry about Widelands |
Posted at: 2010-11-21, 00:44
E.g. players like me may forgot to build lime kiln at the early game stage. Or fernery later. In such case, this would be a very helpful tip for the player. Of course, player may gain this info from other sources, and this is his responsibility, but this feature would greatly improve the gameplay convenience, especially for beginners. Player will be anyway penalized by delay of construction. But without this feature this penalty may be just too much - until he notices that some construction stalled for a long time. It's quite possible that resource needed will be consumed before, and the construction will anyway stop - like building Arena and Training camp at the same time. But these are marginal cases. I would give the green color for wares in the warehouse, yellow if the wares are being transported somewhere (probably, to concurrent construction site) and red, if they are not available. Maybe some other color, if there is no supply for this ware at all. This traffic lights help player to evaluate a construction in a single blick.
Please, let the time stay here. I do not know where to look for the time, it is not in conf files. I concluded this should be proportional to the required wares quantity, but wasn't sure. And I couldn't find such information anywhere in the wiki. Edited: 2010-11-21, 08:49
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SirVer
Joined: 2009-02-19, 14:18
Posts: 1445 One Elder of Players Location: Germany - Munich |
Posted at: 2010-11-21, 11:12
There is always a trade off to make: theoretically, the best widelands player would be a smart AI: it knows everything about his state, the game rules and can decide practically in no time at all. Widelands could take all responsabilities away from the player. That said, I feel it is our job to transport the game rules as convenient as possible - that is the never changing facts that are the same for all games: build costs, the UI, game mechanics. The state of the current game (economics, other players stats and so on) should not be delivered for free; it is the task of the player to have a good grasp of the state and act accordingly. That is why I am + 1 for build costs (and build time, though I agree with nasenbaer that this information is implicit to build cost) and -1 for current state of delivery. !SirVer
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Venatrix
Topic Opener
Joined: 2010-10-05, 19:31
Posts: 449  Tribe Member Location: Germany |
Posted at: 2010-11-21, 20:01
I have to agree with SirVer. It should be enough to show the building costs. Whether you have enough resources you should know by yourself. And if you don't know there are different possibilities to check. That's something one can expect from a human player, I think. About the time preview: Why? It's proportional to the numbers of wares used (if all wares are available). And as nsh said there is no place in the game where you find something like a clock. So why here? I don't think, this information is useful, anyway. Two is the oddest prime.
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ixprefect
Joined: 2009-02-27, 13:28
Posts: 367 Tribe Member |
Posted at: 2010-11-22, 15:37
@Venatrix: Actually, I think adding a clock that runs according to the in-game speed might be an interesting idea. It's a cheap feature, doesn't have to be intrusive (think a small indicator similar to the game speed display), and might be useful for people who are looking to optimize their building strategy.
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Venatrix
Topic Opener
Joined: 2010-10-05, 19:31
Posts: 449 Tribe Member Location: Germany |
Posted at: 2010-11-22, 16:27
Alright, that's worth a thought. It's just, as long as a clock doesn't exist (the first time I saw the time played was, when I started a saved game), the minimal building time doesn't seem that interesting. On the other hand do I belong to the (solo) players, that can play a game for hours without being interested in the played time. With saving and loading in between, it is. I suppose, I would be shocked, when I had something like a clock in the game (especially when speeding up), about the time I'm wasting... So there are people (at least me) who don't miss a clock, and when there is the possibility to have one, I think, it's a good idea to have the possibility to turn it off completely (for the entire game play)... Two is the oddest prime.
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ixprefect
Joined: 2009-02-27, 13:28
Posts: 367 Tribe Member |
Posted at: 2010-11-22, 19:13
Hehe, maybe forcing the clock on you would be a good way to get you to go outside and do something useful instead? ;) In all seriousness though, it's cool that enjoy the game, and I definitely see your point. A clock ticking away the seconds would distract from the rather relaxed approach to gaming that Widelands offers. By the way, you also see the time in the message window.
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Venatrix
Topic Opener
Joined: 2010-10-05, 19:31
Posts: 449 Tribe Member Location: Germany |
Posted at: 2010-11-23, 10:31
Normally the game runs in the background while I'm doing something useful on the computer.
Yes, that's what I meant.
As you say it, I remember. But in the first games I couldn't read it, because of the bug, that crossed the message titles with the time. Maybe that's the reason I don't really care about it, even now that I can read it... Two is the oddest prime.
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Gannaf
Joined: 2010-06-21, 23:10
Posts: 47 Pry about Widelands Location: Germany, Bird Mountain |
Posted at: 2010-11-23, 17:39
Thanks for all your critics, what do you think about this new one?
I've left the time preview out, but theres still space for adding it if you like when hovering a small building: (edit: I made the darker surface look a little more "3-dimensional") Edited: 2010-11-23, 21:44
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Well yeah, the 2 buttons aren't really nescessary. I just saw the free space and wondered, if it could be used in someway 
