A simple idea that could make the game more user friendly

Can you explain what that is? Thats a new one for me.

A cheer. Y'know - arms and a head?

As opposed to The Hitler: o/

Oh rofl!!!

I second the motion.

While they are at it they could do the same thing with the production slider vs. income. Automatically adjust production to keep my income at a specific rate -- as much as possible.

This could be done via the "Governers" tab. Basically tell your governer to keep your approval at x% and/or income at y. I guess you'd also have to indicate which was more important in case of a conflict (which inevitably will occur) - to keep the desired approval rate up or the desired income.

True, might as well go all the way and determine which most helpful (new) shortcuts (adding to the usual ones even if by the "cheat" session trick.) would need to be integrated directly to the main interface. (Btw, it really puzzles me that this type of idea (tks, Stanley) hasn't been brought up sooner, or if it ever was!)

Anyhow, here's what i feel should probably make the cut in supplement to what's been mentioned above;

- Specific locations, some targets or/and preset rally points (although this one IS indirectly there!)... somehow defined as a configurable/extendable list (menu driven might be used too) where many key-items can get selected at ONCE and very rapidly. Not that far from the current ship/planets side panels, but with more versatile functions.

- Comparing immediate statistics for/from numerous categories; sometimes, i just want to have a quick glance at opponent's progress or simply determine the exact number of planets they have, their latest treasury variations represented in net BCs values, the relative winning conditions level attainable by my nearest competition, etc. Instead of bringing up the "Stats&Graphs" auto-cycler and having to estimate a general result.

- Waypoint tags or some kind of "post-it" notes to indicate a few things about anything one may find necessary; say...
a) i set a goal to take over a race and the tactical plan requires a certain pattern of invasion to make it less costly or faster
i stick or install a series of tiny markers/flags/stars/dots/whatever directly ON the map for me to consult or be reminded about at times or within a steady group of strategic steps.
Then, those would be accessible via an interface button-like-shortcut... also.

Lots of other useful things may fit that request.

- Zyxpsilon.

Why not just make a button for - make everything best for me without my having to set any darn thing?



This game is about controlling your own resouces as you see fit (and yes, perhaps on a turn-by-turn basis).
It is not about - make things easier by the click of a (as with so many other posts about so many things that the random user deems inconvenient) button.

While I agree with the notion of the convenience, I also have to agree with Moosetek13. If you give the computer too much control over your own empire then there is very little difference between you and the other AIs.

This game is great! I definitely want to avoid a MOO3 incident where the developers gave the user so much automation that your empire pretty ran itself... and you didn't even know what was going on "under the hood".

The guy is simply requesting to have the computer help him keep tabs on the approval rating he wants. The idea is his, he'd like a tool to help implement his idea. The quest to conquer the galaxy is fun. The quest to remember to look at the lower left hand corner of the screen then click things is not.

What about when he wants to eat popcorn? should he not use a microwave to shorten the time to complete the idea of eating popcorn? perhaps you think its more rewarding to cook it in oil. The man just wants to enjoy the popcorn, not the cooking.

Don't throw too much salt on my mans popcorn

and pass the butter please

Mmmm, popcorn.

No, I see what he's saying. But I can also see how further automation can lead to less tweaking. Less tweaking leads to less "hands-on". I like to tweak, and it sounds like Stanley does too. The original post was a matter of convenience but I think some subsequent ideas took that request of convenience and turned down the road of "let the computer do X for me."

While I support convenience, let's also must be mindful of what screen real estate there is to offer, too. I tweak my taxes during the early game extremely often. And a slider on the main screen may help out then but it takes up space too. What about that slider later in the game when it doesn't matter so much?

I agree with djtool above. It is just a tool. The game isn't thinking for me. I am making the hard strategic decision to have 100% approval instead of say 39% approval but bucket loads more money. Once I make up my mind that I want 100% approval, why waste time needlessly clicking every single turn? I mean we all know the difference between 99% and 100% approval in population growth is great.

That is one beef of a few I have with this game.... that pop growth bonus doesn't scale evenly with your approval. Why can't a 99% approval rate give 1.99 times the pop growth bonus and 100% give a double bonus? So as a citizen with like $10 more in my pocket a month because of 1% better tax rate, I suddenly want to have sex twice as fast and convert illegal alien bums into tax paying citizens twice as fast versus a mere 25% faster? I mean WTF mate??

Also, moosetek, you wouldn't have to use the new conveinent tools. You can still screw with your tax rate every turn if you want. But with the way pop growth bonus works, who would keep their approval at 98% or 99% versus 100% unless you absoutely needed those few more credits a turn? But if you do need those credits and can't afford a 100% approval, than why not scale to like 75% and be on the low end of still getting a 25% pop growth bonus?

How about a tax button that is called 100% approval you could just hit this and then don't have to fiddle with the slide bar to find the magic number!

Now how about that?

Now that's an idea, Xtanto. We wouldn't have to have the slider on the main page but instead have a button or something next to the tax slider that can turn on 100% approval. That way it's out of the way and can be toggled on and off by just clicking down once. If you start losing too much money you just go back and turn it off. I like it!

Now about that popcorn...

you don't need any slider on the main page. you put it on the econ window. Its not exactly taking up as much space as research or stats n graphs. You either put both sliders on there and have one active and one inactive. Or you put 2 buttons next to it to toggle the slider for tax or approval.

%100 is an important number but so is 70 and 51.

I like the idea of setting the approval rate and have it automaticly do the tax for you. Then you can just set it to 21% 41% 75% 100% and the tax works its self out!

Part of the problem is the huge discontinuity from 99% to 100%. Get rid of that, and problem solved. (IE make pop growth a continous function off morale)

I don't see a big value in a "lock" for morale. Mostly because it is just an average, and you'll have some planets higher or lower anyway. (except 100% of course...)

As far as the sliders, the thing I've wanted to have the research slider jump to +/- 1 week of research. So if you had some easy tech you wanted, when you went to the slider screen, a single click would jump the slider to 1 week. Or if you had the final expensive tech, you could easily get it set to 2-3 weeks with having to re-adjust the turn before to avoid waste.

Hmmmm... I realize this is sarcasm, but a good point none the less. I think that I'm changing my mind.  :NOTSURE:  We should keep in mind cause and effect. We control the cause and see the effect -- as in we set the tax rate (cause) and then see the approval rate(affect). We shouldn't be allowed to pre-set the end result and then let the result choose its cause. Yes, it would be a great tool, but the idea of the simulation of running an empire is that we should have the same "uncertanties" as in the real world.