Beta ver 0.83.3.0A quick U.I. comparison between GalCiv2 and GalCiv3.GalCiv2:http://i.imgur.com/UJrt0I9.jpgI can see, at a glance, the status of my relations with all my opponents simultaneously.GalCiv3:http://i.imgur.com/ALy13Dp.jpgWhat is the status of my relations with the other players?I must display a tooltip for each opponent to know it, and I have to remember the status of all relations whenever I change civilization (only one tooltip can be displayed at the same time).Conclusion:Essential info are hidden in the tooltips, and this is recurrent everywhere in the game.Tooltips are great to provide precisions about/complemantary info (ex: these 10 research points come from this, this, and that, etc.).There is too much tooltips to check currently, sometimes less is more, directly display the essential info, so the player can play the game without the hassle to have to check tooltips everywhere (and only one tooltip can be displayed at the same time).The U.I. is the first contact the player has with the game, if the U.I. is not adequate, the game experience is poor.Please, let the player fight the aliens and not fight the U.I.
I don't think that it is not adequate because if there are more than 30 races, in GCII it is impossible to know with which races you are in war or in peace (because of the scrolling).
In the UI of GC III you can see it directly by checking, the red/green/grey circle.
GC II capped out at what 12 races? Here you can have 100+. There has to be a compromise somewhere. Now look at the circle, close and ally are the inner ring, and angry/furious would be outer ring.
If you have a better solution I am all ears. I like the tool tip as it keeps the main screen from being cluttered.
Easy the current version of Galactic Civilizations III you can see that you are friendly(allied) with none and at war with none. Every race is somewhere in the middle.
I personally love the current view and believe it's much better than Galactic Civilizations II and like Larsenex stated if you have a better solution where you can easily see up to 128 different races let's hear them and who knows maybe Stardock will like it better than the current model.
Only thing I can think of is have the border around each planet shaded to their feeling on you so bright green is they love you, yellow is they have a so-so feeling toward you and red they dislike you or a shade somewhere in the middle that may help your quick look aspect of this. That's my suggestion to try to improve the current look and still give you your quick glance.
circles mean this...
If they are over a green shaded circle then they are allied/friendly with you.
If they are over a white shaded circle no matter how many rows there are, they are in a neutral state with you (not allied or at war)
If they are over a red shaded circle they are at war with you.
I was suggesting going one step further and shading a thin border circle around the "race planet" showing how close or far away they are to you based on their shade.
Thanks, Seilore. I take your point, and the circles under each civ in the diplomacy window do match what you say. But I was actually responding to Larsenex, who said "Now look at the circle, close and ally are the inner ring, and angry/furious would be outer ring." Which doesn't seem to be the case for me. Maybe that was a suggestion, not a description of how it works.
Also, for some reason the forum post quote feature isn't working for me today.
Publius, have you 'verified' your game cache via steam? I did find it really needed every time the patch the game. In fact I did it again this morning and it found a file corrupted and replaced it.
Another problem is that we do not get the popup messages to know what's new in our empire and the galaxy. No finished building repoert, no finished ships reports and NO reports on status change in the diplomacy relation of other civs. Like I was playing some turns before I looked into diplomacy screen to learn that half the races are at war with each other and I didn't even knew that.
@vivaherve
No, I have not recently verified my game files via Steam. I am currently 2000 miles away from home sitting in a campground with poor wifi. It was better yesterday, terrible today. If it's better tomorrow I've give it a try.
Strange, quoting seems to be working again.
@Bloodlust1983
It's true that UI lacks of usability and information. I totally agree with Uknown_hero.
How come the planets represent empires? Really weird looking so many globes trying to figure out who is who.Why I have to see them in circles and lines?
Want another solution?
Have a window like GC2 and scroll. Too many? Sort by attitude/distance/technology/population whatever..Toggle between major and minor races and even favorite ones.
Much simpler and smarter than fancy globes..
On another note globes.. the planet list is very limited. They get listed as you colonize/conquer them. You cannot sort them by name, size etc.
The mini map is hard to use you cannot scroll. drag it where you want to like in main map. If you are on the sides you see empty space untill you start exploring on the opposite areas of the map.
The last tab the notifications.. what is this? 51 notifications clicking on them nothing, go to.. nothing..
Suddenly my people got happy they are not sad anymore. What happened? Obviously that Entertainment Capital I built, there was no info the bonus applies to all my empire thought it was for planet only.. planet... hmm where is it which planet I built it? Luckily I remembered and I have 73 colonies!
So a notification window is needed urgently.
Govern window colonies. Sorting is good but planets in the same system should stay together for example Earth and Mars have different name whatever way you sort they will never come together.
Some UI for Starbases? On a large empire it's difficult to keep them upgraded when you have 20-30...
Research window I have complained many times about this already. Full screen, first you have to click DONE then the researcher looks at you instead you looking in the research tree.The small window in previous version was better at least make full screen more useful than some useless animation. Shrink it and put it on the side in a small window.
When I colonize a new planet somewhere.. I got a notification window to choose the name.. and immediately into planet screen where is that planet? Which are of the map? What should I build there? Is it an outer planet? Let us see where it. A nice idea.. along with name pop-up show a mini map with a blinking dot, it's location in the galaxy.
Put the information in front.
That is their home planet, however, I see your point, maybe have the race image in front of the planet similar to the race picture/background images in the custom race designer that way you can see their home world, with what the race image is, and add my thoughts and have a greenish/yellow circle bordering the planet indicting they think highly of you I think that would give you everything you're looking for?
Now as far as functionality of it that may be a different story...
They stated in a dev stream two weeks ago that this is broken, hopefully will be fixed soon
Small wish:
I relate more to the race icons than the planets. Planets are pretty, but convey no useful info. I have no idea which planet belongs to which race.
I would rather have just the icon and no planet, or at least a greatly enlarged icon.
I would agree but unfortunatelly same icons apply for different races and not necessary to have 128 of them.
In my current game I have 5 major races one has the same icon with a minor.. only it's on the other side of the galaxy..
So perhaps many many more icons are needed and a restriction to AI not to use taken icons..
I am going to have to respectfully disagree here, I like that the icon is small and out of the way, you can see what the icon is easy enough... I'll create a mock up of what I was thinking when I get home and can copy/paste a little...
What does the grey 8-pointed (I think it is) star icon above a planet mean?
So many great points in this thread. nobody can argue that the planets aren't purely eye candy. More beneficial might be the leader portrait for faster race identification. In between relations should also be discernible outside tool-tips.
I would prefer if the planet map actually showed the special traits of the planet on top with the Planet name.Say I go and colonize Avalon. Avalon is a ghost planet with 50% increased research.
this shows up in the planet production list... but it is not obvious and you have to look for it.
Make stuff like that obvious.
I should clarify: i'm talking about the race-relations screen, not the general map / playing field.
This is what I was thinking, of course a better border around the planet showing how they feel towards you...
The only improvement i could see working somewhat in the current system
eliminate the allie/at war rings and replace that with highlighting allies / at war now make the different rings represent friendliness closer rings are more friendly further rings are less friendly
I'm suggesting that instead of the race color (which it is currently) that they actually use a color based on their feelings toward you. So instead of purple have it be a shade of green if they are warm toward you or red/orange if they are angry towards you.
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