Galaxy View UI Feedback

from GalCiv3 Forums

Ship movement paths:

-I absolutely love the multiple colors and the end of turn location - but presently the paths update with each move the ship takes!

-Further, selecting one ship with a path, then selecting another, displays the path relative to the movement of the first ship (it's a little obvious that my 3 move scout ship won't make it 10 sectors away in two turns, but the game is displaying the move path calculated with my 7 speed survey ship that I had selected previously.)

-There is also an off-by-one error (calculated only once, not compounded on long paths) that sets the markers for each end of turn location one space farther along the path than is accurate.

-This may be in the works, but please display the path my ship will take BEFORE I commit to a move - on MouseDown preferably.

-It is possible, just as it was in GalCivII, to cause a ship to move outside the supply boundaries.  Since the default pathing prioritizes DownLeft over Left, for example, a ship can be instructed to path to a location three tiles DownLeft and one tile Left and which is WITHIN the supply boundaries, but the path will move through the three tiles DownLeft that are NOT within the supply boundaries before finishing the path inside the supply boundaries.  If the ship runs out of moves in the middle of this path, it sits, with no consequences, outside the supply boundaries.  This has always bothered me.

Camera:

-When clicking on the galaxy minimap, the camera does not center on the location the cursor clicks on.  When zoomed in past the strategic map, the location I click on is not even displayed onscreen.  Further, this prevents me from moving the camera by clicking at any point where the center of the viewable area would be outside the bounds of the map - which in some cases is a significant distance within the galactic bounds on the minimap.

-I know of, and appreciate very much, zooming to cursor, but I would also appreciate the additional functionality of centering camera view on any hex that is double-clicked. (Or at least the option to toggle that functionality.)

Tooltips:

-Planetary production bars in the right side panel currently lack any way to show at a glance the number of turns remaining in a construction project, or the production output of a planet.

-When a planet is selected, in addition to the above tooltip missing in the progress bar, there is no tooltip for population or culture.  (Population growth rate AND current max population would both be appreciated in the population tooltip).

-Planetary tooltip suggestions: move '(Unin)Habitable Planet', 'X Ships Defending', 'Civilization Capital' to a separate divider, or give them unique icons from the various innate planetary bonuses.  Perhaps the wrench icon means missing graphic, but for the sake of swift comprehension I would like to see this added.

3,253 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

-It is possible, just as it was in GalCivII, to cause a ship to move outside the supply boundaries. Since the default pathing prioritizes DownLeft over Left, for example, a ship can be instructed to path to a location three tiles DownLeft and one tile Left and which is WITHIN the supply boundaries, but the path will move through the three tiles DownLeft that are NOT within the supply boundaries before finishing the path inside the supply boundaries. If the ship runs out of moves in the middle of this path, it sits, with no consequences, outside the supply boundaries. This has always bothered me.
End of quote

Interesting. I have done this on this build. I gave a ship a command to a ship that took it through an area outside its range but ended within its range and it moved to the end of its allowable distance for the move and stopped within the area outside its supply range, continued to move each turn to its target location each turn, and finally arrived at its destination. Have you tried it and had it reject the command?

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I think the background stars, nebulae etc is clutter and distracting.  Needs to tone it down.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Yeah, I had a problem with that in GC2.  The background image is just distracting. I'd rather we saw just the playing field, and nothing as a backdrop.

Or, had the option of turning it off.

 

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Visual:

-Currently, asteroids occupy a higher layer than ships.  It's not only very easy to lose ships visually, it takes two clicks to select it (once to select the asteroid layer, once more to select the ship).

-The Ideology Pyramid has the small connector lines on a higher level than the icons at the bottom of an ideological unlock.  (For example, the Orbital Institute icon for Pragmatism's Higher Education is covered by the small yellow dot in the ideology tree.)

 

Input:

-The order in which spacebar triggers events is counterintuitive: I want to make the selected ship skip a turn, not open up the research/ideology/idle planet screen.  Commands that affect selected units should take precedence over global commands.

 

Quoting Lucky, reply 1

  Have you tried it and had it reject the command?
End of Lucky's quote

-As far as I can tell, the only check to determine if a path is valid is at the end point.  In theory, for all I can tell, you could have two planets at opposite ends of the galaxy and, as long as the path was set to end safely within a supply border, the ship would willingly cross any distance of uncharted space without the slightest problem.