Auto Admin Commands

[Rich.h (OP)]

Could we get the auto assignment tick box to also apply to admin commands, or have a second tick box that only does admin. I am finding that once I get a fully fledged out navy with many different admin roles it becomes a micro nightmare after a few years. It is so bad now that barely 3-6 months go by without either a death or retirement.

I fully understand some folks might not like how this takes away a part of the RP factor, but if it an optional box and you can still manually assign positions then it should be a way to please everyone.

[Jorgen_CAB]

Could we get the auto assignment tick box to also apply to admin commands, or have a second tick box that only does admin. I am finding that once I get a fully fledged out navy with many different admin roles it becomes a micro nightmare after a few years. It is so bad now that barely 3-6 months go by without either a death or retirement.

I fully understand some folks might not like how this takes away a part of the RP factor, but if it an optional box and you can still manually assign positions then it should be a way to please everyone.

I would not be against that even if I prefer to assign my higher command myself... what I do want is to know when an admin command is vacated in separate event so I can flag it with a separate colour. Right now it is a pain when I have to look at every retirement and death to see if they were commanding an admin command. Sure I can flag them as a story character but that is sort of not fair... i want them to be able to retire and have their own lives. But for now I HAVE to flag them as story characters to remain sane and then sack them myself at a certain age.

The admin command structure tend to become quite advanced at a certain stage so keeping track of them through the even log is not realistic at that point.

[wedgebert]

I think a simple solution would be a drop down on the Admin command that had all the relevant skills (e.g. Logistics) as well as an options for "Any" and "Manual". If you choose a skill, then auto-assignments would weight the people with that skill higher, but with some randomness so that it's not the same two people bouncing back and forth. If you choose Any, then it just assigns any valid officer to that position. And if you select Manual (the default) it would work like it works now.

Same thing could work for Planetary Administrators, Sector Commanders, Academy Commandants (except here you'd choose Leader Type and possible scientific specialty), as well as any future leader position.

[Rich.h (OP)]

Could we get the auto assignment tick box to also apply to admin commands, or have a second tick box that only does admin. I am finding that once I get a fully fledged out navy with many different admin roles it becomes a micro nightmare after a few years. It is so bad now that barely 3-6 months go by without either a death or retirement.

I fully understand some folks might not like how this takes away a part of the RP factor, but if it an optional box and you can still manually assign positions then it should be a way to please everyone.

I would not be against that even if I prefer to assign my higher command myself... what I do want is to know when an admin command is vacated in separate event so I can flag it with a separate colour. Right now it is a pain when I have to look at every retirement and death to see if they were commanding an admin command. Sure I can flag them as a story character but that is sort of not fair... i want them to be able to retire and have their own lives. But for now I HAVE to flag them as story characters to remain sane and then sack them myself at a certain age.

The admin command structure tend to become quite advanced at a certain stage so keeping track of them through the even log is not realistic at that point.

That part also would be very nice to have those things as enireley seperate events.

I think it can be easily solved by simply doing this:

1. Look at the commanders listed in the lowest rank requirement for the position. If none are available then move to the next rank up and repeat.
2. Find commanders having the skill for the position. If none are availbe then move straight to 3.
3. Pick the commander with the highest promotion score.

This would mean for example you need a logistic captain, you would always get the captain with the highest promotion score amongs those who have logistics, if none were available then move up and get a commadore. This way at least you have a very rough simulation on a real naval type job assignment.

In theory you shouldn't get the same few folks repeating the job, a commander will hold their job until they either retire, die, or you manually reassign them (admirals still managing the latrine movements division). I am sure others suffer the same problem that I have, at a certain point, you only really show an interest in the careers of your higher rank officers, and those few characters for specific reasons (your captain Kirks etc). I don't really care which of my 80+ Commanders take up the job role of running my towing group, as long as it is dealt with.

[Froggiest1982]

Manual assignment

Interrupt when relevant commands are lost due health/promotion

Sectors
Admin Command
Planetary Governor
Academies

[Jorgen_CAB]

Manual assignment

Interrupt when relevant commands are lost due health/promotion

Sectors
Admin Command
Planetary Governor
Academies

Yes to all of the above...

[TMaekler]

Assigning rules to any command what officers abilities should be preferred for that position and the. Auto assign. Send off a special warning message when a posting could not be auto assigned so you can take care manually.

[Father Tim]

Could we get the auto assignment tick box to also apply to admin commands, or have a second tick box that only does admin. I am finding that once I get a fully fledged out navy with many different admin roles it becomes a micro nightmare after a few years. It is so bad now that barely 3-6 months go by without either a death or retirement.

I fully understand some folks might not like how this takes away a part of the RP factor, but if it an optional box and you can still manually assign positions then it should be a way to please everyone.

I am opposed.  Not because I think your suggestion wouldn't "please everyone" but because I think no two people would agree on how such auto-assignments should be handled, and thus people would be forever bugging Steve to "make it work like this" and "no, make it work like this instead," or "can we have buttons to independently turn these six things on or off?"  It would end up costing weeks of programming time that I would rather Steve spend on other features.

I think making the death or retirement of an Admin Commander, Governor, or academy commandant a separate and interrupt-causing event is by far the best compromise.  It reinforces the idea that these positions are special, and their non-auto-assignability is because you should care enough about them to select them yourself.  It would also take only an hour or two to program.

[Malorn]

Could we get the auto assignment tick box to also apply to admin commands, or have a second tick box that only does admin. I am finding that once I get a fully fledged out navy with many different admin roles it becomes a micro nightmare after a few years. It is so bad now that barely 3-6 months go by without either a death or retirement.

I fully understand some folks might not like how this takes away a part of the RP factor, but if it an optional box and you can still manually assign positions then it should be a way to please everyone.

I am opposed.  Not because I think your suggestion wouldn't "please everyone" but because I think no two people would agree on how such auto-assignments should be handled, and thus people would be forever bugging Steve to "make it work like this" and "no, make it work like this instead," or "can we have buttons to independently turn these six things on or off?"  It would end up costing weeks of programming time that I would rather Steve spend on other features.

I think making the death or retirement of an Admin Commander, Governor, or academy commandant a separate and interrupt-causing event is by far the best compromise.  It reinforces the idea that these positions are special, and their non-auto-assignability is because you should care enough about them to select them yourself.  It would also take only an hour or two to program.

Honestly, consider the scale of colonies that are possible. I've had 40 colonies before, just in a few systems. I've just ended up ignoring the minor posting, focusing on my primary worlds, but I know am I losing out by doing that.

[davidb86]

You say you are losing out, but you are making a choice that the additional improvements are not worth the effort of searching out every little colony and admin command and filing it with an appropriate officer.  Only major commands and colony /sector governors produce an adequate return on your time.  You are absolutely right, but an automated system will not do much better, and could do much worse if you have realistic promotion turned on and politically connected toadies are the ones being assigned.

Welcome to the national government where a billion dollars is a rounding error and the larger a department gets the less efficient it is. 

[SpikeTheHobbitMage]

You say you are losing out, but you are making a choice that the additional improvements are not worth the effort of searching out every little colony and admin command and filing it with an appropriate officer.  Only major commands and colony /sector governors produce an adequate return on your time.  You are absolutely right, but an automated system will not do much better, and could do much worse if you have realistic promotion turned on and politically connected toadies are the ones being assigned.

Welcome to the national government where a billion dollars is a rounding error and the larger a department gets the less efficient it is.

The current military assignment code takes into account components and commander attributes when making assignments.  Planetary governor assignment could use the same scheme by taking into account installations and available population space.  If people want to put in the effort to do better than that then they are free to use manual assignment, just like with military commanders.

If realistic promotions are turned on then that is in fact what is being asking for.

[Malorn]

Ultimately 'my time' should not be a balancing factor in a game. This is not some grindy mobile game which is designed to waste my effort and time to make me finally spend money.

[skoormit]

Ultimately 'my time' should not be a balancing factor in a game. This is not some grindy mobile game which is designed to waste my effort and time to make me finally spend money.

Correct. It is a game which gives you an incredible number of knobs and levers, and lets you decide which ones are fun to play with.

[Malorn]

Correct. It is a game which gives you an incredible number of knobs and levers, and lets you decide which ones are fun to play with.

Indeed, and in many cases that is fine. The issue is situations when if you don't play with the knobs and levers, you end up badly hurting your playthrough. Now this can be taken too far, such as ship design, since that is the very soul of the game. But something as micro heavy as assigning people to every single tiny colony is a bit more...something that could handle itself.

Maybe have the rule simply be that colonies at 0 can't support a governor? That would at least level the playing field, and limit your pool of decisions to the important colonies.

[skoormit]

Correct. It is a game which gives you an incredible number of knobs and levers, and lets you decide which ones are fun to play with.

Indeed, and in many cases that is fine. The issue is situations when if you don't play with the knobs and levers, you end up badly hurting your playthrough. Now this can be taken too far, such as ship design, since that is the very soul of the game. But something as micro heavy as assigning people to every single tiny colony is a bit more...something that could handle itself.

Maybe have the rule simply be that colonies at 0 can't support a governor? That would at least level the playing field, and limit your pool of decisions to the important colonies.

Assigning civilian admins to every single tiny colony has almost zero effect on your playthrough.
Don't get me wrong, it would be nice to have all these trivial leaders assigned to trivial outposts without me needing to do anything.
But leaving those outposts leaderless is not going to affect the overall power of my empire. It just doesn't matter.