Thanks for the reply nuclearslurpee! I'm very excited about the features that you mentioned.
Here's a pruned version of my previous comment, considering your response:
I only started playing after 2. 5, but I've been keeping notes on how I feel like the game could work better for beginners and thought I'd share them. I was hoping to see a 2. 5. 0 version of this thread come out, but gee willickers, I decided to go ahead an share this stuff now.
Please be kind, I only started playing after 2. 5, so I'm sure a lot of these have been said before and I hope you'll be forgiving. I read the entire 2. 4. 0 thread we're in now and don't think I saw any of these mentioned here.
Economics Menu:Civilian/Flags – if the player clicks on something in the left-side colony inventory column, then click add/edit supply/demand, let add based off the item I clicked on rather than the drop down menu in the supply or demand columns. Consider enabling us to drag an item from the left column to the supply or demand column and have it prompt for the amount when we release the mouse button.
When making move orders, a “Show Only Fleets” toggle that shows only fleets would be nice.
When hovering mouse over menu icons at the top of the tactical map, include the current hotkey in parenthesis after the name popup. For example, when hovering your mouse cursor over the “Open Events Window” icon it should say “Open Events Window (Ctrl-F11)”
User definable hotkeys. For instance, I’d much prefer research to be F3 than Ctrl-F5. And I’d love to define a shipyard or events log hotkey. Maybe these exist already, but a user-definable hotkey section would be so nice.
User-defined events/clock stoppage. Maybe I queued up a lot of infantry units and don't want to be stopped at each one. Or, maybe, I really do want to be notified when my Geological Survey ground units finish their work.
Eco:Civilian/Flags Menu - a way to indicate preference or priority. I might *really* want civilian shipping lines to ship some things before others. Make it cost extra wealth to use the express option.
User-defined maximums for civilian ships built. Similar to Dwarf Fortress where you can define maximum population. Two settings would be ideal: "Maximum # of Civilian Shipping Lines" and "Maximum # of Ships per Civilian Shipping Line"
Let us drag research we want to do to the top box. Make it red if it needs a scientist or labs. Then let us drag a scientist on it. Bonus: If a Logistics research project is on-going, let us drag another Logistics research on top of it to have it added to the queue.
Economics Menu:Civilian/Flags - Civilian shipping of minerals
Option to start with a default color scheme for the event log. Obviously keeping the user-defined options.
CSV in the /medals folder with each option defined. Let players set reward values for each, if they want to set them above zero. This would save countless clicks and there are already plenty of ribbon images available to allow this without additional files aside from the CSV. Might not be worth the coding effort, but consider adding a pop-up whenever an officer does something potentially medal-worthy saying "Captain SlurpNuclearBro just discovered XXX, would you like to define a medal and reward for officers who do this in the future? (press [] to not see these pop-ups again)"
When setting up an auto-assign planet governor, naval admin commander, etc, have the drop-down for minimum rank indicate somehow (highlight?) what the current minimum rank for the position is. Include an event log interruption whenever there is a change that requires these settings to be updated.
When queueing up installations for construction, show workers required for the installation in the panel that shows mineral costs. Just add it right under "Corundium 20" or whatever. Possibly add research enabling fewer workers per installation, I bet all those slow-research rate RPers would like that.
An library of ship class designs using either the most basic, or currently researched, tech. Include templates for standard basic ship classes in the install. NuclearSlurpee taught me that saving and importing templates is a recent addition and still being developed. Eager to see how this develops.
When issuing orders to a ship with specific modules, have targets subject to those modules be highlighted/bolded in the list. For example, if you're issuing orders to a sorium harvester and are scrolling through system bodies, highlight those which can harvested. Or, perhaps, put an H or S next to its name. Some other modules which could benefit from this: orbital miners (oh, the asteroids!), jump stabilizers for LPs.
The ability to sort things by clicking the column label… option to sort system bodies while making move orders alphabetically to more easily find that one weird asteroid; sort search results in the minerals menu with a single click. That kind of thing.
-----Make double clicking something default to centering on it. Fleets in Naval Org, system bodies in Economics or System view, etc. In the tactical window, change centering the map on a target to double-clicking.
A mini-map of the Galactic Map. If you click a system in the mini-map, the tactical map jumps to it. Include a small, collapsible list of jump points (JP1: Sol, JP2: Proxima Centauri, etc). When tactical map is the active window, pressing the corresponding number on your keyboard changes or clicking on the JP in the list switched you to that system.
To add to the above, movement orders issued like so:
1. Click to location on tactical map select fleet. Click elsewhere to deselect, or select a different target.
1a. If multiple fleets and system bodies exist at click location, show context menu allowing selection of desired fleet/system body.
1b. From Naval Org menu, show the orders list for this vessel.
2. If needed, click to your desired system in minimap or press numbers on keyboard to show the system.
Right-click target for context menu (Move to Location, Join Fleet, Refuel, etc). Add selection to orders.
3. Repeat steps 2-3 until craft is deselected.
This wouldn’t need to replace the Naval Org system of movement, just be an option.
As part of the above, also allow clicking system bodies for similar effects:
1. Click system body on tactical map to open Economics menu. Click elsewhere to deselect, or select a different target.
1a. If multiple fleets and system bodies exist at click location, show context menu allowing selection of desired system body or fleet.
