Suggestions Thread for v2.4.0

[nmbpjnwwbt]

A follow order for waypoints. Should be simple but allows for much more convenient move orders for the fleet, all you would need to do is move the waypoint.

[nmbpjnwwbt]

Delete salvo button deleting all selected missiles instead of just one entry.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

I've been thinking it would be very nice to have an "at a glace" update on my fleets' status in the Naval Organization window, especially as my extrasolar colonies spiderweb out and I want to get my logistics set up and running well. So I whipped up this little example of appending some small symbols ahead of the fleet name to show whether that fleet is currently under orders.

I would precaution against adding any more information density than a simple binary like this - my intent here is to instantly acquire simple information on many separate fleets at once, the per-fleet order screen will of course offer the full information.

There's probably better options for the specific symbols. I did a simple double-chevron "move" symbol for Active fleets for example even though FDF Platforms 1 x6, while Active, is stationary while loading ordnance. Similarly the "orbit" symbol I drew for Idle fleets might not be the most precise when a fleet is idle but not in orbit of anything.

One additional small detail I want to point out was copying the status symbol into the description bar up top. Hopefully this would serve to signpost players as to the meaning behind it when they see it in additional context like that.

The treeview is a Microsoft control and its not possible to insert images to the left of the node +/- symbol without taking over drawing responsibility from the control. Some form of text prefix or suffix like the jump-capability indicator is a lot easier.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

A follow order for waypoints. Should be simple but allows for much more convenient move orders for the fleet, all you would need to do is move the waypoint.

That would allow stacking missile salvos, which would be overpowered.

[RocketPapaya]

The treeview is a Microsoft control and its not possible to insert images to the left of the node +/- symbol without taking over drawing responsibility from the control. Some form of text prefix or suffix like the jump-capability indicator is a lot easier.

Ahh, makes sense. Do you have access to a larger character set or just plain text? A lot of (A)'s and (I)'s or whatever at the front of fleet names might get visually busy. I think I'd still prefer it, personally, but maybe something non-alphabetical, at least like a _ for idle and > for active?

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

The treeview is a Microsoft control and its not possible to insert images to the left of the node +/- symbol without taking over drawing responsibility from the control. Some form of text prefix or suffix like the jump-capability indicator is a lot easier.

Ahh, makes sense. Do you have access to a larger character set or just plain text? A lot of (A)'s and (I)'s or whatever at the front of fleet names might get visually busy. I think I'd still prefer it, personally, but maybe something non-alphabetical, at least like a _ for idle and > for active?

I used suffixes.
http://aurora2.pentarch.org/index.php?topic=13463.msg174083#msg174083

[Ush213]

Realise its very low priority. however I was messing with ChatGPTs AI image generation for planet images in the style of Aurora.

Would it take much to add a small image on the body you currently have selected in a few different windows in the game. such as system and enviroment.
The image settled would be base on a few factors which seems to be all ready in the game such as Venusian Atmo or high colony cost colour for the likes of Mercury. 0 cost = earth image 

As the planets are colonised then the image which is selected adjusts to become more Earth like.

I made a quick mock up to ilistrate what im suggesting.

Edit: Just to add ill happily make a list of images to use if needed. If its possible to use more of the body information for image selection. Eg. with a lot of water I could add in a water world with small landmass or images with desert or forest or bodys small in size could use an asterod image.

[MinuteMan]

Realise its very low priority. however I was messing with ChatGPTs AI image generation for planet images in the style of Aurora.

Would it take much to add a small image on the body you currently have selected in a few different windows in the game. such as system and enviroment.
The image settled would be base on a few factors which seems to be all ready in the game such as Venusian Atmo or high colony cost colour for the likes of Mercury. 0 cost = earth image 

As the planets are colonised then the image which is selected adjusts to become more Earth like.

I made a quick mock up to ilistrate what im suggesting.

Edit: Just to add ill happily make a list of images to use if needed. If its possible to use more of the body information for image selection. Eg. with a lot of water I could add in a water world with small landmass or images with desert or forest or bodys small in size could use an asterod image.

If there is even a chance that Steve looks at this, it would probable need to be generated on the fly.
So based on the body information create a c# function which spits out a bitmap?

[Garfunkel]

Doesn't have to be generated on the fly. The images are small, just like flags, races, and ships. There doesn't need to be hundreds of pictures for every possible combination - just the major ones.

[IanInCanada]

This would be a relatively niche use case, but the ability in the Industry window to mark a construction job as low priority and not to trigger a warning if it can't be done that construction cycle (similar to the "Pause" option).

I currently have a world that's rich in corundium, so I've sent 100 construction factories and set them to building mines forever. I've also devoted a small percentage of the production capacity to building more factories. This colony doesn't have neutronium, but other colonies in the system do, and send their minerals by mass driver to this production world. Sometimes there isn't enough neutronium for that construction factory job to run in any given construction cycle, but since it's effectively a "build this if you have the resources" job, I don't want to be interrupted if that particular job can't run in any given construction cycle.

[Ush213]

Doesn't have to be generated on the fly. The images are small, just like flags, races, and ships. There doesn't need to be hundreds of pictures for every possible combination - just the major ones.

Yes thats the intention. Just to cover the main body states,(barren,desert and ocean/Ice worlds or Venusian ). Maybe have a varity of Earth like images then just so that the final terraformed worlds dont all look the same with the same continents.

[Steve Walmsley (OP)]

At some point - not likely to be soon - I will probably create topographical maps of planets based on tectonic type, then add sea level and then colour it based on dominant terrain, temp, etc. Once I have that I can adjust it based on terraforming, orbit changes, etc..

I'll take a page from quantum mechanics and only generate the ones the player actually looks at.

In fact, if you subscribe to the 'the universe is a simulation' theory, that is probably how quantum mechanics was designed, to cut down on file size

[skoormit]

I **think** that a large proportion of the game slowdown caused by Civ Shipping Lines is caused specifically by Civ ships looking for a route to take but failing to find one.

When a civ ship can not find a route to take, the ship sits idle and checks for a route again in the next increment.
If all civ ships are busy and then one fails to find a route, chances are that more ships will fail to find routes as they finish their current runs.
If a large number of civ ships are all checking for routes in every increment, and if the route-checking algorithm takes non-trivial processing time, then we end up with a big chunk of processing  time being used for this during every increment.

Anecdotally, I notice that civ colony ships are idle far more often than freighters. This is true for my own empires, and also for NPRs (on the occasions that I have needed to examine them).

Suggestion:
In the code that checks for available routes for civ colony ships, if a ship fails to find a route, skip the check for any other idle ships at the same location and of the same or larger size.

[nuclearslurpee]

I **think** that a large proportion of the game slowdown caused by Civ Shipping Lines is caused specifically by Civ ships looking for a route to take but failing to find one.

When a civ ship can not find a route to take, the ship sits idle and checks for a route again in the next increment.
If all civ ships are busy and then one fails to find a route, chances are that more ships will fail to find routes as they finish their current runs.
If a large number of civ ships are all checking for routes in every increment, and if the route-checking algorithm takes non-trivial processing time, then we end up with a big chunk of processing  time being used for this during every increment.

Anecdotally, I notice that civ colony ships are idle far more often than freighters. This is true for my own empires, and also for NPRs (on the occasions that I have needed to examine them).

Suggestion:
In the code that checks for available routes for civ colony ships, if a ship fails to find a route, skip the check for any other idle ships at the same location and of the same or larger size.

Assuming that you are correct about this logic (and Steve only knows for sure), I wonder if it might make sense to shift from civilian ship-based logic to contract-based logic.

That is, instead of each civilian ship looking for a contract or job to fulfill, each contract or job looks for an available civilian ship to fulfill it (here, a "job" includes non-contract things civilian shipping can handle such as trade and automatically moving colonists). If there are no jobs, then civilian shipping remains idle.

I suggest this in part because the way contracts work is a bit odd, since the civilian logic will usually fulfill only one contract at a time. If I have infrastructure delivery contracts set up for 3 different colonies, for example, the civilians will prioritize filling one colony at a time when I might prefer an even distribution. Job-based logic would allow cycling through available contracts to achieve this.

That said, the upcoming 2.6 changes to civilian shipping might eliminate these issues anyways for all I know, so this all may be unnecessary speculation.

[skoormit]

...the upcoming 2.6 changes to civilian shipping might eliminate these issues anyways for all I know, so this all may be unnecessary speculation.

Unless I am missing something, the 2.6 changes might slow down civ shipping growth, but it doesn't put a cap on them, and it doesn't fundamentally change that an idle civ ship will look for jobs every increment.
So it seems like it might defer the problem until later in a given game, but it won't eliminate it.