Thoughts after first few hours of play

from Elemental Forums

I've been in the beta, but I never really played it during that time. So my game yesterday was my first real session.

 

I'm going to list a few things I had difficulties with (from a game design point). Disclaimer: I played a lot of Civ 4: Colonization the last few days. So I might be influenced by it's interface.

 

Active Unit

There is no easy way to see in a split second if the current selected unit has moves left or not. Sure I can check the top left list to see units with moves left or look at the number of moves the unit has remaining, but that feels slow for me.

Suggestion: The selection square when clicking on a unit it could i.e. blink or glow or something if the unit has moves left. OR if the unit has no more moves left deselect it.

 

 

Special Ressources

On my first game it took me an hour or so to figure out I actually have to build something on the fertile land to gain its ressources. The problem for me was that I don't build it from the city production selection window but rather by clicking on the ressource itself. Is the fertile ground building built seperately from the normal city building queue?

 

 

City Building

Cities without a queued building are yellow in the top left overview. BUT they are yellow even if no build options for the city are available. So bascially I have to check those cities every few turns for newly availabel buildings.

 

 

Unit Movement

In Civ 4: Col I can preview the route the unit might take by pressing and holding the right mouse button. It would also help to see its current path if you select a unit with a move order. I could use some kind of feedback if a unit can't pass over a mountain or a coast line =)

 

 

Equipment handling

I have a stack of "hero" units and my sovereign. I select the "inventory" button of my sovereign to change out some equipment. It would be nice if I can switch to the other units of that stack without having to close the inventory first.

 

 

That's what I can think of for the moment.

If you guys have some tips how I can handle some of those points better let me know. =)

elemental
6,209 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Equipment handling

I have a stack of "hero" units and my sovereign. I select the "inventory" button of my sovereign to change out some equipment. It would be nice if I can switch to the other units of that stack without having to close the inventory first.
End of quote

I second this. It also took me a bit of hovering and clicking before I found out how to equip the items I had just bought in the store (campaign, after building a city).

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Active Unit

There is no easy way to see in a split second if the current selected unit has moves left or not. Sure I can check the top left list to see units with moves left or look at the number of moves the unit has remaining, but that feels slow for me.

Suggestion: The selection square when clicking on a unit it could i.e. blink or glow or something if the unit has moves left. OR if the unit has no more moves left deselect it.
End of quote

Your current moves remaining on the selected unit should be shown right under Vitals in the left side of the bottom UI

 

On my first game it took me an hour or so to figure out I actually have to build something on the fertile land to gain its ressources. The problem for me was that I don't build it from the city production selection window but rather by clicking on the ressource itself.
End of quote

In the 1.05 update last night, there are now event notices and (!) over resources that come into your control that should make this obvious.

ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Thanks for the replies =)

Quoting kryo, reply 2

Your current moves remaining on the selected unit should be shown right under Vitals in the left side of the bottom UI
End of kryo's quote

Yes I know that, but still it feels a bit unintuitive. I'd till prefer it if the unit is deselected so I get some kind of feedback, that I know it's last move is gone and I have no more units to move this turn. (I don't play with "auto-turn" activated)

A small example to clarify:

I have 2 units:

1. Unit 1 is selected.

2. I move unit 1 around till it's moves are used

3. Now Unit 2 gets selected since Unit 1 has no more moves left

4. I move until it has no more moves

5. After the last move nothing changes

6. I click on the next tile to realize "oh that was my last move" so I click on the tile the units sitting right now so it doesn't have a move order which prevents it from beeing auto-selected on my next turn.

Solution:

5. After the last move, no unit with moves is left so the current active unit gets deselected.

6. everything is great

 

=)

 

Quoting kryo, reply 2

In the 1.05 update last night, there are now event notices and (!) over resources that come into your control that should make this obvious.
End of kryo's quote

Yes, I noticed. Awesome =)

 

 

Quoting kryo, reply 2

Active Unit

There is no easy way to see in a split second if the current selected unit has moves left or not. Sure I can check the top left list to see units with moves left or look at the number of moves the unit has remaining, but that feels slow for me.

Suggestion: The selection square when clicking on a unit it could i.e. blink or glow or something if the unit has moves left. OR if the unit has no more moves left deselect it.
Your current moves remaining on the selected unit should be shown right under Vitals in the left side of the bottom UI

 


On my first game it took me an hour or so to figure out I actually have to build something on the fertile land to gain its ressources. The problem for me was that I don't build it from the city production selection window but rather by clicking on the ressource itself.
In the 1.05 update last night, there are now event notices and (!) over resources that come into your control that should make this obvious.
End of kryo's quote

Quoting kryo, reply 2

Active Unit

There is no easy way to see in a split second if the current selected unit has moves left or not. Sure I can check the top left list to see units with moves left or look at the number of moves the unit has remaining, but that feels slow for me.

Suggestion: The selection square when clicking on a unit it could i.e. blink or glow or something if the unit has moves left. OR if the unit has no more moves left deselect it.
Your current moves remaining on the selected unit should be shown right under Vitals in the left side of the bottom UI

 


On my first game it took me an hour or so to figure out I actually have to build something on the fertile land to gain its ressources. The problem for me was that I don't build it from the city production selection window but rather by clicking on the ressource itself.
In the 1.05 update last night, there are now event notices and (!) over resources that come into your control that should make this obvious.
End of kryo's quote

 

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

The first few hours where the hardest for me. But a few days later I am now pretty familiar with the game. Only thign I need to improve on is using magic which I havnt really jumped into fully yet.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting kryo, reply 2



Your current moves remaining on the selected unit should be shown right under Vitals in the left side of the bottom UI

 
End of kryo's quote

unless ofc you have the tab set on actions.  constantly swithing back and forth is annoying.  lots of little things like that in this game are annoying.