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JonathanEngr
JonathanEngr
Join Date 03/2006
+3

One Thing the Game REALLY Needs (or does it already have it?)

December 11, 2012 8:01:58 AM from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Maybe there's a setting I'm missing, but I've combed through the menus and can't seem to find it (believe me--I'm notorious for missing what's right in front of my face!).

I love the "Auto Turn" feature. It saves SO many headaches. However, when you have a town that isn't building anything, you have to press the "Turn" button. It's a great way to be reminded to select something for a Town to build, but what if there's nothing left to build? I don't want to build tons of troops and cut into my gildar profits, and some towns earn you gildar, etc., by sitting idle. Having to press the "Turn" button becomes so, so monotonous--especially when you're trying to run around with one uber group late in the game like I like to do.

So... is there some setting that I'm missing to disable this "stop auto-turn when town isn't building anything" feature? If there isn't one, could you simply incorporate a menu function to do so? Or perhaps have the game automatically override this and let auto-turn continue working if a town has no structures left to build?

Otherwise, this is such a good game. It is EVERYTHING and more that I hoped Elemental would be. Thank you all so much for sticking with this... it is a game that I will play for decades to come, and has replaced my MoM slot on my HDD.

Oh... and as a side note... I saw a post about bringing back marriage and kids. I agree!

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JonathanEngr
Heavenfall
Join Date 07/2008
+441
Reply #1 December 11, 2012 8:21:05 AM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

The tricky part about this is that cities aren't just idle OR busy. There's also several ways that cities gain bonuses while idle. So you have idle as useless, idle but getting bonuses, and building or training. Should those bonuses stop the automatic turns or not?

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JonathanEngr
dihir
Join Date 10/2012
+2
Reply #2 December 11, 2012 8:41:30 AM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Quoting Heavenfall,
reply 1
The tricky part about this is that cities aren't just idle OR busy. There's also several ways that cities gain bonuses while idle. So you have idle as useless, idle but getting bonuses, and building or training. Should those bonuses stop the automatic turns or not?

I do not like auto-turn, but that is just me.

But even in non-auto-turn games we should have an option for a city to be marked "deliberately idle", so when we are scrolling through our city list we can recognize the ones that need attention.

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JonathanEngr
Vallu751
Join Date 05/2003
+14
Reply #3 December 11, 2012 8:51:09 AM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

In addition to flagging cities deliberately idle, there should be some easy way to set new production to cities that have fallen asleep. The UI is fine for smaller maps, but for larger ones having to scroll the list on the left is painful.

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JonathanEngr
jutetrea
Join Date 05/2006
+11
Reply #4 December 11, 2012 12:03:56 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

I've stopped using auto turn - movement points are critical and too many times i've missed that last picky update i want to make or need to change production, but finish all my moves and no cities are idle.

I find its easy to hit "enter" when i'm sure its done, it adds about 10 seconds per turn but has saved me headaches.

I do think there should be a "idle is good" flag on a city though.

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JonathanEngr
Ihfacny
Join Date 04/2008
+1
Reply #5 December 11, 2012 12:14:04 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

I agreed that this is needed. However, did you know that when disabling auto-turn you can press ENTER on your keyboard rather than having to click using your mouse. Much faster using ENTER

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JonathanEngr
Tuidjy
Join Date 08/2010
+80
Reply #6 December 11, 2012 12:44:35 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Ten or more years ago, Age of Wonders had [Build Merchandise] as a production choice.  As I recall, it worked quite nicely for making a city idle for a few turns, and to mark it non-idle.

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JonathanEngr
SOLOSOL
Join Date 01/2012
+9
Reply #7 December 11, 2012 12:56:13 PM
from Stardock ForumsStardock Forums

Yes, I miss that choice: 'turn production to gildar'

And another one: 'turn production to research'.

Both, with their proper idle city bonuses.

Who knows, maybe for a future expansion...

 

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JonathanEngr
JonathanEngr
Join Date 03/2006
+3
Reply #8 December 12, 2012 4:36:16 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Totally agree.  I do understand that some settlements gain benefits while being idle, but why can't "idle" just be a "produce gildar", "Produce research" and so-on type of selection?  That way the settlement has something selected and can be skipped over. 

Thanks for the "enter" button end-of-turn function.  I actually didn't realize you could do that, and it should be a bit quicker that way.

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JonathanEngr
Rhaegor
Join Date 08/2010
0
Reply #9 December 12, 2012 6:16:29 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums


It shouldn't take an expansion to add basic features that have been around for a decade...

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JonathanEngr
NaytchSG
Join Date 03/2006
+19
Reply #10 December 12, 2012 8:27:40 PM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Trade goods, anyone?    They can be yours if you've got DosBox...

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JonathanEngr
Schweiz
Join Date 10/2012
+7
Reply #11 December 14, 2012 3:51:50 AM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

Maybe someone can mod up a buildable/trainable in a town that occupies the que, but doesn't do anything, and never completes. But still makes the city think its on idle. Unless of course, "idle" state is hard-coded for inactive cities.

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JonathanEngr
Cymsdale
Join Date 03/2003
+1
Reply #12 December 14, 2012 8:19:20 AM
from Elemental ForumsElemental Forums

The UI issues around this is honestly my biggest hangup with this game. Look at games like Civ 5 and Endless Space for much much better ways to manage the "flow" of a turn. It's not uncommon for me in this game to go "****!, I just wasted a turn or two for my city!"

While giving the UI attention will take a lot more work, a simple solution is to just have the following features:

* A option to BLOCK end turn if there are any idle cities or non-sentry units with moves left. (I kinda like how Civ 5 just makes the end-turn button bring you to the next thing that needs attention).

* Allow you to set a city to "produce research/gold". The amount produced should be low, and it should count as "idle" in terms of cities that provide bonuses while idle.

Yeah, technically I could pay better attention, but having a more streamlined flow makes it much more of a pleasure to play and feel less disjointed. 

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