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IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0016677Stars Beyond ReachGameplay IssueJun 29, 2015 11:30 am
ReporterKizor Assigned ToChris_McElligottPark  
Severityminor 
Status closedResolutionno change required 
Product Version0.816 
Summary0016677: Allow the player to view menus or building details between turns
DescriptionIn my last game I had seven scout stations auto-scouting the other side of the map. Each of them took several seconds to do so, and changing turns could take a minute. (Can't provide a save game, sorry.)

It's not so much the wait I mind, but would it be possible to view some of the menus or building details that aren't currently accessible between pressing End Turn and the start of the next one? This would ease this waiting and prepare for future waiting as people make it further into the game, more game mechanics are added, and more things go wrong.

Of course, showing players these things as they're being updated is a pain, and so would be automatically closing them as the turn starts. Maybe graying them out once the next turn starts, which would complicate the visual language of the game and be a lot of work for a detail. Yay.
TagsNo tags attached.

Activities

Chris_McElligottPark

May 14, 2015 8:24 am

administrator   ~0040771

Overall these things should be taking under a second to run (in an ideal world and by the time we hit 1.0), and anything that is taking longer than 5 seconds at present is considered a serious bug for sure. A savegame of this would be absolutely highly desired by us. We'll see what we can potentially do about the other bits, but getting that interturn time waaaay down is the big thing for us.

jerith

May 14, 2015 8:32 am

reporter   ~0040774

I'm kind of inclined to prefer the other direction with this. Turn off more of the UI and pause HUD updates or something between turns. As well as making it clearer that you can't actually interact with the game at the moment, it might speed things up by avoiding unnecessary work.

Chris_McElligottPark

May 14, 2015 9:56 am

administrator   ~0040794

It wouldn't really make much of a difference either way, honestly. The main reason for the way that we do things now is: 1) we turn off things that you would normally interact with on the outer hud, to make it clear when you can and can't do stuff; and 2) we leave on the rest of the stuff so that it isn't like the whole screen is blinking around.

Controls for "looking at stuff" are in that latter category that I'm inclined to let stay. That said, hopefully this is all irrelevant to the point of not needing to open any submenus because it's so fast you couldn't get to that anyway.

jerith

May 14, 2015 10:04 am

reporter   ~0040798

Now that I look at it properly, I think the only thing that doesn't go away that should is the building menu (not the sidebar, just the open menu part) which kind of flickers on and off. I'll open a new issue for that if there isn't one already.

When I say "pause HUD updates", I'm talking about multiple updates to the various values and the occasional warning indicator that appears and then disappears. Should I open separate issues for things like that if I can find a way to reliably reproduce them?

Chris_McElligottPark

May 14, 2015 10:13 am

administrator   ~0040803

"When I say "pause HUD updates", I'm talking about multiple updates to the various values and the occasional warning indicator that appears and then disappears. Should I open separate issues for things like that if I can find a way to reliably reproduce them?"

ptarth opened an issue about that a long while ago, which you can search for. I had a length explanation about it, but basically it's showing realtime data from other threads. The only way to make it not do that would be to either freeze your screen (bad) or to cache the data from the prior turn (oh my god the bugs, and actually this is slower too), so hence the current way.

Chris_McElligottPark

Jun 29, 2015 11:30 am

administrator   ~0042508

Interturns are now super fast, making this happily irrelevant. :)

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
May 13, 2015 3:34 pm Kizor New Issue
May 14, 2015 8:24 am Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0040771
May 14, 2015 8:24 am Chris_McElligottPark Status new => feedback
May 14, 2015 8:32 am jerith Note Added: 0040774
May 14, 2015 9:56 am Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0040794
May 14, 2015 10:04 am jerith Note Added: 0040798
May 14, 2015 10:13 am Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0040803
Jun 29, 2015 11:30 am Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0042508
Jun 29, 2015 11:30 am Chris_McElligottPark Status feedback => closed
Jun 29, 2015 11:30 am Chris_McElligottPark Assigned To => Chris_McElligottPark
Jun 29, 2015 11:30 am Chris_McElligottPark Resolution open => no change required