Idea to improve the Left-Bar of planets

they will probably say "expansion" :P

from Sins Forums
I was thinking about exactly what I use the Left menu bar for , it occured to me that it was only for very specific things. I primarily do the Supcom thing - Zoom out , zoom here-click , zoom out zoom there-click ..because with strategy , being able to see where things actually are located is very important. Thus the left bar was only useful for alarming me to certain things happening before i do the supcom-thing to assess the actual location.

My idea is a toggle so you can switch between a gameplay orientated "Focussed mode" and the default overview "left-bar mode".

The Focussed mode ,creates separate mini-lists that runs down the left.

They consist of the following...

[=] Homeworld Star/Planets --> Shows your Homeworld and the Star your homeworld is located in. You will always have easy excess to selecting your homeworld. This is just a small list comprising of the one planet and its star that will always stay in the top left corner.

[=] Build Capable planets --> All Planets with Shipyards. In this list every planet with a shipyard is shown. This will allow you to see how many planets you have that can build ships so its easy excess.

[=] Fleet Activity --> Planets with Fleets of 2 pips or greater or capitals. Measuring pip activity will probably be easier to program with the game engine. This will allow you quick access to your major fleets.

[=] Pirate Activity --> Shows any planet with pirate activity. The pirates pop-up in a planet, that planet will show up in the pirate activity list.

[=] Enemy Activity --> All your owned planets with Enemy Fleets of 2 pips or greater or with capitals OR any owned planet that is currently under fire. ( the pirate and enemy activity bars , could be joined.)

[=] Pinged Worlds --> All worlds that are pinged show up in this section. Allow for 5 Pings.

This reflects what I use the menu-bar for , but if other people use it for other reasons then its possible to include that minilist

Here is a pictorial example...



8,911 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Try using the selection based empire bar -- thats a lot more useful, IMO.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
that suggestion seems intelligent to me, as currently using the standard empire tree in a game with many planets is a bit difficult. I cant really see the order with which the planets are displayed and it takes too long to a) find a particular planet and b) get a nice overview of whats going. sure the galactic map would do that too, but if you're managing a battle you might want to be able to observe the general situation from the tree. its possible now, but it takes a bit too long for my taste.

now, what I really do like about your suggestion is that planets are ordered to a (few) fairly good criteria. personally though, I think that by making too many categories you leave too little space in each category for it to work too well. what I like even more is that planets positions can vary. some of them are fixed like production planets which you will always need quick access to. but the rest should really only be displayed in the visible area when there is something important in there/ going on there i.e. you or an ally have a fleet stationed there, an enemy has a fleet there, planet is under attack, such things.

another possibility would be to let us drag and drop planets in the list where we want to them to be.

I saw that there are options to show or hide planets and features, but I think they are too static to be really of any use. depending on the situaton I might or might not want to see enemy planets more than uninhabited worlds, allied planets more than my own. so, yes, a more dynamic, semi intelligent system would massively help out in bigger games.
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Try using the selection based empire bar -- thats a lot more useful, IMO.


thats really the only way to go