minor bugs

1) you can turn AutoTurn off. It ignores ships in orbit intentionally...in the beginning, you may never want to leave ships in orbit, but once you need to have ships in orbit to defend against invasions, or to give your ships a repair bonus, it would never auto-turn unless you moved all your ships out of orbit and then moved them, or moved them back in or whatever.

2) For similar reasons, the Tab key does not select ships in orbit or ships that are in autopilot. If you have a ship in orbit, the game has to assume that it is there for a good reason and that it doesn't need to be dealt with. The GNN notifies you when the ships are built, so if you want to use the ships, make them leave orbit while you're cycling through the planets.

3) If you are referring to the way the text is wrapped, it will be fixed in the next build.

I will check out 4-5

As for your concerns, the UP Issues are generated from the text files in the Data\UP_Issues. If you post your ideas here, we keep a running list of possible issues.

The techs are evaluated based on the cost to research them. Try trading for Virus Elimination and see how many techs it takes!

I've made note of your suggestions, but do you use the planet list to check on your building projects?

looks like my img HTML code didn't work in the original post. Here are the pics I wanted to show:
ftp://64.60.177.194/tmp/manu.JPG
ftp://64.60.177.194/tmp/unfriendl.JPG
ftp://64.60.177.194/tmp/completed.JPG

About the ships in orbit, here's what I think you should do: do not ignore them on the first turn they are built, then if the player chooses not to move his newly built ship, the game can ignore its moves.
This would save me a lot of clicking that I always have to do when I have a few colony ships built.
Another way of handling this: don't ignore ships in orbit at all. If player wants them to guard the planet, player can press the "guard" button on ship menu. After all, what's it there for?

"I've made note of your suggestions, but do you use the planet list to check on your building projects?"

Sometimes I use it, but I prefer not to. Cause I'm often interested in only a few particular planets, like those that just built something. It takes time finding them in the list.

Also, about the way you handle planet's building events:
If you force the player to go thru all those planets at the begining of turn, you should also remove those events from the "event log" window. The way I see it, "event log" shows things player should look at. There's no need to remind him that his planet has built something if he already went to that planet and took care of it.

I think I can shed some light on item 5. After selecting the "evil" option on the earthworms event I see a missmatch between the resultant planet class and the planet animation shown in the planet view. The planet class is shown correctly in the text field for class and the resultant planet class icon and text is shown correctly in the star's planet list.

Master Lame, if this does not match up with what you are seeing please give a more detailed description.

On suggestion 2: I have found that the way this works now has been a life saver at times. I go through the completions using the completion planet views and the "next" button. Sometimes I hit the next button by mistake before I have completed my examination of the planet's state. Having the event list as a backup lets me locate that planet again even if I failed to notice the name of the planet. Also, when (if?) project completion filtering becomes a reality, the event window will provide the only option of looking at a project completion that you would not otherwise get a chance to view. In short, there is more change to this interface that is in the works and it may be premature to suggest changes without seeing the results of changes already in the works.

Your last comment sounds like you are having trouble with the "social projects" sort on the planet list. The planet list is another "work in progress" that was just added to the game in the last build, and was listed as a partially completed feature. Once the sorts are in a finished state I have confidence that your problem will be solved.

I forgot to mention that the planet list sorts seems to have a number of sort catagories that are not sorting, such as "social projects" and "military projects". My assumtion has been that this is so because the planet list is only partially complete. True, Cari?

On suggestion 2: ok, I don't mind having what Lucky Jack said under one condition: right clicking on the event log window will remove that event without taking you to the planet interface.

Suggestion 5:
I want an in-game encyclopedia. I want to be able to get information on all key words that appear on my interfaces. This can be done by having the "?" button on all interfaces. So I could click on that and then click on a word or field I'm interested in. It should pop up a small window with information. The information should be divided as follows:
1st paragraph: basic summary/explanation
2nd paragraph: technical details, including formulas and references to other key game elements.

This may seem like a lot of work, but it's worth it. Especially for new players. When new people gonna play a game demo and decide whether to buy it or not, having this in-game manual will influence their decision.

another bug:
As you might already know, space ships can attack things even if their current number of moves is 0. I was able to attack 3 ships next to me even tho I used up all my moves by flying:
ftp://64.60.177.194/tmp/neg.JPG

another bug 2:
Take a look at this:
ftp://64.60.177.194/tmp/vote.JPG
Why did the evil Drengins voted for the goody Altarians?
They could have won if they voted for themseves.

concern:
Take a look at this:
ftp://64.60.177.194/tmp/event.JPG
The picture and description don't match.
Also, how come I can't quit that message by pressing space bar or enter key? All games allow enter key to function as Done button.

Another bug 2: The Drengins are not supposed to know how the other aliens are going to vote. The vote is supposed to be blind for them just as it is for the terrans. There may be other factors that influenced their choice. They have access to no more information than you do, so they may think they are not going to win so they may be trying to make sure someone else wins.

"The picture and description don't match." when trying to exceed the number of allowed trade routes. There are a number of place holders for graphics that aren't ready yet. This may be one of them. I am sure you will find many more.

Umm...it's supposed to sort all the ones there...checking the function...I think that it does work, but it's not sorting by project name, it's sorting by military or social production. But since the field isn't big enough (I didn't have time to try the tweaked gfx before releasing the build) it doesn't display the whole word. I can add it to sort by the name of the military and social projects though.

Lucky Jack, about the voting thing. It doesn't matter than the Drengins didn't know how other aliens will vote. It's strait common sense to vote for yourself, especially since they had the 2nd largest number of votes.

The algorithms need to be revised

Dennis,

Perhaps the code should be checked, but don't be supprised if they return with a logical explanation for what you saw. There may be other factors involved.

'1) Automatic end of turn: it happens even though “ships in orbit” haven’t made their move yet.'

This only happens if you have ships that are not on autopilot and not in orbit. If none of your non-orbited ships are not on autopilot, the turn won't advance until you hit the turn button. You can also turn Autoturn off, which was recommended at one time for other resaons.


'2) TAB key: it supposed to select the next unit which still has some “moves” left, it doesn’t do so for “ships in orbit”'

This is intentional. Ships in orbit have to be manually selected because some ships have special functions that require input before they can be used. It also bypasses ships on autopilot so that their destinations aren't lost.

'3) When holding mouse over “show manufacturing graph” button on main window, button info is shown wrong:'

Known problem relating to the code that determines spacing. Some of the game fonts have problems that cause similar oddities elsewhere.

'5) Some planets are showing differently in “main planet” interface and “planet details”. I think all the animated planets in “main planet” interface don’t match in “planet details”.'

This only occurs under certain conditions, usually the Earthworms event being the main one. Also some of the animations don't look much like their still images.

'1) I don’t see a way to propose new laws up for vote in United Planets. Where do these laws come from anyway?'

Right now they're randomly determined from the list of UPIssue files in the data\UPIssue directory.

'2) When trading technology with aliens, they should judge technology based on amount of points it takes to research it. Right now they are willing to trade any 2 crappy techs for any 1 big tech.'

It does work based on the research cost. The diplomacy screen has two other factors that affect it, though. Your (and the AI's) diplomacy rating and trade rating alter the value of things that you trade through diplomacy, and the player tends to have higher scores in both through research, whereas the AI currently puts a higher priority on military research.

'2) When you build something, the game takes you to the planets, right? Once you are in the planet interface, instead of "Done" button there's "Next". This is fine, but what if you choose to cycle thru the planets using the "mini event window"? Well, after you done looking at the planets by removing event notices, the game takes you back to original planet and forces you to click "Next". There needs to be a way out.'

Actually, it usually only goes through the planets that are still on the event list. I've used this to return to the build cycle after exiting it by opening the research window.

However, if you cause the completion views to terminate prematurely clicking on an event in the event window WILL bring the planet view up with "next" in the button instead of "done". I don't know if this is deliberate or not, but I have been glad many times that it behaved like this.

Also, the completion views can be terminated prematurely by clicking some of the function keys at the bottom. I don't really remember which ones, but I believe the domestic policy button is one of them. It may be any of them that brings up another screen over the completion views. Perhaps this is a behavior that needs correction?

'However, if you cause the completion views to terminate prematurely clicking on an event in the event window WILL bring the planet view up with "next" in the button instead of "done". I don't know if this is deliberate or not, but I have been glad many times that it behaved like this.

Also, the completion views can be terminated prematurely by clicking some of the function keys at the bottom.'

All of them except the ship and planet list do, AFAIK.

And I did specifically mention using that aspect to recover (most) of the list in my last reply.

Arturus,

My reply wasn't directed at you so much as it was at someone's dislike of having both the completion sequence of planet views and the event list.

And again I hit the button too quickly.

Oh well, I guess you all know how I really ment that. Sorry everyone.

I would also like a quick way to close the planet window without having to go through every planet. I trust my governors . As discussed in other threads some change is needed here. We have a news window, an event window and then a force you to go through every planet window. Perhaps make the force through all planets optional or, better yet, customisable (only planets without governors, planets with low moral, etc). Normally I look at the news window, spot any planets I'm interested in, hit next 10-20 times to clear the planet screens, click every event icon rapidly, close the planet screen and then go looking for the planets I'm interested in. Towards the end of the game this is quicker!!! (:(

Paul.

Sounds like a good gameplay option to have. I have to admit that sometimes it does seem a bit tedious, even though I have a tendency to want more direct control over what happens in my gameplay.