Sorting of buildings in city screen

Koshling

Vorlon
Joined
Apr 11, 2011
Messages
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I have recently become a little frustrated with trying to find the buildings I want in the city screen in later game when I have 30 or 40 to choose from.

To address this I have modded my city screen Python slightly to have them display in alphabetical order (the same as the menu you get for construction if you don't go into the city screen does). However, my Python skills are not up to making this an option, so if I were to push it to SVN I'd be imposing an alhpa-sorted view on everyone.

Opinions...?
 
this mod got its own forum great. about sorting why to sort them in alphabetical order and not in regard with their use .in alphabetical order still it will be difficult to find what you need
1 miliary buildings
2 farming b
3 religion building
......

Well, I can't add seperators, or split categories onto different lines so easily, so you'd still be hunting through the icons to find what you need. Also, although I can look at trying to do categorisation, the buildings have no such thing in the XML per se (apart from the advisor they are connected to, and several have multiple advisors too), so it would be difficult to do reliably. Alpha is just easy to find things in when you know what you are looking for, so while it may not be ideal, it's easy and better than now (IMO). Doesn't preclude trying for a categorization scheme later though (I think I'd add a category tag in the XML to drive it)

Please let me know if you think it would be of high enough value to justify the work (extra tag in every building, plus DLL support, plus Python support) for a more advance categorizatio scheme. I cetainl don't rule out looking into it if it's generally wanted...
 
I personally like the fact they are listed by cost when choosing in the city but listed alphabetically the ones that you already have. More often than not I will want to build something cheap before I build something expensive. This has been much more useful than when it was in alphabetical order.
 
I personally like the fact they are listed by cost when choosing in the city but listed alphabetically the ones that you already have. More often than not I will want to build something cheap before I build something expensive.

Problem is when you need to queue builds for multi-build and cannot use the out-of-city-screen menu. Often I simply give up cos I can't find the one I want
 
Problem is when you need to queue builds for multi-build and cannot use the out-of-city-screen menu. Often I simply give up cos I can't find the one I want

I usually queue everything long in advance and if i need something quickly I will just plop it at the front of the queue. This works most of the time except for things that take 1 turn to produce since if you plop in front it will replace it (or if its brand new).

The other helpful thing i use is hiding all the stuff I cannot build. Since there are so many bonus buildings and units, hiding them from view is a must if you don't want to get overloaded by choices you cannot even do.
 
I usually queue everything long in advance and if i need something quickly I will just plop it at the front of the queue. This works most of the time except for things that take 1 turn to produce since if you plop in front it will replace it (or if its brand new).

The other helpful thing i use is hiding all the stuff I cannot build. Since there are so many bonus buildings and units, hiding them from view is a must if you don't want to get overloaded by choices you cannot even do.

Yeh, I do but still find myself with 20+ to choose from and cant recognize half the icons. I'll see if I can find a way to add a button to choose the sort
 
Ok, adding a sort option in the city screen looks non-trivial, and not something I can do easily (a Python modder probably could I suspect, but I am a neophyte where the Python is concerned)

Accordingly what I have done is add a global define CITY_SORT_BUILDINGS_ALPHA, default setting of 0. 0 gives the previous cost-based sort, non-0 makes it alphabetical. This is in the global defines file 'assets\xml\A_New_Dawn_GlobalDefines.xml'. I have pushed this to SVN since it doesn't effect anyone that doesn't want to change the setting. Anyone, like me, who prefers an alpha-sort of the buildings can just change the 0 to a 1.
 
I did the mod to change it from alphabetic to by cost in v13.

It is possible to add lines but not possible to change the three buttons to the side that jump to the units, buildings or wonders. Nor how the list jumps back to the begining/first line of the group you selected from to add to the queue.
 
I did the mod to change it from alphabetic to by cost in v13.

It is possible to add lines but not possible to change the three buttons to the side that jump to the units, buildings or wonders. Nor how the list jumps back to the begining/first line of the group you selected from to add to the queue.

The hacky change I made to use a global define so people can choose will do I think. It's not very elegant but it suffices.
 
Well, I can't add seperators, or split categories onto different lines so easily, so you'd still be hunting through the icons to find what you need. Also, although I can look at trying to do categorisation, the buildings have no such thing in the XML per se (apart from the advisor they are connected to, and several have multiple advisors too), so it would be difficult to do reliably. Alpha is just easy to find things in when you know what you are looking for, so while it may not be ideal, it's easy and better than now (IMO). Doesn't preclude trying for a categorization scheme later though (I think I'd add a category tag in the XML to drive it)

Please let me know if you think it would be of high enough value to justify the work (extra tag in every building, plus DLL support, plus Python support) for a more advance categorizatio scheme. I cetainl don't rule out looking into it if it's generally wanted...

i thing it does justifies the work but i am not the one that is going to make it so do it only if you want and you can
 
Well, I can't add seperators, or split categories onto different lines so easily, so you'd still be hunting through the icons to find what you need. Also, although I can look at trying to do categorisation, the buildings have no such thing in the XML per se (apart from the advisor they are connected to, and several have multiple advisors too), so it would be difficult to do reliably. Alpha is just easy to find things in when you know what you are looking for, so while it may not be ideal, it's easy and better than now (IMO). Doesn't preclude trying for a categorization scheme later though (I think I'd add a category tag in the XML to drive it)

Please let me know if you think it would be of high enough value to justify the work (extra tag in every building, plus DLL support, plus Python support) for a more advance categorizatio scheme. I cetainl don't rule out looking into it if it's generally wanted...

One of the Fall from Heaven 2 mod mods, I think Rise from Eribus (maybe Wildmana), categorizes buildings and units by type - with category headers too. If you're interested, you might be able to use what they have as a base to build from.
 
I like them listed by cost, to the extent that I'll be massively peed off if that changes!

I usually queue stuff up to build in cities (unless there's some sort of emergency) and I will always queue a very cheap 1 turn building in front of one that takes longer to build, or queue up a few cheap ones in a row.

Cheapest first is the very best way I've ever seen it done in a CIV 4 mod, and I will be quite devastated if it changes.

I've never had any trouble looking for a particular building, say if I needed a few universities I can always find them easily in the city screen build list even when there are 40+ buildings there - but I would have trouble picking out the difference between 1 turn buildings and 10 turn buildings if they weren't listed by cost - and it would mess up my city planning forever if it were to change. Is it possible to make it an option in the BUG menu for those who want it different? I turn off buildings that I cannot build and worker improvements that I cannot make from showing up in the screen in the BUG menu?
 
I usually queue everything long in advance and if i need something quickly I will just plop it at the front of the queue. This works most of the time except for things that take 1 turn to produce since if you plop in front it will replace it (or if its brand new).
Hold ctrl, it adds it to the front and doesn't mess with the rest of your queue.

I also prefer things to be listed by cost rather than alphabetically, but I think being able to sort buildings with +food and +hammers could be useful. (But maybe not worth the amount of work)
 
Hmm... I actually prefer the buttons sorted by Alphabetical listing as Koshling does. I generally know the name of the building I want, but not the cost.

Thank you for the option, Koshling:goodjob:
 
One of the Fall from Heaven 2 mod mods, I think Rise from Eribus (maybe Wildmana), categorizes buildings and units by type - with category headers too. If you're interested, you might be able to use what they have as a base to build from.

I've seen this as well. Rise from Erebus I believe since I haven't played Wildmana. And it IS very nice. Does it sort in the city screen too? I recall only in the screen that pops up once a city has completed building.
 
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