Feature Idea: SG Turn Counter

[EmperorFool]

Here's the spec for a new feature to add. It should be relatively easy to do, and if I have some time tomorrow I might do it. I'm posting it in case anyone's itching to do a little Python.

The basic idea is to support Succession Games with a Turn Counter. When you start your turnset, instead of setting a reminder you hit a hotkey that asks you how many turns your set is. This value is stored in the saved game and used as the default for future turnsets.

On your last turn, the turn starts with an optional popup just like a reminder. At the end of the turn, instead of "Hit Enter to End Turn" you'd see "Your turnset is complete" flashing. If possible, the End Turn button should be disabled or hidden. I don't think we can block the user just hitting Enter though.

When the next player loads the game, it will automatically ask them how many turns their set is, defaulting to the previous number entered.

The differences seem minor, but in addition we could add another turn counter to NJAGC so you'd see "4/10".

We'd need a hotkey to allow the counter to be set for when you have autostart disabled or if you goof it up.

Options:

1. Enabled
2. Start Counter Automatically
3. "Turn # / Total Turns" as options in NJAGC

What do you guys think? Does this add enough beyond what Reminders gives SGers?

 

[alerum68]

Can this be configured so the Pop-Up will give the user the option to save the game at the finish of their turns, or trigger an autosave, but retain the proper file format, instead of autosave?

 

[EmperorFool]

I don't think there's any way to trigger a save. As well, the EndTurnReady event wasn't working pre-3.13, though I should see if they fixed it. Finally, even if the event fired, I'm rarely done with my turn when the game thinks I'm done.

I fear it would rarely be correct anyway, and the flashing text will say that your turnset is complete like it does now for Ctrl-Alt-O. I know it's still possible to miss that text, but I can't think of any other way.

 

[Sam_Yeager]

If possible, the End Turn button should be disabled or hidden.

In most SGs the turnset length is not set in stone. There are times when a player wishes to play an extra turn or two e.g. complete a wonder or finish a war.

However I have to say that I'm not convinced that this is required. The reminders system seems to be good enough to me as long as it will work when the game is resumed after a break. Bear in mind that it is quite possible that not all members of a SG will necessarily have your mod installed which further reduces the utility.

 

[Elandal]

Maybe some default reminder types would be best, with set text in the reminder text box when triggered. Eg. some hotkey could trigger reminder with "Turnset completed" message. This would be flexible for possible future uses.

 

[ruff_hi]

I had something like this in once for the logger so that people could see how many turns this set were done and home many turns overall. It was more trouble that it is worth due to the save, reload, reset issues.

Bear in mind that it is quite possible that not all members of a SG will necessarily have your mod installed which further reduces the utility.

This is just plain wrong (not wrong technically, wrong as in bad karma!) ... Show me an SGer who doesn't use this mod and I will show you ...

 

[Sam_Yeager]

This is just plain wrong (not wrong technically, wrong as in bad karma!) ... Show me an SGer who doesn't use this mod and I will show you ...

I know it seems incredible but there are such people out there. Witness the people who were glad the glance screen went in 3.13. Shakes head in disbelief.

 

[EmperorFool]

There are times when a player wishes to play an extra turn or two e.g. complete a wonder or finish a war.

Yes, people can be so greedy sometimes, can't they? They would hit the hotkey for "One More Turn" in this case (new hotkey). The main reasoning is to keep them from forgetting that their turnset is done and slipping into another twenty turns by accident.

The reminders system seems to be good enough to me as long as it will work when the game is resumed after a break.

Reminders should be saving and reloading with the game again, so this does happen.

Bear in mind that it is quite possible that not all members of a SG will necessarily have your mod installed which further reduces the utility.

Blasphemy!

But seriously, it doesn't reduce the utility necessarily. It would still work for those that use BUG, meaning that one or two players without BUG wouldn't break the feature for the others. The non-BUG players wouldn't reset the counter, and the non-BUG players would still see a 0 counter when they loaded their turns and be asked to start it again.

When I was doing my turns last night, I thought of this because I kept wanting to know what turn I was on, and I got sick of subtracting 135 from the current turn number. If I had saved and reloaded later, I may have forgotten whether it was 135 or 130. A 7/10 would have been nice, but certainly not necessary.

@Elandal - I've thought of that for other Reminders but haven't come up with a simple UI that allows it. One might be to have radio buttons on the popup:

• Whip <current-city-if-one-selected>*
• Wake <current-unit-if-one-selected>**
• Turnset Complete
• Change Research
• Change Civics
• Change Religion
• Cancel Deal
• Other: __________

* The Whip one would always be present, and if you had a city selected it would paste in the name.

** The Wake Unit one would only be present if you had a unit selected. Does anyone ever do this, say when you get a GP or GG but want to use him in 5 turns?

The other idea I still want to implement is a Reminder button that we could put on various screens to bring up the popup with the reason filled in.

For example, on the Civics Screen select the civics you want in 3 turns and hit the Reminder button instead of OK and it will add a reminder for "Change to Bureaucracy, Organized Religion". Same for Religion. Research is tougher because there is no OK button -- clicking on Techs changes your research immediately. But a Reminder button would just add a generic "Change Research" reminder.

On the City Screen, a Reminder button next to the production bar at the top for "Whip <city-name>". This is the one I use the most by far.

On the ACTIVE tab of the EFA, a Reminder button next to each deal adds "Cancel Deal with <civ>" reminder.

What other Reminders do you guys set regularly? And should Reminders be logged in the Autolog at all? I could see them helping you write your SG reports from the logs.

 

[ruff_hi]

The other idea I still want to implement is a Reminder button that we could put on various screens to bring up the popup with the reason filled in.

For example, on the Civics Screen select the civics you want in 3 turns and hit the Reminder button instead of OK and it will add a reminder for "Change to Bureaucracy, Organized Religion". Same for Religion. Research is tougher because there is no OK button -- clicking on Techs changes your research immediately. But a Reminder button would just add a generic "Change Research" reminder.

On the City Screen, a Reminder button next to the production bar at the top for "Whip <city-name>". This is the one I use the most by far.

On the ACTIVE tab of the EFA, a Reminder button next to each deal adds "Cancel Deal with <civ>" reminder.

What other Reminders do you guys set regularly? And should Reminders be logged in the Autolog at all? I could see them helping you write your SG reports from the logs.

I like this a lot. Anyone got a graphic with a piece of string round a finger? Reminders in the autolog might be useful too.

 

[Elandal]

Reminder buttons on various pages sounds neat.
And of course reminders should be logged. Everything should be logged. Or well, for everything there should be an option to log it - some people might not want excessive logging like I do

 

[EmperorFool]

Related to that, another extension of Reminders I want to build is a screen that lets you see all the reminders you have currently set.

With a screen, I could also add a list of non-turn-tagged "todo" items. These are basically reminders that don't have a set turn # -- you just need to do them some time. They probably aren't as useful, and you can always delay a reminder.

Hmm, perhaps instead of "Remind me again next turn" I should add a text field where you can enter a new number of turns to delay, defaulting to 1.