Notifications Discussion

[axatin]

I think there are too many notifications given every turn, especially later in the game, and that makes it hard to keep track of the events that are actually important. To improve the situation, I've recently condensed multiple notifications for war declarations / peace treaties into one (see spoiler) and created a mod to customize notifications for instant yields. In this thread I'd like to discuss what else can be done to reduce the number of notifications.

Spoiler :

Previously:

Now:

Some suggestions:

• For WLTKD, only give a notification when an unowned resource is required. When WLTKD is activated or extended, only use a white on-screen text message. That way the notification with the resource icon would show up only if a resource is needed, making it immediately clear what is meant.
• Remove the notification "A city-state revokes quests". It's useless most of the time as the quests are no longer active anyway.
• When a deal with another player ends, give one combined notification instead of a separate notification for every deal item, similar to the change to war declarations

What do you think about these suggestions? What else do you think could be done?

 

[azum4roll]

Remove the notification "A city-state revokes quests". It's useless most of the time as the quests are no longer active anyway.

For timeout, you do want to know that if you were actively going for the quest, so you can stop what you're doing immediately.
For war declaration from/on the CS's ally, you can put an extra line on the war notification.

When a deal with another player ends, give one combined notification instead of a separate notification for every deal item, similar to the change to war declarations

I don't even remember what this notification looks like.

What else do you think could be done?

Maybe group the population growth notifications from each city? Border growth has different icons if it's a resource/Natural Wonder, but population is always the same.

 

[Stalker0]

To be honest, isn't your modmod simply the answer to this problem? Why focus on simplication when you can simply turn off any notification you want with your mod?

I think the better approach would be to add this modmod to the core mod, and then anytime we add in a new notification add it as an option for removal in the list.

 

[Tekamthi]

IMO it's not the notifications that are the nuisance, but the constant pestering by other AI civ's for available resource or their inane opinions.

There are times when I'm playing where I just want to let the game run for a few turns, ie all units have orders and cities have build queues while I'm at peace, I don't need turn processing to be interrupted just cuz shaka wants to threaten me with nonsense etc.

These kinds of things would actually be better as a notification than full diplomatic interaction... I can ignore those notification icons on the side bar, but the whole game stops til I click "okay" for whatever the AI wants to tell/ask me

 

[axatin]

To be honest, isn't your modmod simply the answer to this problem? Why focus on simplication when you can simply turn off any notification you want with your mod?

I think the better approach would be to add this modmod to the core mod, and then anytime we add in a new notification add it as an option for removal in the list.

My modmod is only about notifications for instant yields.

 

[azum4roll]

These kinds of things would actually be better as a notification than full diplomatic interaction... I can ignore those notification icons on the side bar, but the whole game stops til I click "okay" for whatever the AI wants to tell/ask me

But there's a difference whether they declare war on their turn or on your turn, if you tell them to "get over it".

It also affects deal order.

 

[Tekamthi]

But there's a difference whether they declare war on their turn or on your turn, if you tell them to "get over it".

a war declaration is a reasonable interruption. That said in hotseat iirc this is still handled but all these screens queue up at start of relevant player turn, if they are not the "active" hotseat player when they occur.

But what I'm talking about is the diplo screens asking for same resource every few turns, and/or the meaningless interactions where they insult you etc. Civ 5 lends itself well to multi-tasking, I leave it running in background as I work on other things, do a few turns here and there to give my mind a rest from work -- I'd like the game to just keep playing if everything is peaceful during these turns, but by mid-game on 43-civ I have to click at least half-a-dozen times between turns to advance through all these screens

 

[azum4roll]

Turn order matters in deals (or should be, if DealAI is properly reworked). If you decide to not sell, the AI should be allowed to ask another player.

You can always counter-insult which may result in war on the AI's turn. That's where turn order matters again.

Multiplayer simply works different and cares less about human-AI balance.

 

[Tekamthi]

true i guess what I want then is the option to toggle on an auto-selected response in advance to get through a chunk of uninteresting turns -- i'll live with any sub-optimal consequences, imo the oversights I make due to UI limitations & inconveniences (& my own forgetfulness) are a satisfying abstraction of RL bureaucratic inefficiency

 

[Little Billy]

My pet peeve has always been the notification that tells you that a city state contest has concluded, but the box is too small to tell you who won it

 

[azum4roll]

My pet peeve has always been the notification that tells you that a city state contest has concluded, but the box is too small to tell you who won it

Is it really because of the box size? I don't think it has ever showed up.