ARA UI tips and tricks

KayAU

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One of the most common criticisms agains Ara is that the there is simply too much to manage, and that the UI is too fiddly. While both are fair criticisms, I also sometimes see people complain about things missing which are actually there. So, I thought maybe it might be helpful to create a thread with some basic UI tips for beginners. I will start myself, but everyone is welcome to add their own.

1. Check the UI Scaling setting
There is a setting for UI scaling under "Settings->Accessibility", which by default is set to 100%. I think for a lot of us, this is too big, and contributes to making the screen look crowded, while at the same time having less information available without scrolling. You can shrink it down to a minimum of 67%, but I found my spot at about 75%.

100% UI Scaling:
Spoiler :

20240928105327_1.jpg



75% UI Scaling:
Spoiler :

20240928105359_1.jpg



2. Check out the Resources and Goods overviews in the upper right part of the screen
If you move your mouse pointer over the Resources or Goods icons and wait a little bit, you will get handy overviews over how much you are producing, how much you are consuming, and how much you have in your stockpile for each thing. This may extremely obvious for some of you, but it took me longer to discover than I care to admit.
Spoiler :

20240928103759_1.jpg


Spoiler :

20240928103802_1.jpg


This is very helpful to see where you need to improve production, and where you have a usable surplus of something. Looking at my screenshots here, I can quickly see that I am soon to be short on Metal Ingots, but that I am not using nearly as much Fish as I am producing.

3. Check out the pull-down menu above the list to the right in the city view
Again, this is one I myself was missing for far too long, even though it is right there. By default, the list is set to show Zones, which is useful for putting down improvements, and especially to see where you can put resource extractors. But the other lists are more useful for managing existing improvements. Let's say for example, that you have have just unlocked Mines, and want to upgrade your Stone Pits. When I was first learning to play the game during the alpha, I actually used to find the improvements on the map, and click on each of them, which is extremely tedious and inconvenient. The better way to do it, is to switch over from "Zones" to "Harvesters", and just click the little green upgrade arrow next to each Stone Pit I want to upgrade. You can also easily manage the supplies for each building, as well as assign experts for each.

Default "Zones" view:
Spoiler :

20240928103737_1.jpg



"Harvesters" view:
Spoiler :

20240928103752_1.jpg




These are just some simple tips, but since I didn't immediately find these myself, I figured it might be useful for someone. As a general tip, I would suggest just taking some time to explore the UI, as it actually has a lot of good functionality, some of which is not immediately obvious.
 
Another suggestion to reduce micromanagement is to not go through the supply slots every turn. It's not the end of the world to space this out over a few turns. What I do now is get a rough number of how much I need of something and then set the workshop to produce exactly that much. When the Workshop is done I get a notification telling me the Workshop is idle. Only on that turn do I check the supply slots to make sure they're filled.

For instance, I decide I need 5 plows. Set the Workshop to build 5 plows. When it's done I get the idle notification. Then on that turn I fill the Farm slots as needed. If I need more plows then I set the Workshop to build 5 more. This reduces the turn to turn micro quite a bit.
 
Another suggestion to reduce micromanagement is to not go through the supply slots every turn. It's not the end of the world to space this out over a few turns. What I do now is get a rough number of how much I need of something and then set the workshop to produce exactly that much. When the Workshop is done I get a notification telling me the Workshop is idle. Only on that turn do I check the supply slots to make sure they're filled.

For instance, I decide I need 5 plows. Set the Workshop to build 5 plows. When it's done I get the idle notification. Then on that turn I fill the Farm slots as needed. If I need more plows then I set the Workshop to build 5 more. This reduces the turn to turn micro quite a bit.
Suggestions for reducing micromanagement that boil down to "just play badly" aren't really helpful. Anyone can choose to play badly to speed things up.

It's not just about checking supplies - excess crafting production is lost if the crafter runs out of orders, but overflows into the next craft if you have multiple queued, so optimally you should always keep a queue going.
Hopefully this sort of thing will get fixed in patches so we don't have to jump through hoops to play well. City main production doesn't even overflow if you do have a queue, so you always have to consider whether to rush production when 2 turns remain in order to not waste production. Civ III vibes.
 
These lists are not "just" for information (which is pretty useful by itself) - you can actually click on them and you go to that crafter. Extremely useful if you want to change resource comsumption for example (like as I'm reducing my material consumption here as I'm running quite low on it).

Spoiler picture :
1727817051302.png
 
I haven't played the game yet but wouldn't it be better if the Workshops were named after the good they're crafting, rather than numbered in the order you've built them?
 
I wouldn't be surprised if this idea (you can name the crafters) is already on their TODO list ;)
If that's the case, then why isn't it in the game already? It feels like such an obvious thing to include for me.. and I haven't even played the game yet! (though I will buy it for myself for Christmas ♥)
 
If that's the case, then why isn't it in the game already? It feels like such an obvious thing to include for me.. and I haven't even played the game yet! (though I will buy it for myself for Christmas ♥)
1) It's just a speculation from my part.
2) Why? Because the game had to be pushed out, and not everything could get into the release version. Naming your crafters is a rather low priority, compared to other things that are missing from the game. That's how software development works... :)
But because it's a good idea and it'd be a good QoL improvement, I can easily see they add it one day.
 
One of the most common criticisms agains Ara is that the there is simply too much to manage, and that the UI is too fiddly. While both are fair criticisms, I also sometimes see people complain about things missing which are actually there. So, I thought maybe it might be helpful to create a thread with some basic UI tips for beginners. I will start myself, but everyone is welcome to add their own.

1. Check the UI Scaling setting
There is a setting for UI scaling under "Settings->Accessibility", which by default is set to 100%. I think for a lot of us, this is too big, and contributes to making the screen look crowded, while at the same time having less information available without scrolling. You can shrink it down to a minimum of 67%, but I found my spot at about 75%.

Are you changing that in a profile ini file or something?

In settings, the slider doesn’t let me go below 100% (and actually, when I click it, it changes to 135% as the minimum. Seems bugged)

I would love to make my ui smaller though!
 
Are you changing that in a profile ini file or something?

In settings, the slider doesn’t let me go below 100% (and actually, when I click it, it changes to 135% as the minimum. Seems bugged)

I would love to make my ui smaller though!
Sorry for the late reply. No, I just changed it in the Accessibility menu. What resolution are you running at? I think it might depend on resolution.
 
Sorry for the late reply. No, I just changed it in the Accessibility menu. What resolution are you running at? I think it might depend on resolution.

It’s weird, when I went to settings it wouldn’t let me go below 100, then checked again the other day and I can go to 82% lol

Maybe it’s resolution related. I’m at 3840 x 2160
 
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