Civ 6 UI is still in alpha, and they just added more easy modding for it so that people who are better at UI can make it better. That's pretty rough, but it's the implication when it's still this junk after a year.
# of clicks is a big deal in end user interactions.
There is nothing about queues, waypoints, sortable menus you can interact with rather than static ones (and change city builds from there, if you want), competent unit cycling (that doesn't jerk you all over the board), or cutting down on forced prompts while playing a turn that could be "too complicated" for any rational human being. Not even a 10 year old with sub-average reading skills would suffer from these features, though a more experienced user would utilize them more/better.
But to do that, Firaxis would have to try. Instead, they're getting beaten by an also-bad Paradox UI that also hides information and lies to you on occasion...but at least makes an effort to reduce the sheer number of inputs for the player. It's not good. Grant province/religious conversions/etc in that game are poorly designed. Firaxis didn't have a high bar. But it still stumbled over it.
Aha. Your "alpha", is my "beta" is someone else's "completely broken and that's
why the whole franchise is doomed damn you in all caps Firaxis."
I certainly agree with you that the number of clicks to achieve particular
actions is a very reasonable, sensible measure of the UI.
However, that measure must also take into account all of the possible actions,
weighted according to how often they are needed and used by the whole spectrum
of players.
Experienced players, or those with a preference for, say religious civs, will
want to see different information and choose different parts of the UI more
often than inexperienced players, or ones who focus more on military, or empire
building.
Neither you nor I have any idea of the shape of those distributions, and so we
have no objective measure of the success or failure of the UI as a whole. All we
have are our own opinions and preferences and those expressed here on cfc and
other forums. As always, we're far more likely to hear from the dissatisfied
than from those who have no significant problems with the UI.
Personally, within an hour or two of playing a new version, I find navigating
the UI second nature. I know where to expect that a panel or dialog will appear,
and I've started moving the mouse pointer towards that area without thinking.
I'm not discounting that the ease or difficulty of making choices through the
UI actually influences the style of game I end up preferring to play
because I'm essentially a lazy bastard (aka "mathematician")!
Strident criticism, or unthinking, glowing praise for the UI without an
objective basis is amusing though.
Can you imagine Firaxis devs rushing to recode the UI because some deity level
players grumbled about the UI not being ideal for their way of achieving a
domination victory on the large maps they prefer?
Or that the Paradox UI would be much better because someone said it would help
keep track of gold earned from trade routes?
Or for a myriad of other self-interested reasons?
I do wish they'd roll out tools and information that would make it easier for
modders to do far more than they can now with the UI and all other parts of the
game.
But I can also understand that might not be a good use of their resources if
they have plans to include major enhacements over the next year or two. Changing
the UI might not be as simple as adding branches to the end of existing data
structures.
OTOH, the lack of modding tools is making Gedemon unhappy, and that is
unnecessarily cruel and quite unacceptable (in French and in all caps)!
Well, at least she was counter-attacking or it looked so. She literally moved the builder out of the city towards my warrior who happily captured it.
