Lack of Notifications

[Atwork]

Overall, I'm really optimistic with this game. Out of the box, far ahead of C5 in terms of polish and content. I've put in about 8 hours and this issue jumped out at me.

There are no notifications for:

1) population increase;

2) tile expansion;

3) barbarians nearing fortified troops.

(If there is already a threat or thread(s) devoted to notifications players would like to see, please feel free to merge this thread)

 

[L.Pepperbottom]

Overall, I'm really optimistic with this game. Out of the box, far ahead of C5 in terms of polish and content. I've put in about 8 hours and this issue jumped out at me.

There are no notifications for:

1) population increase;

2) tile expansion;

3) barbarians nearing fortified troops.

(If there is already a threat or thread(s) devoted to notifications players would like to see, please feel free to merge this thread)

Yeah I think it notifies you when barbs are closing in, or do you mean the unit isn't waking up?

What I have yet to find is a diplomatic relations window like in civ 5, I don't know who is at war with what..denouncements etc.. It's weird playing without the info addict mod that's for sure.

 

[Atwork]

Perhaps I do recall a notification when the barbs are closing in. I think you're right that what I'm experiencing is that the unit isn't waking up as with C5. I guess I miss the wake up feature of C5.

 

[PhilBowles]

Overall, I'm really optimistic with this game. Out of the box, far ahead of C5 in terms of polish and content. I've put in about 8 hours and this issue jumped out at me.

There are no notifications for:

1) population increase;

2) tile expansion;

3) barbarians nearing fortified troops.

(If there is already a threat or thread(s) devoted to notifications players would like to see, please feel free to merge this thread)

Good point, I forgot to mention in my initial impressions that the game has improved over Civ V by trimming the number of typically redundant notifications (tile expansion particularly, as there were cases when getting the pop expansion alert could be important) - though there are still too many random notifications. At least the bubbles aren't as intrusive as they were in Civ V.

 

[Atwork]

I'm all for keeping notifications to a minimum. However, tile expansion and population expansion is important, especially early in a game and while a city is still young. I never felt that notifications related to tile expansion or population were intrusive in C5, in fact I regretted that the notifications stopped once a city reached a certain size.

But, it's a matter of preference, no question. Ideally, a player would be able to check on or off the categories of notifications he/she wants during a course of the game. I imagine there's a number of players out there who would prefer no notifications at all, whereas others want to be notified about most things.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

Yeah I think it notifies you when barbs are closing in, or do you mean the unit isn't waking up?

What I have yet to find is a diplomatic relations window like in civ 5, I don't know who is at war with what..denouncements etc.. It's weird playing without the info addict mod that's for sure.

I think you can review all that in the diplomacy screen. It will show you how that leader feels about all the others.

 

[haphazard1]

Is there a way to review the notifications/events of the previous turn? It would be nice to be able to have them all in one place for review.

Love the idea of being able to select the types of notifications you want to see -- that would be an excellent feature.

 

[PhilBowles]

I'm all for keeping notifications to a minimum. However, tile expansion and population expansion is important, especially early in a game and while a city is still young.

Early in the game I'd expect to be paying close enough attention to my cities that I'd spot these things anyway, but then I come from an era before any of these had notifications. I don't object so much to the existence of the icons as the fact that you can't turn them off, or even select the ones you want to keep. I can't recall a situation where the tile expansion notification was of any importance - and the barbarian/enemy unit one got boring when the same barbarian was around for several turns or you were in a war (perhaps notifications should only trigger the first time a unit gets within X tiles, until it leaves that radius?)

The one notification I miss is the hut notification, since tribal villages are not particularly conspicuous in this version (though I am glad they're back to being tribal villages instead of stone ruins inexplicably turning up before anyone's learned masonry). Both Civ IV and Civ V had icon notifications for huts.

 

[Atwork]

That's exactly the point of a notification, to relieve the mind of having to dedicate attention and memory to particular happenings. Again, it's a matter of preference, but I appreciate a reminder about such things. As it is, I do dedicate attention and memory to population and tile expansions. Neglecting such an expansion for even a turn or two can throw off the timing of a cohesive strategy. I mention this because it happened in the game I was playing this morning.

In the midst of a battle against barbs, I forgot to check in on my capital and thus missed the fact that my culture grabbed the tile I'd been waiting on. As a result I lost a full turn of production on my build. I'm pretty OCD about that sort of thing, so I re-loaded to get that turn back. A simple pop up would have saved me a minute. Over the next 5 years, I expect I'll probably lose lots of minutes to such re-loads.

Again, it's a matter of memory not being perfect and a matter of preference. You don't want the notification carried over from C5, that's fine. I prefer if it was. You're not going to persuade me the other direction just as I won't persuade you. But, in a game such as C5, I think the option of such a notification should be available.

If you don't want it, don't use it. If you want it, have it.

I agree that the tribal hut notification should be more conspicuous.

 

[Atwork]

And frankly, I would love to be able to set my own pop-up reminders a la C4. It should be an option along side setting pins (love it).

 

[PhilBowles]

That's exactly the point of a notification, to relieve the mind of having to dedicate attention and memory to particular happenings. Again, it's a matter of preference, but I appreciate a reminder about such things. As it is, I do dedicate attention and memory to population and tile expansions. Neglecting such an expansion for even a turn or two can throw off the timing of a cohesive strategy. I mention this because it happened in the game I was playing this morning.

In the midst of a battle against barbs, I forgot to check in on my capital and thus missed the fact that my culture grabbed the tile I'd been waiting on. As a result I lost a full turn of production on my build. I'm pretty OCD about that sort of thing, so I re-loaded to get that turn back. A simple pop up would have saved me a minute. Over the next 5 years, I expect I'll probably lose lots of minutes to such re-loads.

Again, it's a matter of memory not being perfect and a matter of preference. You don't want the notification carried over from C5, that's fine. I prefer if it was. You're not going to persuade me the other direction just as I won't persuade you. But, in a game such as C5, I think the option of such a notification should be available.

If you don't want it, don't use it. If you want it, have it.

I agree that the tribal hut notification should be more conspicuous.

I tend to find reminders I don't need more irritating than missing ones I might occasionally find useful - I also get annoyed by modern email clients' tendency to remind me of meetings I'm already fully aware of and the like, it's not something confined to Civ. There's not enough else to do early in a Civ game that if your attention isn't on your cities and population, what is it on? Aside from the simple frustration of notifications, I think it has a negative psychological effect - I can put effort and attention into the game that makes me feel engaged in managing my empire, or I can click a bunch of checkboxes when I'm told to and feel I'm robotically completing a spreadsheet.

It being a matter of personal preference is precisely why it should be optional - they had giant bubbles in Civ V and must have had player feedback on it. If that feedback had been universally positive they probably wouldn't have trimmed the number of notifications in Civ VI or made the bubbles less intrusive. So why not just make it optional?

I never even knew it was an option in Civ IV - it wasn't the default and the only notifications it gave by default were tribal villages (useful), impacts of random events (by their nature of varying relevance), spy actions (generally useful) and cultural expansion (rarely useful, but they went away without clicking on them). That suited me perfectly.

 

[Atwork]

"..it should be optional..."

Agreed

Also, should be able to set my own pop ups.

As a final comment, as I've thought about it more, the lack of population pop up is mitigated by the fact that the city info bar states how many turns to the next grown. But, for some reason, the city bar no longer informs the player how many turns until cultural tile expansion. I'd be happy enough with that.

 

[BuzWeaverCiv]

People were actually surprised when I asked about a Population Notification. We had this in Civ V. I'm surprised this wasn't something at the top of the list in the Fall Patch. At this point we'll have to assume that not having a Population Notification is intentional.

 

[Jimdigriz]

Is it me or are the notifications a bit bugged anyway? Especially when there are 3 or 4 of the same type. Mouse over one and it comes up. Dismiss that. Try to mouse over another one and it can be fiddly waiting for it to pop up. And the next one. I wish it would just go back to the Civ V system which at least worked properly!

 

[smartcanuck1988]

I'd like a notification that my city can bombard someone.

Also notifications for Great People that are about to be claimed in say 5 turns. Right now the race for great people is tucked away in its own screen and feels neglected. It's a good concept and should be "advertised" better.

 

[dexters]

There's a lack of reminder pings to kill hostiles like barbarians inside your borders. It's too easy to hit next turn until it's too late

Border expansion is redundant but might be useful to some

There's a lack of a sentry function

There's an overload of rumours and data of things happening with other civs where their war decs get lost in the noise.

There needs to be a log to sort all of this stuff