Pet peeves about the interface thread
- Thread starter Crossender
- Start date
Zechnophobe
Strategy Lich
The biggest one for me? Having to open a city to see which tiles it is working. Civ 4 had two different mechanisms to help you identify what it's working at a glance, the little house on the plot, and the size of the yield icons.
Civ 5 you have to open the city, and tell it to show you your citizens. What.The.Heck?
Another biggie when I'm just learning, is not knowing what 'bonus resources' are going to give when I build something on them. Before I put that city near all that wheat, I'd like to know if they'll give +2 food or +1. What about the cows, +1 food or +1 production? Bananas?
Also, you can remove terrain so early in this game that the negative things like marsh and jungle just don't seem to define the map as well as before. Has anyone even seen a sizable jungle in this game yet?
Civ 5 you have to open the city, and tell it to show you your citizens. What.The.Heck?
Another biggie when I'm just learning, is not knowing what 'bonus resources' are going to give when I build something on them. Before I put that city near all that wheat, I'd like to know if they'll give +2 food or +1. What about the cows, +1 food or +1 production? Bananas?
Also, you can remove terrain so early in this game that the negative things like marsh and jungle just don't seem to define the map as well as before. Has anyone even seen a sizable jungle in this game yet?
Theodorick
King
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2006
- Messages
- 624
Send a worker to the road you want to remove. He has a 'remove road' option. Pillaging just damages improvements. This is necessary because some improvements can only be built under special circumstances and with one time only specialists, so it would be frustrating if the AI or barbarians forever destroyed one time only improvements.
As for the interface, I'm finding it fine, except for the city screen being zoomed out each time I enter it, and a few other very minor things that'll be changed in future patches anyways. Aside from this, I think the interface is pretty clean and makes sense. As for the complaining in this thread, I'd say most people are suffering from http://www.physorg.com/news198305778.html
Just look at the guy I quoted. He obviously didn't even bother trying to find a reasonable way to get rid of roads--he gave up early on. This is what's going on here right now. You guys are so used to the old, that the new is annoying you because it's not the old, so you throw your hands up and complain before even trying to figure things out. I say give a few months, and the new civ interface will settle in nicely.
godotnut
Inverted Unicycle
No option for "automated workers leave old improvements." Basically, you cannot automate workers, ever, if you care about how your empire is managed on the ground. This is frustrating in mid to late game when I would normally automate them.
No ability to see an enemy city before you decide if you want to keep it or raze it.
Cannot skip opening movie.
Trades with AI have been rendered more cumbersome.
Cannot see travel paths of units be selecting them.
Civilopedia is almost totally useless. It doesn't even tell the bonuses of all resources!
Hate the hidden diplomatic status of AI, ruins diplo games.
Hard to see and manage trade routes. Only way I have been able to see them so far is by mousing over the palace in the capital, but even then, I am not sure exactly sure what I am seeing.
Automated scouts intrude on city states without warning.
No ability to see an enemy city before you decide if you want to keep it or raze it.
Cannot skip opening movie.
Trades with AI have been rendered more cumbersome.
Cannot see travel paths of units be selecting them.
Civilopedia is almost totally useless. It doesn't even tell the bonuses of all resources!
Hate the hidden diplomatic status of AI, ruins diplo games.
Hard to see and manage trade routes. Only way I have been able to see them so far is by mousing over the palace in the capital, but even then, I am not sure exactly sure what I am seeing.
Automated scouts intrude on city states without warning.
And while it may be more of design choices, how about not being able to delete a building (for example after a conquer)?
backup then open c:\users\<username>\my games\Sid Meier's Civilization 5\usersettings.ini and set "SkipintroVideo = 1"
As is seeing what they have to trade. And while more of a bug, in my last game you could 'gold per turn' to a number, get agreement, but it would then change after agreeing to 5 per turn.
If I understand what you're saying, there is a trade route breakdown collapsed in the economic screen. Also an icon that shows up at each city from the main map screen.
Who didn't bother? Who gave up? You sure do make a lot of incorrect assumptions. Why are you posting in a UI improvement thread?
If you're trying to be helpful, and not just snarky (feel free to re-read my post about what changes I do like) - any suggestions on improving the other (and honestly more annoying) issues? Or do you feel the game is perfect as is, and there is no room for improvement?
But thank you for pointing out that only workers can remove roads. That's a new and unintuitive design choice. I was using Legions to build my road network and may well have missed the (if the Legion's have one) "Remove Route" button among the three levels of unit commands.
Cheers.
Valkrionn
The Hamster King
I'll try to answer some of the issues. 
Resources can be toggled by expanding a menu by the minimap, just above the strategic view button. Has a few other options as well. Plot Yields, for example.
This one I'm not sure on. I know yields can be set to display when a civilian unit is selected, in the main options.
Yes, a bit more cumbersome.
This is something else I'd like to see improved.
Everything on the screen at once would be HORRIBLY overcrowded. I personally prefer the minimized look.
Combat animations can be disabled in the game options (set up game -> advanced options)
I agree, though you can shuffle build lists around easily enough.
Actually, you don't have to tell it to show your citizens. Worked tiles will show yields when citizens are not shown; Unworked do not.
- Strategic Resources are shown on the top of the screen. If you want a full summary of all resources, where they are from, how many you traded away, and how many you got from trade... You aren't the only one, it's one of my big issues.
- That sounds more like a bug to me; Always deactivated correctly in my games.
- City State issue is something I have issues with as well.
- Hit C to center the unit. That said, I agree, when it brings up the unit it should center the cam.
- The cinematic can be disabled via the ini. My Games/Civ5/UserSettings. Set SkipIntroVideo to 1.
Resources can be toggled by expanding a menu by the minimap, just above the strategic view button. Has a few other options as well. Plot Yields, for example.
This one I'm not sure on. I know yields can be set to display when a civilian unit is selected, in the main options.
Yes, a bit more cumbersome.
This is something else I'd like to see improved.
Everything on the screen at once would be HORRIBLY overcrowded. I personally prefer the minimized look.
Combat animations can be disabled in the game options (set up game -> advanced options)
I agree, though you can shuffle build lists around easily enough.
Actually, you don't have to tell it to show your citizens. Worked tiles will show yields when citizens are not shown; Unworked do not.
- Exists, in the useroptions. Not sure why it's not in the main options, really needs to be.
- Is there even a raze option in the popup? It's occupy (and then you can raze) or make puppet. Now, being able to view it before making it a puppet? YES, we need that.
- Same, in useroptions.
- Not sure it's more cumbersome. Seems about the same to me.
- Yes, I would prefer that option as well.
- It will get better.
- I rather like most things being hidden... But in it's current state, yes, it makes already questionable AI into something difficult to understand and broken, from the perspective of new players.
- I'm not aware you can manage trade routes at all.
- Yes, needs to be fixed.
I second that, this thread should be subtitledd "Where is the CTRL+I option?"
boredatwork
Warlord
- Joined
- Mar 18, 2010
- Messages
- 104
Not having the game save your "new game" preferences.
Not being able to rename units EXCEPT when they earn a promotion, BEFORE you give it to them.
Having the game reffer to generic unit type instead of custom name. ie "Your Swordsman (2) destroyed a barbarian" instead of "Your 1st Infantry Div (2) destroyed a barbarian."
No gender context text - ie reffering to female leaders as "lords."
Having to click a steam warning, then a Direct X menu everytime the game is started.
Having to open up the city screen to rename a new city - and then having to click the text box because apparently it didn't make sense to have the cursor ready to type in a new name if someone clicks the rename button.
But most of all not just having the research/production list pop up when required as opposed to requiring a click.
Not being able to rename units EXCEPT when they earn a promotion, BEFORE you give it to them.
Having the game reffer to generic unit type instead of custom name. ie "Your Swordsman (2) destroyed a barbarian" instead of "Your 1st Infantry Div (2) destroyed a barbarian."
No gender context text - ie reffering to female leaders as "lords."
Having to click a steam warning, then a Direct X menu everytime the game is started.
Having to open up the city screen to rename a new city - and then having to click the text box because apparently it didn't make sense to have the cursor ready to type in a new name if someone clicks the rename button.
But most of all not just having the research/production list pop up when required as opposed to requiring a click.
I find with Civ5's city screen, it takes me way to long to manage worked tiles, just because I have to stare at it so much to figure out what's going on. It's instructive to compare it to Civ4's city screen.
Civ5:
- A citizen icon, ambiguously placed near the top of each hex, turns green when the tile is worked and black otherwise. Takes some effort to look for all the green icons and double check to make sure they're associated with the tile you expect.
- At a glance, the yield icons look like: small green circle, small yellow circle, small orange circle. I think shapes are easier to distinguish quickly than colors.
- Perspective view of the landscape, so some tiles are farther away than others.
- Specialist slots are divided between the buildings that provide them, so I have to look through my buildings going "where are my specialists, are they in the library, are they in the univeristy... ?"
Civ4:
- Big, round circles around worked tiles, leaving no possible ambiguity as to which tiles are worked.
- Tile yield icons are easy to distinguish at a glance by shape and color. Brown and square = food, yellow and rounded = commerce, grey and hammer shaped = production.
- Completely 2D top-down view, so all tiles are equally close.
- Very easy to glance at what specialists you're running.
The result of all this is that managing and optimizing my cities is such a chore in Civ5 that I usually just get lazy tell it to "focus gold" or whatever, which I've seen choose some pretty suboptimal things. In contrast, in Civ4, I'd go into the city screen, look at it for a couple seconds, make a couple quick clicks, and leave.
Civ5:
- A citizen icon, ambiguously placed near the top of each hex, turns green when the tile is worked and black otherwise. Takes some effort to look for all the green icons and double check to make sure they're associated with the tile you expect.
- At a glance, the yield icons look like: small green circle, small yellow circle, small orange circle. I think shapes are easier to distinguish quickly than colors.
- Perspective view of the landscape, so some tiles are farther away than others.
- Specialist slots are divided between the buildings that provide them, so I have to look through my buildings going "where are my specialists, are they in the library, are they in the univeristy... ?"
Civ4:
- Big, round circles around worked tiles, leaving no possible ambiguity as to which tiles are worked.
- Tile yield icons are easy to distinguish at a glance by shape and color. Brown and square = food, yellow and rounded = commerce, grey and hammer shaped = production.
- Completely 2D top-down view, so all tiles are equally close.
- Very easy to glance at what specialists you're running.
The result of all this is that managing and optimizing my cities is such a chore in Civ5 that I usually just get lazy tell it to "focus gold" or whatever, which I've seen choose some pretty suboptimal things. In contrast, in Civ4, I'd go into the city screen, look at it for a couple seconds, make a couple quick clicks, and leave.
Theodorick
King
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2006
- Messages
- 624
I said there is room for improvement. I don't like a few things, some minor, one a bit major. But mostly I found the interface very easy to understand on my first play, and haven't had much trouble with it. I was responding to people who are absolutely trashing the interface like it's making it impossible for them to play the game, which makes me wonder how long they bothered to even figure the NEW interface out.
OzWiz
Chieftain
I was expecting a sleek minmalistic UI.
Instead my view of the world is obscured by large, unnecessary swathes of cartoony colour.
I mean why would I want the bottom left of my screen to be covered by an image of my unit when I select it? I only need a few characters-worth of info (Str, HP, MP etc). Sure these are there but why oh why does it take so much valuable screen-real-estate to show it? WHY THE IMAGE ?!
And most info in the UI is like this - taking soooo much space to convey information that might even be shown in pop-up tooltips.
Why can't I close the mini-map? Why the extraneous clicks to open sub-menus for deity's sake? As if there isn't room already?
There is crucial info missing from the UI too, but my pet peeve is its bulk and clumsiness.
Such a pity as my first impressions of V's game mechanics are so positive.
Ctrl-I FTW
Instead my view of the world is obscured by large, unnecessary swathes of cartoony colour.
I mean why would I want the bottom left of my screen to be covered by an image of my unit when I select it? I only need a few characters-worth of info (Str, HP, MP etc). Sure these are there but why oh why does it take so much valuable screen-real-estate to show it? WHY THE IMAGE ?!
And most info in the UI is like this - taking soooo much space to convey information that might even be shown in pop-up tooltips.
Why can't I close the mini-map? Why the extraneous clicks to open sub-menus for deity's sake? As if there isn't room already?
There is crucial info missing from the UI too, but my pet peeve is its bulk and clumsiness.
Such a pity as my first impressions of V's game mechanics are so positive.
Ctrl-I FTW
Valkrionn
The Hamster King
I see all the complaints about it being too large, and then compare it to my own experience, and have no idea where you are coming from.
This is my default view, whether in strategic view or standard.
Nowhere near obtrusive. My only wishes are that I could minimize the minimap, and that the explore/fortify buttons were not in a submenu.
This is my default view, whether in strategic view or standard.
Nowhere near obtrusive. My only wishes are that I could minimize the minimap, and that the explore/fortify buttons were not in a submenu.
WuphonsReach
Prince
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2005
- Messages
- 426
I've got a big list that I jotted down last night:
- Hexagon grid is not bright enough to contrast with all terrain types. Which makes it difficult in desert or hilly plains to see where the hexagons are.
- The floating icon above units (combat, non-combat) is not informative. It should tell me what the current unit's orders are, and how many movement points they have left.
- Tiles being worked should be more obvious in the 3D view, without having to go poking around in the city screen.
- Lack of a save file auto-naming system like Civ4 had. Give us back "(leader name) - (turn number)" or "(leader name) - (game year)" as default fill-ins so we can simply hit the save button and get on with things. Typing in save file names is tedious.
- Save files are ordered alphabetically, in Civ4 they were always presented in descending order by date/time. Switch it or give us an option to change the sort.
- In the economic summary screen, why can't I click on a city line and go to that city?
- In the military summary screen, why can't I click on a unit line and go to that unit?
- In the strategic map view, the 2 drop-down lists that control appearance need to be moved up to be first-class UI members rather then buried in a menu. Give us a little slide-out control panel that has those two drop-downs as well as a bunch of filtering checkboxes to turn various attributes on/off without digging into a menu.
- In the 3D map view, the 3 checkboxes for showing/hiding the hex grid, resource markers and unit markers need to be moved out of the menu and made immediately available (maybe via a little slide-out bar).
- Give us a way to turn on/off unit markers by status - friendly, neutral, enemy
- Give us a way to turn resource markers on/off by status - food, luxury, strategic
- Give us a way to highlight resources that are not improved but within our city borders
- Give us a way to filter unit markers by current task - active, sleeping, guarding, moving
- Hexagon grid is not bright enough to contrast with all terrain types. Which makes it difficult in desert or hilly plains to see where the hexagons are.
- The floating icon above units (combat, non-combat) is not informative. It should tell me what the current unit's orders are, and how many movement points they have left.
- Tiles being worked should be more obvious in the 3D view, without having to go poking around in the city screen.
- Lack of a save file auto-naming system like Civ4 had. Give us back "(leader name) - (turn number)" or "(leader name) - (game year)" as default fill-ins so we can simply hit the save button and get on with things. Typing in save file names is tedious.
- Save files are ordered alphabetically, in Civ4 they were always presented in descending order by date/time. Switch it or give us an option to change the sort.
- In the economic summary screen, why can't I click on a city line and go to that city?
- In the military summary screen, why can't I click on a unit line and go to that unit?
- In the strategic map view, the 2 drop-down lists that control appearance need to be moved up to be first-class UI members rather then buried in a menu. Give us a little slide-out control panel that has those two drop-downs as well as a bunch of filtering checkboxes to turn various attributes on/off without digging into a menu.
- In the 3D map view, the 3 checkboxes for showing/hiding the hex grid, resource markers and unit markers need to be moved out of the menu and made immediately available (maybe via a little slide-out bar).
- Give us a way to turn on/off unit markers by status - friendly, neutral, enemy
- Give us a way to turn resource markers on/off by status - food, luxury, strategic
- Give us a way to highlight resources that are not improved but within our city borders
- Give us a way to filter unit markers by current task - active, sleeping, guarding, moving
spoooq
Warlord
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2006
- Messages
- 221
duxup
Prince
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2001
- Messages
- 385
The City Build Queue
I want to just add a bunch of stuff to the queue but if the city has nothing to build I have to choose something via the pop-up (or just close it) then close the pop up. Or just close the pop-up and then go to the city, choose something to build, then hit add to queue AGAIN (assuming the check box is checked) and only then can I just click on a bunch of things in a series. ARGH!
I want to just add a bunch of stuff to the queue but if the city has nothing to build I have to choose something via the pop-up (or just close it) then close the pop up. Or just close the pop-up and then go to the city, choose something to build, then hit add to queue AGAIN (assuming the check box is checked) and only then can I just click on a bunch of things in a series. ARGH!
OzWiz
Chieftain
The screenshot above is without any unit selected. When there is a unit selection the bottom left of the screen is obscured, as far as I can tell, for no good reason - for the data could simply be added to the mousover info. (And as far as I can tell there is no way to once again select no-unit.)
In fact the mini-map pictured displays the fundamental problem with the UI: lack of efficiency. Why the big blue bar when a button would do? Why the two side-buttons when there are slide-outs? And why not let us hide the mini-map to begin with?
The whole UI is in this style - needless cartoony images and wasted real estate. And on top of that it's not even friendly to use - takes more mouse clicks than needed to do the basics.
In fact the mini-map pictured displays the fundamental problem with the UI: lack of efficiency. Why the big blue bar when a button would do? Why the two side-buttons when there are slide-outs? And why not let us hide the mini-map to begin with?
The whole UI is in this style - needless cartoony images and wasted real estate. And on top of that it's not even friendly to use - takes more mouse clicks than needed to do the basics.
Gorey
Prince
quoted for truth.
I too did everything manually in Civ4, because it was quick to digest the information and easy to make the change.
In Civ5.. i find myself just letting the computer do it because it's just too much of an annoyance. And with every citizen and tile you add it compounds the problem.
Gorey
Prince
Yes, yes.. and more yes.
Unworked tiles should have smaller, dimmer and semi-transparent yield icons. Worked tiles should be slightly larger, brighter and more opaque.
ZapRowsdower
Chieftain
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2010
- Messages
- 28
I want to see the current hitpoints of a unit in the unit detail along with strength, range, etc. As far as I know, you can either hover over the unit (and wait for the popup to appear) or try to interpret the size of the little HP bar next to him. I'm getting better at deciphering the bar, but a number would be better for me.
