...and suggestions for improvement.
I have a problem with foreign advisor screen. It does not always show all of the civs in the game, even when there are only 8.
In a recent game, after meeting a few rivals, trading communications, and establishing embasies, I looked at the foreign advisor screen and noticed that two of the three unknown civs were missing. There was one (?) icon, and the other two were simply not there. Germany and England never showed up on the foreign advisor screen, rendering it quite useless. The next game I started had three missing (?) icons.
I'd like to note that the first of these two games was started after I had loaded and viewed some of last months GOTM results, which had only 7 civs at the start and therefore was naturally missing one of the icons. Since I used did not exit the game, but returned to the main screen for a new game, I believe this had something to do with it.
The second was started in a similar manner after I had loaded the first for review of the final position. This seemed to magnify the error, as now three faces were missing instead of two.
I was able to cause this error to reoccur consistantly. I restarted CIV III, then started a new game with default map settings, a random civ, and seven random rivals. I hit F4 and verified that there were seven (?) faces on the screen below my portrait. I then returned to the main screen for a new game (Ctrl+Shift+Q) and started another game with the default map settings, but this time I chose a random civ and only six random rivals, setting the last one to "NONE". After the start, I again hit F4 and noted that there were now only six (?) faces. I returned again to the main screen and started another game with seven random rivals. There were still only six (?) faces on the advisor's screen. I skipped the first turn (Shift+Enter) and checked the demographics (F11) to see that I was indeed in 8th place. Starting a game with only four random rivals had the same effect, causing the next game, started with seven rivals, to display only four (?) faces.
The foreign advisor screen has been flawed from the start, having been designed to show a maximum of eight civs, while the game itself was designed for a maximum of sixteen. This can certainly be improved, here are a couple of ideas:
1. Keep it set to display a maximum of eight civs simultaneously. Any more than this could make it difficult to manage.
2. Allow the player to choose which civs to display, and in which slots to display them. Note that this implies that the player can remove/replace his or her own icon if he or she so chooses.
This could be implemented with a pop-up menu or drop-down listbox type of control listing all known civs, as well as the option to display none. If the player chooses a civ that is displayed in another slot, it would simply be moved from it's current position to the newly assigned position.
I have a problem with foreign advisor screen. It does not always show all of the civs in the game, even when there are only 8.
In a recent game, after meeting a few rivals, trading communications, and establishing embasies, I looked at the foreign advisor screen and noticed that two of the three unknown civs were missing. There was one (?) icon, and the other two were simply not there. Germany and England never showed up on the foreign advisor screen, rendering it quite useless. The next game I started had three missing (?) icons.
I'd like to note that the first of these two games was started after I had loaded and viewed some of last months GOTM results, which had only 7 civs at the start and therefore was naturally missing one of the icons. Since I used did not exit the game, but returned to the main screen for a new game, I believe this had something to do with it.
The second was started in a similar manner after I had loaded the first for review of the final position. This seemed to magnify the error, as now three faces were missing instead of two.
I was able to cause this error to reoccur consistantly. I restarted CIV III, then started a new game with default map settings, a random civ, and seven random rivals. I hit F4 and verified that there were seven (?) faces on the screen below my portrait. I then returned to the main screen for a new game (Ctrl+Shift+Q) and started another game with the default map settings, but this time I chose a random civ and only six random rivals, setting the last one to "NONE". After the start, I again hit F4 and noted that there were now only six (?) faces. I returned again to the main screen and started another game with seven random rivals. There were still only six (?) faces on the advisor's screen. I skipped the first turn (Shift+Enter) and checked the demographics (F11) to see that I was indeed in 8th place. Starting a game with only four random rivals had the same effect, causing the next game, started with seven rivals, to display only four (?) faces.
The foreign advisor screen has been flawed from the start, having been designed to show a maximum of eight civs, while the game itself was designed for a maximum of sixteen. This can certainly be improved, here are a couple of ideas:
1. Keep it set to display a maximum of eight civs simultaneously. Any more than this could make it difficult to manage.
2. Allow the player to choose which civs to display, and in which slots to display them. Note that this implies that the player can remove/replace his or her own icon if he or she so chooses.
This could be implemented with a pop-up menu or drop-down listbox type of control listing all known civs, as well as the option to display none. If the player chooses a civ that is displayed in another slot, it would simply be moved from it's current position to the newly assigned position.
That should answer a lot of common questions.
