Reports, Statistics, and Analysis

[searcheagle]

One that is sorely missing in Civ is the ability to effectively analysis the status of the civ. These improvement would allow the player to work effective manage a large Empire. Some of these can be done already through intense micromanagement and paper records but are also thing the computer could do quickly and easily.

Here are a few example of where Analysis should be included:

Production

• 
  What is being built and where the units are being built.
  By city, by continent, and by empire

• 
  How many will produce in a turn or in x number of turns

This will allow more intelligent military production.

Military/Diplomacy
1. What has caused the Rep hits for you or another other civilization. This would create more in depth history. This would include who, when, where, why.
2. Intel reports that would include possible threats and all foreign troops that are on your border.
3. All known enemy troops, by nationality, type, etc.

Financial
1. Trend for deficit or surplus spending
2. Future spending estimates (based on marketplaces, banks, etc coming on board)
3. Suggested resources which can be sold and to whom, and for what amount.
4. Suggested actions to increase money.

 

[brinko]

i like it,

in order to have a history, there must be some history to show....
my love with history and current events strongly turn me into a civaddict, in my view there should be alot of detail and emphasis in stats, numbers, and most of what u said... its what the game lacks the most...

dont forget to include the following

-number of men in unit
-number of men murdered by unit
-number of men that died in unit
-number of pillaged sites
-number of foriegn immigrants living in city (ethnic count)
-number of men died in square

crap every detail that one can think in numbers should be available

 

[searcheagle]

Stats like that could be included but they would not give the user the ability to change anything in the future.

While Adding history would do alot to add to the feel of the game, I was attempting to keep my ideas limited to those reports which would add to the ease of users.

 

[Trade-peror]

Having useful gameplay numbers and perhaps some statistical analysis would certainly be helpful, although the deeper analysis should be left to the player.

 

[brinko]

how about ticker tape at the bottom of the screen, with non stop streaming facts and figures...if u are lost at what i mean, watch cnn, nbc, bbc, and look at the scrolling thing at the bottom.

 

[searcheagle]

how about ticker tape at the bottom of the screen, with non stop streaming facts and figures...if u are lost at what i mean, watch cnn, nbc, bbc, and look at the scrolling thing at the bottom.

First off: I can't tell whether you are being sarcastic or not.

If you are serious, this idea has merit for important importation, but for more in depth analysis to much information would be lost.

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Well, I also would like to see a turn-summary at the beginning of the turn. Both 'Birth of the Federation' and 'Star Wars: Rebellion' had something like this. The latter was even better because it was broken up according to relevence. So some summary information would come under Foreign Relations, and cover Intelligence and Diplomacy issues; Economics might cover commercial and industrial improvements which have been built, and where. Military would refer to military units built, military units lost and battles won and/or lost (and cities captured); Technology and Resources would cover resources found, resources accessed, new techs discovered and any resources which have either run out or are about to; Infrastructure would inform you of any completed Public Works projects, how many new workers you have, and whether or not your public works budget has increased. Domestic/cultural would tell you if there has been any major mood changes, or changes in factional influence, it will also tell you about religious conversions, migrations and other cultural issues. Basically, each section would be covered by an appropriate tab and, bu clicking on the individual message, a detailed pop-up regarding the message would appear!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

Oh and, sorry if this is a little redundant !

 

[brinko]

First off: I can't tell whether you are being sarcastic or not.

If you are serious, this idea has merit for important importation, but for more in depth analysis to much information would be lost.

first off for you, i dunno if YOUR being sarcastic....seriously
second off for myself, i take civ 4 forums serious as i take action regarding my life.

third and foremost, i dont know exactly what u said about the ticker tape, all i know it would be cool and would have reason. ive seen people wanting newspapers and stuff, i think it would be better to have a nonstop news streamer. i know sim city implimented it, but i dont think its a trade mark or anything. your comment seems to be too vauge to know whether u like it or not....
brinks

 

[searcheagle]

Aussie, I would like to have an end of the turn summary but one of the problems with civ is that a lot information is lost there- after you click x, you can never retrieve it again. You only know of enemy units that move in your territory if you remember seeing it move into your territory during their turn. That's what I wanted to have the in-turn summaries, so you could get that information during your turn.

I think, Aussie, your idea should be implemented as well, and the end of the turn summary, including units moving into you territory, units produced, etc. and should be retrievable at the end of your turn.

 

[searcheagle]

first off for you, i dunno if YOUR being sarcastic....seriously
second off for myself, i take civ 4 forums serious as i take action regarding my life.

third and foremost, i dont know exactly what u said about the ticker tape, all i know it would be cool and would have reason. ive seen people wanting newspapers and stuff, i think it would be better to have a nonstop news streamer. i know sim city implimented it, but i dont think its a trade mark or anything. your comment seems to be too vauge to know whether u like it or not....
brinks

I apologize for my misunderstanding of your attitude and for my bad grammar.

I would like to see ticker protray important information, such as:
Enemy troops approach our borders!
They have entered our borders!
We lost the road we had to our saltpepper resource!
The city of X was disconnected from the rest of the nation.

and so forth.

The reason I could not tell if you were serious had to do with filling the ticker up with statistics that would clutter it up:

The city of Berlin produces 10 culture/turn
20 shields/turn
etc

and Action orientated stats would be lost.

I would like to see a ticker relay items that should be responded to immediately. I hope I've clarified myself now.

 

[brinko]

yeah u did, thanks.

 

[FinnMcCool]

Superb idea searcheagle. It's frustrating to have to take notes on a computer game. By all rights, there should be somewhere to access this kind of info. However, I have a hunch that a "status report button" would be more comforting to some players than a ticker-tape. I "like" the idea of a ticker-tape progress report, but it might be graphics-intensive, maybe even a memory-use issue. Dunno, but a button (graphics: ancient era stone tablet, medieval vellum and feather quill, modern newspaper?) would be really helpful.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

"End of turn" should never be locked into set reports. Instead, make useful reports, preferably with some customizable options, but even canned reports are helpful when well thought out. Then on every report, provide a "preference" to show it at beginning and/or end of turn. Let the player decide when he wants to see it. And anything shown at beginning/end of turn would then be accessible during the turn as well.

This is so trivial to program, it isn't even funny. Getting rid of popups more than justifies the work all by itself.

 

[Enkidu_Warrior]

the mapstat utility available through the utilities forum is exactly the kind of between-turn popup you're describing, aussie_lurker (only 1300 posts too many to be much of a lurker ). i'd like to see that implemented with on-the-fly updating, rather than off the sav's as the mapstat developers had to do. surely more can be added as well, but it's a start.

i'd also add to the wish list the ability to order by corruption losses in the city menu, and re-order civs in the score/power/culture graphs to either your liking, or high-to-low left-to-right (so that eliminated civs dropped off the end).

also, any info about competing civs (best military unit, relative military size, government type, etc.) should be available through the pictures on the f4 screen. (and dont get me started with the 8-picture limit and stupid swap-one-at-a-time interface they have now!)

EW

 

[searcheagle]

the mapstat utility available through the utilities forum is exactly the kind of between-turn popup you're describing, aussie_lurker (only 1300 posts too many to be much of a lurker ). i'd like to see that implemented with on-the-fly updating, rather than off the sav's as the mapstat developers had to do. surely more can be added as well, but it's a start.

Well, I'll have to check out the utilities and see how that works.

also, any info about competing civs (best military unit, relative military size, government type, etc.) should be available through the pictures on the f4 screen. (and dont get me started with the 8-picture limit and stupid swap-one-at-a-time interface they have now!)
EW

For the most part the foreign advisor IS useful IF once you have under 8 civs playing. Before that, it is absolutely horrendous.

 

[Darwin420]

More comprehensive compiling of information would definitely be a bonus to the game. I'd like to have at the touch of a button Empire Info that is much more in depth than the advisors in Civ3 (bring back the hilarious councial animations a la civ2!). I'd like to know reasons wars are starting. I'd like to know if there are foriegn units in my territory, or if there is a buildup on my borders (3 or more units next to each other). I want to know historical information that I can pull up, just for the pure joy of it!!!

And it would be nice to make it so that if you don't want to view this information, you don't _have_ to. That way everyone is happy!