Requests for new components (and features)

[MadmanAtW]

Probably been suggested before at some point, but how about a "You may again change civics" announcement when the N turn period has passed after your previous civic change?

 

[dirtyparrot]

It's probably a good bit of work, I would love to be able to hover the mouse over a AI city that I can see and be able to know what buildings they have (like we can using BULL for our own cities), that way I don't have to zoom in each time to see what they have.

 

[DrakenKin]

It's probably a good bit of work, I would love to be able to hover the mouse over a AI city that I can see and be able to know what buildings they have (like we can using BULL for our own cities), that way I don't have to zoom in each time to see what they have.

Hm I think I have seen something like this on some random screenshot... Just hovering a city shows its buildings on the left information panel. However I can't remember exactly where or which mod displayed that. A HoF related mod maybe?

 

[EmperorFool]

The problem is that to make the hover text show for a city bar you need to make that city selectable which has other ramifications, exposing information that should be hidden.

While not as good, I think a shortcut that you hit (or button you click) to switch the cursor to the plot-picker so you can click on the city to bring up a window showing the buildings would work. I'd also like something like this for inspecting enemy SoDs.

 

[Amble]

I haven't read through this whole post so I don't know if more is said on this subject than what was around the topic in question but after using MSM for a bit then switching to BUG I was missing a few features. Notably the ones posted by Dimon157 earlier in this thread here and here.

In particular I'd like the minimum happy healthy indicators as going to the domestic adviser every other turn to "check" is tedious. I would prefer to be able to have something on the main screen to look at to see if it's worth hunting down those cities.

The scoreboard mods would be nice to have as well as I tend to miss the alerts in the info window but over all not as important to me.

My own attempts at trying to merge his source code into BUG have only rewarded me with an absent interface. I don't know python, but have managed to merge mods in the past. I believe my issue with this one is the fact that these mods are modding the same things.

 

[Afforess]

I had a great idea for the UI, but it's way beyond my python knowledge...

The Event log needs a search bar for either a year (like 1777 AD) or an Event (Golden Age). I always remember something significant happened a while ago, go to look it up, but it's got 1000's of events in, and it would take forever to look through. A simple word search that filters results would be really nice.

 

[EmperorFool]

Yes, I would love to be able to mod the event log window, but alas that's not in the cards . . . it's in the EXE.

 

[DaveMcW]

I discovered the show hidden attitude mod recently, and I think it is really good and should be part of BUG.

I'll add this once DaveMcW makes the change I requested: hide the random- and rank-based modifiers which are not UG.

Done.

 

[Afforess]

Yes, I would love to be able to mod the event log window, but alas that's not in the cards . . . it's in the EXE.

GRR, why would they put that in the exe, what would be so significant about it that we can't mod it? I wish the Firaxis gods would smile on us with the EXE code...

 

[EmperorFool]

I have finally added DaveMcW's Show Hidden Attitude Mod to BULL. I updated it to handle the Hidden Personalities game option (doesn't consider any affects due to personality) and make it optional via the BUG Options screen. If you compile BULL with the _MOD_SHAM_SPOILER, you will see the random/rank/personality-based hidden modifiers as well.

 

[_alphaBeta_]

Ever consider adding an overlay (similar to the yields and resources overlays) that highlights unimproved plots that are currently being worked? You'd have to make exceptions on plots that can't be improved (oasis, resource-less water tiles etc.).

 

[LoneTraveller]

I'm sorry to say that I havent been through the 72 pages of comment but...

I have seen that your mod component adds a great addition : seeing what the effects of adding a building will do to a city.

I have a noticed an ambiguity (?). Sometimes...it states "+125%" current production but it (very sadly but I'm sure temporarily) never states in which condition we would get that extra production.

For example : when I have my mouse over a ShipYard. The sweet and beautiful PopUp tag states "Actual : +1 +6 hammer".

I know it's a detail but when the "actual" tag says you get 300% your normal production for selecting that building...I loose my mind...until I realise the lack of effectiveness it does for my city.


I hope I don't sound like a winer I love this modcomp Hell...it toke 5 years for somebody to realise that the stated production (cultural, $$$, hammers, etc) didn't match the actual production from buildings. After a such notice...I figure you ppl are the most likely to fix this little detail

 

[Fimbulvetr]

You mean Drydock Actual Building Effects hover tells you "Actual : +1 +6 hammer" even though you only get that effect when building naval units? Yes it does that. And I agree, if a bonus is not always there it should say so. "Actual : +1 +6 hammer when building ships"

 

[_alphaBeta_]

I always find it challenging to avoid the AIs asking me to cancel my deals with their worst enemies when I have trade relations with both. The situation always ends in a diplomatic hit with someone I was trying to be friendly with, whether I agree or refuse. In the early game the AIs seem to change worst enemies quite often which makes holding onto multiple trade partners challenging. It's annoying to suffer the -1 diplo modifier against a trade partner just because your bully neighbor decides they're their worst enemy for the next couple turns until they find someone new to hate. If you can see it coming you can end deals without a diplomatic hit and readjust your triangle diplomacy (being friends to civs that are friendly with one another).

The addition of the worst enemy information on rollover has been helpful, but it still requires me to check every couple turns to make sure two of my trading partners do not become each other's worst enemy and demand deal cancellation from me. Whenever I find myself constantly checking something, it seems like a good BUG candidate.

How about another alert or two on the subject?

1. Alert regarding changes in worst enemy status of known civs. (Gandhi has become the worse enemy of Saladin).
2. (better yet) A specific alert when #1 happens between two civs that you are trading with. (I would only be alerted to Gandhi becoming the worst enemy of Saladin if I was trading with them both).

For the most part I see #2 being more useful since it would result in less, but more important, alerts being raised. I could also see a couple cases where #1 may be helpful as well if you're trying to keep good relations with a powerful civ (or going for a diplo or culture victory), but don't want to be forced to burn the bridge with a trading partner you may be able to come back to later.

 

[EmperorFool]

I have a noticed an ambiguity (?). Sometimes...it states "+125%" current production but it (very sadly but I'm sure temporarily) never states in which condition we would get that extra production.

I don't quite understand. BULL's Actual Effects will never state a percentage; it always shows actual, solid values like -2, +6, or +3.27. All of the percentage values are from the normal DLL and, unless I'm mistaken, always state their limitations if there are any, e.g. "+50% production of water units".

Can you give me a concrete example with how you would like to see it so it's more clear?

"Actual : +1 +6 hammer when building ships"

So do you suffer +1 when not building ships?

There are too many different conditions to code descriptions for them all, and most of the time I think it's clear. The Drydock clearly states that it boosts ship production only, the Heroic Epic says it boosts military unit production, etc. It seems overly redundant to show this:

• Drydock, +1
• Actual: +1
• Actual: +6 when building ships
• +50% production on ships

The point of Actual Effects is to do the simple math for you so you can see at a glance how effective a building will be. It's still up to you to know the limitations of the building.

1. Alert regarding changes in worst enemy status of known civs. (Gandhi has become the worse enemy of Saladin).

That's already in there. Make sure you have it turned on: check the Alerts tab, Worst Enemy checkbox.

2. (better yet) A specific alert when #1 happens between two civs that you are trading with. (I would only be alerted to Gandhi becoming the worst enemy of Saladin if I was trading with them both).

That's a good idea and entirely doable.

 

[_alphaBeta_]

That's already in there. Make sure you have it turned on: check the Alerts tab, Worst Enemy checkbox.

Indeed. Even though your description is pretty clear, I just assumed this option let me know if I became someone's worst enemy and nothing else. Oops.

That's a good idea and entirely doable.

Nice, I think this would filter out a lot of somewhat useless information that could be popping up. Sometimes you just don't care if civs on the other side of the world are changing their worst enemies left and right.

How would you implement this? I could see some people wanting to see all the worst enemy changes and some that only want to see the changes between your trading partners. Since I did some of my own thinking on this, I'll throw it out there:

1. Show all worst enemy changes.
2. Highlight worst enemy changes between your trading partners.
3. Show only worst enemy changes between your trading partners.

I think this covers all the bases. Option 1 leaves the system as is as to not disturb anyone used to it. Option 2 is an add-on to option 1, and changes the color (or somehow highlights it) of worst enemy changes that take place between your trading partners. You still see all the changes, but the "important ones" catch your eye. Option 3 is for those that only want to see the highlighted ones from option 2, and they probably don't need to be highlighted since they're the only ones displaying.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

So do you suffer +1 when not building ships?

I was thinking the same when I wrote it. It should definitely be made clear what is optional and what isn't, without relying on the user knowing that simply can't be optional.

There are too many different conditions to code descriptions for them all, and most of the time I think it's clear. The Drydock clearly states that it boosts ship production only, the Heroic Epic says it boosts military unit production, etc. It seems overly redundant to show this:

• Drydock, +1
• Actual: +1
• Actual: +6 when building ships
• +50% production on ships

The point of Actual Effects is to do the simple math for you so you can see at a glance how effective a building will be. It's still up to you to know the limitations of the building..

I'm not saying I don't think your solution is the best, I was just expecting a note that I don't get the 6 hammers all the time.

• Drydock, +1
• Actual: +1 (+6)

or the egrep version :

• Drydock, +1
• Actual: +1 (+6)?

I was thinking more like this though, if it is feasable and doesn't require you to code it seperately for every single possible condition:

• Drydock, +1
• Actual: +1 (<ship icon>: +6)

 

[EmperorFool]

Off the top of my head, here are the conditions:

• military units
• ships
• with power
• with <bonus>
• with <civic> (Capital +50% Bureaucracy)

Also, what happens when you get the +1 Drydock random event?

+1, +1 (ships +6) ... or +7?​

Does this extend to the slider and Libraries?

+2.32 (+28.25 at 100%) ... that might actually be useful​

The main argument against doing any of this is the way I coded getAdditionalFooByBuilding(). I would have to call this function for every scenario possible, and compare the values against the "no scenario" values, reporting all differences.

Heck, that won't even work. It's hard enough to do "what if" scenarios given how the DLL is coded, but doing "what if not" is just not possible. I cannot get the of a city "as if it didn't have access to resource X" in order to find the non-bonus access value. No, I don't see this happening without rewriting a lot of original code. There are far more important features to add than something that's really already there.

 

[Fimbulvetr]

Long story short, I'd still like additional yields that depend on what I build to be shown in paranthesis but in all other parts I agree with EF.
The list of yieldchanges that depend on what you build:

• % for military units
• % for military units of a certain domain
• % for spaceship parts (local and global)

Adding a new functionality just to special case these 3 really would be overkill. It was just a thought.

Spoiler :

Off the top of my head, here are the conditions:

• military units
• ships

Also, what happens when you get the +1 Drydock random event?

+1, +1 (+6)​

everything unconditional in front, contintional bonus in parenthesis. But I see how it isn't feasable to differentiate all the time.

Actual Building effects should display the bonus you'd get at this very moment. If you aren't currently building a ship, the actual building effects at this very moment are +1
If you build a factory and don't have power in the city, you get +25% just like you only get +3 if you have coal but no oil yet. If you have the hover dam on the continent and access to oil too: +5 +75%
If you don't run Bureacracy, a palace doesn't give you 50% & bonus
I hope what I mean is clear now. Actual Effects for this moment, this is how most of your code works, and I'd like the rest to work in a similar fashion:
If you aren't building a ship then all you get is +1 from Drydock, and you get nothing from military acedemies when not building units either but I can definitely see why you wouldn't want the hammer bonus not to be displayed, it would force you to add a unit to the queue just to see the effect, so leaving it the way it is now is actually the best choice.

 

[EmperorFool]

Oooh yeah, forgot about SS parts. Yes, to be clear it might be nice to have. I just don't think it's worth the time it would take. Still, you should know those buildings by now.