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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Author Topic: Colony Threat Timers  (Read 1192 times)

Serenitis

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Colony Threat Timers
« on: June 12, 2020, 05:40:28 AM »

Not super important, but may be helpful making "important" data more obvious (and not having to navigate screens and menus to find it).

Would it be possible for any incoming colony threat timers to be displayed on-screen constantly as they count down?
Expeditions, raids, inspections, that kind of thing.
Maybe something as simple as re-using the notification and keeping it under the date for as long as it's active.
Spoiler
[close]

Maybe also with a toggle in the options to turn it on/off if required/desired.
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FooF

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Re: Colony Threat Timers
« Reply #1 on: June 12, 2020, 06:11:25 AM »

This would be a nice QoL improvement. I would also add any other time sensitive, active, missions that are nearing expiration (<30 days).

I would add the caveat that no more of 3 of these notifications could be on screen at once.
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Elukka

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Re: Colony Threat Timers
« Reply #2 on: June 12, 2020, 06:26:52 AM »

It could be a tickbox that lets you track any event. Notifications could also have it next to them so when you spot something you want to remember you could set it to be tracked right there.
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Grievous69

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Re: Colony Threat Timers
« Reply #3 on: June 12, 2020, 06:32:16 AM »

I really like the idea of tracking specific intel events, rather than having everything be on screen. For example I couldn't care less when the ''fairly weak'' fleets will arrive in my system.

This way you remove yet another thing to check in settings, and those who don't need this can simply choose not to track events.
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Megas

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Re: Colony Threat Timers
« Reply #4 on: June 12, 2020, 08:32:18 AM »

The events I am most concerned about are the ones that do bad things to my colonies if ignored, namely expeditions and inspections.

If the events are onscreen, clicking them can go straight to whatever screen that lets you pay off bribes (for expeditions), or simply toggle responses in case of inspections, with said response also onscreen.
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Daynen

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Re: Colony Threat Timers
« Reply #5 on: June 13, 2020, 12:30:05 PM »

I think this would be a fair change.  It doesn't provide any real advantage other than an easy reminder of something important.  The trick is to make it clear and descriptive enough without taking up much screen space.
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Yunru

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Re: Colony Threat Timers
« Reply #6 on: June 13, 2020, 01:31:21 PM »

The only thing I don't like about the idea of manually toggling it on, is it won't help my continually missing hegemony inspections among all the other notifications.

Serenitis

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Re: Colony Threat Timers
« Reply #7 on: June 14, 2020, 03:13:42 AM »

The trick is to make it clear and descriptive enough without taking up much screen space.
The only thing I don't like about the idea of manually toggling it on

Possibility:
Every threat defaults to "tagged" and appears on screen.
Each threat can be "dismissed" individually if it is of limited/no concern to the player.

The potential for clutter is high though, so maybe only the first x most imminent threats are displayed, and when they either expire or are dismissed the next one immediately takes its place if there are more than x active threats.

What is x though?
I'm running with screen height of 1080, and could proabably fit 5 or 6 events fairly comfortably under the date counter.
Not everyone will have the same settings or preferences, so it might be an idea to limit x to 3 or 4 for maximum compatibility with the widest range of possible display configs, and then add a line in settings.json so the player can adjust this if desired.

But just having the 3 most imminent active threats on display would still be incredibly useful.
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Mondaymonkey

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Re: Colony Threat Timers
« Reply #8 on: June 14, 2020, 03:53:24 AM »

Suggestion to suggestion:

Only real threats are shown on screen. If threat is minor (attackers outmatched by defenders) it is ignored and timer will not appear, only short message (as it is now).

It makes sense to track events only if they need player's personal participation.
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iceball3

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Re: Colony Threat Timers
« Reply #9 on: June 14, 2020, 07:17:50 PM »

Suggestion to suggestion:

Only real threats are shown on screen. If threat is minor (attackers outmatched by defenders) it is ignored and timer will not appear, only short message (as it is now).

It makes sense to track events only if they need player's personal participation.
It might still be a good idea to track events if they have diplomatic implications, IE any expedition that loses you reputation if it fails without being bribed away.
Granted, the ability to toggle off a given threat from crowding the screen as it pops up would still be useful if you still don't care about it.
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Megas

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Re: Colony Threat Timers
« Reply #10 on: June 14, 2020, 07:26:30 PM »

Only real threats are shown on screen. If threat is minor (attackers outmatched by defenders) it is ignored and timer will not appear, only short message (as it is now).
That assumes defenses remain steady until they arrive.  If more than one is on the way, and a stronger one arrives first, they could wreck the star fortress and patrols to weaken defenses for the weaker one to raid.
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