Suggestions for more informative messages

Leif_- · #1 October 22nd, 2006, 08:40 AM

I'm sure you've all noticed that the brief synopsis of the messages that are shown on the start-of-turn message list are ... somewhat uninformative. So I thought I'd offer some specific suggestions of how they should be changed.

There was a battle in Ipriscia Change this to "We won a battle in Ipriscia"/"We lost a battle in Ipriscia" respectively, then tack on "No/few/some/large/massive casualties" at the end where the adjective depends on the per centage of the units lost. Few, < 5%, some, 5 - 10%, large 10-25%, massive >25%

Methone has cast auspex You don't say. Change to "Methone found no/2 sites in Ipriscia with auspex." Also, these events should have a "Go to province" button instead of their current "go to commander" button.

A sneaking enemy was discovered... [i]A sneaking enemy was defeated by/escaped from"

An unexpected event has occured in Olypha Unexpectedly, an ill omen was seen in Olypha.

There are of course a lot more messages that need improvement. The main point is that often much more information can be given in the same, or barely more, amount of text, so why not change them?

Twan · #2 October 22nd, 2006, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Leif_- said:

There was a battle in Ipriscia Change this to "We won a battle in Ipriscia"/"We lost a battle in Ipriscia" respectively, then tack on "No/few/some/large/massive casualties" at the end where the adjective depends on the per centage of the units lost. Few, < 5%, some, 5 - 10%, large 10-25%, massive >25%

I'm strongly against this suggestion. A big pleasure for me is the suspense and it would be gone with this change. Except if I'm sure to win, I always click on "View Battle" before opening the messages, I for sure don't want to know the result before.

I would even like to have an option to disable the messages like "your commander has found a magical item" and "a message from (AI nation)" (you have killed our god...) that may kill suspense in some cases.

I find the others ideas good.

PS : but I support more informations *inside* the battle messages : list of killed troops, killed commanders, a real battle report when you storm a castle, etc...

alexti · #3 October 22nd, 2006, 01:14 PM

I agree. Estimating casualties in a useful manner may be tricky, but otherwise all these changes look useful (especially (2)) and rather trivial.

FAJ · #4 October 23rd, 2006, 05:49 PM

How about the ultimatly ambiguos we stormed the castle!

o really? what happened? who died, any of my commanders die?

..."we captured the fortress!"

I dont like watching every damned battle, especially when i have many commanders casting spells that take a long time (flying shards, fire flies etc) when they cast them every round. Some battles can take upwards of 10-15 minutes!

I think the change the messages for battles is a good one. "We defeated or we lost against so and so" would be nice.
...or maybe just make it so when you put your cursor over the message, it show the whole message in a pop-up box that goes away when you move your mouse again.

Frostmourne27 · #5 October 23rd, 2006, 09:56 PM

If you make uses of the 'n' and 'f' keys, very few battles will take that long. (N especially - skippind ahead 1 turn really speeds things up.)

Talleyrand · #6 October 23rd, 2006, 10:20 PM

I'm also against the "We won a battle / We lost a battle" suggestion. I like it being a surprise as I watch the battle unfold. The rest are so-so, not for or against them.

Stryke11 · #7 October 23rd, 2006, 10:24 PM

I support all of the original suggestions and also the "We stormed the fortress" addition. I sometimes send so many commanders to storm a castle that I can't remember after it's done who is missing. A list of commander casualties - at the least - would be helpful.

Assassination attempts should also be either (succeeded/failed). A lot of you are quoting suspense, but really, in a big game, single player, I should just have to scan the headlines to get an idea of where I stand.

Talleyrand · #8 October 24th, 2006, 03:34 AM

Quote:

Stryke11 said:
A lot of you are quoting suspense, but really, in a big game, single player, I should just have to scan the headlines to get an idea of where I stand.

Uh... wow. I guess now we all know who's in charge around here lol. But seriously, I haven't seen someone so nonchalantly disregard the feelings of others since I was about 5 years old.

Stryke11 · #9 October 24th, 2006, 04:41 AM

Hmm. Why should it not be an option in single player? I'm all about options, not necessarily forcing anything.

When I'm playing a large, single player game with something like 10-15 battles every turn, late in the game it becomes a bit tedious to watch every battle/assassination attempt. Those are my "feelings." Besides, aren't you disregarding the feelings of the original poster by disagreeing with him just as much as I am disregarding yours by disagreeing with you? And whose feelings matter more? Those that agree with you? You're right, I guess we do know who's in charge around here. I'll clear my opinions with you from now on before I post them.

Foodstamp · #10 October 24th, 2006, 04:59 AM

He's not disregarding your feelings. Sometimes we misunderstand things people post because it is hard to get a feel for what people are saying with just typed text.

I like alot of these suggestions. I think they could add a bit of flavor to the game and make the reports feel a bit more personal and involving. Would be fun if it were possible to open up modding to monthly events. This way we could choose to play with the old event messages or opt for modded ones