New Resource Bar Widget

I just like to have overdrive/reclaim numbers displayed under the bars or something.

quote: but since GoogleFrog is the only person who has found they aren't missing net that I know of

I, for one, am not missing net either. I'd love an option to disable it.

Pxtl: other than the pie charts and the pinning, that's basically what I have planned.

quote: What do i want or do want it to be at? want my metal to energy to be in the middle or something??? 0.0?

I was worried about this. For reference, you want metal to be less than energy. The bar will flash otherwise, but I'll need to think of a better way to represent the balance of m and e incomes(if that should even ultimately be included).

The m/e balance component was an attempt at addressing something GoogleFrog brought up about how to show that metal income should be less than energy income, and whether that is currently the case. There are other ways it could be done, if it is worth doing at all. Earlier versions didn't have that. Here's how that looked for comparison.

quote: And on another note, acquiring resource income changes gross income (and unless you get proportional buildpower, also net income), acquiring/using more buildpower changes net income. Both are player actions that, according to you, should result in immediate feedback. If you want to conclude that gross is more important than net, that argument alone doesn't work.

You're right, I pointed that out in my last post in a parenthetical aside. However, net income still reduces the total information, so if net is in then gross is needed as well, at similar prominence (or slightly favouring gross)

quote: Hm, after spending a little time thinking about this, I had this idea:

Wow. That's pretty information-rich. It's unconventional, but it does seem to be the densest way to convey all necessary information (other than whether storage is empty or full).

Can't you just have " Energy stalling" in words pop up with a little alert.

Why over complicate things. The metal/energy ratio is just confusing. For starters the newbie needs to learn or find out that the energy is meant to be greater then the metal.

Well let me expand my idea a bit, now that I have time for that:

The basic version for new player should probably look something like this:

The bars could also be horizontal, doesn't make much difference.

I think it clearly conveys the main messages you want to tell a newbie with regards to economy: Have more energy income than metal income. It would be debatable whether it should show buildpower, and also if energy costs (repair, radar etc.) should be subtracted from energy income for use in this display.


Now, for the advanced version (not meant for new players!):


As in my previous post, we add an indicator for energy spent by stuff that doesn't also consume metal. Also, the amount of metal income used by buildpower (don't ask me what happens with silencer pure metal spending...) is indicated.

I flipped the bar sideways to remove the implicit priority that it conveys (whether your construction or your repair and radar are more important differs). This is of importance as you'll see in a second.

Now, that looks all fine and good, but what if you stall energy? Well, that's where this layout truly shines and can help you manage the situation way better than other available options. Take a look at this:



Without any clutter, you see:
1. Energy used and required (in total) for reclaim, repair, cloak/radar (!) etc.
2. How much buildpower gets actually put into building stuff, how much build power you would put into building stuff if you had enough energy and also how much build power you'd need to put all your metal into building stuff.
3. How much (additional) energy you need to stop stalling.


Yes, this also allows you to judge whether juggling priorities can fix things.
For example, setting the repairs of some units to high priority might result in this:


Or prioritizing your constructors that build energy could lead to this:


Note that the buildpowers displayed here are what your units/builders/factories are actually trying to spend, not the total buildpower you have around. I'm not sure how to display excess buildpower, but it could probably be treated the same way (as in, something like this). Buildpower excess isn't too bad though, so I don't think it would warrant yet another "inner" bar. Well, maybe for the newbie widget that could be good, since it would show how you need equal amounts of energy, metal and buildpower (for the most part).

I haven't decided on which numbers to show (and where), some feedback would probably help here.
Storage values (and total available buildpower) should be displayed separately.

For really crazy information hungry people, the inner bars could also be subdivided to show where your income is coming from or how your buildpower/other units spend it. That will be demonized as too cluttered by most players, I'm just mentioning it for completeness.


So, please tell me what you think!
(Oh, and Shadowfury333, if you disapprove of me hijacking your thread with these ideas, please notify me and I'll relocate to a new thread.)

As long as we're doing concepts:


That is storage, the + and - indicating resources per tick x10 (So at +-100 it hits the end), the little reclaim icon indicating the proportion of metal coming from reclaim, the mex icon indicating the proportion of energy going to overdrive (Just as examples of the ways that resources could be broken down).

To the right indicates what you need the most based on your income balance: Energy, Metal or BP, meant to make it idiot-proof for noobs and give immediate feedback on deficits. Ideally it should glow or flash based on the severity of the deficit or such.

Bu...it dosent tell how much storage i have!