The difference between my economy UI and the old economy UI is how much space every element gets. In the old UI, storage bars got at least 75% of the space by default, and increased in size when the window was scaled, while the gross numbers were all 12pt font and net was 19pt. In my UI, the bars get about 8% of the width each, while the gross income and spending (i.e. the numbers that should be made big, because
people want to make numbers big (source: every MMO ever)) are in 21pt & 19pt font by default respectively.
The income and spending numbers should be the point of focus, as they are what the player can control and how their economy truly works. Storage just tells the player how much time they have to spend beyond their means. To contrast, In RTS games that use discrete spending, knowing the stored resource count is key, as it must be greater than the cost of the desired object. In RTS games that use gradual spending, but don't allow spending when storage is at 0 (C&C games, Homeworld Games, Petroglyph's games), the storage tells the player how long they have to spend resources at all. With TA-style games, it is a minor element, marking the point when income truly becomes a limiter to spending, but not limiting spending itself. Overall, though, income is the limiter to spending in TA-style games, not storage.
TheEloIsALie: What the player sees happen passively with storages increasing is, as usual with resource storage in RTS games, making the wrong behaviour (hoarding resources) look right. People want to make numbers big, so making the numbers that should be big super obvious seems like a simple way to get people to intuitively do the right thing.
GoogleFrog: my issue with the balance bar is that it basically becomes a distracting point of focus (just look at all the discussion that occurred in the widget thread brainstorming ideas to overcomplicate it), and the design involves mirroring the resource numbers, which may contribute to the noise issues. It makes it look like 8 numbers for everything rather than 4 numbers for each resource (though, as I said, could theoretically be 2 per resource + 2 for gross metal income & spending, as that is an important bottleneck).
I suppose I should have made my displeasure clear sooner, but honestly I was more okay with it at first, and I have no problem with the idea it conveys, but after that
FPVOD set I played with you, after which you pointed out that in the early game energy should have lower income than metal, I've had a hard time seeing it as useful, considering the noise it adds.
