Any CA explanation of no-sorting mechanism?

[asdf123]

I know i'm the 100th person to say this, but why isn't a loyalty/acumen/dread/valor etc. sorting mechanism listed in the patch?

It just seems extremely obvious to include. And something that's easy to code. I guess I'm whining, but I'd really like a good explanation as to why it isn't in there.

The only explanation I could think of is that you'd have to include EVERY general (since every unit essentially has a general), which would make the list ridiculously long. But I dunno.

Hoping for fewer micromanagement nightmares...

[Tuidjy]

Something which is even easier to do would
be the ability to sort agents by type,
valor, location, mission, etc... With the
hordes of defensive agents one NEEDS at expert, it would be nice if one could find
where the 5 star assassin followed his
target. And the damn list already exists,
all you need to do is to make the column
headers clickable.

[olaf]

God yes something has to be done for the strategic agent button. Its nightmarish trying to keep tabs on your assassins each turn (ie. make sure they are not spying, or they are gonna get whacked) and just using agents in general.

The listing needs to be sortable, and agents must be made stackable.

olaf

[Grifman]

Not to be impolite but:

1) They don't owe you an explanation

2) You can figure this out yourself. Anything that doesn't make the patch is either too hard to code or just didn't make the list of what they felt that could do given the time and money available towards patching. It's all a matter of time and money - it's that simple

3) There isn't some magic answer other than the one above

4) They can't answer just anybody that asks why feature "x" isn't in the patch because who has time to address every single thing someone asks for? So why should they answer your question and ignore all the others out there similar to it?

Grifman

[This message has been edited by Grifman (edited 10-10-2002).]

[todorp]

Agree. It will let us focus on having fun rather than click^100.

Sorting is difficult, a nice joke.

Sorry not a good try.

[This message has been edited by todorp (edited 10-10-2002).]

[This message has been edited by todorp (edited 10-10-2002).]

[Sword_Monkey]

Seeing as how this was a much criticised element of the micromanagement issues in Shogun, that it didn't make it in v1.0 is what needs explaining. The lack of it in the patch is simply expected seeing as how they were more interested in adding widgets to the game as opposed to recoding the interface.

[Wart]

Grif, your point about the way that the original post was phrased, is fair enough, but the real point of this thread is what a pain in arse strategic unit management becomes by the mid-game.

I totally love the the added depth that now exists in the strategic game, but given the huge numbers of agents that are now (pretty much) essential, it would have been nice if the way that they are controlled had also been updated.
As it is, this part of the game is more of a chore than it is fun, which is a huge shame!

I swear this game is giving me RSI, & i'm sure a large part of it is scrolling down that massive agent list each turn.
Even an auto-scroll button, or a slidey bar on the side of the list would be a vast improvement!

[The Green Knight]

Have to agree about the difficulty in keeping track of strategic agents when u have loads.

[barocca]

ditto with agent control

slider bar would make life easier,
when you have ten tons of agents, and you have to click once to move one agent down the list - is repetitive, and create a big chore late in the game,

having Assassins, Spies, Preists/Bishops, Cardinals/orth-Bishops, Princesses, Inquisitors and Grand Inquisitors in one huuuuuuuuuuuuge list is a pain...

makes end game extremely UNFUN!!

maybe thats why i play almost all games using ECS no agents mod...
but i could sure use an assassin or two occaisionally...

Slider Bar, Sort by Type - these alone would make life easier,
sort by valour would be nice, but not as important.

[AgentBif]

In terms of agent ranks, how about agent counters (strategic board images) where they had 1-5 bars on them the way generals have 1-5 stars indicating their rank.

This would be easier to implement than the sorting feature in the units list.

But to help limit RSI problems, my vote would ultimately be for the sorting in both armies and agents...

bif

[olaf]

bump

This needs fixing yesterday.

olaf

[Sword_Monkey]

I think it says a lot about how good the general game is, because interface-wise, I think it stands amongst the worst ever seen in a game.

Task: I want to review every province that doesn't have a building currently in the queue and decide what, if anything, to put on the queue.
The "interface": click the scroll arrow to look at EVERY province you have.

Ditto for building armies.

In general, CA needs to look at what Firaxis did with Alpha Centauri and Civ3 and repeat that sort of information/control interace. There is way too much clicking in this game. A turn near the end of a campaign takes me about 45 minutes on average and only 20 of that is fighting or decision making. The rest is pure clicktastic "fun".

[Grifman]

I agree that the game could use some interface enhancements - no doubt - I was just questioning the apparent "demand" for an explanation . . .

My perception is that CA builds a great tactical game - and that is their bread and butter - and they're getting better at the strategic piece - but still have some ways to go - both interface wise and gameplay wise.

Still love the game though.

Grifman

[todorp]

It is expected a game to have an interface which is up to the industry standards. Sorry MTW menus of agents, troops and provinces are NOT, it is very simple to do it right and that is what frustrates me.

[This message has been edited by todorp (edited 10-11-2002).]