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Author Topic: Micro-management  (Read 16602 times)

MachineGun

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Micro-management
« on: March 08, 2009, 12:15:17 am »
Hi. UFO-AI is a really high quality game -- excellent graphics and sound, and a very impressive concerted open source programming effort.

There is only one problem I have with UFO-AI, which was the same problem I had with the old X-COM games: After the first few months (game-time) of game play, the game involves an enormous burden of micro-management. Eventually it seems like I get overwhelmed with all the minor details, like keeping track of which base is researching what technology, moving aircraft parts from one base to another, making sure every crew is supplied and equipped with weapons, checking on troops in the hospitals, making sure aircraft are properly equipped... and so I get bored and go play Eboard or Wesnoth.

Maybe a focus of more future development efforts should be more and better auto-management tools, which can be utilized when the user starts to get a lot of bases. The auto-calculated battle option is nice, but more base auto-management tools would help.  Aircraft auto-control options might be cool too: how about making it possible for some aircraft to automatically launch upon UFO radar detection?

Anyone else agree/disagree? Do I have a point, or is this "micro-management" an essential part of the game?

Offline geever

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Re: Micro-management
« Reply #1 on: March 08, 2009, 01:07:01 am »
I don't think ufo:ai has too much micromanagement. I don't like that auto-aircraft idea either. If I know that aircraft can't shot down the ufo I'll have to recall it every time and so...

An auto equip feature and equipment templates are planned though.

-geever

Offline Captain Bipto

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Re: Micro-management
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2009, 05:04:35 am »
I don't think there is too much micro-management but the devs are planning on making management more effective anyhow.

Volatar

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Re: Micro-management
« Reply #3 on: March 09, 2009, 12:38:13 am »
I also do not think it has too much micro management, but that is because I enjoy micro management.

You will find that X-Com's  (and its sequels and spinoffs and remakes) main draw may be the combat, the premise, or even the feel. I have noticed that those things may bring people in, but what really holds people to the game(s) seems to be the ability to micromanage down to the tiniest detail. Some people (me included) really enjoy such things.

The hard part about developing such a game really seems to be the balance: the ability to micromanage deeply, but not the need to.

Offline Captain Bipto

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Re: Micro-management
« Reply #4 on: March 09, 2009, 09:01:40 pm »
Yeah, what he said.

One reason for the different time scales is to give you enough time to go through and make sure your various bases (assuming the other bases are not just glorified hangar bays) are doing what they are supposed to.

odie

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Re: Micro-management
« Reply #5 on: March 12, 2009, 06:57:42 am »
Hi Machinegun,

I disagree that UFOAI has too much micro-M. In fact, it might be a little too little for me personally(I am a 4X Space Sim player, like well.... Space Empires Series).

Still, for a X-Com type, the amt of Management is just nice. So, lets just keep it as it is, ok? :P

PS: Machinegun - going by ur nick, are u one who is face paced? U prefer X-Com style in X-com afterlight style? :P

Offline BTAxis

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Re: Micro-management
« Reply #6 on: March 12, 2009, 10:36:33 am »
We're not going to manage the level of micro found in Space Empires, because Space Empires is almost 100% micro.

Offline Winter

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Re: Micro-management
« Reply #7 on: March 12, 2009, 02:18:27 pm »
I'm in favour of automating as much as possible, or at least providing the option to automate. Good design allows people to play the game their way rather than the designer's way, and doesn't let the mechanics get in the way of gameplay.

Regards,
Winter

Offline Captain Bipto

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Re: Micro-management
« Reply #8 on: March 12, 2009, 09:57:41 pm »
True.

One screen allowing management of multiple bases at the same time would be cool, for research, production etc.

Offline Duke

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Re: Micro-management
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2009, 12:09:11 am »
@Winter:
I agree that matters of 'taste' should be made optional. Like in 'preferences menu'.
But keep in mind that such options leave us with two(or more) sets of functions in the code for the same/similar purpose. And they have to be maintained...

I also think that there shouldn't be any pure administrative tasks in a game. But what I recall from playing through 2.2.1 is that ALL the micro-management includes *decisions* that affect the performance of your team (except for buying ammo). And the game seems to be designed to the goal that there is NO single optimum for that.
The only thing I missed was a minimum-requirements-filter when selecting 8 soldiers for my next base from a list of some 120. But that has probably already been requested by somebody else.

@MachineGun:
What was the single most boring/annoying micro-management task for you ?
And HOW would you like to see that task handled by the automization ?

bolter

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Re: Micro-management
« Reply #10 on: March 15, 2009, 07:51:30 pm »
There are a few features I would like to see which would make the existing micromanagement less onerous. I'm playing the last stable release, so apologies if this stuff is already in the dev version.

Such as:

FOR SOLDIERS:

- An "Autoequip Squad" button available from the "assign soldiers" screen, which would automatically load out eight soldiers' primary, secondary, misc and armor slots by comparing the available inventory with a list of preferred equipment, stopping when it matches the highest-preference eq for that slot with something at the base, and then loading it on;

- "Save Loadout" and "Load Loadout" buttons available from the equip soldiers screen, allowing players to save a loadout they like and save time using it for multiple soldiers with the same eq;

- "Apply to All" button allowing, for example, for a player to give the same armor to everyone in a squad with the click of a button;

- Rather than having to drag-and-drop, place items in equipment slots when they're clicked on, based on a preferential list of where they're supposed to go (IE pri. weapons go in the right hand, secondary weapons go in the right hand, if not, then the holster, if not, then the left hand, if not, then the backpack; misc. goes in the belt, if not, then the holster, if not, then the backpack ...)

FOR AIRCRAFT:

- Similar elimination of drag-and-drop as above;
- Better tracking of ammo for aircraft weapons
- Removing the "buy/sell aircraft" and "produce aircraft" screens from the Aircraft tab and folding them into buy/sell and production, respectively;

FOR BUY/SELL:

- A "Match Guns & Ammo" feature that tries to balance inventory so there's two ammo packs for every weapon, and auto-buys after each mission as necessary to keep that level;

- See merging with aircraft tab, above;

- Removing the current tendency for auto-sell to kick in automatically, especially for stuff that hasn't been researched yet;

FOR EMPLOYEES:

- An easier way to see a breakdown of employees in each base;

FOR HOSPITAL:

- An "Auto-heal" function that, when enabled, allows for injured soldiers to automatically go to the hospital after each mission;

- Automatically removing soldiers from aircraft squad duty when they enter the hospital, and a notification of such when it happens;

POST-MISSION & MONTHLY:

- Notices detailing all the automatically-performed functions after each mission & after each month

Offline Duke

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Re: Micro-management
« Reply #11 on: March 15, 2009, 09:37:45 pm »
@bolter:
Many of your suggestions circle around the equipment screen. Did you know that right-clicking an item will equip it ? This greatly simplifies this part :)

Most of your other suggestions are already in 2.3.

Offline Captain Bipto

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Re: Micro-management
« Reply #12 on: March 18, 2009, 06:38:23 am »
In that x-com clone that Microsloth did I did like the concept of equipment templates.

Seboss

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Re: Micro-management
« Reply #13 on: March 18, 2009, 02:08:11 pm »
What about tooltips for base in geoscape that would display current research and production.
For transfers, I was thinking of dotted lines connecting source and destination bases, with another tooltip displaying transfered personnel and/or items and ETA.

odie

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Re: Micro-management
« Reply #14 on: March 21, 2009, 05:33:18 am »
We're not going to manage the level of micro found in Space Empires, because Space Empires is almost 100% micro.

Haha, yupz yupz. In fact i thnk its 200% micro. And plus, with so mani mods around..... hmmmm, its almost 400%! Okie, sidetracked.

Bak to UFOAI, i thnk the current level is very nice! In fact, the console and the user interface - which is wat being worked on, these are the ones that could make the whole experience better when improved! :D