07-08-2013, 05:12 AM
Grim! You're a player! That's awesome! I think we have a real quorum now! Welcome aboard, and I hope to run into you in deep space at some point...
I agree with your complaints about the confusing user-interface. The moderators have built something akin to a power-assist for those who already knew the game (and who had to use spreadsheets, calculators, and paper-and-pencil notes extensively in the past.) To that extent, they succeeded. It is significantly easier to play the game than before.
But for newbies, the complexity and UI are major barriers for which all the bells and whistles of Central Command offer little help.
Having said that, this IS a "pre-alpha" test game, and they are very willing and eager to improve the system based on player feedback. These tutorials, for one thing, are immensely helpful in walking players through their first turns. And these first turns are critical, not because the player might fall behind, but because they might drop out. (I would add that the tutorials themselves suffer from the same lack of design as Central Command -- no bulleted lists, no effective paragraphing or spacing, etc.)
I'm going to start a thread with suggestions for the moderators. They are running the game for free -- we might as well give them some quality feedback in response (as you have been already!)
As for your immediate question -- I suspect that 37 is the number of your "open colony" (your home planet), and 38 is the number of your orbiting colony (hovering over your home planet). Pool Boy's suggestion was good -- display a colony name in addition to the colony number, to make it more readable.
Your home colony is where most of your production and all of your farming and mining is taking place. Your orbiting colony is currently just producing "Light Structural Units" which can ONLY be built in orbit.
Advantages of orbiting colonies (over open colonies):
- can be built in any orbit of a star
- can build light-structural units
- can run farms and life-support with no fuel-expenditures, if in orbit 5 or less
Advantages of open colonies (over orbiting colonies):
- can run Farm-1s (dirt farms) which produce considerable food for early turns
- require only 1 structural unit per volume of unit housed (enclosed surface colonies require 5, orbiters require 8, and ships require 10!)
- excess bulk items (like minerals) can be stored "outside", not using structural units
- count toward victory (because only habitable worlds count for that, and open colonies can only be built on such worlds)
Anyway, the vast bulk of your orders should be originating from the open colony (37). The only orders your orbiting colony (38) would be issuing would be if you were monkeying around with the light structural unit production runs.
The thing that keeps tripping ME up in the order-writer is that the "target" area appears over on the right side of the interface. So when I want to transfer 250k "metals" and "non-metals" from my home planet up to the orbiter, I have to:
- select the Transfer order
- select my home (open) colony
- enter the quantity
- enter the unit type
- enter the tech level of the unit (if applicable)
- then select the target ship/colony number over on the right
(The "Pickup" order is the converse, so each turn my open colony "picks up" the completed light structural units from the orbiter. All transfers and pickups require the use of Transport units, manned by "professionals" I believe.)
In an ideal universe, these options would be largely done through click-and-drag controls.
I agree with your complaints about the confusing user-interface. The moderators have built something akin to a power-assist for those who already knew the game (and who had to use spreadsheets, calculators, and paper-and-pencil notes extensively in the past.) To that extent, they succeeded. It is significantly easier to play the game than before.
But for newbies, the complexity and UI are major barriers for which all the bells and whistles of Central Command offer little help.
Having said that, this IS a "pre-alpha" test game, and they are very willing and eager to improve the system based on player feedback. These tutorials, for one thing, are immensely helpful in walking players through their first turns. And these first turns are critical, not because the player might fall behind, but because they might drop out. (I would add that the tutorials themselves suffer from the same lack of design as Central Command -- no bulleted lists, no effective paragraphing or spacing, etc.)
I'm going to start a thread with suggestions for the moderators. They are running the game for free -- we might as well give them some quality feedback in response (as you have been already!)
As for your immediate question -- I suspect that 37 is the number of your "open colony" (your home planet), and 38 is the number of your orbiting colony (hovering over your home planet). Pool Boy's suggestion was good -- display a colony name in addition to the colony number, to make it more readable.
Your home colony is where most of your production and all of your farming and mining is taking place. Your orbiting colony is currently just producing "Light Structural Units" which can ONLY be built in orbit.
Advantages of orbiting colonies (over open colonies):
- can be built in any orbit of a star
- can build light-structural units
- can run farms and life-support with no fuel-expenditures, if in orbit 5 or less
Advantages of open colonies (over orbiting colonies):
- can run Farm-1s (dirt farms) which produce considerable food for early turns
- require only 1 structural unit per volume of unit housed (enclosed surface colonies require 5, orbiters require 8, and ships require 10!)
- excess bulk items (like minerals) can be stored "outside", not using structural units
- count toward victory (because only habitable worlds count for that, and open colonies can only be built on such worlds)
Anyway, the vast bulk of your orders should be originating from the open colony (37). The only orders your orbiting colony (38) would be issuing would be if you were monkeying around with the light structural unit production runs.
The thing that keeps tripping ME up in the order-writer is that the "target" area appears over on the right side of the interface. So when I want to transfer 250k "metals" and "non-metals" from my home planet up to the orbiter, I have to:
- select the Transfer order
- select my home (open) colony
- enter the quantity
- enter the unit type
- enter the tech level of the unit (if applicable)
- then select the target ship/colony number over on the right
(The "Pickup" order is the converse, so each turn my open colony "picks up" the completed light structural units from the orbiter. All transfers and pickups require the use of Transport units, manned by "professionals" I believe.)
In an ideal universe, these options would be largely done through click-and-drag controls.