[glob2-devel] feedback on Globulation 2 (long, with many topics)

[Joe Wells]

Dear Globulation 2 gurus,

I have just discovered Globulation 2 and spent a bit of time playing
it.  So far I have tried 0.8.16 (current Ubuntu Dapper Drake version),
0.8.21 (from the .deb on the web site), and 0.8.22 (compiled from
source).

Congratulations!  It is a very nice game.  Furthermore, it seems like
it has a lot of potential to get even better and I can see that you
all are doing a good job of making it better.

I have taken notes during my few games and have lots of comments for
you on issues or problems I encountered that I hope you will find
helpful in your quest to make Globulation 2 ever better.

Because I have so many comments, I have organized them into sections.
My comments are below.

And, yes, I understand that I am suggesting lots of things to do but
not volunteering to do them.  Sorry!  I just hope my suggestions might
help others see what points would be most helpful to work on.  At
least, these are the points that would make the most difference to me.
Maybe the points I mention could be included in lists of things to
document, lists of user interface changes to make, etc.

Thanks very much for making such an interesting game!

-- 
Joe Wells

======================================================================
Documentation:

The documentation (this is mainly the Wiki pages) inconsistently uses
"globuls", "globules", "globs", and "units".  It would be better to
use just one of these words throughout to reduce user confusion.

The tip for inns says they help "food your units".  The word "food"
should instead be "feed".

The tutorial script needs various grammar and spelling fixes in the
messages it prints for the player.

The tutorial mentioned that higher level inns feed faster, but this is
the only place I have seen this information.  In general, I have the
feeling that the information on the Wiki is highly incomplete.  This
puts players who are not developers at a disadvantage, as they have no
easy way of knowing these things.  It would be better if players did
not have to read the source for this kind of knowledge.

The documentation for map editing would be improved by including
additional hints about fixing randomly generated maps.  For example,
it is important to make sure there are gaps in the stone along the
coastline that are close enough to similar gaps on the other islands.
Otherwise it is almost impossible to get across the gaps.  And I am
sure there are other things that should be done as well.

The documentation should explain that if you destroy a building, you
don't get any of its resources back.  (Yes, one quickly discovers
this, but it would be nice for it to be in the documentation.)

I've seen mentions of the "fog of war" option on the Wiki, but I can't
find any place to turn this option on or off.  Help?

I have seen a mention of a "discovery" option.  What is this?

What effect does happiness have?  The documentation seems to indicate
that fruit-induced conversion is governed only by what food is
available and not by past history.  Am I missing something?

What happens to globules that are inside a building at the time it is
destroyed?

======================================================================
User interface:

I have so many comments in this category that I needed to put them in
subcategories.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Miscellaneous:

BUG:  Typing "+" (on my keyboard this is "Shift" together with "=")
doesn't work.  I can only use the keypad "+".  This is a bigger
problem for me because my particular keyboard (which is on my portable
computer) doesn't actually have a keypad and simulates one by using
the num-lock key to temporarily turn many ordinary keys (7, 8, 9, 0,
u, i, o, p, [, j, k, l, ;, m, ",", ., and /) into keypad keys.

Quitting the map editor with unsaved changes should prompt for saving
them.

Standard X Window System copy-and-paste with the mouse does not work
for the file name entry field when saving a game.  (Using a standard
toolkit like GTK+ would solve this problem.)

It seems that human players ought to have access to some of the
mechanisms used by the AIs.  For example, the human may think, "I need
another inn, so please suggest a good place for one.", and this would
be done by using the AI's algorithms.  Or the human may think, "I
would like my buildings to have a good number of workers assigned to
each, so please tell me where you think the current assignment is high
or low and give me an easy way to follow your advice.".  Overall, it
seems that it could be much better for human players to be based on an
AI with human intervention at key points.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Requests for new visual displays:

It would be nice to be able to have the graphs shown at all times
(simultaneously with all other displays).  This could be done by
adding another column at the right for the graphs.

It would be nice if there were also graphs for the percentage of
globules at each skill level.

It would be nice to be able to be alerted when enemy units are seen,
even if no fighting occurs.  It would also be nice to be alerted when
explorers cause damage, so that I can see how effective (or not) they
are.

It would be nice to have visualization tools for gradients.  I once
somehow got gradients associated with my swarm displayed every time I
selected the swarm, but it was with numbers.  (By the way, how did I
do this?  What key stroke or mouse action did this?)  It would be nice
to see colors.

It would be nice to have animations of globules inside buildings
eating, studying, being trained, etc.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Screen size:

In fullscreen mode, I can no longer switch virtual desktops with
window manager hotkeys.  This basically makes fullscreen mode not an
option for me.

I can only select a few screen sizes in the settings menu.  It would
be better to be able to type an arbitrary size.  In particular, if I
start with a custom size using the -s command-line option (e.g.,
"glob2 -s 1344x736"), and I switch away from this size in the settings
menu, I can't switch back to it except by restarting glob2.

Rather than selecting size by pixels, it would be nice to select size
by giving the number of map units displayed in the main viewport.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sliders:

There are no keyboard controls for controlling most sliders.  There
are only "-" and "+" for the number of assigned workers (and "+"
doesn't work for me due to some bug).  For example, you can't switch
swarm production percentages by keyboard but instead have to use the
mouse.  This makes management very tedious and tiring as one ends up
spending most of one's time moving the mouse back and forth.

The tabs on the left and right of a slider do not give any visual cue
that they allow you to change its value.  They should have little
arrows on them so that this control can be easily discoverable by the
user.

Holding down the tabs on the left and right of a slider should
autorepeat.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Problems with current visual indicators:

When a building has been marked for an upgrade, and there are still
globules inside it, the row of white dots on its upper right is
missing and you have to click on the building to find out how many
globules are still inside it.

When a globule's destination changes (e.g., because something has been
forbidden or used up), the old path continues to be shown on the
screen.

Building walls and supplying defense towers doesn't seem to use up
stone, and clearing flags don't allow specifying to clear stone.  I've
got one that reports as Stone 2/5 and it just stays that way no matter
how many walls I build.  If stone doesn't get used up, then why does
each stone resource have a number like "3/5" or "4/5"?  This number is
confusing as it seems to imply that one could clear away the stone by
using it up.  I wasted a long time trying to clear a path through some
stone by building walls from it.  I think this is a GUI issue because
the GUI misleads the player into thinking that the stone can be
cleared away by being used up.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Moving around on the map:

Dragging the viewport indicator off of any side of the mini-map should
wrap around to the other side.  Or, better, the minimap itself should
scroll to handle the wraparound.

There should be keys for moving in all directions by full screens.  In
particular, Page-down and Page-up should scroll up and down by a full
screen, but there should also be keys for moving right and left, so I
propose Control-arrow for this.  Currently, moving by arrow key or
mouse dragging is tediously slow (perhaps because I don't have
hardware graphics acceleration on my portable computer?), and moving
by dragging the viewport indicator in the mini-map is too fast and
difficult to control (especially on big maps).

There is no easy way for the user to discover that he can select a
type of thing to create and then use the Tab key to go to one of them,
as though he had selected an actual building or flag. (By the way,
this feature seems not to work for schools, swimming pools, and
racetracks.  Perhaps a bug?)  Before I discovered this feature
(accidentally!), I would place dummy clearing flags (i.e., flags with
workers and range both set to zero) everywhere so that I could select
a clearing flag and use the Tab key to cycle through all locations.

If Tab cycles one way, then Shift-Tab should reverse it.

It should be possible to use Tab to cycle through explorers (or other
types of globules).  (Yes, I know you can't control any kind of
globule, but there is no easy way to find all of your explorers on the
map.)

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Controlling buildings, flags, and, areas:

It would be nice to make a building which will be automatically
upgraded as quickly as possible to top level.  Right now, if you don't
notice a building has been completed right away, then some globule
might start training in the building before you can mark it for
upgrading to the next level, and then you have to wait for that
globule to complete its training course (which is anyway a waste of
time as it will just have to repeat the course for the next level).

It would be nice to be able to have buildings be automatically
upgraded to the next level as soon as there were enough workers with
the skills to upgrade it.

It would be nice if starting or upgrading a building would
automatically place a clearing area for the needed space, instead of
forcing one to do this by hand.  Right now one can not pick a building
site or ask for a building to be upgraded until all resources are
cleared from the necessary area.

It would be nice if forbidden areas, guard areas, and clearing areas
were automatically removed when built on.  Once a building is on them
the area markings just make it harder to see things.  (And if the
building is destroyed the situation will have changed enough that the
player probably does not want the old area markings back anyway.)

It should be possible to set the number of workers for upgrading a
building while waiting for the globules inside to exit.  Currently,
the control for the number of workers disappears while waiting for
globules to exit.

It should be possible to set the number of workers for a new building
while waiting for globules on the building site to move away.  At this
stage, the building site only shows up as a forbidden area and none of
its settings can be adjusted.

It would be nice to be able to copy an existing building/flag with all
of its settings.  It would be nice to be able to copy the settings
from one building/flag to another.

It is hard to tell which resources will be affected by the circular
region of a clearing flag.  Right now, one must simply wait to see
what the workers end up clearing.  It would be better to have visual
feedback at the time of placing the flag or adjusting its radius.

When one places a new flag, in addition to the possibility of placing
another flag, the one just placed should be immediately selected so
that one can immediately start adjusting it without needing to
deselect the placement tool and then select the new flag.  I very
rarely place multiple flags, but I almost often adjust them
immediately after placing them.  For example, with clearing flags I
almost always change the resources to be cleared (usually by removing
either wood or wheat).  And with war flags, I almost always
immediately set the level of warrior needed to the highest level of
warriors that I have.

It would be nice to have a feature that layed out clearing flags along
a path.  Or better, it would be nice to have clearing areas that
summoned workers, because clearing flags are very tedious to use for
keeping a path clear.

It would be nice to be able to adjust the settings of a flag _before_
creating it.  Right now, I have to adjust the flag settings as quickly
as possible before any globules get wrongly assigned to it.

It would be nice to have an area control that _toggles_ the state of a
area (turns it on if off and vice versa).  Currently one must make
many mouse trips to the right side to switch between the control for
turning areas on and the control for turning areas off.

Right now one must move the mouse all the way to right part of screen
to change the kind of area marking or unmarking one is doing.  This is
very tedious and slow.  It would be better to be able to make these
changes by keyboard.

There are many difficulties when using the checkerboard pattern for
making forbidden areas for farming.  Placing the pattern correctly is
quite delicate.  If one accidentally uses the pattern one location
away from where one should, the pattern gets completely messed up and
one has to make several mouse trips to the right area selecting
different tool options to clean up the mistake.  What would be better
would be to use solid patterns but have an option that caused turning
the area _on_ for locations whose x and y coordinates summed to an odd
number and _off_ otherwise.  Then one would could quickly drag the
tool across a large area to set up the checkerboard pattern.

It would be nice to be able to undo changes to settings of buildings
and flags and also changes to areas.

======================================================================
Areas/flags:

I need an area that means "clear this if it is forest, protect this if
it is wheat".  Otherwise I spend too much time micromanaging the
areas.

It would be nice to have areas that are forbidden only for harvesting
and that if empty can be moved through.  (Yes, I know that this might
prevent a new resource from growing there if a globule is on the
location at the wrong time.)

BUG?:  Clearing areas appear to override forbidden areas.  Is this
correct?

It would be nice to have clearing areas that will attract workers like
clearing flags do.  The circular areas of clearing flags are very
tedious to use.

It would be nice to have clearing areas/flags which made their
resources preferred for building purposes rather than caused the
resources to be chopped down and thrown away.

======================================================================
Individual globule AI:

When a building is set to X workers, and X is more than the number of
resources needed to finish construction/repair/upgrading, then it
seems that some worker effort and resources often ends up wasted.  It
is very tedious to have to micromanage the number of workers assigned
to a building as the building nears completion to keep this from
happening.  It seems like it ought to be possible to auto-reduce the
number of workers assigned to a construction site so that the number
of workers is limited by the amount of resources still needed for the
construction.

Explorers summoned to distant exploration flags tend to not have
enough smarts to know when to go back for food, and thus frequently
die when this is done.

It would be nice to be able to request that explorers follow
coastlines.  Or they should do this on their own, simply finding
coastlines interesting.  Right now to do this I have to keep moving an
exploration flag to coax an explorer along a coast.  This is quite
tedious and prevents me from doing anything else.  If I am guiding two
explorers, then I have to ignore everything else.  Plus, the explorers
typically die in the end because they are not smart enough to go back
for food.

Even if you have 100s of explorers, they will leave large chunks of
the world unknown even though they can get there and back without
starving.  Explorers left on their often seem to wander aimlessly.

It is very hard to get workers to mass migrate to distant islands.

BUG?:  I've seen a bunch of fully fed and healed workers just moving
around aimlessly while clearing flags that are in a direct line of
sight of the workers are ignored.  Sometimes, when the workers are
halfway out of food, they will then notice the clearing flag, go
towards it, and then run out of food just as they reach it.  Why
couldn't they notice it earlier while they were goofing off and still
well fed?

Workers seem to know where to find resources that are in unexplored
areas that are not yet visible.  It seems inconsistent that workers
can see things that the player can't.

Workers that have picked up a resource that ends up unneeded often
seem to end up discarding it for another type that is needed.  In many
cases, it might be better for them to hang on to the resource for a
while, because it will likely be needed.  (Or maybe there should be
some way to stockpile unused resources?)

It would be nice to be able to force individual globules to abandon
their current activity and try picking a new one.

======================================================================
Bugs (or possible bugs):

BUG:  glob2 sucks CPU like mad even when it is doing nothing.  For
example, when it starts up and displays the main menu, nothing
whatoever is happening but glob2 is taking more than half of the CPU.
It also sucks CPU in the middle of games even when the game is paused.
I'm guessing this is a bug in the main event loop.

BUG:  If the disk is full, glob2 will happily save a game as an empty
file on the disk without warning the user at all that the saving
failed.

BUG?:  Upgrading racetracks and swimming pools has a strange quirk.
While waiting for the globules inside to exit, it seems to work
normally (like other buildings) but once they have exited (or if the
building is already empty), it goes into a strange state for a while
(up to a minute perhaps?).  There is no bar to set the number of
workers (and the dots do not appear above the building site).  There
are still dots below the image indicating its hit points, but no dots
to the right, above, or to the left.  The image of the building
remains the same.  When the building is selected, in the details
display on the right it shows this (if your font is not fixed width my
diagram will look funny):

  +----------------------+
  | Racetrack (player 0) |
  |       Level 1        |
  |                      |
  | +------+  Hitpoint   |
  | | pic  |   270/270   |
  | | here |  Inside     |
  | +------+             |
  |                      |
  | Armour: 5            |
  |                      |
  | ===BROWN BAR HERE=== |
  |                      |
  |                      |
  |                      |
  |  Cancel Upgrade      |
  +----------------------+

Eventually it seems to get unstuck and proceed, but this is strange.
For a while I was convinced it wasn't working and I kept cancelling my
upgrade and trying it again to see if it would work on a second try.
Eventually I learned that I have to be patient.  It would be better if
this quirk simply didn't happen.

======================================================================
Miscellanous:

AINumbi has an annoying tendency to die all on its own if started in a
location that is not close to resources.  It would be better if this
just slowed it down, rather than causing it to die.

glob2 fills up my hard disk with log files and as a result all sorts
of other programs start failing.  How do I stop glob2 from doing this?
Right now I have to remember to periodically empty the log files
(e.g., by copying an empty file on top of them) while I am playing.
This is very tedious.

glob2 (version 0.8.22) uses 1.2 gigabytes of memory just to edit a 512
by 512 map!

I don't understand how harvesting fruit works.  For example, in one
game I had only 3 cherry trees, zillions of globules, and yet all my
inns had lots of cherries in them and most of my globules had some
fruit the last time they ate.  How does this happen?  This seems
impossible.

The "Swarm" should be called a "Hive" instead.  The English word
"swarm" is just wrong for what clearly acts as a "hive".  The word
"swarm" would be reasonable to describe the entire population of
globules.