[glob2-devel] yet more feedback (many topics)

[Joe Wells]

Dear Globulation 2 gurus,

Here is even more feedback, categorized.

As always, I'm happy to clarify anything that is unclear.  Just ask!

By the way, I'm still revising/reorganizing my earlier feedback.  I'm
mostly done with the revising the individual comments and all that
remains is to organize them.  When I'm done (soon!), it will go on the
Wiki somewhere.  I will include the items in this message, after
modifying them to take into account any comments I get.

Joe

======================================================================
user interface controls:

------------------------------
It would be better if dragging with left mouse would start scrolling
the viewport when the mouse reaches the edge of the viewport, rather
than waiting until it reaches the edge of the application window.

------------------------------
It would be better if dragging off the edge with left mouse would move
diagonally to the extent that the point the mouse went off the edge is
not in the center of the edge of the viewport.  Right now you have to
drag to the exact corner of the window (which is harder) before you
get diagonal viewport motion.

------------------------------
BUG:  The viewport can be moved by dragging with middle mouse, and it
can also be moved by positioning the mouse in the region near the
window edges, which automatically triggers scrolling.  Both of these
are nice features.  Unfortunately, they combine!  If you are moving
the viewport by middle-mouse dragging, and the mouse pointer strays
into the region next to the window, you get both motions
simultaneously.  This is extremely disconcerting and confusing, and it
would be better if window-edge auto-scrolling did not happen while
middle-mouse dragging.  If middle-mouse dragging ends with the mouse
near the window edge, then it would be better if the window-edge
auto-scrolling did not happen until the mouse moved away from the
window edge and then back again.

------------------------------
Immediately after you use “d” to remove a flag, you can not currently
use Tab to go to the next flag.  This doesn't work now because after
using “d” a flag is no longer selected.  Thus, currently it is harder
than it ought to be to delete a bunch of flags in a row.  It would be
better if Tab remembered the last kind of thing to have been selected.
It would be even better if it remembered where it was in the list of
things of that kind.

------------------------------
The use of Shift-scrollwheel to adjust the radius of a flag is
undocumented (I think).  I only learned about it by digging through
GameGUI.cpp.

------------------------------
Holding left-mouse down on a flag does not circle the globules serving
it, unlike holding left-mouse on a building.

------------------------------
In the first game I played in 0.8.23, the first war flag I created
started with a requested number of warriors of 20.  Huh?  How is this
possible?  Is this remembering things from my last game in 0.8.22?
This seems like not a good idea, because the last war flag from a
previous game is likely to have a high number, which is not a good
idea for a new game.

------------------------------
The number of requested workers for my hive at the start of the game
is always 1, regardless of my settings for what hives should start
with.  The very first thing I always have to do in any game is quickly
adjust the hive setting in order to minimize the amount of time my
workers waste wandering randomly.  It would be better if the default
was the same as the starting number of the workers or my settings for
hives were honored for the initial hive.

------------------------------
I would be nice if the user interface had tooltips for many things.
For example, it would be nice to have tooltips that explained what
each of the number in the top line represents.

------------------------------
To help plan attacks, it would be useful to have a distance measuring
tool.  Currently, I do this by trying to estimate how many screenfulls
of space there are, but this is an imprecise and slow method.

------------------------------
It would be nice to document the various debugging tools.  These
include the following.  Shift-left-mouse on a globule or building puts
detailed information in “~/.glob2/unit.dump.txt” or
“~/.glob2/building.dump.txt”.  Shift-PrintScreen dumps a pretty
printed version of all memory to “~/.glob2/glob2.dump.txt”.
(PrintScreen puts a screenshot in screenshot.bmp.)

------------------------------
BUG?:  Whenever using one of the buttons in the start game menu, the
in-game main menu, the map editor menu, etc., after clicking on a
button glob2 often seems to get stuck until the mouse is moved.  I
have now got into the habit of always moving the mouse a little bit
immediately after clicking one of these buttons and the response is
much better.  Why is glob2 sometimes getting stuck when one of these
buttons is clicked?

======================================================================
existing visual indicators:

------------------------------
I agree with Kevin (donkyhotay) that it is very hard for new users to
tell the difference between workers and warriors.  After a while one
can see this at a glance, but it takes a while.  I agree that it could
be quite off-putting to new users and might drive some away.

------------------------------
Forbidden/guard/clearing areas on stone only serve to visually
distract the player as they have no impact on game play.  So it would
be better if attempts to make a forbidden/guard/clearing area on stone
were ignored.  This could be done by having any attempt to draw areas
on the map ignore any portion of the stencil which is over stone.  The
map editor could also remove any areas when stone is placed.
Similarly, it would be better if clearing areas were ignored on sand,
because nothing clearable can ever grow on sand.  (Actually, it might
be enough to just not _draw_ such areas.  The user wouldn't be able to
tell the difference.)

------------------------------
How do I restore the old non-animated area markings from glob2 version
0.8.22 and earlier?  I liked them.  (Even though I would have liked
them to be a bit brighter, I still prefer them.)

------------------------------
When the “draw unit paths” feature draws a path from a worker to a
resource, this is currently merely a prediction of which resource the
worker is heading for.  This prediction is often inaccurate (or even
horribly wrong) and is not updated as the available resources change
(e.g., if a resource is used up or becomes forbidden).  A particular
problem is that often many workers are shown as going to the same
resource.  It would be nice if these paths were periodically (perhaps
every 5 seconds?) updated to account for changes.  (Note that I am
_not_ complaining that the lines are straight.  I understand that the
globule will in general need to follow a winding path to actually
reach its destination.)

Improved by comments from: Kai (in reply to an earlier point of mine)

------------------------------
It would be nice if “ghosts” of enemy globules were left where they
were last seen.  Right now, if your explorers (or other globules) see
enemy globules and you aren't watching that portion of the map at that
exact moment, you have no way of knowing.  It is important to have
some kind of “memory” of these events in order to plan your strategy
properly, so I suggest that something that looks like a “ghost” should
be remembered.  These ghosts would only remain at spots that are not
actively being looked at.

------------------------------
It seems that one can only select an enemy unit (construction site,
building, or globule) to get information on it if enough of it is in
area you can see.

This is problematic for several reasons.  First, it takes a long time
to figure this out.  For a long time it was extremely mysterious that
I could select some enemy units but not others.  For some units it
would work, but for others I tried clicking on them zillions of times
and nothing ever worked.  I tried clicking on each different cell of
the location of enemy construction sites to see if that made a
difference.  For a long time nothing made sense.  It would be better
if I could select the unit and the status display would then explain
that no further information was available because not enough of the
enemy unit was visible.

Second, it is problematic because even if you are attacking an enemy
building with your warriors, which are therefore right next to it (in
_contact_ with it), it is not considered “visible” if your warriors
are only attacking a corner (and it seems to be impossible to get
warriors to move around an enemy unit once they have contacted it).
Being close enough to a unit to be attacking it should entitle you to
ask for information about it.

------------------------------
The status display for a building can say “Inside 2/5” when, in fact,
there are no globules in the building at all.  This may merely mean
that 2 globules have booked places in the building.  This is quite
confusing to the user and makes it difficult for the user to plan when
to upgrade a building.  It would be better if the number of globules
actually inside the building were displayed separately from the
globules that have merely booked a place and are on their way.

------------------------------
In building status displays, instead of showing the total construction
resources needed, it would be more helpful to show the remaining
resources needed, because that is what the user needs to know to make
plans.  Currently, the user must do the subtraction in their mind to
figure this out, which slows the user down.

------------------------------
It would help if there were a bigger color distinction in the mini-map
between unknown territory and wood.  Right now it is hard to tell the
difference between these two things in the mini-map, because the color
for wood in the mini-map is quite dark.

------------------------------
I can't see how to tell from statistics which portion of explorers
have ground attack.  Is there any way to do this?

------------------------------
It would be nice to be able to see during the game the graphs that are
currently shown only when you quit.  Of course, only the data for
yourself should be available until someone has won.

------------------------------
It would be nice to have a FPS (frames per second) indicator to help
in knowing how badly my computer is performing.  (I would have liked
even more if 0.8.21 had had an FPS indicator, because I suspect there
was a big slowdown in 0.8.22 and it would help to know for sure.)

------------------------------
The message “Your explorers are under attack” is confusing when only
_one_ of my explorers is being attacked.

------------------------------

It would be better if the display was not dimmed so much when glob2 is
paused.  Right now, it is dimmed by displaying pitch black at half
transparency on the screen.  (By the way, this dimming is _combined_
with the dimming that marks areas not recently seen (the “fog of
war”).)  I have tried and found black at 10% transparency to be much
easier on the eyes.  Here is a patch:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--- GameGUI.cpp.~1.4350.~       2007-04-04 02:38:33.000000000 +0100
+++ GameGUI.cpp 2007-04-19 13:16:40.000000000 +0100
@@ -3557,7 +3557,7 @@
        // if paused, tint the game area
        if (gamePaused)
        {
-               globalContainer->gfx->drawFilledRect(0, 0, 
globalContainer->gfx->getW()-128, globalContainer->gfx->getH(), 0, 0, 0, 127);
+               globalContainer->gfx->drawFilledRect(0, 0, 
globalContainer->gfx->getW()-128, globalContainer->gfx->getH(), 0, 0, 0, 25);
                const char *s = 
Toolkit::getStringTable()->getString("[Paused]");
                int x = 
(globalContainer->gfx->getW()-globalContainer->menuFont->getStringWidth(s))>>1;
                globalContainer->gfx->drawString(x, 
globalContainer->gfx->getH()-80, globalContainer->menuFont, s);
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

------------------------------

Areas not currently seen are dimmed.  This helps visually delineate
the area covered by the “fog of war”, where the user can not expect to
know about the motions of enemy globules.  The dimming makes it hard
to see details in those areas.  In particular, it is very hard to see
where forbidden/guard/clearing areas are set.  It would be better if
things were not dimmed as much.  I have tried out a fix and found
using black at roughly 16% transparency is much easier than black at
50% transparency.

Fixing this requires two changes.  First, a patch:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
--- Game.cpp.~1.391.~   2007-04-04 02:38:33.000000000 +0100
+++ Game.cpp    2007-04-18 17:29:14.000000000 +0100
@@ -2379,7 +2379,7 @@
                                        unsigned shadeValue = i0 + (i1<<1) + 
(i2<<2) + (i3<<3);
                                        
                                        if (shadeValue==15)
-                                               
globalContainer->gfx->drawFilledRect((x<<5)+16, (y<<5)+16, 32, 32, 0, 0, 0, 
127);
+                                               
globalContainer->gfx->drawFilledRect((x<<5)+16, (y<<5)+16, 32, 32, 0, 0, 0, 40);
                                        else if (shadeValue)
                                                
globalContainer->gfx->drawSprite((x<<5)+16, (y<<5)+16, 
globalContainer->terrainShader, shadeValue);
                                }
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Second, images are used for the border of the dimmed areas so that the
dimming is gradual.  These images need to be made more transparent.
This can be done by running the following script (using a program from
the ImageMagick version 6.2.4 package) in the data/gfx directory:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
#!/bin/sh
for i in `seq 0 20`; do
    cp shade$i.png shade$i-old.png
    convert shade$i-old.png \( -clone 0 -channel red -separate \) \( -clone 0 
-channel green -separate \) \( -clone 0 -channel blue -separate \) \( -clone 0 
-channel alpha -fx a/3.175 -separate \) -delete 0 -channel rgba -combine 
shade$i.png
done
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This script lightens the alpha channel by the factor 3.175 and leaves
the red, green, and blue channels alone.  Note that 3.175 (the factor
the alpha channel is lightened by in the above invocation of convert)
is just 127/40 (the old and new alpha channel values used in
Game.cpp).  If you agree that less dimming is a good idea, but you
don't like the amount of change in transparency that I propose, then
you need to make sure to use compatible values in both places.  (Note
that this script doesn't work with much older (or newer) versions of
“convert” because the meaning of “-separate” has changed.  I'll be
happy to run it for you on my computer if it doesn't work for you.)

======================================================================
game images:

------------------------------
The images used for some buildings make it hard to visualize the space
they occupy.  For example, the hive image barely touches any of the
cells in the right row of the hive's location, and the level 2
swimming pool image seems not to occupy any of the cells in the top
row of its location.  So visually, there appears to be space for
globules to move but globules are not allowed to use this space.
Thus, the player may inadvertently misplan things so that congestion
arises because the player is not aware of how narrow the moving space
is (and the user may think there is space for globules to move when in
fact there is no space at all).  This could be fixed by making the
images use more of their space.  In the case of the hive, it would be
a good idea to start by shifting its image to the right so it is
centered in the hive's space.  Perhaps there should also be some other
visual indicator, because it might be hard to make satisfactory images
that clearly occupy the corners of the space used by the buildings.

------------------------------
When a hive is set to request 1 worker, the top of the hive's image
looks like a black circle just to the right of the single circle
indicating whether a worker is serving the hive.  This has led me on
multiple occasions to mistakenly think the hive was set to request 2
workers, and I made gameplay errors as a result.  This could be
improved by making the hive image slightly less tall on the center
spike.

------------------------------
The images for the level 2 and 3 defense towers are great, but the
image for the level 1 defense tower doesn't look to me like a “tower”.
It would be better if the image looked more like a “tower” to help
justify why it gives better vision around it.

======================================================================
autonomous unit (globule/building) behavior:

------------------------------
It would be better if a clearing flag attracted workers only when the
clearable resources inside the flag's area are reachable.  (Probably a
gradient should be involved somehow.)  Otherwise you get the situation
where some number of workers end up assigned to the flag doing
nothing.  (Alternatively, it would be good to be warned of such
situations, so the player can do something to fix them.)

------------------------------
In glob2 0.8.22, I've seen workers swim long distances to fetch wheat
when closer wheat can be found by following the shoreline.  The
workers also do not seem to take into account their swimming speed in
deciding which resource to fetch.  Sometimes the workers will swim
when it would be faster to walk along the shore.

------------------------------
Putting a forbidden area on a cell after a worker has decided to
harvest it does not stop the worker.  It would be better if this
stopped the worker.  Often (usually near the beginning of games) I
discover a worker is about to harvest the last bit of a resource in an
area I would like to farm.  In a panic, I try to stop the worker but
the worker ignores me.

------------------------------
In general, it is frustrating that there seems to be no way to get
warriors to break off contact with an enemy.  It seems impossible to
get warriors to do many sensible things in battle.  For example, the
unit paths might show that a warrior is serving a particular war flag.
However, the warrior refuses to leave battle with a particular enemy
warrior to serve the war flag.  As another example, you could have 3
warriors beating up on one enemy, which is more than enough, and 1
warrior defending against 3, and it is impossible to get 2 of the 3
to go help the 1.  It is impossible to get warriors to retreat (both
flags and forbidden areas don't work), even though that would be much
better because then they could fight within range of your defense
towers.  Etc.

------------------------------
It could be better if defense towers did not use their ammunition on
building sites.  It is a big problem in my games against Nicowar that
defense towers prefer targeting building sites over enemy globules,
because Nicowar seems to like placing completely infeasible building
sites near enemy bases.

======================================================================
Nicowar:

------------------------------
Nicowar cheats!  It places a war flag on the enemy's home location
despite not yet having actually found the enemy's home!  It also marks
for farming only wood near enough to water, but does this accurately
even when it has not seen the water.  Etc.  I discovered this once I
learned how to combine an AI with a human player so I could watch what
the AI does.  The best solution would probably be to make sure that
AIs simply do not have access to information like where the enemy's
home is or the full details of the map (including unknown parts), so
AI implementers will not be tempted to cheat.

------------------------------
In 0.8.23, Nicowar (two different Nicowar enemies) put a barracks
construction site right next to my hive.  This was at the very
beginning of the game when I only had 9 globules and the enemy hives
were on the other side of two lakes (although closer than usual).
This seems almost like cheating to me.  Later in the same game, both
enemies (sometimes both at once!) kept putting hive construction sites
next to my base, very unfairly using up most of the ammunition from my
defense tower!

------------------------------
Why is Nicowar called “Nicowar (unstable)” in 0.8.23 but called only
“Nicowar” in 0.8.22?  What changed?

------------------------------
Nicowar does poorly at keeping its attack paths open.  Here is one
story.  Nicowar was assaulting me.  Fortunately, I had just asked for
walls which were partially completed, and I had a handful of level 2
warriors.  Nicowar's assault was relentless.  At several points things
were close.  I barely managed to hold Nicowar off as I gradually built
my defenses up (defense tower, more level 2 warriors, hospitals near
the wall, etc.).  Suddenly, the assault stopped.  Of course you know
the reason why: The wood and wheat overgrew the path of the attacking
warriors.  It was good for me, but it sucked for Nicowar.  The AIs
play extremely poorly on randomly generated maps, because they can't
keep their attack paths open.  On this one I even fixed up the map in
advance by putting in a bunch of extra sand paths to help keep things
open, but it was not enough, because I didn't draw a sand path all the
way between the two starting locations.

------------------------------
Sometimes Nicowar does try to clear a path to its enemy with clearing
flags, but there are many difficulties with how it does this.  One
problem is that it requests too many workers.  For example, it may
create 20 or so flags to dig a long path and it will set the number of
requested workers for each flag to 10.  As a result, the flags do not
get a consistent number of workers.  (This problem may have been made
worse by the bug in clearing flags in 0.8.22 that is supposed to be
fixed now.  But it would still be a problem in any version due to the
poor handling by glob2 of overcommitment of workers.)  As a result,
some parts of the path may not be kept open reliably, which can end up
with friendly forces trapped behind enemy lines.  It would be better
if Nicowar would _also_ add clearing areas to the paths it digs to
ensure that they stay open.  This would also help with the fact that
the paths are not properly dug out due to the way the circular regions
of the clearing flags leave certain cells uncovered.

------------------------------
Nicowar does not ensure there is an open path to each of its
buildings.  It only puts a clearing area of width one around each
building, but this is often not enough.

------------------------------
Nicowar fails to ensure its wheat farms remain free of trees.

======================================================================
the map generator and map editor:

------------------------------
More map dimensions than 64, 128, 256, and 512 would be nice.  I'd
like 96 and 192 as options also.  Is there some reason why arbitrary
sizes are not currently allowed?

------------------------------
BUG:  The random map generator puts too much stone on the shores.
This is a big problem on big 512 by 512 maps.  The River generator is
particularly bad.  Even if set to 0 stone, it still puts a layer of
stone 5 or 6 cells wide on each shore, making it impossible to get to
any algae (or do any swimming).  The river becomes completely
irrelevant except as a barrier.

------------------------------
When using the map generator, I often would like to adjust the
settings I just used and try again.  However, the only way I can do
this is to quit out of the editor, which takes me all the way back to
the glob2 main menu, and then go into the map generator from scratch.
So if I want to adjust the settings I used, I have to take detailed
notes in another editor window about the settings I am using, because
I will have to enter them all in again.  It would be better if there
was a way to back up to the map generator settings screen and/or to
remember the last set of settings used.

------------------------------
It seems each map has a notion of “home” for each player.  This is
where the viewport starts at the beginning of the game and is where
the Home key moves the viewport to.  If you have generated a map with
players, each player's “home” is set to the location where the
player's initial hive was placed by the map generator.  If you then
delete the initial hive and create a new hive elsewhere, when the game
is played the “home” is still at the location of the initial hive
rather than the new location.  It is not clear how one can change a
player's “home” in the map editor.  How does one do this?  (Actually,
it would also be nice to be able to change one's home during games.)

------------------------------
In the map editor, it would be better if clicking on a resource gave
you its status the same way as it does in the game.

------------------------------
In the map editor, when you place a resource like wheat/wood/algae
each cell gets a random resource value from 1 to 5.  If you don't like
the value a particular cell gets, you have to redo the cell repeatedly
until eventually you get what you want.  It would be better if you
could simply click on the cell, have its status displayed in the right
panel, and have a slider in the right panel to adjust the value.

------------------------------
In the map editor, when you save the map you get asked for a name with
the default being “No name”.  It would be better if glob2 remembered
the name you used the last time you saved the map you are working on
and kept that name as a default.

------------------------------
In the map editor, when you save the map, if you accidentally choose
the name of an already existing map, it does not warn you that you are
about to destroy all of your work on that other map.  I think the only
time glob2 should not warn you is if you have previously saved the map
you are working on by that name or loaded it from that file.

======================================================================
miscellaneous:

------------------------------
It seems there is now in glob2 version 0.8.22 a feature where secret
forbidden areas are placed in the extra area a building needs when it
is being upgraded to a larger size.  The idea is to speed up the
process of getting globules out of the way so the upgrade can proceed.

There are two problems with this.

First, I have seen cases in 0.8.22 where globules would not get out of
the way of the larger space a building needs to be upgraded.  I have
been able to solve the problem by adding real forbidden zones by hand
to get globules to move out of the way.  So, it seems to me that this
new feature is not working fully correctly.

Second, I think it would be much better if the forbidden zone added
for this purpose was _not_ hidden.  Otherwise the player may end up
extremely confused about why their globules are not able to get
through a passage.  It can trap a globule and the user might not
realize their globule is trapped.  I just now saw a globule that
seemed to be trapped by such a hidden forbidden zone, spinning around
and not moving at all.

Improved by comments from: Kai

------------------------------
BUG:  When reloading a game, the values on the top line are all zero
for a number of seconds before they get fixed.  Probably other
statistics not shown on the top line are also zero for a while.  This
shows up in the end-game statistics if it happens to sample the values
during the interval before they are fixed.  You get strange graphs
where all of the lines show a sharp spike down to zero in the middle
of an otherwise normal graph.

------------------------------
The statistics used for the busy/free/seeking and hunger/wounded
graphs are not remembered in saved games.  It would be better if these
statistics were saved so the graphs could be accurate on restarting a
game.

------------------------------
BUG:  If you rename a game file, glob2 can not load it, because the
old name is stored in the file and glob2 fetches that name from the
file and then uses the name stored in the file to open it (even though
it must have already opened the file to even get the bad name!),
rather than the file's actual name.

------------------------------
There is no easy way to tell from the documentation just what the
“--nox” option does or what it is for.  There is no match for “nox” on
the Wiki.  It is not mentioned in the man page.  The only mention of
it in any documentation is in the output from the “--help” option,
which says “runs the game without using the X server”.  At first, I
guessed that meant it would run on the console directly, bypassing X.
Reading the code however tells that it completely disables the GUI.
So what is this for, and how do you use it?

------------------------------
“Campaigns” should be called “challenge sequences” or maybe just
“challenges”.  The English word “campaign” doesn't really make sense
here.  There would need to be more continuity from game to game within
the campaign (i.e., same buildings/globules being reused) in order for
the word “campaign” to make logical sense.

======================================================================
the Savannah bug tracker:

------------------------------
In the Savannah bug tracker, is there any way to sort by date of last
change of a bug report?

------------------------------
In the Savannah bug tracker, it seems that it is not possible to
preview what your comments will look like in the bug display, and
there is no way to fix a comment after it has been made.  Is there a
way around this?  Is there a page where you can write a test comment
and see how it will be formatted after submission?

------------------------------
In the Savannah bug tracker, verbatim text is displayed in a absurdly
narrow fixed-width subwindow, even when much more horizontal space is
available.