View Issue Details

IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0017269Stars Beyond ReachBug - GameplayJun 17, 2015 4:47 pm
ReporterGarathJJ Assigned ToChris_McElligottPark  
Status resolvedResolutionfixed 
Product Version0.894 (The Early Experience) 
Fixed in Version0.895 (Top Bar And AI Expansionism) 
Summary0017269: employment tooltip report inaccurate and/or inconsistent with staffing overlay
DescriptionTurning on the staffing report and hovering over the employment number in the top bar of the HUD (screenshot also attached) we see that the numbers don't seem to add up:

The tooltip reports 1148 jobs total, 89 of them unfilled.

The visible staffing reports add up to 307 population missing. Suspiciously many of them are at exactly 50%.

Also I can't tell what the headline 196% number is supposed to mean here. I can't even see any group of the detailed numbers within the tooltip that are in that ratio, and I don't even know whether it's supposed to be good or bad: by parallel with the other hud numbers 196% in white should be "more than enough" but that doesn't square with the actual situation.
TagsNo tags attached.

Relationships

related to 0017279 resolvedkeith.lamothe Building / Job / food / crop / water even more unclear than before 

Activities

GarathJJ

Jun 16, 2015 6:21 pm

reporter  

GarathJJ

Jun 16, 2015 6:21 pm

reporter  

mooncows

Jun 16, 2015 7:04 pm

reporter   ~0042281

Ya, the employment icon has been an issue since i started testing. It used to be positive and negative numbers, and is now a percentage. Ive got 20+ hours on the game and this tooltip still confuses me

Cinth

Jun 17, 2015 4:04 am

manager   ~0042296

196% is total (jobs available + total entertainment slots) or 2048. Pop is 1059. You have 989 open slots for people to go into right now. That's about 96% more than your total pop (which is 100% occupied). 100% + 96% = 196% (something to that effect).

Staffing deals just with the 100% (your current pop) so 1059.

Staffing is haywire because of crime.
You are going to brown out your city.

kasnavada

Jun 17, 2015 4:10 am

reporter   ~0042298

Last edited: Jun 17, 2015 4:15 am

How that information is useful to the player I don't really understand, though. I didn't report it before because I thought it was just some "placeholder".

What I'd need is the number of unfilled jobs (if any) and the number of people without an activity:
- number of unfilled jobs is useful because I know that I need X more people to work in my buildings
- number of people without an activity is useful because it create crimes.

IMO, problem here is that here a "single" number is trying to give information which would require 3-4 lines of text to be understood.

I'd personally like to have number of : "jobs + entertainment / population" (in that order and written more or less like this).

Cinth

Jun 17, 2015 4:12 am

manager   ~0042299

All that is in the employment mouseover.

kasnavada

Jun 17, 2015 4:16 am

reporter   ~0042300

Last edited: Jun 17, 2015 5:31 am

I'm going to write the same answer I wrote in the other answer you've made. This is basic information, and IMO should not require a mouseover to understand.

PS : also, we'd have more place for statistics if the end turn button was at the bottom right instead of "blocking" 2/3 of the possible upper bar :-).

Cinth

Jun 17, 2015 7:10 am

manager   ~0042303

There isn't enough room in the info bar for the level of detail you want. Having breakouts in the mouseover works. It takes less than a second to get the info you need to continue building.

kasnavada

Jun 17, 2015 9:29 am

reporter   ~0042304

@Cinth: again... What you're saying, I know. I know it works. I know the information is there. I know it takes a few seconds. I know it's too small.

I also know I don't want an average or bad UI.

Because, what I also know is that "It does takes a few seconds to get the complete information" mindset, every turn, for hundreds of turns, leads in hundreds of actions being "left there". Removing them, second by second, action by action, is just one small step, which, multiplied by the quantity of modifications over time, multiplied by the quantity of information that needs to be looked at and is properly placed, will eventually make the difference between a "bad UI" and a "good UI".

My UI goals are not that "it does the work" or that "the information is there somewhere" - I have much higher requirements for games I like. For me "it does the work" UI level is bad. "The information I want is always there where I want it when I want it" is what I'm aiming to provide feedback for.

About these specific information, as a player, I'd need it every turn. Every time I got dying people, every time I'm making a building. I need to have in plain view the number of jobs, my population, and the number of "entertained" population - so I don't add other problems to the ones I currently have and can plan ahead. With the current toolbar, for most turns, I have to go to waste my time going to some toolbar, waiting for the tooltip, and going back to whatever I was doing. Over and over and over again. Probably every turn. Same with food. Same with water.

There is also the concern about not overwhelming the player - but currently my opinion is that the player is underwhelmed by relevant information. A large part of it is because the game is not finished - but some look like they are being corrected now. The last patch is a large improvement over the previous iterations - but seeing the "current" state of what is supposed to be finished, I still think it requires more work. Then again it's expected, it's a beta.


Back on subject, all of that is why I suggested moving the end turn button (enabling making the bar bigger) and adding that data. It's "core" data needed to make most "core" actions and required for "core" monitoring: building, food, and basically all expansion. IMO, its availability must be "always". Actually, that's not even 5% of what I'd change in the UI bars if I could have a go at it - but I'm preparing another complete thread about that part.

Now, if you have a counter-argument to why information about job number / entertained / population is "not important enough" to be on the main screen at all time, do as you wish - it's Chris and Keith I'm trying to convince anyway - won't spend my time trying to convince you.

Cinth

Jun 17, 2015 3:44 pm

manager   ~0042308

Because unless you are min-maxing EVERY territory, you don't need that info. Every territory you take has a few basic needs. Once you know what those are, it's not an issue. If you know what you are going to be building in a territory (because having specifically purposed territories makes things easier to manage), then you aren't referencing that bar as often either.

So outside of say, the first 100 turns (which isn't even 15 minutes), that need to know just isn't there.

Chris_McElligottPark

Jun 17, 2015 4:47 pm

administrator   ~0042312

Thanks!

* The "jobs" and "unemployed" concepts have been split out on the top bar -- these really are quite unrelated, and combining them was incredibly confusing.
** The jobs percentage up at the top now shows what percentage of your jobs are able to be filled, which is great in that you can easily see "I have twice the workers I need" or similar. And the tooltips have been cleaned up, too.
** The "unemployed and entertained" percentage up at the top shows how much capacity you have for the unemployed, which is a whole other stat and completely separately something to worry with.
*** The tooltips on this are a lot clearer now, too, and give a lot more insight into the whole entertainment/unemployment situation.

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
Jun 16, 2015 6:21 pm GarathJJ New Issue
Jun 16, 2015 6:21 pm GarathJJ File Added: confused employment tooltip.save
Jun 16, 2015 6:21 pm GarathJJ File Added: Screen Shot 2015-06-16 at 23.10.37.png
Jun 16, 2015 7:04 pm mooncows Note Added: 0042281
Jun 17, 2015 4:04 am Cinth Note Added: 0042296
Jun 17, 2015 4:10 am kasnavada Note Added: 0042298
Jun 17, 2015 4:12 am Cinth Note Added: 0042299
Jun 17, 2015 4:15 am kasnavada Note Edited: 0042298
Jun 17, 2015 4:16 am kasnavada Note Added: 0042300
Jun 17, 2015 5:02 am kasnavada Note Edited: 0042300
Jun 17, 2015 5:31 am kasnavada Note Edited: 0042300
Jun 17, 2015 7:10 am Cinth Note Added: 0042303
Jun 17, 2015 9:29 am kasnavada Note Added: 0042304
Jun 17, 2015 9:31 am kasnavada Relationship added related to 0017279
Jun 17, 2015 3:44 pm Cinth Note Added: 0042308
Jun 17, 2015 4:47 pm Chris_McElligottPark Note Added: 0042312
Jun 17, 2015 4:47 pm Chris_McElligottPark Status new => resolved
Jun 17, 2015 4:47 pm Chris_McElligottPark Fixed in Version => 0.895 (Top Bar And AI Expansionism)
Jun 17, 2015 4:47 pm Chris_McElligottPark Resolution open => fixed
Jun 17, 2015 4:47 pm Chris_McElligottPark Assigned To => Chris_McElligottPark