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IDProjectCategoryLast Update
0019266AI War 2GUINov 2, 2017 2:54 pm
ReporterBadgerBadger Assigned Tokeith.lamothe  
Status resolvedResolutionfixed 
Product Version0.528 
Fixed in Version0.601 
Summary0019266: Timing menu
DescriptionDoes the timing menu actually need to exist? I don't actually have any idea what Frame Frequency does. Frame Size seems to control how fast the game is going, so just bind that to +/- like in AIWC and call it a day. I can't imagine anyone actually wanting to navigate through multiple menus to manually click on those, or the pause button when you could in principle do that with a single click. You would just need to include a little +X or -X next to "Time" in the Resource bar, which would be easy enough.

Also you can't slow time down past real clock time which is an unfortunate loss of functionality. It was really helpful to be able to play a huge battle slowly.
TagsNo tags attached.

Activities

keith.lamothe

Nov 2, 2017 11:23 am

administrator   ~0046555

Frame Frequency is what AIWC did. It just waits less time between doing sim frames. So if you're already in a situation where the frames are taking more than 100ms to compute (or, rather, the longest-running offloaded thread is taking longer than 100ms), increasing that doesn't change anything.

Frame Size is a new way of speeding things up, which makes the frames more "coarse". Everything moves twice as far per-frame as it would have, takes twice as much time off the build-clocks, consumes/produces twice as much resources, etc. Not the way you want to go if there's a huge battle on, but very effective at fast-forwarding a slow build up.

I agree that the primary way of interacting should be via keys (P, +, -). I'm not sure how to map both types of speed control. Perhaps holding shift or ctrl while pressing + or - controls Frame Size, and it's shown differently on the resource bar ("Coarse 1", "Coarse 2", etc). The timing menu isn't really necessary. I do like having all functions discoverable in-game _somewhere_ without knowing the magic key, but that could be handled with some out-of-the-way "other functions" button that brings up the obscure stuff.

keith.lamothe

Nov 2, 2017 11:24 am

administrator   ~0046556

Oh, on slower-than-normal frames, I can probably add that, though it may look weird in the display layer.

BadgerBadger

Nov 2, 2017 11:36 am

manager   ~0046557

One way to help would be in the tutorial. Lets add having the user build a starship constructor on their first planet, then say "Lets use the speedup buttons so you don't have to wait as long."

I think ctl/+ and ctl/- would be fine for the coarse sim steps.

So talk to me about why I might prefer coarse-steps over fast-steps. They feel pretty similar in terms of "making time pass quickly", but is there a time when one is preferable over the other?

keith.lamothe

Nov 2, 2017 1:27 pm

administrator   ~0046560

Coarse is preferable when your CPU can't give you any more "fast".

keith.lamothe

Nov 2, 2017 2:54 pm

administrator   ~0046561

For 0.601:

* The Timing menu has been removed, and its functions are now performed simply by:
** P already toggled pause.
** Equals (plus) now increases frame frequency (the way AIWC sped things up, more or less)
** Minus now decreases frame frequency.
** Ctrl+Equals (ctrl+plus) now increases the frame size (a different way that is more effective but makes the sim more coarse).
** Ctrl+Minus now decreases the frame size.

* Decreasing frame frequency below Normal is now possible, similar to how you could go into "the minus speeds" in AIWC.

* The top row of the "Time" section of the top-bar GUI now says what % speed you have set the frequency to, if it's not 100%. It also uses a different display if you're using the coarse-simulation mode of increasing the frame size.

Thanks :)

Issue History

Date Modified Username Field Change
Oct 31, 2017 12:02 am BadgerBadger New Issue
Nov 2, 2017 11:23 am keith.lamothe Note Added: 0046555
Nov 2, 2017 11:24 am keith.lamothe Note Added: 0046556
Nov 2, 2017 11:36 am BadgerBadger Note Added: 0046557
Nov 2, 2017 1:27 pm keith.lamothe Note Added: 0046560
Nov 2, 2017 2:54 pm keith.lamothe Assigned To => keith.lamothe
Nov 2, 2017 2:54 pm keith.lamothe Status new => resolved
Nov 2, 2017 2:54 pm keith.lamothe Resolution open => fixed
Nov 2, 2017 2:54 pm keith.lamothe Fixed in Version => 0.601
Nov 2, 2017 2:54 pm keith.lamothe Note Added: 0046561