Note: Bolding is for easy seeing of key words and scentences...not yelling. To Save the Devs time reading, Important Paragraphs are Highlighted.
As most of us here know, Sins of a Solar Empire was a Awesome Game. The game does amazing things when it comes to space strategy. It gives you the choice to go from view to view. From seeing the entire galaxy, down to looking at the details on the smallest ship in your fleet. There was always One Thing that bugged the hell out of me in Sins though and in My Opinion was not as "Good Looking" or "Intuitive" as intended. What part am I talking about you ask? The Side-Bar/Empire-Tree that ATE UP the Entire LEFT SIDE of the Screen. I know it could be tweaked, even turned off (I think it could be turned off, been a while). I know it could be collapsed and was adjustable. Let me explain more though...bare with me here, please.
On Small Maps the Empire Tree worked Great. It was out of the way enough to not be obtrusive yet still gave "at a glance" information on how many planets you had and how many armies you had and what types of units were in those armies. On Large Maps however, well, this is where things start getting Bad and Cluttered. Once the player had more then 10 planets and around 20 or so fleets or groups of ships this system started eating up more and more space on the Left Side of the Screen. It made the rest of the UI and game screen in general look Cluttered and Messy and from time to time it even Got In the Players Way. This is BAD, very BAD. As I said though, on Small Maps it works great. I don't think a lot of Elemental Players plan on playing Exclusively or Mainly on Small Maps however, do you?
I don't know about you, but I want Massive Games and Game Maps. Maps so huge that a Powerful Kingdom or Empire could very easily control 20 cities or more because they control such a Vast Area and have the needed Resources. Maps So Large that a Powerful Kingdom or Empire could field a army of up to 50,000 soldiers, not counting magical beasts that get recruited during the course of game-play. If Maps or Games of this size aren't possible just yet, they will be once Elemental gets the 64Bit treatment from the Devs. At this point we Will be able to make HUGE worlds. I'm seriously hoping they get this part done in time for when I start working on the Dragonlance Mod.
As we know, this "Empire Tree Display System" is being used in Elemental as well. I would like to state now I'm against this. I think it takes away from the wonderfully crafted look of the game, breaks immersion, blocks visuals, and some-times it even gets in the players way when trying to select a specific unit. Please take this Out of Elemental or make it so we can turn it Off Completely. I'd much rather use a Old School Empire Screen that shows a list of all my Cities and Armies and lets me list them anyway I like. Gal Civ 2 had this kind of screen as did many Many other strategy games and war games that were All Very Successful.
Here's an Example of Too Much Clutter in Sins:
In My Opinion, yes the Ship looks Amazing, Space looks Amazing, the Battles Look Amazing, ...... All that Clutter and BS on the left side of the screen? Looks Like Crap!!! Sorry, that's just how I see it. It is a Great System for SMALL Maps, maybe even Medium Sized Maps, but for Large and Huge Maps it doesn't work. It turns into a un-manageable Clusterf'k.
In Sins of a Solar Empire, it could "make sense" that a Galactic Leader in the Far Future could sit in his throne room or at his command station and see his entire Empire on a screen like this. In Elemental how-ever, does it really make sense? Maybe if my Sovereign was sitting in his throne room looking over his Kingdom/Empire through a giant crystal ball or something. Having all that clutter on the left side of the screen though, in My Opinion, highly takes away from the Immersive feeling of the world and game that you are working so hard to bring players into.
Please Consider removing this system and Implimenting a old school "Empire Overview" screen to list cities and armies/units/heros. Please think about it, or give us the option to turn this feature Off in Elemental.
Thanks for reading. Also thank you to the Devs for hopefully taking this under advisement. I do have a professional background in layout and design for video games. If you're Ultima Online Fans then you've seen some of my work in game in action. The Necro Spells and Spell tokens, the layout of how the books worked, that was Me. I didn't do the coding behind how it worked, but I laid out the drafts and worked up the mock-up screens of how I thought it should be laid out....and my boss liked the idea and passed it along. Next thing you know, the system was changed to what OSI was running back in 98-99. If you liked that system, you're welcome 
.
