[Suggestion] Make the city level choice UI better

from Elemental Forums

In the current beta, when I press "end turn", I am periodically confronted with a popup dialog telling me that my city leveled up, and that I need to choose a specialization for the next level.  The problem?  The popup is modal and huge; it makes it impossible for me to tell which of my alphabet-soup cities actually leveled or what the city's stats are (i.e., is this my gold-producing city or my research city?).  So I usually have to take a guess.  So far I haven't been wrong, but I find it really annoying every time this happens.

 

I think the best way to improve this would be to eliminate the forced immediate choice.  When a city levels, it should get a new action "specialize city" that can be performed only once, and that lets me choose a specialization.  I should be able to cancel the dialog if I change my mind and want to think more about which specialization to use.  (I would also like a similar UI for hero leveling, btw)

 

If that's not possible, at least give me a little more context in the specialization dialog (e.g., rates of production of the relevant resources and the number of buildings related to each resource that have been created).

2,366 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I agree, I almost feel that I have to name my cities things like "gold town" "food ville" and "Alexandria" in order to know what they need when they level up.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I agree completely with this.  Please either give us production rates or the ability to scroll around the map and figure out which city we're actually dealing with.  I also quite like the delayed idea--putting it off will allow you to specialize more late-game at the expense of early production.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

I was thinking in terms of, if the city has 0 production of something, don't give me the option to specialize in it.. But, your solution makes more sense..

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

The information you ask for is actually there, it's just not in an intuitive place right now. Now let me explain. When you select your city their resources per turn (minus metal atm) are displayed on the lower right side of the interface at the bottom of the screen. Also when the city level up screen displays, it automatically selects the city that is leveling up. So when this happens you can see how much gildar, research, etc is being produced.

 

Of course the interface needs a lot more work to make it easier to tell what the effects actually will be.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

What I'd like to see would be a more colorful description of what the various options do. I mean it would feel more interesting to me if it said something like "By alternating which crops you grow in your fields you can gain an additional 30% food production" or "By devoting additional workers to the local mine, you can increase your metal production by 30%". I think it would add a little bit more to picking which bonus you received.