Author Topic: Tooltip Confusion  (Read 1134 times)

Offline BobTheJanitor

  • Master Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,689
Tooltip Confusion
« on: January 03, 2011, 04:03:53 pm »
I'm sure this is answered somewhere out there, but I just can't find it. I'm a little vague on the meaning of some of the things I see on the tooltips for my units. For starters, the metal and crystal readouts. I assume the actual numbers are just the per-unit cost in case I wanted a quick reference for building more of them. But what are the xxx/s things for? I know that my units don't have a per-second cost in metal and crystal. I've looked all over for some meaning to this and I'm just at a loss.

Secondly, when I mouse over and enemy unit had it has X of Y damage to do... what is that referring to? I can't puzzle it out. The numbers don't seem to correlate to the amount of HP the unit has currently. I'm sure this is supposed to be telling me something useful, but I have no idea what.

It feels silly to start a new thread for just a couple questions. Is there a thread for quick newbie questions like this somewhere? I couldn't find one. If there is such a thing I'd be glad to post there.

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Tooltip Confusion
« Reply #1 on: January 03, 2011, 04:07:36 pm »
I'm sure this is answered somewhere out there, but I just can't find it. I'm a little vague on the meaning of some of the things I see on the tooltips for my units. For starters, the metal and crystal readouts. I assume the actual numbers are just the per-unit cost in case I wanted a quick reference for building more of them. But what are the xxx/s things for? I know that my units don't have a per-second cost in metal and crystal. I've looked all over for some meaning to this and I'm just at a loss.

Sorry, that's a relatively new addition to the UI, and hasn't made it into the wiki yet!  The per-second values are how much they cost per second during their construction.  So if something has a high per-second value, you can't build a lot of that something at once unless your economy is crazy good, is the main thing that is helping to explain. It was one of those player-requested additions.

Secondly, when I mouse over and enemy unit had it has X of Y damage to do... what is that referring to? I can't puzzle it out. The numbers don't seem to correlate to the amount of HP the unit has currently. I'm sure this is supposed to be telling me something useful, but I have no idea what.

That's actually not "x out of y," it's "your selected units will deal between x and y damage."  If your units do homogenous damage, then you'll of course just get a single number.  But when there are a mix, it shows the highest and the lowest.

It feels silly to start a new thread for just a couple questions. Is there a thread for quick newbie questions like this somewhere? I couldn't find one. If there is such a thing I'd be glad to post there.

Well, it's a big game, and so while there have been such threads in the past, they tend to get bloated and abandoned because they get too huge to read in any reasonable amount of time!  What you're doing for the posting is fine.
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline BobTheJanitor

  • Master Member Mark II
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,689
Re: Tooltip Confusion
« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2011, 04:51:07 pm »
Thanks! That makes a lot more sense. Especially the damage tooltip. I'd been wishing for something like that since going into the reference charts can be kind of cumbersome, especially for a new player like myself. Little did I know it was staring me right in the face. Also the fact that I sometimes see numbers of 0 damage as the low number on some things... tells me I need to be managing my forces a little better, because clearly I'm trying to send some ships in to fight that are unable to do any damage at all.

And the per second cost, that makes sense. I'd sort of had that idea and abandoned it as nonsensical, but that was before I really grasped the concept that build queues are meant to be looped forever most of the time. Coming from a piecemeal occasional RTS background playing mostly games where you need to manage your build queues and save up resources for building the heavy hitting units while ignoring the small fry units, the idea of just leaving something looping forever seemed wrong somehow. The sheer scope of this game is still a bit mind-blowing.

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Tooltip Confusion
« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2011, 04:56:26 pm »
My pleasure!  And, I remember when I first encountered the "loop forever" concept in Supreme Commander.  It was foreign to me at the time, and I didn't really like the idea.  But then after a few days of using it, it clicked.  And after a year of playing that game, I couldn't imagine playing a strategy game without that feature, heh.  So when I went to build one of my own, that was one of the first things in there.

The more-critical reason for the per-second numbers is actually for things like turrets, though, or other similar temporary constructions.  Assuming that your economy has some buffer in it over and above what your docks are consuming (generally the case), you have to decide how quickly you can build up your turrets (or rebuild, as the case may be).  Trying to build too many tractors can mysteriously tank your economy, for example, unless you look at their per-second cost and see what's going on.

But, it's definitely useful in a number of contexts.  Glad you're enjoying the game!
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline Fleet

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 633
Re: Tooltip Confusion
« Reply #4 on: January 04, 2011, 10:36:36 am »
For some feedback on the metal and crystal/second display, I absolutely love it. I find that I primarily use this cost, instead of the total cost, because it is so easy to compare my income rate (per second) and cost (now per second!). Thank you soo much for implementing my request.

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Tooltip Confusion
« Reply #5 on: January 04, 2011, 11:45:42 am »
Glad to!  And, glad it's turning out so helpful. :)
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

 

SMF spam blocked by CleanTalk