Beta 0.801 now out.

[ptarth]

So is that a grammar, syntax, spelling, coloring, formatting, editing, or other comment?

[x4000]

For the coloring, I'll come up with some adjusted examples that will fit better with our palette, but if that style of text actually fits in there, I'm fine with that for the descriptions.  It's nice and quick of a summary, plus some actual strategic tips.  That's really the goal for me: not to need the wiki, if players are looking into these screens.

Incidentally, every single stat in the detail windows is capable of having its own tooltip.  So if there is something that folks think should be put in there, then that is definitely doable.  Explaining what a possibly-unclear stat does, giving a tip about certain stats, etc.  I don't want to just blanket give tooltips for every stat, because saying obvious things just obscures saying the important things (reduces signal to noise ratio).  But anyway, that's a tool that's already built into the design, but again just not with values assigned most of the time (a few stats have it assigned).

[Captain Jack]

So is that a grammar, syntax, spelling, coloring, formatting, editing, or other comment?

Grammar and word flow. I write for a living so the little things jump out sometimes. 

Incidentally, every single stat in the detail windows is capable of having its own tooltip.  So if there is something that folks think should be put in there, then that is definitely doable.  Explaining what a possibly-unclear stat does, giving a tip about certain stats, etc.  I don't want to just blanket give tooltips for every stat, because saying obvious things just obscures saying the important things (reduces signal to noise ratio).  But anyway, that's a tool that's already built into the design, but again just not with values assigned most of the time (a few stats have it assigned).

Ooh, interesting. I've got one then, what's debt points, from the international bank?

[x4000]

Yeah, that needs explaining.  Here's the original spec, just quickly copy-pasted from the design doc:

DebtDependencePoints
At the end of each turn, each race that has > 0 DebtDependencePoints will pay you 3% of the number of crowns from their debt dependence, from each of their constructioncontexts. 
-- So if their DebtDependencePoints is 100, they would pay you 3 crowns from each of their constructioncontexts.
-- All of the income from each of those construction contexts goes into your Normal construction context.
-- If there is not enough money in one construction context, then it should pull from another one instead.

IF the race is able to fully pay its debt and interest that turn -- as per above --  then its DebtDependencePoints are reduced by 2.  So in the example above, the race would go down to only 98 debt to you.

On the right-hand panel of the diplomacy screen, the “Debt Points” should be shown for the race.  Hovering over that should tell you how much they are giving you each turn, and how many debt points it goes down every turn (always 2), and how many debt points it goes up every turn (depends on your international banks).


Economically Dominating A Race
Not a misnomer at all.  We’re making these guys so dependent on us that they absolutely can’t attack us without their way of life falling apart due to an economic meltdown.

There is a //KEITH_TODO: GetEconomicDominationPercentage note in the code.

Here’s how that is calculated:
40% of this comes from the DebtDependencePoints of the race.
Let’s start out with 1000 being the target.
30% of this comes from you currently providing at least 30 trade deals (of any sort) to them.
20% of this comes from you currently taking at least 10 trade deals (of any sort) from them.
10% of this comes from you having at least 4 blockades up around them, or enough blockades to cancel out all their other trade deals with all other races, whichever is higher.

Once a race is economically dominated, then a flag should be tripped that should say so.  Then if any of the above conditions become un-met at some point in the future of the game, then the economic domination is not lost.

However, if after you have economically dominated a race, there are several condition that can cause that economic domination flag to un-trip and you have to start again.  They are:
If you are providing them with fewer than 15 trade deals.
I’d like to have a hook for a warning popup when the trade deal count hits 21 or fewer for the first time after economic domination, and another hook for when that flag is lost.
If you are taking fewer than 4 trade deals from them.
I’d like to have a hook for a warning popup when the trade deal count hits 6 or fewer for the first time after economic domination, and another hook for when that flag is lost.
If you ever have fewer than 500 DebtDependencePoints on that race.
I’d like to have a hook for a warning popup when the DebtDependencePoints count hits 750 or fewer for the first time after economic domination, and another hook for when that flag is lost.

Other Consequences Of Being Economically Dominated
All trade deals with any non-player factions are canceled (ones in either direction), and new trade deals with non-player factions cannot be created.
You earn 5% on their debt dependence instead of the usual 3%.

[ptarth]

Hey Chris, did you have a chance to look at the descriptions for resources.xls? I wasn't sure if that was something you wanted. And if you wanted any format changing with color specs and what not.

File Attached for convenience.


re: Building text space
45 character wide, 20 lines long
Ctrl+F5 reloads xml in game.

[x4000]

Hey Chris, did you have a chance to look at the descriptions for resources.xls? I wasn't sure if that was something you wanted. And if you wanted any format changing with color specs and what not.

File Attached for convenience.

Ah, I missed that one, sorry.  In this particular case, just for resources mind you, my plan is to make it so that these are just thematic descriptions that are very brief.  The actual explanations of what the resources do will be procedural written.  That way it stays up to date automatically, etc.

With your building descriptions, having things explained in a brief way in terms of their function is useful, because despite the information being right there next to your description, there's also a ton of other information about the building and so the primary function can get buried in that.  Still want to go easy on the specifics there, and get more to the gameplay role and general strategy in the descriptions, though.  In other words, not saying that luxury housing provides luxury housing.  But rather saying why luxury housing matters versus regular housing.  And briefly noting what housing is, I guess, maybe.

Getting across the idea of the key differences, anyway, which is:
1. Dense housing provides the most space, but not the bonuses for certain building types like history museum and opera, etc.  Also less SP.
2. Condos provide a middling amount of space, some bonuses, and more SP.
3. Luxury housing provides the smallest space, but the most bonuses and SP.

So choosing between those housing types is a matter of your goal in terms of what you value most at the time.  The rest of the explicit details can be seen by looking at the mess of stats there, but those key things need to be communicated on each of those buildings so that you know quickly how they figure into the big picture.  Does that make sense?

For resources, there's no real strategic value in a super grand sense.  They all provide adjacency bonuses, and those bonuses are relevant to a wide variety of buildings in a wide variety of contexts.  So the only thing we can really do there is explain what those bonuses are (which can be done automatically by the game itself), and the player then figures out the strategic relevance in their specific game.  then the description itself is a matter of flavor text to say why in the heck salt is used for military stuff (chlorine source!) etc.

With the resources, I have another 46 of those that I need to set up as soon as I can, too.  That's going to take me a while, heh.  But I'm tired of being overrun by Panda Ants and other things of that nature, haha.

[ptarth]

The big surprise to me was that there were adjacency bonuses. I had no idea what/when/how they worked until I noticed you'd added the Resources.xls file. From there, knowing which did want took on a certain relevance. The existing tooltip did list what they did (For example, Food for spices. But what that actually meant (adjacency bonus for a type of eatery) was lost to me.

On another note, did you want flavor text in the building descriptions as well? If so, serious, funny, or a mix?

[crazyroosterman]

46 resource are going to be added?...sweeet!.