MOO4 Notes
ver. 43.4

A number of thought for improving game play and user interface.
Some may just be because the game is still in development.
I tried to be clear and concise but if there is anything unclear, ask and I will elaborate.

**Edited for formatting.

Turn Processing Notifications
* When you've met a race, show their icon instead of the exclamation triangle when processiong their turn.

UI

Galaxy Map
* Indicate planetary defense structures on mouse over

* When ordering fleets, don't have the warp point or planet tooltip obscure the travel time.
- putting the travel time up and to the right of the cursor would fix this.

* Cancel Order button for fleets
- distinct from guard and sleep
- maybe have it replace the skip button while the fleet has orders.

* change the sleep button to a "wake" button while the fleet is asleep

* don't have civilian ships auto join a guarding fleet. "Where did my space factory disappear to?"

* Planetary Bombardment
- Colony destroyed message uses "Decimated." Annihilated, Obliterated, and Destroyed would all be better.
- Colony survived message has noun/verb disagreement. Use "have" instead of "has."
- The "Abort" button is right where the "attack colony" button was and too easy to accidently click.

* Map edge alert icons can collide unit (spy/fleet) order buttons.
- Move the alert icons in, like they are at the top of the screen.

* Add a scroll bar when event notifications exceed the height of the display window.

Fleet Box
* Using the mouse wheel to scroll a selected large fleet zooms the galaxy map.
* Add a select all ships button
* What do the icons to the right of defense rating mean?
* Attack Rating and Defense Rating truncate at 4 digits.

Colony Management
* Empire resources sometimes not shown on colony screen immediately after colonizing a world.
- Suspect they were hidden for cinematic and not unhidden correctly.

* "Done" button in same place as "Next Turn" button making accidental clicks of "Next Turn" too easy.

* Use the empty section in the top middle to show other planets/objects in the same system
- idealy allow switching to other colonies in the same system from here

* Garrison Morale Bonus: Let the armor barracks give a 5% morale bonus that doesn't stack with the bonus from the Marine Barracks.

* Build Menu
- Set the second sort order to something other than random
-- the order of items changes after you add an item to the build queue.
-- Sorting by type is great. After that, I recomend sorting by cost with lowest first.

Empire
* Allow sorting by morale, strikers, and pollution.
* Sort all numerics (Population, Morale, Pollution, C, F, R, P) as numbers (not strings)
* Use the icons in the collumn headings for population (strikers, morale, pollution), C, F, R, and P.
* Add mouseover tooltips for clarity.
* Sort Prodution by whats being produced, then by turns to finish
* Update colony info in the empire menu after visiting a colony via the empire menu

Research
* Always showcase/zoom to newly completed research, even when multiple researches queued.

* Branching Technologies
- Change the grouping in the tooltip so each item is only listed once (like so):

Unlocks:
always item
[extra always items if more than 1]
and one of
branch item
[extra branch items if more than 2]
or
branch item

- Has the added benefit of matching the symbolic logic shown on the tech.

* Tech Tree
- Consolodate the two legends/keys into one at the bottome of the screen.
-- There's room to put the tech box legend on the row above the icon key.

- When opening the Tech Tree, jump to the current research or, if there isn't one, the first researchable tech.
- Allow Shif-clicking to queue additional research while preserving the already selected research.

* Ship Upgrade
- Doesn't so much upgrade my designs as it redesigns them.
- Tone down the Point Defense fetish; it decreaces bombs and other weapons to add more PD weapons
- Add an upgrade all civillian ships button.

Espionage
* Move Agent: A prompt to right click on the destination would be a massive boon.
- (Took me far too long to figure out what I was doing wrong.)

* Fleet icons appear in front of the espionage window.

Ship Design
* Have selecting a ship slot filter for items that can occupy that slot.
* Allow filtering for bombs and other weapons (eg bomber bays)
* Have the ship equipment in "folders" (in both list and grid views):
- Core Systems: (Sub Folders: Armor, Computer, Shields, Drive)
- Specials
- Weapons: (Sub Folders: Beams, Canons, Missiles, Torpedos, Bombs, Other)

* Edit Weapon: Have mouse-over tooltip descriptions for the weapon mods buttons.

Diplomacy
* When your race is selected, show your race's "Classified Information" for ease of comparrison.
* Return to the diplomacy screen after concluding a player initiated audience.
* Allow a chance to make a counter-offer when an AI opponent makes the player an offer.

Path to Victory
* Timeline
- Default to all known races enabled

Planets
* Allow Filetering by distance, size, biome, minerals, gravity, and enemy presence
* Allow dispatching of colony ships

Fleets
* Scrolling with the mouse wheel zooms the galaxy map.

Options
* Option to Toggle off the End-of-turn wait.
* Ability to adjust menu opacity - sometimes the star behind the menu just makes it un readable.

Wishlist (Features I wish were in the game)
* Ship Crew Experience (Green, Regular, Veteran, Elite, Legendary*) and appropriate benefits.
- Warlord Trait (New ships start with enough experience to be Regular and can become Legendary)
- Colony Building (Naval Academy?) that gives new ships enough experience to be regular.

* Leaders (Colony Administrators and Ship Captains)
* MOO2 Races: Elerians, Trilarans, and Gnolams.