[Suggestion] Show how much energy you currently consume

[Xardoz]

If I've not missed it, we see clearly how much energy we produce, but not how much we consume. So it would be nice to have some info/feedback about it (I think :)).
An it would be nice too to see how much something will cost to construct :P

In short, some feedback in the ratio energy production/consumption would be great !

[Incompetent]

This would definitely help take some of the guesswork out of the energy management game.  On a lot of maps, early on you can't support a full fleet, but it's not clear exactly how many ships you can power.  Some kind of deficit figure if you don't have enough energy, like there is in CW3, would also help.

I get the impression that power consumption in Particle Fleet is more 'spiky' than in the Creeper World games (especially with tankers), so maybe the energy consumption/demand figure should be averaged over a longer time period to give a better idea of the overall power requirements.

[The_Mell]

Saying you want it is easy - now please make an actual suggestion how.  ;)

I think it was Karsten who replied a few days ago in prelease chatter that they (developer&testers) worked so often on the power bar...and i swear i could hear him sigh.


As a non native speaker i would say it would jitter if an actual on time update would be there.

I own Factorio, a game where you build a factory including management of electric power, and there you can pop up a window with 2 graphs showing production and consumption over time plus several bars with adjacent numbers indicating momentary situation.
I don't name these bars on purpose because just some time ago their naming was part of patches and discussions (Factorio is early access).
First shows 100% if you've got enough power and will fall in case of a brown out. Second shows percentage of potential produced power usage. (And right now i hope i got those descriptions right.)
I don't know how fast they update (maybe once per second), but except from a rough guess or seeing "Brown out!" they're of little use. And numbers next to them, yeah, same thing: 24MW to 34MW and back and back up again in 10sec.
The graphs have a minimum setting of 5sec (which is default) and whenever i look that window up i instantly switch to 1min...
https://wiki.factorio.com/index.php?title=File:Electric_Network_Info.jpg


Right now i can think of 2 possibilities to give better feedback to the player about power:
1) Power bar is replaced by a small graph showing maybe 5-10 seconds, updating after 1 or 2 seconds; two lines power production&consumption
2) An energy transfer indicator is added between power& store bar, an arrow with a number above which changes color&direction: green(full&excessive), blue(charging&excessive), yellow(consuming&shortage) and red (empty&shortage)

[Xardoz]

Well, I simply would like something like in Creeper World 3 : you see how much you consume/produce in the same bar (even if it's only numbers !), and you see the cost of each building in its icon. Only that would be perfect for me ! :D
The Creeper World 3 system is very good and I would love to see it in Particle Fleet (to make my whole main idea short ;)).

Right now i can think of 2 possibilities to give better feedback to the player about power:
1) Power bar is replaced by a small graph showing maybe 5-10 seconds, updating after 1 or 2 seconds; two lines power production&consumption
2) An energy transfer indicator is added between power& store bar, an arrow with a number above which changes color&direction: green(full&excessive), blue(charging&excessive), yellow(consuming&shortage) and red (empty&shortage)

I don't think there is a need of "complicated/elaborated" graphs. I own Factorio too and the Creeper World trilogy, I really love them all a lot : in Creeper World, what is functioning well for me is the simplicity of the interface, the easy access of the info, which is perfect because it's an action/strategy game.
In Factorio, there's a lot of informations... But it's a planning/simulation game.
1) In your ideas, first would be too much complex to read basic and vital information "instantly" in a game like Particle Fleet (I think ;)). But it still isn't bad idea, it could be nice to be able to open a new window to see what is consuming how much energy, and in which way (construction/ammo...)(even if still in numbers by the way), but I don't know if it's really worth it to try to implement such a complex thing. (I really don't know, I'm not against the idea ! I simply don't want to push a too complex idea to virgil ;)).
2) Your second idea could be nice to implement in the actual production bar : coloring the bar or even the font of the "Production" word for example, or something else in the UI.
There is the "storage" bar who is already giving us information concerning the "critical" status of ratio production/consumption : if empty, you're certainly over consuming, if full, you are under consuming, and if "hesitating" at a point, you're in a balance. There could be fields of improvements with this bar too ?

[...]
I get the impression that power consumption in Particle Fleet is more 'spiky' than in the Creeper World games (especially with tankers), so maybe the energy consumption/demand figure should be averaged over a longer time period to give a better idea of the overall power requirements.

What is your idea with "averaged over a longer time period" ? You mean there should be two consumption bar : current and "planned average" ?

[Grabarz]

Saying you want it is easy - now please make an actual suggestion how.  ;)

I think it was Karsten who replied a few days ago in prelease chatter that they (developer&testers) worked so often on the power bar...and i swear i could hear him sigh.

Can't it be an averaged value?

Anything that gives the player at least an idea of which ships are using up all the power.

One idea would be to have a progress bar divided by each ship in play, and the length of each division would correspond to the relative power usage of each ship, smoothed out a bit so it's not jittery from usage spikes.

Another idea would be to have a button which opens up a small menu listing every weapon in play (not ships, but individual weapons) and showing their energy drains. Then, if a weapon is using up too much, pick a ship which has it currently functioning and turn it off if need be. This gives the player insight into what weapon is best to disable to get the most power.

If showing current energy usage is too much... just give us information on how much power the ship will drain at full usage when it's selected. If a weapon on the ship is disabled (OFF state), this value would update as if that weapon was not on the ship. This would help people learn about just how much power each weapon needs and give them insight on how to micro their ships. I've played for quite a bit now and the only thing I've really managed to pick up in terms of power management is that MK7 and particle beams are massive power hogs.

[Xardoz]

Anything that gives the player at least an idea of which ships are using up all the power.

And what about showing values on the left panel, where you click to select which ship you want to construct/move ?
Here each ships are always displayed, so there could be the cost of the ship + current energy consumed for production, energy consumed for ammo (all of this in numbers). All of this for each ship, and it would be always visible !
The best would be to be able to toggle the display of extended informations on/off if there is too many (for people who want "light" UI).
Edit : After more thinking, this idea is maybe not as good as it sounded first : it may lead to too much information, so not enough clear/readable...

[Kharnellius]

Going to echo a similar point I made about a week ago.  I suggested using a Command & Conquer system.  See post below.

http://knucklecracker.com/forums/index.php?topic=21478.msg148323#msg148323

[Kharnellius]

Anything that gives the player at least an idea of which ships are using up all the power.

And what about showing values on the left panel, where you click to select which ship you want to construct/move ?
Here each ships are always displayed, so there could be the cost of the ship + current energy consumed for production, energy consumed for ammo (all of this in numbers). All of this for each ship, and it would be always visible !
The best would be to be able to toggle the display of extended informations on/off if there is too many (for people who want "light" UI).
Edit : After more thinking, this idea is maybe not as good as it sounded first : it may lead to too much information, so not enough clear/readable...

No, I think this would be an excellent idea!  A toggle would allow it to be as simple as people want.

I HAD NO IDEA THE VERTICAL GREEN BAR WAS HOW MUCH ENERGY THE SHIP HAD!  I always assumed that was its health.  Now I realize the bar is energy and the icon is health.