Give us the tools for easier micro !

[Metztli]

A lot of people are complaining how bad the micro became with the new patch but I think the problem lies in the tools that you use to administer your planets instead of the work itself.
For example it's super tedious to go through every planet (specially when you are playing wide) and add the same encourage pop growth decision instead of doing it with only a couple of clicks.
Another thing is that all jobs start with highest job priority which adds pointless clicking of downgrading everything and then increasing the ones you consider to be most important (just made the jobs priority to be "normal" by default or even better idea having an empire wide options about the jobs priorities and microing only few planets you wanna min/max).
These are just couple of ideas of mine I'm sure people already made more detailed lists but Paradox please give us QoL changes after the crucial optimizations for the late game lag and AI.

 

[Livigy]

I would like some automatic migration tools. Like if my main species starts displacing slaves in the worker strata that they would instead migrate to a free specialist slot in an ecumonopolis. Instead I have to manually move pops about as my worlds don't have housing unemployment or stability issues so natural migration is an extremely rare occurance. It would also be nice if my thrall worlds would start exporting slaves once they hit a set pop threshold.

 

[Captain Conundrum]

I would love a simple per-planet toggle that lets me tell a planet to automatically resettle unemployed pops to another planet that has free housing and jobs.

 

[maxp779]

The tool was called Sectors. They butchered it in the latest update.

 

[Mikhail_Mengsk]

A working Sector AI would allow players to offload planets to it, leaving them to nurture a few key planets in a way that satisfies their plans.

Like, if we could (at a cost) design a planet for resource mining, the AI could build districts/resource buildings on its own.

If you could set a few "mandatory" buildings for each planet, the AI would always build them first. I want Robot Assembly first, then Gene Clinic, then Noble Houses? Ok, then, a few clicks and you won't have to check the planet every 5 pop.

If you could set a maximum amounto of POP for a planet, and tell the AI to automatically resettle every excess POP to Planet X, it would take away the boring manual resettling.

If you could tell the AI to automatically upgrade the government building, it would be super-useful to not having to check new colonies when they hit 10 POPs.

If you could set up Job Priorities in the Races' Panel, for example forcing X specie as "mines only" and another "technicians only", you would maximise your jobs in a couple clicks.


Of course it wouldn't be an optimal min-maxing setup, but if the player wants it still could not use those commands and just micro everything.

 

[Derp]

you don't need (and i don't want) an AI to do things that could be just as easily handled by a better interface

i know there's mixed feelings about the design/balance in endless space and endless space 2 on these forums, but nobody here can honestly deny that paradox could learn some valuable lessons in UI design from them

 

[TheAtreides84]

I think this is the first time I see a game patch doing the opposite of the stated intent. I mean, many of them don't work in reducing lag, or improving AI, or whatever. But stating in multiple dev diaries you're developing a patch to decrease micro, and ending up increasing it, that's really something else.

 

[TheAtreides84]

you don't need (and i don't want) an AI to do things that could be just as easily handled by a better interface

i know there's mixed feelings about the design/balance in endless space and endless space 2 on these forums, but nobody here can honestly deny that paradox could learn some valuable lessons in UI design from them

Endless Space II has full building automation.

 

[exi123]

A very good idea how to control the micromanagement with planets is mentioned here:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/designing-planets-like-ships.1144409/

I really like this one...

 

[Arutar]

For starters, I'd like a simple button which allows me to declare a planet being "complete", if I have no intention to replace rural districts with city districts (for more housing) or upgrade buildings (for more jobs).

The button would basically disable all notifications of the planet in the ledger (i.e. unemployment, lack of housing, etc.) and instead display a green cross or whatvever.

This wouldn't ofc fix anything regarding micromanagement but would make it easier to focus my attention on the planets who actually need micromanagement.

 

[LordNarvi]

An empire wide jobs list would be great for me, with habitability subdivisions, so I can properly reallocate my pops. Jobs are fungible so it doesn't really matter which planet they're on, aside from the habitability thing.

 

[The Dadinator]

I would like some automatic migration tools. Like if my main species starts displacing slaves in the worker strata that they would instead migrate to a free specialist slot in an ecumonopolis. Instead I have to manually move pops about as my worlds don't have housing unemployment or stability issues so natural migration is an extremely rare occurance. It would also be nice if my thrall worlds would start exporting slaves once they hit a set pop threshold.

Maybe not exact but I did create this mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1617534169

 

[Captain Conundrum]

Maybe not exact but I did create this mod: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1617534169

Oh my god, thank you! It looks like the only thing that is missing that could be useful would be per-planet toggles, but this will be wonderful even without that

 

[evilcat]

I would like top screen pop up if one of my planets have enemployment. Just glaring over list of planets is too big part of game.
TIP: you can swap sectors list for planets list, which makes the side list shorter

 

[Arutar]

I would like top screen pop up if one of my planets have enemployment.

Well, I personally think we rather need less notifications than more. Unemployment (and lack of housing) is almost inevitable on most planets in the lategame.

Unfortunately, the game notifications do not differentiate between my fully built pop 140 planet having 1 unemployment person (and there is nothing I am going to do about it) or my new colony having 5 because I forgot to check for a while.

 

[monkeypunch87]

Well, I personally think we rather need less notifications than more. Unemployment (and lack of housing) is almost inevitable on most planets in the lategame.

Unfortunately, the game notifications do not differentiate between my fully built pop 140 planet having 1 unemployment person (and there is nothing I am going to do about it) or my new colony having 5 because I forgot to check for a while.

I was just thinking: In our society everything under 5% unemployment is considered full employment. Maybe a notification should only trigger at over 5% per planet.

 

[Cronos988]

I was just thinking: In our society everything under 5% unemployment is considered full employment. Maybe a notification should only trigger at over 5% per planet.

That'd be bad for the early game though, since it would start triggering as early as 20 pops.

The new resettlement screen is already a step in the right direction. Give us the ability to filter per job (including "unemployed") instead of per Planet and the job of relocating pops to new planets already gets easier.

A full planet designer might be the best way to reduce micro while keeping full player control, but I am not sure if that is the direction the devs want to go.

 

[monkeypunch87]

That'd be bad for the early game though, since it would start triggering as early as 20 pops.

Well, yeah. At the beginning of planetary development every Pop is important. It is more a solution for the later stages. But maybe it would be better if it starts at 10% unemployment (so 2 of your 20 Pops are unemployed).

 

[Iche_Bins]

TIP: you can swap sectors list for planets list, which makes the side list shorter

You can?? Thank you!


The thing I miss most is a decent sortable Planet list. I want to be able to see on one glance where f.ex. the stability is to low or crime to high.

 

[Jezirah]

In my last game i wanted to assimilate the whole galaxy... halfway I started to destroy most of the planets because they colonized all planets, with size <15, and they build so many habitat...

At the end I had to manage around 160 planets/habitat and every 10 seconds messages about corrupted drones...
This wasn't fun anymore...