Message Settings

[pthooie]

If devs couldn't make pausing less necessary in a game like HOI4 - which is a wargame with constant action, they're not going to make it work in Vic3, which is a lot more information and data-heavy. This makes the central point of the thread of implementing message settings even more important

Even if they had successfully reduced the need for pausing, it wouldn't justify removing message settings. There would still be benefits to pausing even if you had to do it less often.
Still, the fact that the devs are acknowledging that players like pausing gives me some hope.

 

[Torakka]

I suppose we will get army management dev diaries in not-too-distant future which will hopefully shed some light on how they have tried to tackle the problem of controlling global military without being able to get autopausing "army arrived" (and similar) notifications. Or perhaps that's the point when we'll be pleasantly surprised to learn that there will be some notification customisation in V3, but I'm not really holding my breath...

 

[Axe99]

I suppose we will get army management dev diaries in not-too-distant future which will hopefully shed some light on how they have tried to tackle the problem of controlling global military without being able to get autopausing "army arrived" (and similar) notifications. Or perhaps that's the point when we'll be pleasantly surprised to learn that there will be some notification customisation in V3, but I'm not really holding my breath...

Aye - the UI challenge for managing a global empire with no notification of battles or arrivals all over the world is substantial (and annoying, as evidenced by HoI4 and Stellaris (substitute galaxy for world) - and I've not yet dared go near a geographically dispersed playthrough of CK3 due to this, and probably won't.

 

[Lord Canterbury]

Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #22 - Quality of Life​

It’s Thursday again and we have just two things to announce.

1 - You will have the ability to turn on pop-up-and-pause notifications for unit arrivals.
2 - Those notifications will have a go-to-province button.

You are welcome.

 

[Axe99]

Victoria 3 - Dev Diary #22 - Quality of Life​

It’s Thursday again and we have just two things to announce.

1 - You will have the ability to turn on pop-up-and-pause notifications for unit arrivals.
2 - Those notifications will have a go-to-province button.

You are welcome.

Hahahaha, we can but dream

 

[abibatoot]

Hahahaha, we can but dream

I did actually have a dream some months ago where Wiz confirmed message settings, apologized for them being absent in CK3, and promised that all future games would have them. I guess I just really like message settings.

 

[Willem IV]

For me it’s a deal breaker

 

[Torakka]

On somewhat related note, this week's dev diary did show us in-game notification for the first time (or at least I'm fairly sure it's first time).

We probably can't draw any far-fetching conclusions based on that, especially because all the screenshots are from work in progress, but I'd guess that is similar to CK3 right-side notification stream / log thing. No clear buttons to do anything (same as in that CK3 notification stream), but I can't say what that circle symbol in upper right corner there is. It could just collapse / expand the message, but if I recall correctly in CK3 clicking anywhere in the header bar will do that.

 

[Axe99]

On somewhat related note, this week's dev diary did show us in-game notification for the first time (or at least I'm fairly sure it's first time).

We probably can't draw any far-fetching conclusions based on that, especially because all the screenshots are from work in progress, but I'd guess that is similar to CK3 right-side notification stream / log thing. No clear buttons to do anything (same as in that CK3 notification stream), but I can't say what that circle symbol in upper right corner there is. It could just collapse / expand the message, but if I recall correctly in CK3 clicking anywhere in the header bar will do that.

Cheers Torakka At least it looks like we'll get at least half-decent diplomatic notifications somewhere.

 

[pthooie]

On somewhat related note, this week's dev diary did show us in-game notification for the first time (or at least I'm fairly sure it's first time).

We probably can't draw any far-fetching conclusions based on that, especially because all the screenshots are from work in progress, but I'd guess that is similar to CK3 right-side notification stream / log thing. No clear buttons to do anything (same as in that CK3 notification stream), but I can't say what that circle symbol in upper right corner there is. It could just collapse / expand the message, but if I recall correctly in CK3 clicking anywhere in the header bar will do that.

In addition to that screenshot, I have noticed at least two other screenshots of messages (in Monthly Update #4):

The first one looks like a popup that appears in the middle of the screen. In other games, it would have a button in the corner that would open the settings for that message (but in this image, that corner is conveniently covered by the "WIP" text, so we can't tell whether it has such a button).
The second one is of the same type as the one @Torakka posted. One difference is that the blue circle isn't full, but I don't know what that might mean. Another difference is the icon in the top left, which suggests that these messages are divided into categories, which would be useful for filtering message settings.
With a message settings system, I would expect to be able to configure which notification type is used for each message.

 

[Torakka]

Nice finds!

I suspect that circle thing might be some sort of "time remaining" indicator and when it runs out that notification disappears from the notification feed. Also, while I really want to believe the existence of that pop-up indicates something positive for message customisation, I'm fairly certain it might be similar to how Stellaris handles some alerts, i.e. when some stuff x that usually generates alert happens first time in game, it is shown as pop-up instead and all the following occurrences will be as alerts.

 

[pthooie]

I suspect that circle thing might be some sort of "time remaining" indicator and when it runs out that notification disappears from the notification feed.

Yeah, this possibility crossed my mind too. If notifications automatically disappear after some time, it becomes especially important to be able to auto-pause when they appear.

 

[fodazd]

Well, I guess we will have no need for army arrives or siege complete notifications after all...

 

[Torakka]

Yeah...
Will have to see a lot more before I form any strict opinions on that war-system, but that is definitely a one way to eliminate the need for those particular notifications...

 

[Merrivale]

Yeah...
Will have to see a lot more before I form any strict opinions on that war-system, but that is definitely a one way to eliminate the need for those particular notifications...

Indeed, may make the game more like Stellaris in that although you still miss message settings, it isn't crippling. One of the first thoughts I had too but didn't want to inject my own hobby horse into the DD thread since it wasn't really relevant.

 

[Axe99]

While we won't need an "army arrived" notification, it will still be important to know what's going on. Presumably we'll still be charged with moving reserves about and similar, and if a landing has taken place and we're not told until it's too late, those reserves won't arrive until things have been decided. Similarly, if a front is suffering badly to an enemy offensive, we may not have tactical decisions to make, but we should have strategic decisions, and it's important players are told about those to.

More-or-less, unless players have no agency in warfare at all (which I highly doubt will be the case), Vicky 3 will still be a far better game if it empowers players by telling them what's going on, rather than requiring tedious map-micro.

 

[Torakka]

While we won't need an "army arrived" notification, it will still be important to know what's going on. Presumably we'll still be charged with moving reserves about and similar, and if a landing has taken place and we're not told until it's too late, those reserves won't arrive until things have been decided. Similarly, if a front is suffering badly to an enemy offensive, we may not have tactical decisions to make, but we should have strategic decisions, and it's important players are told about those to.

More-or-less, unless players have no agency in warfare at all (which I highly doubt will be the case), Vicky 3 will still be a far better game if it empowers players by telling them what's going on, rather than requiring tedious map-micro.

That is also true outside the scope of war: for example, I can imagine it would be nice to have some alert or notification (that I can set to auto-pause) for stuff like significant shortage of some important good, discontent rising among the populace, new diplomatic play targeting important region or whatever else occurrence that would be better reacted immediately rather than days, weeks or months later. And that option to be able to set that sort of alerts and notifications to auto-pause is quite crucial, because without it I'd still be "forced" to constantly watch for new alerts and notifications and be ready to manually pause at any moment, instead of just trusting the game to take care of that.

 

[pthooie]

That is also true outside the scope of war: for example, I can imagine it would be nice to have some alert or notification (that I can set to auto-pause) for stuff like significant shortage of some important good, discontent rising among the populace, new diplomatic play targeting important region or whatever else occurrence that would be better reacted immediately rather than days, weeks or months later. And that option to be able to set that sort of alerts and notifications to auto-pause is quite crucial, because without it I'd still be "forced" to constantly watch for new alerts and notifications and be ready to manually pause at any moment, instead of just trusting the game to take care of that.

Yes, there are plenty of non-military events for which it would make sense to have notifications. Off the top of my head based on what we already know:

• Each stage of a diplomatic play
• An interest group changes its approval or influence level
• A political movement appears or disappears
• A law passes or fails
• A building finishes construction
• Your rank changes
• A character dies

I'd be surprised if notifications for these aren't already implemented, even if message settings aren't. Based on the screenshots above, some kind of notification system is definitely implemented. I don't think it would be very difficult to implement a screen that lists all the notifications that exist and has some settings for them.

 

[Lord Canterbury]

Yes, there are plenty of non-military events for which it would make sense to have notifications. Off the top of my head based on what we already know:

• Each stage of a diplomatic play
• An interest group changes its approval or influence level
• A political movement appears or disappears
• A law passes or fails
• A building finishes construction
• Your rank changes
• A character dies

I'd be surprised if notifications for these aren't already implemented, even if message settings aren't. Based on the screenshots above, some kind of notification system is definitely implemented. I don't think it would be very difficult to implement a screen that lists all the notifications that exist and has some settings for them.

I agree, but importantly I would also note that all of these (except probably diplomatic plays) don't have the same urgency that unit notifications have.

For things like building construction, it usually doesn't matter much if you don't know about it straight away and you wait a few months before starting a new building. But if your army stands around just picking its nose for a few months that is often enough ruin a game.

I'd been getting pretty pessimistic about my expectations for notifications and message settings. I still am, but the move away from a tactical army interface does make notifications much less critical in my view.

 

[pthooie]

I like some of the announced gameplay changes like diplomatic plays and the new warfare system. But if I were paranoid, I might say that these changes are deliberately designed to reduce the need for pausing (like they tried to do in HOI4), which would not be a good sign for message settings. For example, if someone declares war on you, it will no longer happen suddenly, but the diplomatic play will give you time to prepare, so it might be less devastating if you don't react immediately when the actual war starts. And as mentioned above, the lack of controllable units might make it less important to pause during war.
If that's the actual intent, it might be good for people who want to play without pausing, but it won't work for players who want to pause (just like it didn't work in HOI4). Pausing will still be useful, and I will still want to pause on the exact tick that e.g. a war starts, even if it's less necessary to do so.