Tooltips please

[wodin]

Like to see alot more pop-up tooltips. For instance when being asked what first council et c you want funded, currently no idea really what they truly do and positives and negatives of each choice. What first? Interior council, Economic, Research etc etc??

[CustoV131]

*sigh* Sire, it pains me to have to say this, but you can't blame your mismanagement of the Kingdom of Graykeep on the lack of tooltips. Maybe a bit less indulgent of the royal wine and a bit more focus on the mundane, but necessary government tasks is required.


[;)]For real though, as a tooltip fan myself, I would like to see more of them. I understand some people find them annoying when they know the software, so an option to delay the popup or turn them off would also be welcome.

[devoncop]

There is a very comprehensive 250 pages plus manual on the way which in a game like this one will not be just an optional extra

A lot of choices are situational so generalised tooltips as to which Council is recommended for example could be a bit misleading. Depending on the planet and location and type of factions nearby the usual default of Economic Council first may not be appropriate and Military Council may be better.

[Vic]

There is already loads of tooltips in the game but i'll be adding more based on player feedback (and level of confusion).

best wishes,
vic

[wodin]

Or even a help icon on each window\tab which if clicked would take the player to a help page that explains window\tab contents like an encyclopedia

[wodin]

Still an explanation on what it actually does would be most handy

ORIGINAL: devoncop

There is a very comprehensive 250 pages plus manual on the way which in a game like this one will not be just an optional extra

A lot of choices are situational so generalised tooltips as to which Council is recommended for example could be a bit misleading. Depending on the planet and location and type of factions nearby the usual default of Economic Council first may not be appropriate and Military Council may be better.

[wodin]

I think all new screens first shown to a player need as many Tooltips as possible. Though to be honest it's mainly this particular screen I have no real clue on.

ORIGINAL: Vic

There is already loads of tooltips in the game but i'll be adding more based on player feedback (and level of confusion).

best wishes,
vic

[devoncop]

ORIGINAL: wodin

Still an explanation on what it actually does would be most handy

ORIGINAL: devoncop

Fair point !

[balto]

In your example for the Councils, I think what you mean is that you should not have to pay the Political Points and have it enacted to see what it does. Right now, you have to commit to it, THEN the next turn it shows you what it does.

[KingHalford]

Tooltips are a mixed bag. They can be extremely distracting if they're too big and too detailed. There's an art to making a good tooltip and that art isn't as easy to do as most people would think. I know at least one developer that refuses to use them completely stating that if a game needs them, it's UI needs fixing. I disagree with that personally but there's some wisdom in that statement when you remove the hyperbole: all the tooltips in the world won't fix a bad user interface.

I think the interface in Shadow Empires is pretty good. I like how it's presented and the tooltips are generally concise, but a game of this complexity requires a manual and reading the manual in this game is just not optional. With that in mind, I'm against bloating out the tooltip systems to explain things that can be explained in the manual because once I've read a manual I don't have to go back to it, but turning off otherwise useful tooltips because they've been over-used, they're too big and too distracting isn't something I want to have to do.