Author Topic: 2.4 UI sugestions  (Read 2533 times)

Offline shvarz

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2.4 UI sugestions
« on: October 18, 2005, 12:12:22 PM »
Let's just go through all the menus on the "New simulation" panel:

Species:
1. Why is there "Duplicate species" button?  AFAIK it does not do anything that "Add species" button does not.

Mutation rates (Love the new setup and the explanation box):
1.  Would be nice to have "Set to defaults" button in case you realized you messed up something.
2. Need explantions for what the bell-shaped curve does, as well as what the units are in "low", "mean" and "high".  It says "Int."  but it is not clear what it is.  Reasonable range is not clear.
3. For "point" and "copy error" need a "hover tip" for the "Change type - change value" slider to say "Probability".
4. Mutation sumations don't work.
5. Not cleat what "apply changes globally" button means.  Need a "hover tip" or an explanation.

General (love the new veggy energy controls):
1. Need a "hover tip" to explain what "waste threshold" means and/or what values are acceptable in there.
2. Settings for "Light gradient" are confusing (sediment level can't be changed at all).  I'd prefer simpler controls and some default values, as I have no idea what numbers would give what result anyway.

Physics and costs (yay!!!  this is great!):
1. The buttons and menus should show the current state of the sim or some default values.
2. Need some explanation of what "efficiency" is.
3. Swimming factor??  Wtf?  :)
4. Costs panel needs "set to default" button in case you changed it and forgot what they were.

Advanced controls (nice that they are hidden!):
1. Shame that "planet eaters" is hidden in there.
2. Zero momentum...  would be nice to choose this without going into "advanced controls".

Mutations:
1. No need for these kinds of mutation controls.  Maybe move "multiply mutation frequency" to the toolbox in the actual simulation?  Instead, give scripts their own panel.  They'll need it :)

Restart and league.
1. I don't use this panel often, but when I tried it once, it was not clear on how to set this up and what controls do.  Maybe some explanations, guide?

internet: no comments
recording: pretty nice, no comments
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Offline PurpleYouko

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2.4 UI sugestions
« Reply #1 on: October 18, 2005, 12:30:04 PM »
Quote
1. Why is there "Duplicate species" button? AFAIK it does not do anything that "Add species" button does not.
There always has been. Doesn't it work in 2.4?

I always use this for things like my Ant-Bot sims when I want a bunch of different/same ant colonies.

I set up one ant with all the settings I like then duplicate it a few times. Then just adjust the colors to get a bunch of competing colonies that are in fact the same species.

Must admit, I never really found much use for it other than that.

Not sure it is possible to "add" the same species twice.
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Offline Numsgil

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2.4 UI sugestions
« Reply #2 on: October 18, 2005, 01:31:36 PM »
I'll definately either get on this or send my new programming assistant (wolfhound) to work on it.

Offline Endy

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2.4 UI sugestions
« Reply #3 on: October 18, 2005, 05:32:45 PM »
I think Duplicate Species is good for having several species with the same mutation rates and nrg levels. I typically use this rather than Add Species. I especially like to run dna coding tests with it. I'll have several virtually identical species with the only difference being a peice of dna. Then I evaluate which is better(depends on test) based on overall species success.

Maybe have an advanced mutations area, like the advanced physics area. The older method for mutations seemed to work fairly well.

Agree with having the ability to globally change mutation rates, in game. I normally have to pause the sim and sneakily change the settings; to do this. :)
« Last Edit: October 18, 2005, 05:48:49 PM by Endy »