Diplomacy Interface
Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2018 11:30 am
The underlying Diplomacy is awesome. I can think of a couple of minor tweaks but essentially it is pretty near perfect as can be.
However:
Information is quite hard to get to because it is buried quite deep.
For example if you want to know who a rival power is at war with you first go to the page which shows the map of who your are at war with.
On the map you click on the flag of the power which you are interested in. This opens a new window that has information about that power and has a map showing the location of the power.
You then click on that map (unless I had watched the development stream it would never have occurred to me to click on that map). Only then do you get the map which shows who that power is at war with.
But the point you really need that information is when a power asks you if you want to make peace. If they are at war with a close ally of yours you don't want to make peace because you will ask you to break that peace.
Hence a list of who a power is at war with should appear on the window where a power offers peace.
I would also prefer a simple table rather than a map ie
Rome: War
Antigonid: Defensive Alliance
etc
This is about Diplomacy but the tendency to hide essential information that requires a lot of clicking to get to is a problem of many features of the game.
To be clear, though I find the interface both counter intuitive and clunky the underlying game is excellent. A poor interface won't spoil a good game nor would a good interface save a poor game.
However:
Information is quite hard to get to because it is buried quite deep.
For example if you want to know who a rival power is at war with you first go to the page which shows the map of who your are at war with.
On the map you click on the flag of the power which you are interested in. This opens a new window that has information about that power and has a map showing the location of the power.
You then click on that map (unless I had watched the development stream it would never have occurred to me to click on that map). Only then do you get the map which shows who that power is at war with.
But the point you really need that information is when a power asks you if you want to make peace. If they are at war with a close ally of yours you don't want to make peace because you will ask you to break that peace.
Hence a list of who a power is at war with should appear on the window where a power offers peace.
I would also prefer a simple table rather than a map ie
Rome: War
Antigonid: Defensive Alliance
etc
This is about Diplomacy but the tendency to hide essential information that requires a lot of clicking to get to is a problem of many features of the game.
To be clear, though I find the interface both counter intuitive and clunky the underlying game is excellent. A poor interface won't spoil a good game nor would a good interface save a poor game.
