Ending Toasts

[jameskuyper]

I keep a list on paper of the current diplomatic state and the current rumors. Every time I stop in a port, I have to compare each item on my list with each item on the conflicts and rumors screen, to determine which conflicts and rumors have ended. It would be a lot easier for me if there were toasts informing us that a given conflict state or rumor has ended.

With rumors, the end-of-rumor toast should probably not be so prompt as it should be for conflicts. You might not hear about the end of a Spice Hall rumor until the next time you listen for Spice Hall rumors; you might not hear about the end of a Palace rumor until the next time you listen for Palace rumors. However, you should always hear about the end of a rumor when you visit the corresponding map location.

[sebastian]

I think this end toast should only be available if u have the political officer hired on. That being said all rumors and conflict states should be on the list until you find out differently, either via the rumor mill or visiting the area and getting the facts.

If you never partake of rumors it should be possible to get bit in the arse by a conflict u didnt even know about.

[Cory Trese]

This, of course, is a really brilliant idea. Especially if we get to a point where there is a "recent events" log beyond the toast stream.

However, at this time I do not actually know when a Conflict ends. The UI receives a lazy notification from the simulator about new Conflicts at various points (meeting a new ship in orbit, docking, etc) but today I'm not even sure that the engine tracks the end of a conflict enough to generate a notification.

That may sound really strange but the "do it when you have resources available" style code tends to work very well on phones, but yields patterns like a "conflicts sweeper" that is doing a "garbage collection" style maintenance of conflicts, not a "delete / insert" style. It all ends in the saved game file eventually, but by the time it's officially deleted, no one is watching closely enough to alert the UI.

[jameskuyper]

I don't think it's necessary, or even appropriate, for end toasts to occur promptly after the end of the events they're connected to. Having some delay in getting news is entirely reasonable. Even if they had to wait until the next time I opened the "Conflicts" screen before getting an "End of Conflict" toast (which should certainly be feasible), it would still save me time compared with checking every single conflict on my hand-written list against every single conflict listed on that screen.

[Cory Trese]

I have added it to the long term technical roadmap for the game's Engine. If in the future we endeavor to re-write the conflict simulation threads I will ensure that the design includes a way to build / manage end of conflict events.

Also now that it is on the list and in my mind I will continue to look for a way to add it to the existing system.

[wheelofthelaw]

Jul 9, 2011 12:18:09 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

This, of course, is a really brilliant idea. Especially if we get to a point where there is a "recent events" log beyond the toast stream.

However, at this time I do not actually know when a Conflict ends. The UI receives a lazy notification from the simulator about new Conflicts at various points (meeting a new ship in orbit, docking, etc) but today I'm not even sure that the engine tracks the end of a conflict enough to generate a notification.

That may sound really strange but the "do it when you have resources available" style code tends to work very well on phones, but yields patterns like a "conflicts sweeper" that is doing a "garbage collection" style maintenance of conflicts, not a "delete / insert" style. It all ends in the saved game file eventually, but by the time it's officially deleted, no one is watching closely enough to alert the UI.

I was going to suggest the "end of conflict" thing as well. That's really interesting about the system environment, though - I never thought of that being the case.