Visual Cue when a Factory cannot build more units, during Placement
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I could not find this request anywhere on the existing list:
When placing units, it would be nice if factories that cannot build units were 'greyed out' or otherwise visually distinct from factories that can still build units.
These would include:
- factories that were just captured during the Combat phase
- factories that have now used up their capacity, during the Placement phase
- factories that the player does not control
- (optional case) factories that have no adjacent sea zones, and the only units left to place are ships
The game mechanics once you click on the factory territory work just fine. I just would like to avoid clicking there in the first place if it is pointless. This gets particularly annoying on the larger maps, where a player is likely to have a large number of to-be-placed units and factories (and, in my case, an increasingly less reliable memory as I ease into 'old fart' status).
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@tinfoil666 said in Visual Cue when a Factory cannot build more units, during Placement:
- factories that the player does not control
Shouldn't this be absolutely clear, either because of territory ownership or because of the units display (properly made maps have indistinctive factories only in case they are immobile and always of the same owner as the territory)? If it is not, I would say this is a problem with the map. I could as well make a map in which all units are exactly the same, so you cannot distinguish the control of anything.
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Oh, I agree that this should be the case.
However, I can see myself slipping into a mindset where I am scanning the map, focusing my search for the 'black and white' factories, and ignoring the 'grey and white' factories, and not paying particularly close attention to the 'background color' of the territories.
In addition, a territory (often but not always a small island) can be completely or almost completely covered by the factory.
And to be clear, I am not suggesting that factories are always greyed out. Just during the Placement phase.
I do agree that it is not nearly as useful to implement this one compared to the first two on the list, but I wanted to be as complete as possible, assuming this request were to be implemented someday.
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This is pretty similar to a problem report: https://github.com/triplea-game/triplea/issues/6103, where it's difficult to know during placement phase that you even need to click the map to place (it seems obvious once you've learned that is what you need to do, but coming from the game fresh, on the prerelease there is no indication of what you need to do to place units).
@tinfoil666 I was thinking we could do territory highlights of territories eligible for placement (you can demo the 'territory highlight' by doing a find territory, it will outline the territory in white). We could potentially turn the territory highlight on for all eligible territories, then when the territory/factory is exhausted, turn it off. I wonder if combining that with grayed out factories would make it even more clear.
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@tinfoil666 Neat idea
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Interesting idea. Can't say I've actually had anyone suggest that specifically though as @LaFayette pointed out we've had similar discussions around making purchase/placement easier.
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@tinfoil666 I was thinking we could do territory highlights of territories eligible for placement (you can demo the 'territory highlight' by doing a find territory, it will outline the territory in white). We could potentially turn the territory highlight on for all eligible territories, then when the territory/factory is exhausted, turn it off. I wonder if combining that with grayed out factories would make it even more clear.
I like the territory + factory visual change.
If there were only 1 implemented, I would pick factories, but on maps where the factories are 'invisible' (such as the 'build anywhere' maps), then you would need to highlight the territory for this to work.
Until your response, I forgot that the factories are not always visible.
[edit] Don't forget that the 'eligible territories' should include sea zones adjacent to factories with builds left. Ideally, the sea zone highlights should cease once you have placed your last sea unit.
