Message Settings

[Verrucosus]

I often miss information because the messages about wars, wonders built, civics changed etc. come in when production menus are demanding my attention. By the time I'm done with the menus, the messages (as well as icons pointing to enemy troop movements) are usually gone. I know I can check the log window, but it's easy to forget checking. The little icons showing enemy troop movement. There is an option to delay the menus until all units are moved but this only works if there are units to move.

Is it possible to tell the game to display a type of message in a pop-up window that halts all other action until I have read the message and closed it? I have not seen anything like that on the options screen, but there are a few old-style pop-ups, so maybe there's a hidden way to get other messages displayed like that.

More on a level of wishful thinking, it would be nice to have an option to get messages about information that is available on the report screens anyway. Civ2 embassy reports about foreign tech trades are a good example. Messages about your civ having dropped a rank in a certain demographic could also help.

[Theben]

The info you ask for is for the most part already available though scattered in different locations. Ctrl-tab for most messages (log window), 'show enemy moves' in Options, F4 to look at other civs current civics/enemy tech levels (w/alphabet), and top 5 cities to see which wonders were built.

[wodan11]

Is it possible to tell the game to display a type of message in a pop-up window that halts all other action until I have read the message and closed it?

No but it's possible to tell the user to halt all other action until he has read the messages.

So, here you go: "Halt all other action until you read the messages."

[rah]

Change your settings so the pop ups come at the end of your turn. That way you can concentrate more on the messages as your turn starts. This is a must for MP play so you're not distracted by the pop ups at the begining of your turn while your opponent is attacking your units.

[Garth Vader]

I didn't know about that, but the way I handled it the couple of times I played MP, was to make sure every city 1 or 2 turns away from completing building something had another item in the queue.

[Verrucosus]

Thank you for those tips. Using "minimize popup menus" seems to be the best method. (I think I remember SMAC had a similar issues with messages being blocked by production report popups. You could set most messages to be displayed as popup windows, but not the important announcements about diplomatic action between other factions.) I hadn't even thought about multiplayer, but I could imagine that the designers considered a "rolling" message system preferable particularly for online games because it prevents the game from being slowed down by too many popups. From a single-player perspective, it's less helpful and in fact, a rare instance of a turn-based game forcing the player to follow the game's rather than his own tempo. Still, it's just a minor issue in an otherwise very player-friendly game.

[rah]

I didn't know about that, but the way I handled it the couple of times I played MP, was to make sure every city 1 or 2 turns away from completing building something had another item in the queue.

That just means you were checking your city queues too frequently which probably slowed your turns down. Slow play is the number one killer of MP games. Easier just to minimize your pop ups to the end.