SMAC needs STATISTICS!!!

[Zeiter]

http://tools.google.com/gapminder/

http://www.gapminder.org/

http://www.swivel.com

http://www.nationmaster.com

I'm talking about loads and loads of easily accessible info which is useful, dynamic, and snazzy to look at. For instance:

*Comparing total mineral production and population of the factions over time.

*Comparing energy production and frequency of drone riots of the factions over time.

*Comparing numbers of facilities built and military might of factions over time.

Etc.

(Of course, you would only have information on other factions during the game for as long as you have them infiltrated...but then in the scenario editor or after the game, you would have access to all of the information.)

This kind of stuff would enhance the gameplay tremendously. Does Civ IV have anything like gapminder.com?

[Hydro]

Do you mean stats to compare facilities etc, or to compare progress in the game? The former is more than possible, but the latter - alas - will not happen. SMAX is a very old game (1999) and its developer (Brian Reynolds) has gone on to create the successful Big Huge Games, and SMAX is in a sad legal limbo. There is a basic power chart in the center-base of the screen. But I suppose that isn’t detailed enough.

I don’t remember much about Civ4. It is shelfware for me since it was wildly unstable on my PC, and the irritation fairly quickly overcame any interest I had in the game. Others may know more.

Personally, I like the feedback in the form of XY plots that GalCiv 2 has. It allows you to see everything you’re asking for, even for factions you don’t have infiltrated.

Hydro

[Zeiter]

Well, I guess it would be nice to compare both, but especially the progress of the game.

I was thinking of this especially because during the ACDG3, we Spartans kept a running tally of every infiltrated faction's total per-turn mineral production, mineral-row production (after adjusting for industry rating), EC production, labs production, and occasionally population. But it took some WORK to compile these statistics. It would be oh-so nice if there would be something in the game that would compile them for us.

Yes, there's the powergraph, although that's not detailed enough for my liking. I'm interested in economics and history generally, and just as in real life, I like to have all of the gritty data.

(And also concerning the powergraph...sometimes I think that it would be a more exciting and difficult playing experience if you only had powergraph info for the factions that you have infiltrated. It would make things like getting map data on faction territories or mapping their sea coasts quite imperative in the early game.)

[wgabrie]

No! This is what killed Masters of Orion 3.

[Hydro]

What killed Moo3 was a lack of focus, a terrible interface, too many ‘good ideas’, an opaque design (so you never knew what was happening or why), and a completely inept AI. Still, I really tried to like the game. I really did.

Spreadsheets, graphs, and the like can be hugely helpful when they are well integrated into a game. A good example is GalCiv 2, which has parts of its interface that look shockingly like spreadsheets and Excel-type graphs. And I don’t mind a bit because it works.

Hydro

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Hydro
I don’t remember much about Civ4. It is shelfware for me since it was wildly unstable on my PC, and the irritation fairly quickly overcame any interest I had in the game. Others may know more.

Was Civ4 unstable for you only after it was just released, or is it still unstable with the 1.61 patch applied?

[Hydro]

I don't recall. There were a few patches and a large number of technical fixes that didn't work. I put it away after about 3 months.

Hydro