Re: Weird fuel behavior

[Jim Kingdon <kingdon at panix dot com>]

> I think that there a number of instances where notifications should be 
> issued, but are not.

I don't like the notifications as they exist now because there is also
lots of noise, as well as useful information.  So if we get rid of
some of the useless ones while we add new ones, I might be with you.
My favorite example of a useless one is when you hit "t" for take and
it says "unit got 5 fuel" - I can see telling the user somehow, but
not putting into a history along with unexpected occurrences.  Perhaps
an even better example is the "unit completed" messages at the start
of each turn - it isn't as if you need to see those messages so you
can hunt down each one and give it orders - the UI will prompt you for
what each of the new units should do, which is sufficient indication
of their having been created.  And the mess of "unit completed"
messages tends to obscure whatever the AI opponent did at the end of
last turn or the start of this one.

>   "Your dee-stroy-er, strength 1, ree-pelled an at-tack-ing dee-stroy-er."
>   "Dee-stroy-er dee-stroyed your dee-stroy-er."

Sort of, but with a "click for details" on each line.  So the summary
is "Your 15th bomber destroyed the Sudanese 132nd armor", the details
might be:

    Bomber versus armor hit chance starts at 25%.
    This armor is in a city, which gives it 50% protection.
    So the hit chance was 12%.
    The dice were rolled, and got a hit.
    Bomber versus armor damage is 1 hit point.
    The armor started with 1 hit point, so it was left with 0, and was
    destroyed.
    Its material was destoyed with it.... (or wrecking, or whatever
    consequences of destruction would be).

Obviously putting too much information in this window could just lead
to information overload, but I was hoping to at least have enough to
make it clear why something happened (especially to cover mistake or
quasi-mistake situations, like making attacks which have 0% or almost
0% chance of success, or perhaps defensive fortifications which were
useless in the particular situation, or something like that).

> Maybe an unit graveyard window would be useful for displaying pastunits 
> and their associated event logs. Have the most recently deceased
> units 

I like this one.

Units going away is one of the particularly distressing and
(potentially) surprising events, so having a window for it seems to
make sense.