Too much micromanagement?

[Dobber]

You are Welcome, and it is okay for us to disagree. We all have our opinions and that is fine. I understand what it is you want, to you it would make the game better, to me it would make it less Anno. Maybe they could incorporate an option for simplified economic management similar to the option for simplified building and simplified road construction and let us choose which way to play it. This is something that should be added to the Expansion suggestions thread. Could you add it there for us?
Also, Thank you for understanding my position, eventhough you do disagree!
Now let us enjoy Anno!
--

For example, you can look at the warehouse and see by the bars which goods are filling up. Suppose there was a little snooze button next to the goods on this screen that would shut down production of all the facilities on the island associated with producing those goods? Instead of manually selecting each building and turning them off, you could just shut down all of them on the island. This would still require management on the part of the user, and not change any costs, and still provide for the current method where you might want to only turn a couple of them off.

Another idea would be a double click on a building selects all buildings of that type on the island, a click on the snooze would turn all on/off.

You can already turn off all the facilities of the same kind on an island with one click!
Select the facility, press and hold the Shift key and click to snooze and all buildings of the type will snooze. They can be turned on in likewise manner!

[Toccatta]

Select the facility, press and hold the Ctrl key and click to snooze and all buildings of the type will snooze. They can be turned on in likewise manner!

CTRL?

Sorry, TheBogNug. My bad.

[Dobber]

CTRL?



:blush: Excuse me, the Shift key.

[TheBogNug]

Sweet. That's what I'm talking about. I wonder how many other things like this I don't know about. Next you are going to tell me I can hotkey my ships and cycle through my warehouses. :wink:

[Dobber]

Sweet. That's what I'm talking about. I wonder how many other things like this I don't know about. Next you are going to tell me I can hotkey my ships and cycle through my warehouses. :wink:

Actually, ..........................
Nevermind!


Edit
You were being sarcastic with the last part of that weren't you?

[TheBogNug]

Haha. Yeah. Thanks again for that tip though. :cool:

[People's Republic of China]

I think the operating costs make this a unique game.

[Daego]

Don't forget you can hold down SHIFT and click the sleep button to turn off all identical buildings on the island. Thus, if you push all of your lumberjacks to another island, you can easily toggle them on and off.

And FYI wood in a smelter makes sense -- melting ore to forge it into usable metal needs a lot of energy. In the 1700's, that energy came from burning a lot of wood.

[RoadRunner]

I think you are discussing a feature like in Industrial Giant 2, where you could move a slider to select how much a facility would produce.

Well, there are some difficulties I see at the moment:
- That's not an Anno feature. OK, this is not really an argument, since you cannot say exactly what things make the Anno game or Anno feeling. But... for some reason, I do not think that this feature will fit.
- What about the production costs? Will they go down if you produce at 80%? If so, why? If not: what do you need this feature for? :scratch: If you produce not enough, 100% is still not enough. If you produce too much, a 50% reduction will not really help if that will not reduce costs. At present, overproduction is stored and (if you decide so) it is sold for more money than it was produced for. If the storage is full, you may close the production or leave it with reduced productivity at full costs.
- Implementation will probably take more time as the slider is missing... But I do not think that is a really good argument either. :smile:

Well, let's wait and see. Who knows, maybe we get something similiar in Anno 4 or 5... :wink:

[DrWu]

This is an interesting topic for discussion,that's what the forums are for.Personally,I can't get enough micromanagement,after a while this does get tedious,but that's when I slow down and back off a bit.Keep in mind,that we really don't want them to incorporate every conceivable option in this 1701 game,then what would be left for future versions.

[Toccatta]

And FYI wood in a smelter makes sense -- melting ore to forge it into usable metal needs a lot of energy. In the 1700's, that energy came from burning a lot of wood.

Naturally it makes sense. I never said it didn't. If you take another look at my post, you'll see that I didn't say that using wood DIDN'T make sense... I said that since the wood wasn't a part of the finished product, wood qualifies as an operational expense. If you pay attention to the smelter, you'll see that it does NOT use up wood if you run out of ore, which is contrary to the idea that a facility should continue to run at 100% of its normal expenses whether or not it's producing anything.

That provides a clear and obvious precedent for having the game engine reduce the expenses at least a little bit automatically for facilities that aren't actually producing anything.

Now given that the foreman of the smelter is smart enough to curb his operational expenses by not wasting his wood when he has no ore, then why isn't anyone ELSE smart enough to curb their operational expenses when they are incapable of producing things? Actually, that's not even a fair question, since the master shipbuilder IS smart enough. Both the large and small shipyard automatically turn themselves off when they're not building a ship. Now I don't suggest going that far for all production facilities, but it does serve as a second precedent for a building to automatically reduce its expenses when it's not needed.

I honestly do understand people's desire to micromanage the situation. Really. I know there are a lot of people that like to roll up their sleeves and get their hands into the nitty-gritty of how things work. What others need to realize is that not all Anno fans feel that way. It isn't my intention to suggest that ability be removed. But I feel like everyone is dismissing the idea without actually reading it if they can't see that it does NOT make micromanaging impossible nor eliminate the advantages of choosing to do so. Clearly, the ability to turn off the facilities for a much larger cost savings still provides a very significant advantage to those that prefer taking that route. On the other hand, the ability to reduce the expenses by a lesser (and not as efficient) amount for those that choose not to micromanage is a compromise that allows both types of players to enjoy the game.

Why MUST it be a black and white issue? Are all the long-time Anno fans really so dead-set against change that they're unwilling to even entertain the possibility that their way might not be the only way if they, themselves, are not required to use the new option? Perhaps it could be as someone else suggested... as a "simplified economy" switch in the interface options which defaults to the current style so that long-time Anno fans that love to micromanage can pretend it doesn't exist if they want to.

[Dobber]

Why MUST it be a black and white issue? Are all the long-time Anno fans really so dead-set against change that they're unwilling to even entertain the possibility that their way might not be the only way if they, themselves, are not required to use the new option? Perhaps it could be as someone else suggested... as a "simplified economy" switch in the interface options which defaults to the current style so that long-time Anno fans that love to micromanage can pretend it doesn't exist if they want to.

Well, they are already dealing with a tremendous amount of change with 1701, making another change does chap them a bit!

Don't forget you can hold down SHIFT and click the sleep button to turn off all identical buildings on the island. .....

That was already stated 7 posts prior in post 25.

[CreamyBlood]

Well, I think that the whole point of this game is micromanagement. I've put in about 60 hours over the last week (bad, I know) but the reason I'm so absorbed is trying to keep up with my growing economy.

Your two points of (I'm over generalising here) having the computer manage most of your economy and run your trade routes wouldn't leave much of the game now would it?

I understand that war is an option (or maybe not, everyone likes me at the moment) but I don't think the point of this game is to rush-build your economy, mass up a bunch of troops/ships and obliterate everyone else.

Okay, well, you can do that too, but I think the journey there is the fun part. This game is all about resource management. At least as far as I can tell, that's what the focus is. Whatever it is, I'm having fun doing it.

As to Toccatta's idea, I don't see anything wrong with it, in fact it might just be adding a layer of uneccessary complexity, I don't know. It might matter in the earlier stages of the game, but then you don't have much else to DO in the earlier stages in the game. If they added the option I doubt I'd really notice it.

But if it helps players that don't like micro managing resources I don't see why it couldn't be an option. But then again, if you don't like micro management I'm not sure why you're playing this game in the first place....

[Vinraith]

For what it's worth, I think the automation/micromanagement balance in this game is just about perfect.

[People's Republic of China]

I Love Anno 1701!!!

[Sir Gawain]

Well...there is one feature added in 1701 that does make a big difference where the issue being discussed is concerned...The audio notification when a production chain falters. I'm diggin' that feature!

+1 for the "Less micromanagement" side.

And then there's the added emphasis placed on exhaustible resources...such as clay pits and ore mines having limitations.

+1 for the "micro" crowd.

Myself, I think it's a nice mix of both. But I'm still only 2 days into the game so give me some time and I'll probably find something to complain about.:silly:

Oh! Waitaminute...found something...Stinkin' Rats!:cool: I need some traps for these critters!:biggrin:

[Dobber]

........if you don't like micro management I'm not sure why you're playing this game in the first place....


:go:




Oh! Waitaminute...found something...Stinkin' Rats!:cool: I need some traps for these critters!:biggrin:

How about some rat terriers?

[Sir Gawain]

:go:
How about some rat terriers?


Hahaha! I liked your "Pied Piper" suggestion. That would be cool to see a herd of rats running into the sea...and would give us some nice flute music to boot! I think you should enter that into the suggestion box if you haven't already.:go:

[Dobber]

Hahaha! I liked your "Pied Piper" suggestion. That would be cool to see a herd of rats running into the sea...and would give us some nice flute music to boot! I think you should enter that into the suggestion box if you haven't already.:go:

I think I will add that to the suggestions thread. But of course there would have to be some monetary costs to hiring the Pied Piper!

[Sir Gawain]

I think I will add that to the suggestions thread. But of course there would have to be some monetary costs to hiring the Pied Piper!

No problemo! That I would pay to see.:evil: