Missing feedback messages (suggestion thread)

Started by Calahan, January 04, 2018, 03:45:18 AM

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Calahan

If you notice any feedback messages that are currently missing from the game, then please post them here AFTER you have first done the following:

1 - Checked the current list to see if it is already included: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=37974.0 (links to pinned thread in the bugs forum)

2 - Checked the not required / WAD list(s) to see if it has previously been mentioned, and not included (for whatever reason).
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=38019.msg389536#msg389536 (links to first post of this thread)

3 - Checked that it applies to the vanilla game and not something specifically related to a mod you are using.


Also please note that this thread is primarily for missing player feedback messages and not missing player notifications, or suggestions for player notifications (the latter being those letters that appears on the right of the screen). These two are quite similar in nature, but there is a clear distinction between them.

A notification message is meant to inform the player about something that has just happened in the game. Whereas a feedback message is meant to inform the player about why they are unable to interact with the game (in the way they are attempting to).

For example, when you select a Pawn and right-click a pending task the right-click menu appears (or should) to allow the player to order the Pawn to perform that task, thereby allowing the player to interact with the game. Sometimes the right-click menu appears, but the task is greyed-out because the Pawn is unable to perform that task, along with a helpful message informing the player why that is. This is a player feedback message. It is feeding information back to the player regarding why they are unable to do something.

The lack of such feedback messages is frustrating for the player because they don't know why they can't perform a given task. Players also sometimes mistake the lack of a feedback message for a bug because they can't figure out why they can't perform the task, and so naturally assume they have encountered a bug. Which they haven't, it's just the game failed to provide the player with the information required to prevent them thinking it was a bug. With the cause of both problems being a missing feedback message, which is why this mini-project now exists in order to find and address all the missing feedback messages.

So if you know of any missing feedback messages then please post them here for me to check and then add to the current list (for the devs to address them).


Finally, this is not intended as a discussion thread, and the more "noise" there is the more time consuming it will be for me to check the posts for valid entries for the list, plus the greater chance of me missing one. So if there is any discussion to be had about something on any of the lists, or a potential entry for the list, please create a new thread for that discussion (in suggestions or GD) and then I can check that thread for any eventual consensus. (although I'm saying this now and before there are any posts in this thread. As there might only be a handful of missing messages meaning only limited posts to read through in the first place. But mentioning it just in case it's an active thread).

Calahan

#1
Feedback messages that are not required / Working As Designed

- (List Currently Empty as of 10th January 2018)






Notification messages that are not required / Working As Designed

1 - There is currently no feedback message for if and when a hungry predator starts hunting a player's Pawn. And the first notification that the player receives about this is likely to be a message about their Pawn being injured. (not a feedback message but it's an issue that's been regularly discussed for a while, so I included it as otherwise it was bound to get mentioned soon enough, and likely repeatedly if it was omitted from the list).

Status: WAD, based on Tynan's comment.

Quote from: Tynan on January 02, 2018, 12:33:01 PMRegarding the hunting messages, it's intended that animals who hunt colonists do so as a surprise attack, so we don't give pre-warnings about this.

jamaicancastle

Not missing, but I feel like the "not enough resources" message that comes up when you try to prioritize a workbench (e.g. tailoring bench) could use more specificity. I especially see a lot of new players confused about needing all of one kind of stuff (particularly leather). If it could check and report on forbidden/unreachable items, that would also cut down on the number of confused players wondering what's going wrong.

I would envision the messages looking something like:
"Cannot prioritize tailoring at tailoring bench: cannot find components x4"
"Cannot prioritize tailoring at tailoring bench: cloth x70 is forbidden"
something along those lines.

Calahan

Yes, questions/non-bug reports (usually from new players) about "not enough resources" problems have certainly been a thing for quite a while. This doesn't quite fit on the list as it stands, but I could easily create another list for this and similar feedback message that are not clear/informative enough, or outright ambiguous.

I won't do that just yet though because of this recent extract of a (large reddit) comment by Tynan. https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/comments/7qh746/next_patch_will_be_10_confirmed_by_tynan/dsplgc1/

•We condensed the leather types to a far smaller grouping to mitigate the "10 of every leather type" problem. I also rebalanced the leathers so they're actually meaningfully different in recognizable, coherent ways.

So it looks like there are changes to (crafting) materials on the way for V.1.0, or at least how they are categorised. Meaning the relevant feedback messages associated with them may have already been looked at and amended/improved accordingly. So might be worth waiting to see if this particular problem still exists in V.1.0 before pointing out the issue with the current feedback message and/or suggest alternative wording for it.

But thanks for bringing it up either way.

Injured Muffalo

This isn't exactly "missing" but it's perhaps mislinked:

Kimmy is in bed to have a bionic leg installed. The best doctor is asleep. Other doctors are awake. So, I pause and select the best doctor to prioritize surgery on Kimmy. Not possible - the message says "need material for surgery." Well I have that. In fact, I'm not entirely sure if the task was reserved at that point, because she just reached the bed.

Anyway, I couldn't give the task to the doctor, so I waited until a lesser doctor decided to do it, drafted him and then I could give the task. No, he wasn't carrying the leg, it was in the store room, and if he was, the game should still find it.

So I have no idea what it meant by "need material" but it seemed closer to a "reserved by" situation.
A muffalo encountered a vimp near a patch of sweet vegetables. A struggle ensued. The muffalo gored the vimp with its horns. The vimp bit the muffalo with its beak. Finally, the vimp was bested, sending large chunks of its flesh in every direction. But the muffalo was injured. It shed a single tear.

mndfreeze

There is an issue with a roof being destroyed over a stockpile thats full of items, if you try to manually right click and build roof the option doesn't appear a lot of the times and instead interacting with whatever is in the stock pile in your way is the only selection choices.  It can be finicky.  Sometimes you can just keep spam clicking around the edges of whatever tile it is and get it, other times it just never does until the item below is moved to another tile.


danielkwinsor

I have seen missing right-click context menu selections in 2 cases.
In one case, this happens when a prisoner is walking around.  Right clicking the tile the pawn is going to produces a menu with Strip, right clicking the tile the pawn is coming from produces Strip, Chat, Feed.
In another case, -- and I have not reproduced this since B18, so I haven't reported it (although I do have a B18 savegame if you request it) -- I was unable to train my pet who was following me, despite every indication that I could, such as having food, not being too recent, being awake, training selected, etc.

danielkwinsor

Please add a message when someone's plant skill is too low to prioritize sowing a field.

Planetfall

Steel doesn't burn. For balance make them weaker but having tribals set steel on fire is just soo immersion breaking.  They don't know how to make arkcutters! they can't even cut stone into bricks!
Oh yeah another thing, in the Tribal start, the tribe can make stone clubs but not stone bricks? I understand that modern/medieval level stone cutting requires metal tools but its obviously not imposable without them as they can mine solid rock (and steel!!!) just fine. I think a stonecutting bill at the crafting spot that's a lot slower than at the stone cutting bench would be nice as a jumpstart. They can make steel walls but not stone...
I'd like some way of making it imposable for tribals to use steel but I doubt that would be an easy thing to do... hmm. Like changing the drop from steel ore from steel to metal chunks so the only way to use metal is to research smithing. But again that's not a simple task. The balancing would be a nightmare.
Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot.
_Carl Sagan_

snigglette

noticed that recently i was not able to right click and prioritize a specific task to colonists, such as comms station for passing by ships, or the prompt to prioritize crafting/smithing items has just stopped popping up, found a run around for the comms by drafting said pawn then right click, but it wasn't like that before, it just stopped working, all non-responsive i don't want to start over...

Ashe

There's no message for tree sowing if there is a roof over the area. It only notifies you when you change the growing type to a tree if a roof is there, but if you put the growing zone in, changed it to a tree type and then roofed it, right clicking it does/shows nothing.

Romi

it would be nice to have a deconstruct option in the floors tab, it's annoying when you want to remove floors and deconstruct walls you have to click on another tab just to find the deconstruct button. so yeah, a little change goes a long way :)

chuckmcwippy

I was surprised not to find this (I may have not looked hard enough) but I think the game as a whole is a complete eyesore. It is such an amazing game and I see no need to fix anything other than this, the ugly textures. The menu screen is ugly, the UI is ugly, but most importantly, the whole game is ugly. The player models are really bad looking and the landscape just looks gross. Please do a redesign of all the visual elements in the whole game because they all just look so bad.

Kirby23590

@chuckmcwippy

You know there is texture mods that can change the looks of some textures. Some change the humans, and others change the weapons. In the Steam Workshop as well in Ludeon Forums Mods.

One "happy family" in the rims...
Custom font made by Marnador.



Pangaea

* There is no pop-up box if you try to order a pawn to uninstall/remove a floor tile, if some other pawn somewhere in the colony has "tagged" that tile for removal. Usually it will list (reserved by xxx) and we can then override it. Not possible here. We need to find the pawn (oftentimes as far away from the location as possible), draft him/her. Then it's possible to remove the floor tile.
--> Please fix this so that we can override it without such finicky workarounds

* The game is already quite touchy about prisoners, especially about "chat with...". Although the option is available because somebody is on the way to talk with the prisoner, the right-click pop-up won't show it as an option for somebody else (with better skill, hence why I want to change). We only get the "strip" option. After much clicking and trial and error, the right option will eventually turn up, but it can take many tries.