Better Information Pane Window

[Harry_Dicks]

Hello. I think the info that can be displayed in the info box at the bottom left hand of the screen could use some upgrading. Currently there are the 4 bars for: Health, Mood, Time Restriction (work schedule/activity), Area Restriction

I'm not sure of what plans are in the works for 1.0 and UI changes, or if there are going to even be any at all. If there aren't going to be any significant changes to the information pane at the bottom left of the screen when you select a pawn (can't remember what it's actually called..) then I think the current build could use a bit of upgrading. Because right now, for myself at least, I usually don't ever look at what any of the information says about a pawn in the bottom left.

I can understand while the panel down there looks the way it does, but I believe it could convey much better information to the player.

HEALTH BAR
I think this bar could definitely use some improvement. This is just a suggestion, because I still don't fully understand the difference between health, pain, pain tolerance, bleeding, and "being downed". I feel like all of this information is never clearly given to the player. Can some pawns have more health than each other, or is this all just a percent based system? We can see actual damage numbers from attacks thanks to mods, but I wish we could actually see something like (20,75,130) on a pawn's information tab for (unconscious pain/health, current pain/health, max pain/health).

I didn't play RimWorld from the early alphas, in fact I've only been around for a few months. But coming in as a new player, and you see that there are different systems for pain (and passing out from pain?), health (and kinda invisible damage numbers), what it takes to "down" a pawn (ironman and wimp and such), bleeding and bleeding out, and all of these systems are different yet they interact with each other. I don't think I'm alone in the fact that if you were to ask a random RimWorld player, who might even have some decent hours under their belt, to explain all of these systems (along with rest/sleep/energy/tiredness), how they compare and contrast, and how they all interact with each other, and I bet you they would fail.

I'm not trying to say I am smart enough that I should be able to understand all of this right away, but I feel like after having spent the amount of time I have with the game, and trying to read through secondary information windows and getting what I can from the base game, I am not able to bring myself to fully understand these things. That makes me feel like these are systems that can only be appreciated so much, since they have now become under the hood things that just sort of work and the player just has to accept what the game gives them, without even having the chance to understand it. At least I couldn't. And I'm dumb. We need to dumb-people-proof this stuff, please



MOOD
I don't have too much to say about this bar, except that I think it should have little markers along the bar for the different tiers of mood breaks thresholds. Look at how Moody has theirs.



TIME RESTRICTION/WORK SCHEDULE
I think this is an altogether terrible bar. Why do we have an entire bar dedicated to saying what the pawn is supposed to be doing at this point of the day? I think this is a much better way to utilize this space to convey information to the player.



AREA RESTRICTION
I can understand why this is here, but I really don't think I've ever had to pay attention to it, myself. It just feels like a bit of wasted space. If I ever need to see what colonists are allowed in what area, I'm probably just going to check the "Restrict" tab. This one's not a big deal, though.

Finally, I'm sure there can be many other great improvements to be thought of to put into the information pane. This is just something I have thought of recently, and it made me realize how much better something like this could be. Thanks for reading!

[Jimyoda]

That's certainly a way to convey better information to the player at a glance without taking up any more screen real estate. This is the kind of polish that is hopefully bestowed on the game now that 1.0 is nearing.

[Harry_Dicks]

I certainly hope so. I'm sure that the designs I've posted could be better implemented, maybe the information pane doesn't have to keep the same format and sizes for things it has now. I wanted to get across how I feel like that area could use some improvement, because the information it gives me now isn't really that great.

[sick puppy]

+1

only problem i see that not only is health and damage kinda under the hood, but also when pawns die. late game, pawns doe all over the place, no matter if actually lethally injured or not. it's like you're playing with an army of old hags and fight skeletons. i believe that is why you dont get concrete numbers for your health and only see how much healable damage a pawn has sustained. (because losing limbs isnt healable and scars either. those dont show up as damage in that bar)