Buff tracker

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11.10.17 22:05
avatar-name123

Buff tracker

With so many different buffs in the game with different durations and added premium bonus it's really hard to keep track of them all. I'd really like to see all active buffs at my screen, like this:
https://i.imgur.com/BNtJu3C.png
That's a screenshot from another game. Here you can see all your buffs and their durations (P is for permanent). These mini icons sit at the bottom right corner of the screen until they have like 1-2 minutes left. Then they move more to the center of the screen so they are easily noticeable. Super helpful thing, allows to keep track of your buffs and renew them when needed.
12.10.17 05:39
TheVictorious

-1, the buffs already listed in special windows for zone buffs, and if you hover your mouse without open the window you will see the time and track buffs, it is not hard, and making icons like that is just adding more UI issues
12.10.17 05:45
avatar-name123

Who's talking about zone buffs? Steaks, stadium snacks, snow, elixirs etc
12.10.17 09:15
vigabrand

works on other games, i don;t think it would help much on settlers and my screen is already full of unnecessary clutter. option to hide everything pvp plz bb
12.10.17 12:31
TheVictorious

Quote:

Originally Posted by avatar-name123

Who's talking about zone buffs? Steaks, stadium snacks, snow, elixirs etc

So if you have 300 buildings buffed you want 300 icons?
Also, these buffs already showing all the time on the building itself, the only buff that effecting but now showing is the zone buff.
12.10.17 13:11
avatar-name123

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheVictorious

So if you have 300 buildings buffed you want 300 icons?

Of course not. 1 icon for every type of active buff. Duration will be shown for the 1st to expire buff. So if you have 100 steaks buffed with 30 to 33 minutes left there will be 1 icon of steak with 30m note.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheVictorious

these buffs already showing all the time on the building itself

and if you buff all your island with steaks for 3 days and then 3-4 buildings for 24 hours with damascene hammers, 2 buildings for 48 hours with cookies, then something with employee of the month for almost 10 hours with premiun and of course 1 or 2 buildings with bag of snow... it's very hard to remember when to stop these buildings or renew buffs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vigabrand

works on other games, i don;t think it would help much on settlers and my screen is already full of unnecessary clutter. option to hide everything pvp plz bb

the game provides options to hide stuff you don't need like exclamation marks, animals, generals' names etc. So there's no reason for this buff tracker panel not to be hideable too.
13.10.17 05:06
Kozlic

Maybe it would be wise to let you know in "system" chat maybe which buffs expired since you last logged on.
For example I tend to forget to re-buff what I had buffed with rainbow snows, snacks etc...
13.10.17 07:35
TheVictorious

Quote:

Originally Posted by avatar-name123

Of course not. 1 icon for every type of active buff. Duration will be shown for the 1st to expire buff. So if you have 100 steaks buffed with 30 to 33 minutes left there will be 1 icon of steak with 30m note.

and if you buff all your island with steaks for 3 days and then 3-4 buildings for 24 hours with damascene hammers, 2 buildings for 48 hours with cookies, then something with employee of the month for almost 10 hours with premiun and of course 1 or 2 buildings with bag of snow... it's very hard to remember when to stop these buildings or renew buffs.

the game provides options to hide stuff you don't need like exclamation marks, animals, generals' names etc. So there's no reason for this buff tracker panel not to be hideable too.

Managing buffs is the part of the game and challenge that player must deal with, adding such a functionality like that will add more lag and still make no sense, usually, buffs like 300 buffs are delayed and what you suggest will still will come with hundreds of unnecessary icons, also, you still be under the same chances to forgot that you buffed your building and that buffs were gone.

Again, I don't there is an issue to solve with buffs system, it is a part of the game to manage your buffs.
13.10.17 12:31

I agree with TheVictorious, but I can image why avatar-name123 suggested it, the buff system would be more user friendly.

There would be more function to help us with production/buffs.

For example
- 1 click stop/start production in Economy overview.
- New building property: Stop working without buffs.
- New account property: New buildings after construction 'Status: stopped'.

These maybe help = less lagg?

That other game is best game I have ever played. Imo that is the best MMO RPG in the world :)
But I don't like that Add-on, that add-on does not fit to the mood/style of the game and already have that game in-game buff tracker without add-on :)
13.10.17 15:27
avatar-name123

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheVictorious

Managing buffs is the part of the game and challenge that player must deal with, adding such a functionality like that will add more lag and still make no sense, usually, buffs like 300 buffs are delayed and what you suggest will still will come with hundreds of unnecessary icons, also, you still be under the same chances to forgot that you buffed your building and that buffs were gone.

Again, I don't there is an issue to solve with buffs system, it is a part of the game to manage your buffs.

What hundreds of icons you talk of? Omg, 1 icon for every type of buff. So usually not more than 5 icons at a time.
You think it's a challenge and I think it's a defect in the game. Missing functionality.
No additional lag, because the game already keeps track of buffs for internal use. Adding some tiny icons on client side won't cause lag.

Quote:

Originally Posted by littlepret

That other game is best game I have ever played. Imo that is the best MMO RPG in the world :)
But I don't like that Add-on, that add-on does not fit to the mood/style of the game and already have that game in-game buff tracker without add-on :)

Well, I played it in 2015-2016 when there was no in-game tracker

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kozlic

Maybe it would be wise to let you know in "system" chat maybe which buffs expired since you last logged on.
For example I tend to forget to re-buff what I had buffed with rainbow snows, snacks etc...

This idea can be incorporated into the buff tracker. Icons of expired buffs will be greyed out until you hover your mouse over them or hit refresh or smth like that
13.10.17 17:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by avatar-name123

Well, I played it in 2015-2016 when there was no in-game tracker

There are some other cool in game solutions instead of add-ons (next one coming in this month is the research tracker, and transmog)

During I w8ing in Settlers, long hours for battle I play that game. 2015-2016?! after it, big changes happened there. If u like it, and same situation (you are boring between adventrues) give it another shot. (CP system, scale you up to max level, No level of monsters, you can go everywhere, all 3 faction play together in PVE, megaserver technology, scalable craft system, updated dungeon system and fixed lfg, housing system, small scaled pvp, etc. and new contents of course).

In Settlers, after u raise some levels, your island will more and more powerful you will have less and less time to try other games :))

But staying on the subject!
what's the practical benefit of seeing 5 icons there or not seeing? I see the buffs on the buildings if we talk about steak buffs, you see obviously no buffs on lots of building.

To me not an useful information if a rainbow buff icon there and 30min left, and what happened when I was afk and time is up. No buff, building produce without buff, buff icon there is'not there. That is not so informative. During 4 day I forgot what was buffed. Minimum acceptable solution if this building stop working if I want and a letter with information. Or a buff tracker interface like economy overview but in middle topic of this window the buffs, and you see there buildings without buffs, valueable buffs ends etc, but to me five buff icon not so informative.
13.10.17 19:34
avatar-name123

Quote:

Originally Posted by littlepret

2015-2016?! after it, big changes happened there.

I know, I still follow the news and talk with friends who play it. Good stuff indeed. Maybe when I have more time...

Quote:

Originally Posted by littlepret

what's the practical benefit of seeing 5 icons there or not seeing?

Well, you sometimes look at the corner of your screen and see that a buff has 17 minutes left, so you'd be more likely not to forget about it. When it has 1-2 minutes left, the icon can move towards the center of the screen a bit and become more prominent, or it can become glowing, etc etc. So if you are in the game, you won't miss it.
If you're not in the game, icons can be greyed out and when you log in you'll see that some buffs expired.
Maybe expired icons should be greyed out even if you are in the game, to prevent you missing a buff if you're afk. The details are discussable, but in my opinion such tracker would help a lot.
13.10.17 22:10
TheVictorious

Quote:

Originally Posted by avatar-name123

What hundreds of icons you talk of? Omg, 1 icon for every type of buff. So usually not more than 5 icons at a time.
You think it's a challenge and I think it's a defect in the game. Missing functionality.
No additional lag, because the game already keeps track of buffs for internal use. Adding some tiny icons on client side won't cause lag.

If I buffed 300 buildings with steaks, there is like 5 minutes from the first buff and last buff at least, which one will be counted?
If I buffed my buildings with steaks, and friend buffed another half which one will be counted, the 3 days or 2 days?
If I buffed buildings with steaks, epic wood yard with beans, some buildings with rainbow, mines with fever, another iron mines with exo, and gold chain with mother tree, and weapons chain with weapon boost, add barazek buff to rarity, hmmm what about drills on barracks? and sometimes glue for bookbinder? oh and sometimes PvP buffs :)
so you have like 10 icons at least? oh wait, if you found a solution for different times for each buff, will be like 10 icons, oh don't say no one will mix buffs like that, I'm doing this sometimes, exactly like I said :)

And it will add more lag just to handle processing of which buff to count, and lag not meant to be CPU processing, or network traffic only, adding elements to flash will add more lag for sure.
13.10.17 23:05
avatar-name123

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheVictorious

If I buffed 300 buildings with steaks, there is like 5 minutes from the first buff and last buff at least, which one will be counted?
If I buffed my buildings with steaks, and friend buffed another half which one will be counted, the 3 days or 2 days?

The first to expire will be counted. After it expires, the next one to expire again, until none left. Then the steak icon will be greyed out (optional solution)

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheVictorious

If I buffed buildings with steaks, epic wood yard with beans, some buildings with rainbow, mines with fever, another iron mines with exo, and gold chain with mother tree, and weapons chain with weapon boost, add barazek buff to rarity, hmmm what about drills on barracks? and sometimes glue for bookbinder? oh and sometimes PvP buffs

That's exactly the reason I want this tracker. 10 icons, yes. It will take no more than 2x5 cm patch of the screen.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheVictorious

And it will add more lag just to handle processing of which buff to count, and lag not meant to be CPU processing, or network traffic only, adding elements to flash will add more lag for sure.

Do you do flash programming? I worked with other languages developing UI and adding such minute elements doesn't increase lag. Can't say for flash though, but probably BB are able to find a solution if they find this idea worth their while.
Buffs can be stored in a sorted (by duration) array so it's very cheap to find the next buff to process after the previous one expire. Or they are already sorted I guess, because probably they are inserted into array in order they are applied.
Do you notice any lag increase/decrease when you show or hide your friend list? I don't
14.10.17 04:03

You convinced me. This is more than we have now and this would help in many cases.
14.10.17 08:55
TheVictorious

Quote:

Originally Posted by avatar-name123

The first to expire will be counted. After it expires, the next one to expire again, until none left. Then the steak icon will be greyed out (optional solution)

This will be so annoying for the user to see icons flashing like 300 times, and if buff expired how to know which one got expired? we maybe think it is one expired, but it could be like 4 or 5 buildings already so it becomes totally useless annoying flashing, and this will add lag for UI to keep track element and iterations over builings.

Quote:

Originally Posted by avatar-name123

That's exactly the reason I want this tracker. 10 icons, yes. It will take no more than 2x5 cm patch of the screen.

First of all, the screen elements counted with px and related to resolution, if it is 2x5 cm on your screen (actually this is size is really big) it will be bigger in other screens, smaller for other types.

Quote:

Originally Posted by avatar-name123

Do you do flash programming? I worked with other languages developing UI and adding such minute elements doesn't increase lag. Can't say for flash though, but probably BB are able to find a solution if they find this idea worth their while.
Buffs can be stored in a sorted (by duration) array so it's very cheap to find the next buff to process after the previous one expire. Or they are already sorted I guess, because probably they are inserted into array in order they are applied.
Do you notice any lag increase/decrease when you show or hide your friend list? I don't

I'm a developer, java developer, but I was working with flash before 12 years as self-learning having fun with it, anyway the problem is not like you have static list like friends, but you have something changing and counting over the time, I can ask you instead, do you notice the lag happens when you receive email, or generals landing your island, can you explain why? the icons must be also got validated from the server side, a server time, not sure why they seem to ask server so much, but it could be an issue with "zone area".

You maybe say there is hashmap so I can fill it with a load of game, but there is no "real" hashmap like java or .net got, it is simply an array like a hashmap, and dealing with arrays costly really, the solution is to build an object like zone buffs? but this is too big and so dynamic, this would work.

You maybe say there is no lag when zone buff ending, but you can notice small issues that can be ignored because the simple solution is to recall server, as for example, try to buff building and open the building window before it takes the effect, and wait for the notification to appear that buff applied, you will see that window not showing that buff applied, to anything, not showed to production, and not showing the buff info like time and the icon of that buff, unless you close that window and recall it, so you now asking to make this iteration over all buildings every 1 second, and load the CPU and server traffic with unnecessary icons just to know that your buff expired?

Deal with, and seriously we have more improvements and more important things to solve and implement including reducing the lag and bugs, not to add more lag and bugs.

There was a simple suggestion that BB tried and it logically makes more sense, but when they tried it the game becomes a lot laggy, about collect items inside emails, instead of open each email to collect loots, they tried to collect all loots in 1 click, they canceled it because it almost does break the game.

So my question is, can you bet on this suggestion that won't adds more lag or CPU load? name your bet then :)
14.10.17 10:59
avatar-name123

I can't say for sure but probably collecting loots interacts with the server (to validate resources transfer to the storehouse) and with multiple loots at once they are sent as individual messages and not in a batch, hence the lag.
Generals landing causes lag because search for free area is not optimized, done probably for each general separately (so all this work is repeated unnecessarily 20+ times) and flash doesn't have multithreading. Well, it has workers, but they appeared in 2012 when core mechanics of TSO were already developed and I doubt BB used them. So all this expensive work (search each sector for a free space until some is found. repeat for every general) is done in the UI thread and it freezez the browser for 5-6 seconds.
No, I don't see any lag when mail arrives. Or perhaps I misunderstood you.
On the other hand, the buffs are already stored in memory even on the client side, so no additional interaction with the server. They are probably already sorted and showing the first buff from an array should cause no more lag than showing FPS.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheVictorious

This will be so annoying for the user to see icons flashing like 300 times, and if buff expired how to know which one got expired? we maybe think it is one expired, but it could be like 4 or 5 buildings already so it becomes totally useless annoying flashing, and this will add lag for UI to keep track element and iterations over builings.

Yes, it's probably annoying with steaks. Can't say it becomes useless because of that. I still see it as a valuable feature, but perhaps some details can be adjusted. Iterating over 5-10 in-memory stored sorted arrays of buffs to get the first buff with duration > 0 once in a second won't cause lag.