Better handling of "no ressources"

[Dirk Stöcker]

ATM you get a message when mines and fishers and stonecutter have no more resources. When a lot of messages are coming, then it is easy to overlook these.

Also the "No food" message" overwrites the "no ressources", so you don't even see it when clicking on a mine.

I have 3 suggestions:
a) The "No more ressources" message should always have highest priority, so when it came up once, any other message like "no food" should no longer be shown, but the no ressources instead.
b) The "no ressources" should better be indicated visually (e.g. a little "death" sign on the building)
c) If there aren't any more ressources, the building shouldn't get any more supplies delivered.

[Nicolai Hähnle (nha)]

Those sound like reasonable suggestions, I especially like a)+b) because when you have many mines on screen (barbarians!) it can be difficult to tell which mine the message refers to.

I disagree about point c), because even when a mine is out of resources, there is still a very small chance that it will produce something.

[Nasenbaer (nasenbaer)]

I will try to implement the graphical solution (e.g. sign with red x in front of the building)

[Nasenbaer (nasenbaer)]

The graphical solution is implemented and committed in revision 5962.
For me this fixes the issue, as I disagree about a stric message order - other people (like me) might prefare other messages to be on top, so the best is, to simply keep the message box as is, as it's message order can be set via the column buttons on top anyways.

Of course one could enhance the message system in general (like providing an option window to only show a specific type of messages or like implementing different tabs "military", "economy", "informational" or the like) however that should go to another bug report, shouldn't it :) ? If YOU feel like reposting this ideas as new bug report, just go for it - I am too lazy at the moment ;).

[Chuck Wilder (chuckw20)]

A nice, elegant, GRAPHIC solution. I approve! :)

[_aD (ad-simplypeachy)]

It is important to me if a mine has run out of resources, but I don't care if a lumberjack or quarry runs out. I build a quarry knowing that it will soon run out. Most lumberjacks are the same.

If I'm Atlanteans, then running out of fish is important: you build a fisher's hut and fish breeder, so they should always be stocked.
Barbarians and Empire know their fishers will run out eventually - we use them as a "nice extra", but don't rely on them.
The same goes for Atlanteans and Empire with hunter's huts.

Maybe if a resource gatherer (hunter, fisher, lumberjack) has a resource creator (fish breeder, ranger) within range, but runs out of resources, there should be a message.

Maybe the player should choose, in Options, what buildings generate "no resource" messages?

[SirVer (sirver)]

It seems as the needs are indeed different for different players here.
For example, I very often dislike that my lumberjacks do not notify me
when they are done clearing some trees in a new industrial area of mine.

However - having these as options is likely mainly confusing and a new
obscure UI element that not really adds to the game. Maybe something
like "archive and automatically archive similar messages in the future"
button for messages could help while increasing the number of messages
send (e.g. for more buildings - also like wells and so on). Not really
the ideal solution....

[SirVer (sirver)]

Released in build17-rc1.

[_aD (ad-simplypeachy)]

A similar idea to c) would be that buildings would automatically set all of their required wares to 0 (i.e. mines empty themselves of food). I do occasionally keep exhausted mines but usually upgrade/dismantle them. Having to move to the mine, empty all wares and then wait for the wares to be removed can be a chore. If it automatically did all of this, then notified me, it would be great. I could jump to the location and immediately upgrade/dismantle it. For the rare occasions that I wish to keep an exhausted mine, the player could manually re-set the ware quantities.

I have noticed that Atlantean fishers will notify the player of "No more resources", then a nearby fish breeder will add more fish within his range, and he will start fishing again. The fisher should only report "No more resources" once the productivity drops to 0%. Should I report this as a separate bug?