Showing how much something costs

[Zarel]

Hey, guys.

So you know how, when you mouse over something in the manufacture/build/research menu, your visible power will decrease by a certain number representing how much it costs? I was always frustrated by how it didn't display the exact cost, and it's kind of difficult to calculate the exact cost when your power is constantly rising. I've also heard people who didn't even know that that's what it did.

Plus, a lot of confusion with power stems from that power shown is after whatever you're mousing over. For instance, say you have 1000 power, and you mouse over something that costs 50. The power bar will show 950. Now, you click on it, and (in 2.3) the power bar shows 900 (since your new total is 950, and what you're mousing over costs 50).

So I wrote a patch that displayed the price of the item underneath the power bar, when you mouse over something, instead of changing the displayed price. It looks like this:

I also considered putting the resulting power after, like "-62 = 2662", but I was afraid that might be too ugly.

What do you guys think?

[effigy]

I voted for -62 but either is better than the current system. I agree when you're engaged in battle it's annoying to calculate this mentally.

Additionally, I think it would be nice if the $ amount of whatever it is was became a tooltip over the menu item like in the design menu. Emphasis on "like" because it's annoying how small the radius is (you have to hover right on the yellow bar, also annoying when engaged).

Referring to the same pic above, perhaps the cost of the truck could appear in the same tooltip as the word "truck."

[JDW]

Referring to the same pic above, perhaps the cost of the truck could appear in the same tooltip as the word "truck."

Or, perhaps, even have it's own little box somewhere in that same menu window.

Edit: I think the point of both sugestions is to not have the player glance repeatedly way down near the power bar every time he wants to know how much power will be deducted for a particular item.

[Powzone]

"-62", but without the "-" maybe...

I like the idea in the screenshot with the extra box below the energy bar, but it could go even hovering like "Machinegun (50E)" or something.

[KenAlcock]

The one aspect of the current behavior I really like is when I have little or no power left and I select to produce a unit or research a technology the power bar goes negative (and turns red) by the amount of power I'm short. As my power rises this number counts upward toward zero. This behavior can really help one make prudent decisions in the heat of a crisis, as it visually and dynamically gives one a sense of how long it will be before the unit or technology research can be funded. I would hate to see this aspect be left behind in any changes you make.

Perhaps a better location to list unit cost or technology research cost, would be in the bubble that appears when hover the mouse over the item? So in your screen grab above, Instead of the bubble saying "Truck" it should be "Truck - 62". That would be far more intuitive for most users, especially since their eyes are already focused where the mouse pointer is hovering anyway.

[Per]

I'm fine with stuffing the cost in the tooltip, as several have suggested already.

[Zarel]

Tooltips take a while to appear. This display appears instantly. Plus, this display appears in the power bar, which makes it easier to compare how much power something costs with how much you have. Plus, Warzone players are conditioned to looking at the power bar to get price information, so for a 2.3.1 -> 2.3.2 change, I'd like to keep it near there.

And then there's the thing that we don't actually allocate space to store the strings for the tooltips, we just use a pointer to the name of the item in question, which means we're gonna have to malloc a lot if we want to stuff prices there. As opposed to this, for which I already have a working patch ready to commit.

[Powzone]

Ahh... Ok... Instant popup it is then! But still not really happy with the "-" in front...

[JDW]

Ahh... Ok... Instant popup it is then! But still not really happy with the "-" in front...

Me thinks it's the simplest way to educate the gamer that "Hey buddy! That's gonna cost you!"

[Terminator]

why not leave as is, but add a price to Units name pop-up msg(when cursor on unit, like it's show on screenshot )

[Crymson]

Why not do "Truck : $62" in the tool tip ?

[KenAlcock]

I'm sorry, but I cannot resist the urge to post this.

Truck: 62 Dollars
AssaultGun-Vengence-Hover : 200 Dollars
Hellstorm Emplacement: 525 Dollars
Watching Your Enemies Die All Afternoon: Priceless

[KukY]

I'm sorry, but I cannot resist the urge to post this.

Truck: 62 Dollars
AssaultGun-Vengence-Hover : 200 Dollars
Hellstorm Emplacement: 525 Dollars
Watching Your Enemies Die All Afternoon: Priceless

[CptFireFox]

I like the idea of including the $62 next to the unit name, or something to that effect.

[Luigi]

Should show how much I'll spend when I do multiple units