Dev blog: Changes Coming To Planetary Interaction

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Guys and Girls, Boys and Bratz,
Stop complaining about CPU/PG, 10% NPC tax or m³ … It is what it is… and it’s fine:
You don’t go with command center upgrades LVL2 on a gas giant, and you don’t install advanced processors on it…
Furtermore, you can pre-install everything, including links (PRESS CTRL WHILE CLICKING ON A STRUCTURE!)
after that, you can calculate how much heads you can fit, before you apply the installation and it costs you ISKies.
As so, you can decide if you want to use that infra on that planet.
If you want to extraxt from a node on the other side of the planet, and the link costs more then a storage facility, then put a storage facitlity! When its full just delete your heads, put your link, move the stuff, delete the link, redo the heads. If its more then the heads, put another storage in between, and link them separatly

I have never replaced my entire infra, just the extractor as above, and make GOOD profit out of it.

All of that comes to the point: some mats are more difficult to extract, so they are more expensive. The more expensive, the more profit you can make according to your market skills (inc. your RL understanding of marketing).
SO that includes calculating install costs, extractor replacement costs, Custom office costs (incl tax), broker fee and market tax. all this is a money sink so that PI will not become 0.001 isk worth.
If you’re break-even or loose isk: find another product that is easier to make… it’s that simple!

If you nerve it so that gas CC’s have more PG/CPU… well, why don’t you ask that all mats are available on 1 planet, with one button “put isk in walletZ now!” :slight_smile:

Thus, “templates”, “snap-on-grid”,… it only save you clicks ONE TIME during install, not in life time…

So to feedback on topic: “save clicks”, it is only in the extractor, and the Warp To / Access customs office,
all the rest are just fancy nerfs that does not do anything except less face-palm’s when you realize you didn’t route materials.

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Not true. Sometimes there are resources widely seperated on a planet and Ive set up luanchpads on 2 widely seperated areas in order to manage this issue.

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Smart Resource Slider Default:
Save the default setting for the resource slider per extractor. Current it must be adjusted for almost every extractor.

Error Check:
Can we get a warning if we submit or close a planet and not all the extractors are running?

Jump to Extractor:
If I click on a link to something far away (like an extractor) jump to the other end. Alternately have a way to tab thru the extractors.

Quick Extractor placement:
Draw an oval and have all heads evenly distributed inside, then Use mousewheel to move them closer together or further apart. (Put 1 to 3 heads in the center depending on total heads, and the rest around the perimeter.)

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I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that changing half the PI mechanics to a 2D interface would reduce about 90% of the pointless clicking and make the whole system considerably more user-friendly. Imagine a build menu where you chose production lines, not individual buildings. You choose the input P-level and output P-level, and the specific thing you want to build, and it configures a building layout (with links/routes etc pre-configured) to produce that item and tells you the PG/CPU requirements and cost. If you accept these, the buildings appear on the globe as transparent versions and you can drag them as a single unit wherever you specifically want them (or just leave them wherever they default to, because on factory planets who cares anyway?).

As for the extractor stuff, why do we need 10 seperate heads that each have to be turned on and then placed ensuring none overlap? It’s unnecessary micromanagement. Why not just have 2 PG/CPU settings, one for 5 heads and one for 10, and have the heads default to one of a couple of spread layouts (maybe with the option to edit and save your own), like we already have with probes?

PI could be a very smooth and easy to use system. Reducing from 300 to 185 clicks is obviously a step in the right direction and I’m grateful for it, but this whole system is long overdue a rework.

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Everybody pulls in his/her direction.

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You need the micromanagement if you extract 2 mats to make 1: ex. supertensile plastics: you need oxygen and biomass, with 2 extractors on noble gas i have the same amount as 8 on plantic colonies

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I’m not sure what you mean. I’d just like to see a system that doesn’t involve carpal tunnel syndrome and endless micromanagement.

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I did not want to add tedious micromanagement that needs a lot of effort put into maintaining colony. Just a few clicks per 5 colonies, rarely, like one accident per 3 days, but still random time. I like the reports that could be sent in a mail. That would make some extractors fail, would break links, would reset blueprint installed + some story, some actual simulation of work of a facility, sometimes some better efficiency in production as compensation, randomly. Perfectly functioning facilities are so boring and unrealistic.

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I’d be down with that, if the system was cleaned up to not be so clicky in the first place.

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Another thing that may or may not have already been suggested: Give us notifications for PI related stuff (that can be individually turned on/off).

  • Extraction cycle finished? Notify me.
  • Storage/Launchpad/Command Centre full? Notify me.
  • POCO tax rate changed? Notify me.
  • POCO destroyed/anchored? Notify me.
  • One or more factories has run out of inputs and has been idle for more than 1 hour? Notify me (although don’t give me 50 notifications for 50 factories - just consolidate it into 1 notification for all factory events on a planet within a certain period (1 hour? 6 hours? 12 hours?)).
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Yes, this - and a standard set of layouts - like scanning probes already do. Same code perhaps?

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One thing that will still bug me is that need to add extractor heads until you run out of power or CPU (usually power), and then find there isn’t enough link capacity to transport it all. Then you have to go back, delete one or more heads, increase link capacity, and add heads to fnd out if there’s enough power left to do so.

A fix would be a graphic showing the trade-off each time you add a head - maybe a simple “Link capacity OK” in green text while adding a head, changing to “Link capacity exceeded” in red when adding a head exceeds capacity.

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One of the reasons for changing to a simpler form of language (Time Remaining rather than Time To Depletion) is, I suspect, that not everyone has English as their first language. Be kind to those who have to play this game through a linguistic filter.

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So when will this take effect, these changes ? ? ? ?

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Another thing that may or may not have already been suggested: Give us notifications for PI related stuff (that can be individually turned on/off).

well… these should also apply to industry and many other “background tasks” in eve…
especially now that we have a “companion” app on mobiles (for those who use it ofc)

“industry job finished”
etc…

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Question - how many players actually set for “odd” amounts of time - over the 24 or 48 hour mark (e.g. 3 days and two hours, or 2 days and 5 hours)? I definitely agree being able to even just type in the time frame would be better and having a possibility for single time per planet would be great. Currently it takes about an hour to reset 24 planets considering extractors and heads being moved.

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CCPlease this. Want to save us clicks then implement this. Please and thank you.

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As this is just a light upgrade to PI and people keep throwing in more vomit on what would help reduce the clicking — I am going to do a quick call back to one of my PI replacement ideas

1: divide planets in to grids, by taking the 360x360 planet grid and dividing into ether 30x30 or 40x40.
2: A player could claim a grid and begin developing it. up to 6 grids per player. All six could in theory be on the same planet.
3: HS and LS would have fewer open grids on planets as NPC cities and colonies would occupy some of them.
4: allow conflict to damage/destroy player colonies.

The end.

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It’s great that you’ve taken the time to go back and make these improvements to the UI.

I hope there’s something lined up for the market interface though, I don’t think it’s had any significant improvements in over a decade! Think of the clicks that can be saved there :wink:

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I would like to see Command Centers be moveable. After some PI skills have been trained they serve little purpose than the initial zoom in spot. Plus it would be nice to deconstruct a colony and reconstruct in a different location without having to haul in a new Command Center to avoid needlessly scrolling around the planet each time its viewed.

Thank you for your efforts, it is much appreciated!