Roads: The Key to Efficient Terraforming

[Earthmichael]

Is it possible just to perform the checks at the end of the turn, instead of the beginning?  Then display the result of the check next turn?

[Yitzi]

Is it possible just to perform the checks at the end of the turn, instead of the beginning?  Then display the result of the check next turn?

That'd be more complicated yet, and performing the checks at the beginning of the next turn before it modifies for facilities/projects built and population growth would come out to nearly the same thing.

However, a word of warning: It would cut both ways.  So the effects of a robotic assembly plant wouldn't affect ecodamage the turn it was build, but neither would a Centauri preserve.  The effects of population growth wouldn't affect drone riots, but neither would building a rec commons.  (For that matter, neither would the positive effects of population growth, in terms of bringing in more energy to convert to psych.)

[Earthmichael]

I am fine with a delayed effect on positive things, as long as what I see at the end of the turn is what I get.  I don't like the micromanagement required to predict that the base will grow next turn and preemptively act.  Same with ecodamage.

[Lord Avalon]

The Citizens tab of the Base Operations Status screen (F4) shows bases that will go into drone riot the next turn.  I often get into one-more-turn mode and click enter before I remember to check it.

It'd be nice if there were a similar function for new eco damage.  Of course you'd still have to remember to check.

[Earthmichael]

But that is the very problem.  The Citizens tab of the Base Operations is not a reliable indicator.  It does not take into account population growth and facilities, so unless you visit each city and figure out which will grow, and which will build negative facilities, and preemptively deal with what you think will be the result of this, then you get drone riots.  This is the kind of micromanagement I would like to avoid.

I want it so if Citizens tab of the Base Operations says no drone riots next turn, then there are no drone riots next turn.  Predictability and avoidance of micromanagement is my goal.

[Lord Avalon]

Hmmm, I thought it did account for pop growth.  I have seen a drone on the Citizens tab, when it doesn't yet show in the city itself, i.e., it is not currently in drone riot.  Next turn it grows and goes into drone riot.  Of course, I don't know how reliable that is - maybe there are times when it doesn't show. 

[Yitzi]

Some ideas that might help mitigate the micromanagement (since making it so what you see at the end of the turn is what you'll get next turn will be a substantial hassle, and therefore likely to wait quite a while):
1. The bases screen (F4) has 3 views.  One of them is "citizens", which shows your citizens in each base (talents, workers, drones, specialists).  This can help you narrow down a lot what needs checking for drone riots:
-Anything with the maximum population doesn't need checking, as it won't grow.  (After a point, many of your bases will have max population, and just by "lining up" the citizens (seeing they're all in the same horizontal position on the screen) you can see that they're the same.)
-Anything with more drones than talents generally doesn't need checking (exceptions: University at population exactly 3, or exactly 7 except on Transcend, or exactly 11 except on Thinker and Transcend, etc.)  With psych-boosting facilities, those will be fairly common.
-In the late game, anything with population at least 20 doesn't need checking, as any new citizens will become specialists anyway.
-And beyond that, you can just notice how long until the next population increase.
2. For ecodamage, anything that isn't building a production-enhancing facility and finishing it next turn won't see a jump.  (Exception: If you already have production-enhancing facilities and build Nessus mining stations; the minerals from satellites themselves don't increase ecodamage, but the facility increase to that production does.)