14. Put the number of armies next to the planet.
Description
This article is from the netrek Frequently Offered Clever Suggestions list, by Tom Holub doosh@best.com with numerous contributions by others.
14. Put the number of armies next to the planet.
Problem: It's annoying to have to hit 'i' all the time to get army
counts.
Proposal: Put the number of armies on each planet next to the planet's
bitmap on the galactic map.
Why Not: This is the first step down the path to "Netrek for
Morons(tm)". You can see when a planet pops by watching the galactic
map; having ever-increasing army counts staring you in the face is
like having a compass attached to your nose.
It's true that the information is accessible, if somewhat
inconvenient. However, players who aren't paying attention won't see
the new army numbers, and are less likely to react to an army bitmap
on the display than they are to seeing "15" next to Sir. If you aren't
paying attention to armies, you lose. There are several places in
Netrek where this is the case.
Netrek rewards vigilance and a keen eye as well as intelligence and
fast reflexes. Being constantly aware of everything around you is a
challenge beyond the goals of the game itself; it requires the player
to improve himself, and rewards experience. Doing all but say, "do
this next" will make things too simple, and reduce the sense of
accomplishment acquired from mastery of the game. Knowing exactly
where the armies are and how many requires as much skill as holding a
phaser lock, which is as it should be.
There are those who think otherwise. I'm not presenting their opinions
here, because if you are about to propose this then you share those
opinions already. Suffice it to say that there is enough disagreement
to keep this from becoming a standard feature of Netrek.
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