Emails from department heads

Borodin · Post by **Borodin** » May 28 2005

Under 1.1, answering emailed queries from your department heads didn't result in any actions being taken. I didn't see bug as fixed under 1.2--can anyone confirm whether it is fixed, or is still a problem?

Post by **Balthagor** » May 28 2005

George continues to assure me that every e-mail causes some actions to be taken by the minister, though sometimes very minimal. Have an e-mail in particular you suspect of not working?

aegisx · Post by **aegisx** » May 28 2005

Any chance they could say what they want to do to fix it in the email?

Borodin · Post by **Borodin** » May 28 2005

Balthagor wrote:George continues to assure me that every e-mail causes some actions to be taken by the minister, though sometimes very minimal. Have an e-mail in particular you suspect of not working?

I will note down the next few times nothing appears to occur, and get back with you about this. -Assuming, of course, it hasn't been fixed. Because I think George was saying in the forum a few days back that the 1.1 game didn't truly do anything with those emailed responses.

Zickefoose · Post by **Zickefoose** » May 28 2005

aegisx wrote:Any chance they could say what they want to do to fix it in the email?

Yea that would help alot. I have played so many times with emails saying not enough electric, So I would accept the message and my production would stay the same with none to very very minimal changes.

And I finally figured out what the Lock Pads do on the windows, now the advisors wont keep making my citizens dumb with very little education funding.

HercMighty · Post by **HercMighty** » May 28 2005

When playing the Cuba mission I start out getting the electrical shortage message and actually I get that one a lot, to the point that I finally tell it to quit telling me about it. I click on the "agree" button but I haven't noticed the minister do anything.

Regards

tkobo · Post by **tkobo** » May 28 2005

One thing ive noticed that the ministers might change due to emails like that, is the efficiency.

This last game, i didnt raise mine at all, and i agreed with a lot of those emails . But when i looked to see how they were doing , the efficiencies were at or near 100 %.

Not rock solid.But it could be the case.It would also explain why every once in a while my expenses would go up for no discernable reason.

Post by **George Geczy** » May 29 2005

As in the real world, sometimes politicians promise to do things that they are unable to carry out

There are many instances where the ministers simply do not have the 'tools' at their disposal to really make they changes they want to - for instance, not enough product stocks, or money, or maybe conflicting priorities.

One of the interesting things about the AI internally is that the different Ministers actually 'talk' to each other - if you tell the Interior minister to improve social programs but tell the Finance Minister to cut spending, the two Ministers will often have an internal argument

Who wins these arguments is often based on factors such as the political standing of the ministers (ie, a liberal finance minister is more likely to allocate money to social programs), the specialties and experience of the ministers, and realities such as your budget and treasury (having money makes it easier to spend).

There have been requests to give the Ministers even more power by allowing them to do things that currently only the ruler can do - for example, building new facilities, or scrapping them. We'll be considering ideas like this in the future.

-- George.

HercMighty · Post by **HercMighty** » May 29 2005

George Geczy wrote:As in the real world, sometimes politicians promise to do things that they are unable to carry out

There are many instances where the ministers simply do not have the 'tools' at their disposal to really make they changes they want to - for instance, not enough product stocks, or money, or maybe conflicting priorities.

-- George.

This is where feedback is crucial. You hit the button that you agree but then get no indication either way what is going on in the ministers head. Should be able to get an email saying "I am going to do this.." or get an email saying "I can't do this because..." The data has to be there somewhere but pulling it out and then being able to get it to the player might be a coding problem that you might not be able to over come.

There have been requests to give the Ministers even more power by allowing them to do things that currently only the ruler can do - for example, building new facilities, or scrapping them. We'll be considering ideas like this in the future.

This would also be a benefit as long as we can approve the plan. I like the idea of getting an email that there is a problem, then getting an email saying this is the plan. At least then I know what is going on and make sure the AI is not going to interfere, especially if you can code it to have Plan A and a Plan B.

Just my thoughts.

Post by **George Geczy** » May 29 2005

>"This is where feedback is crucial. You hit the button that you agree but then get no indication either way what is going on in the ministers head. Should be able to get an email saying "I am going to do this.." or get an email saying "I can't do this because..."

This is a very good suggestion, and more feedback from Ministers has also been requested in other threads. We do have to worry about overloading players with Minister Emails (already the inbox can fill up with a lot of stuff very quickly when things aren't going good!), but there is room for more detailed feedback.

-- George.

aegisx · Post by **aegisx** » May 29 2005

I would not worry about overload. Give the player the ability to filter (which we can already). Paradox has done well with this in their log/message box system. You can get as much or as little as you want.

deanco · Post by **deanco** » May 29 2005

I totally agree.

"Sorry, I couldn't spend more on social programs because Bob Smith (Treasury) blocked my request for more money."

Man, this would add sooo much personality to the game. Especially knowing that the game is having an internal battle, and the outcome is, no extra money for social programs. If I saw that email, I might fire the Treasury guy. It's just oozing AAR.

DeanCo--

Borodin · Post by **Borodin** » May 29 2005

George Geczy wrote:>"This is where feedback is crucial. You hit the button that you agree but then get no indication either way what is going on in the ministers head. Should be able to get an email saying "I am going to do this.." or get an email saying "I can't do this because..."

This is a very good suggestion, and more feedback from Ministers has also been requested in other threads. We do have to worry about overloading players with Minister Emails (already the inbox can fill up with a lot of stuff very quickly when things aren't going good!), but there is room for more detailed feedback.

-- George.

I would agree with all this. I think if you want less email in the game, you can always ignore it; or perhaps you developers can provide an option from the game interface to turn emails off. Personally, I'd rather see one of my department heads get back with me, complaining that he hasn't got the money he needs to do A or B, because his colleague in Treasury has priorities to cut finances; and then offer the option to me to decide which I'd prefer--with a choice saying "I'll deal with it," in effect allowing me to ignore that email sequence and instigate a manual fix of the situation.

Post by **George Geczy** » May 30 2005

The comments here have been noted, and we'll definitely be looking to expand this area in the future.

-- George.

PS - we do already have a feature to filter email by importance level, in the Email Options tab of the Inbox... by default it is set to zero ("see everything").

Smeghead · Post by **Smeghead** » Sep 03 2005

I've just bought the game (about a month) and am really impressed.
I've looked for a war game simulation for years which gives a reason for war and this is getting there.

Any update on Minister feedback. This would be really helpfull and help you better understand what was happening. After all, in real life you would get feedback. Even if the suggestions you get aren't always the best solutions. After all, if the minister got everything right he/she would be running the country :lol:

When do you have scheduled the next update?

Emails from department heads

Emails from department heads

Ministers feedback