User Interface 'Next neighbour' hotkey/button

[DeletedUser5093]

Could we get a button and/or hotkey that will take us to the nearest eligible neighbour that we have not given neighbourly help to. Where there's multiple equidistant neighbours, either pick one at random or have some sort of arbitrary order to pick them in. This button would show up when viewing our own cities or those of our neighbours and would take us directly to the next city, rather than going via the world map. It would just help to speed up neighbourly help, and would be especially useful for when the server or internet is slow, or when people have a lot of neighbours. For the newer players, it may also serve as a reminder of the neighbourly help feature and therefore get more of them participating in it, which benefits everyone.

Perhaps if visiting the city of a fellowship member, this button could instead take us to the next fellowship member who has not received neighbourly help.

 

[cwgiii]

On one of the last Inno TV episodes, Timon did mention that the devs were taking a look at making the whole Neighborly Help process more efficient. There have been several suggestions, including a one touch button to provide neighborly help, to all available candidates (fellows and discovered world map, neighbors), to their particular desired buildings in order (culture, vs.builders, vs. main hall). I would LOVE such ease of use. However, I doubt we will ever get to that point.

I will point out that using the app version of neighborly help has DRASTICALLY reduced the time involved for me to help (I currently help my fellows and every discovered city available, 360 of them). Having the option for me to switch back and forth between the PC version and the app has been a great step. But I do look forward to the "parity" between the two platforms. I just hope they don't remove those efficiencies from the app version. But, rather, include them into the PC version instead.

Even with the apps efficiencies, it is a significant investment in time. But, I have build some really good relations with many of those neighbors.

 

[DeletedUser5093]

I'm not able to use the app. Could you explain how neighbourly help works on that platform?

 

[DeletedUser5254]

I don't see the point of this, either give us neighbor/fellowship/friend bar like in FoE, or apply app design to browser.
Also, this random picking of next NH sounds more like a bug then a feature, and we had plenty of those...

 

[cwgiii]

So, from your city, you can click into the world map with one click (very similar as on the PC version). Then you can navigate to a particular neighbor that you wish to help. With one click, you can then choose to help them or see their fellowship info (if any is present). When you choose to help, the available options pop up (Main Hall, Builder's Hut, and Best Culture Building, in that order, always in the same order). So, you do not have to spend time and effort hunting for the structure that you want to help. If one of those structures is not available to help, then it disappears from the list. SOOOO much more simple and quicker. In addition, I believe because the city does not have to load, the screen resolves almost instantly.

Also, if like me, you are helping every neighbor in your discovered area, you can start at the top of your discovered area and work your way down, line by line. The screen shifts from city to city very easily, almost like the suggestion to go to the nearest available un-helped city. This makes helping each individual very efficient and intuitive, with less frustration, effort, and time. Three clicks, no hunting, and you are done with each help. With a bit of practice, muscle memory takes over and you can blaze through the process without even thinking (because the clicks are in the same spot of the screen each time).

A single help button would be a dream, but this is an awesome alternative to the current PC version (IMHO).

 

[DeletedUser5093]

@cwgiii Thanks for explaining that for me. The app version of neighbourly help does sound like a very quick and efficient process, more so than my suggestion. If we got that on the PC version that would be ideal.

 

[cwgiii]

The single universal help button would be an improvement. I just don't see the devs going this route though, for various reasons.

 

[Thagdal]

Only thing missing from the mobile app version is you dont get a treasure drop for helping neighbors.
it shouldnt be a big issue for devs to implement a next neighbor key as wouldnt it be very similar to the scout key on the world map? you press the scout key and it goes to where your scouting...

 

[DeletedUser5093]

^ That's unfortunate. I think the ideal system would be something like the quick and simple neighbourly help system seen on the app, with automatic collection of treasure included. Perhaps each player could select in their main hall what order of preference they have for neighbourly help (e.g. 1st - builder, 2nd - best culture building, 3rd - main hall, or choose at random), then someone could just click a help button over their city in the world map (or in the member list of their fellowship) and their first available item will receive neighbourly help. No need to load cities, or search for buildings, or figure out what help people prefer.

A single button that does all neighbours and fellowship members at once would be even quicker, but that's starting to feel like it's just giving you something for nothing. You do get some nice bonuses from giving neighbourly help, so I think there should still be at least a little effort involved, just not the massive effort currently required in the PC version of the game.

 

[DeletedUser3451]

The app's interface is quite good . Not only gives the option to boost culture in most efficient manner by selecting the highest bonus building available atm, but also helps locate builder's hut , which sometimes in big cities can be frustrating. Having it in the browser version would be great, but keeping the option to still visit the actual city and see the layout people used in it is for me also a needed thing. It helps me see what my city would look like in future, and gives me ideas on how to arrange my buildings.
So for me personally it'be best if clicking on a someone's city invokes 2 options - to help or to visit, where they triger either the normal city screen in the browser help now, or the app's interface to chose how to help.

 

[DeletedUser5093]

@Ikarium Yeah, there should still be an option to simply visit someone's city. I'm not suggesting it be removed. For the purposes of speed and efficiency I would suggest rather than your proposal of a menu coming up when clicking on a city in the world map, instead have a single click do the neighbourly help, then once this is no longer possible clicking on the city will result in visiting it. That way you could click through neighbourly help rapidly just by clicking on each of your neighbours in turn.