I was just hoping to jot down a couple of thoughts I had about the UI to try and make the game a bit more playable for "beginners" -- mostly, I keep making some stupid mistakes, so I'm looking for ways to keep from getting frustrated... These are things that don't effect game play(the rules), but really just individual UI bits.

First, if there was a way to highlight the movement possibilities for a creature just by mousing over it, like it does for vision and shooting. This shows up when you click on your own creature, but it would be really useful to see for the other players -- so I can much easier tell when they can attack me!

Also, if there was some "confirmation" about building construction (instead of just building outright), that would be very helpful too. Sometimes I just get unobservant and don't see that something is going to be constructed -- I know the game is non-modal with no popups and things like that, which for the most part is good, but in this case I think the misplacement of a building can just kill a game... and I think it's rare enough that a confirm dialog would be reasonable.

I think some kind of player status message would be awesome -- basically a way that would indicate if they are playing already (italic?) -- and a status message (e.g., somebody could just type "I'm waiting in jade") -- could really help the management of finding people to play with.

Anyway -- that's a few for now... I'm sure I'll think of more at some point.

Another thing -- I think it would be helpful for beginners some kind of "tick tock" when it's their turn. If you're stuck in the world of thinking about what's going on and you lose your awareness, then sometimes it can go a long time before you realize it's your turn -- wasting a lot of time in a real game. I'll sometimes miss the "next turn" sound and then I'm kinda clueless. Ideally, there would be something visual (maybe make the outline around your color PULSE when it's your turn, but NOT when it's the other person's turn) -- 'cause sometimes I need to play with the audio off.

Oh, and if there's any way to put the current round # in the game log on the left that would be awesome. I sometimes lose track of what round it is, and what has happened this round vs. last -- which I think would also help new folk keep better awareness of what's going on. (This change, at least, should be trivial )

I've thought that a round-counter might be nice on a few occasions, actually...