Quick sketch of my idea. Yay for MS Paint!

I feel a bit mindblown by this.

Wouldn't just dragging the items individually into each pool be easier?

What kind of device are you building this for? I was assuming you are building for desktop (keyboard and mouse).

Currently so, but it would be possible to port to an environment where you drag (mobile).

What is the range of the variables? 10s, 100s or 1000s of units to manipulate?

From 0 to approx 1000.

You select the variables (x) you would like to manipulate and then spin the "wheel" below.

I agree it adds some "fun" in manipulating it.

? It's the simpliest system possible... Old Settlers used it: http://imageshack.us/f/337/settlers.jpg/

Totally misunderstood your original statement :)

Well, you were looking for other options. I haven't actually tested the tree based sorting sliders, but in theory it works very well.

If done well so that everything flows smooth and fluid, then it lets you accurately complex ratios and quickly balance stuff in various ways.

Say I want a ratio of 2:3 for A:B, then I can drag them into their own subtree together and put them at 2:3. Any other adjustment anywhere else will always keep those two as 2:3, and adjust their values accordingly.

Many users may well choose to just use a full flat structure, setting the value for one and then locking it, but the option is there for players who want to use the more detailed tool.

I understand the use now. Indeed, consistency of ratios is something cleverly achieved by this system.

It isn't critical for my system though, and the added complexity would probably turn the players off. You see, with my system, this is an operation the players will need to tackle repeatedly for several different populations, therefore I want to keep a clean design. The reasoning behind leaving the sliders behind was to replace it with something simpler. A hierarchy, while in theory (and from a computer's perspective) simpler in design, is actually more complex to grasp with a single sweep, and I'm looking for a more simple graphic depiction of the system.

Perhaps I'm trying to achieve something that can't be conceived of in 2d :)

How about "moving population" like in MOO2?

How about "moving population" like in MOO2?

I didn't play much MOO2, and really can't remember how that worked. Can you post a description?

Personally I'm starting to think that maybe just going with some kind of system that is visually similar to a table with a pile of coins and cash may be your best bet for something more simple than the traditional slider system. Most people are fairly familiar with counting physical money. Have buttons to quickly 'combine' stacks in to nice, easy to see blocks of higher values, or drag them to a spot to split them up into piles of smaller coins.

I can't :) It was too simple to describe :) You was clicking then draggind and you moved the population to another "box". That way you were determining the priorities.

Personally I'm starting to think that maybe just going with some kind of system that is visually similar to a table with a pile of coins and cash may be your best bet for something more simple than the traditional slider system. Most people are fairly familiar with counting physical money. Have buttons to quickly 'combine' stacks in to nice, easy to see blocks of higher values, or drag them to a spot to split them up into piles of smaller coins.

Clever.

Not sure what to replace coins with though, unless I divide a system much similar to the roman army:

Legion = > Cohort => Centuria => Legionnaire.

Merging some legionnaires would return a centuria, and so on and so forth (with different numbers obviously). I feel though that it could be taxing on the numbers I can tackle. I can't quite make a centuria and a half unless I allow it?

Perhaps sliders is the way to go afterall...

Just abstract it to "Worker Tokens".

Each worker is its own token. Toss a bunch of them in the "Change Machine" and it spits back whatever combinations work best, like real world coinage/bills. Tokens to represent 1, 5, 10, 25, 100, 200, 500, 1000, etc, as needed.

I can easily envision how you'd break the units into smaller pieces, but the reverse process might be tedious (regroup 50 individuals in groups of 10 or 5 might require a lot of manipulations).

Use an auto gather function. Pick up one token and shake it over the pile of that given group, and stuff automatically groups into a reasonable number of the various sized tokens.

Or just have it do it automatically without user involvement if loose tokens sit around too long. 10-15 seconds maybe.

Aim to have at least 2 of a given level of of token out before lumping them into the next highest token. So if you have 5 singles, they wouldn't auto join into a 5 pt token, but add two more and the 'extra' 5 singles merge into 1 5pt. That way you rarely have to manually break a stack if you just want to toss a few around.