User Interface

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The first thing most people spot about the User Interface are six collapsible display areas.

## Collapsible Display Areas

Click on the gold edged tab to collapse any of these areas.

These **collapsible** display areas are:

### Turn, Money, & Advisor display

* A quick recap showing the turn number, your gold, and a portrait if an advisor would like to give you any hints

### Status Reports

There are three folders of Status Reports.

#### **Settlements List**

* Settlement Icon
	+ A gold Up arrow will appear to the left of any settlements ready for expansion
	+ A double gold Up arrow will appear for any settlements ready for expansion that are experiencing over-crowding
	+ A pulsing gold exclamation point over the settlement icon will indicate any villages with high unrest levels
	+ A dull red circle around the city icon indicates the designated capital
	+ A bright red circle around the city icon indicates that a hostile force is within the settlement's territory
* Settlement name
* Settler Status - A green line below the seated figure indicates a settler can be raised here
* Population, and Trend
	+ Green up arrow for increasing
	+ Gold Right arrow for steady
	+ Red Down arrow for falling
* Improvements (Forced Labor) indicators
	+ New Farms - hovering over the wheat stalk will disclose how many are queued
	+ Clearing Forests - hovering over the hand ax will disclose how many are queued
	+ Building Roads - hovering over the road icon will disclose how many are queued
	+ Buildings - hovering over the building icon will disclose which buildings are queued
* Any cities with a gold gradient background in the list require some less urgent attention. e.g. slightly declining population
* Left Clicking on a settlement in the report will center the the map on that settlement
* Right Clicking on a settlement in the report will open the Settlement Detail Page for that settlement)

#### **Units List**

* Units marked with stars have a general in their ranks
* Units within the borders of a settlement will show the name of the settlement
	+ Units within a settlement's borders reduce unrest and may replenish their ranks
* Units with a double up arrow in the upper right corner of their report listing have movement orders
* Units with a red crossed swords indicator have movement orders that... *may take them into battle?*
* Clicking on a unit in the report will center your display on the unit selected
* For a complete list of units consult this list.

#### **Reports List**

* Clicking on a report will place a green check mark on it
* Double clicking on a report will bring up the details of that report
* Reports will include those on
	+ Qi and Ren Increases (or decreases) of your leaders
	+ Building Completions
	+ Road Completions
	+ Farm Completions
	+ War News
	+ News of events affecting your settlement and troops as well as those of others

### C/A Status Coin (Culture/Authority)

Click on the gold edged tab to collapse this area

* This coin indicates your values for Culture and Authority (as well as your faction logo)
	+ Culture is important in that it makes your people happier and your trade deals more lucrative
	+ Authority is important in that it limits the number of settlements you can control without increasing unrest.
* The color of the detailing on the coin also indicates the era that you are in.
	+ Grey (as shown) indicates the Bronze Era
	+ Red indicates the "Warring States" era.
	+ Gold indicates the Imperial Era.

### Next Turn Button

Click on the gold edged tab to collapse this area

Clicking this indicates that you're ready to advance to the next turn.

* Any units without orders will call for a confirmation.
* Any technologies requiring selections will call for a confirmation, unless you've elected to automate these choices.

### Actions Bar

Click on the gold edged tab to collapse this area

The choices on the **Actions Bar** are:

* Diplomacy - F5 Review existing treaties and deals with the leaders of other factions and propose new ones.
* Technology and Culture - F6 Review the technologies you've already mastered and select new courses of study
* Edicts - F7 Review your current edits or decree new ones.
* Financial Summary - F8 Review the finances of your empire.
* Player Status - F9 Review the basic information concerning your faction, your progress toward ultimate victory, the factors affecting your culture and authority, and the options you've established as to automating your choices
* Statistics - F10 Review your standing and compare to the other factions you've encountered.

### Map Orientation, Help Display, Settings Load/Save Menu

Click on the gold edged tab to collapse this area

**Help**

* The in-game manual / help facility is accessible by clicking on the "i" icon in this area (or anytime via F1)

**Settings Load/Save Settings**

* The Settings / Load/Save menu is accessible by clicking the "ll" icon in this area (or anytime via ESC)

**Map Orientation**

* The compass arrow in this area always points to "true north"
	+ Holding the Right Mouse button and moving left to right will rotate the base map

## Unit Controls

For more complete details about Moving and orienting units and making battle plans see Battle Plans

An entire stack of units (up to 8 units) may be selected by clicking on:

* The unit/stack itself on the Main Map
* A settlement's garrison banner
* The unit stack's entry in the units section of the Status Reports
	+ To select a single unit in the stack one may click on the "Unit Card" for the desired unit.
	+ To select multiple units CTRL click (or toggling on the sticky select) allows you to select/deselect individual units for a multi-select

### Individual Orders

* Each unit in a stack
	+ May be given different battle orders
	+ May be given different formation and facing orders
	+ May be ordered to different locations via right clicking

## Settlement Management

For more complete details see the Settlement Detail Page.

A Settlement may be selected by:

* Left clicking the rectangular part of an on-screen settlement
* Right clicking the settlement entry in the Settlements section of the Status Reports

## Miscellaneous controls

* One can position the main map by using the standard W A S D movement keys
* Holding the Left Mouse button one may "drag" the base map in any direction
* Holding the Right Mouse button and moving left to right will rotate the base map
* Holding the Right Mouse button and moving up and down will "pan and tilt" the base map
* Using the Mouse wheel one may zoom in and out on the base map

## Console commands

* Using the *Grave* (lower case tilde) (key to the left of !1) you can open the Game Command Console
	+ The console command "UnlockAllFactions" will allow you to bypass the 150 turn restriction on choosing a starting faction.

## Options

Within the options menu there are three sections

### Game Settings

Here you can set

* Difficulty
* Turn Limit (Default 300)
	+ There are those that advocate bumping this number up (350-400) if you're a beginner as it may take you some time to "find your footing."
* Research Rate (Default 100%)
* Keyboard Scroll Rate
* Language
* Show Grid (May be toggled in-game via ALT G)
* Allow Cultural Victory (Default is yes but once in game it cannot be changed for that game
* Keep Height on Zoom (added in 4Decemeber2017 patch)
	+ Defaults to yes
	+ When opted off clicking on reports doesn't zoom the camera in
* Chinese Banner Symbols - Show the Chinese logographic symbol for the faction rather than the standard in-game icon (Defaults to no)
	+ May not currently be changed in-game

### Video Settings

* Screen Resolution
* Graphics Quality
* Windowed
* Show Grass
* White Fade Level
	+ Controls how much detail is lost to "the mists" as one one scrolls out

### Sound Settings

* Master Volume
* Music Volume
* Effects Volume
* UI Volume
* Mute