I think error messages open in the corner furthest from the mouse, on the idea that they will have less risk of blocking something the player wanted to click to do the actual intended/would-work action. But that logic might not be appropriate any longer now resolutions are typically greater than 1024x768.

thats not a bug, its a feature. (stemming from the original game!) sometimes, ive had it 'stick' to the same spot where the last one was displayed, ie: if i moved it to the top right corner, from then on, it would always popup there. (until the nxt install)

Replacing the positioning logic in

return {_cursor.pos.x, _cursor.pos.y - (sm_height + 20) };

But that logic might not be appropriate any longer

This logic is still appropriate. It would be very annoying if this information appeared right next to the cursor. Most of them are just a formality and the player knows perfectly well what is happening without this information, so bringing them closer will not help. Moreover it can be very difficult in situations where the player needs to do something as soon as possible, but cannot, because every now and then there is a "stupid" warning about nothing that covers the field of action.

Example:

1. You need to build signaling quickly, otherwise there will be an accident.
2. You are in a very hurry, click, and you miss the track
3. There is a warning above the place where you want to put the signaling that you cannot build it because... there is no track!
4. You close this idiotic information at the moment by pressing delete... which also closed the build tool
5. By the time you choose the tool again, it is too late and an accident has occurred.
6. ...

Of course, this is only one of many possible situations. Even if this warning pops up a bit to the side, it will still be unnecessarily distracting and irritating with its intrusiveness and can still be the cause of a very unpleasant event. Here, optionally disabling messages would not be a good option, as sometimes they are actually useful.

An alternative solution would be to specify a fixed position at which these messages would be displayed.
Currently, it is possible to save the size of most windows using the square icon. Something similar could be done with regard to the position of these windows. This way, it could also solve another problem that players have already written about on the forum at least several times - about opening windows in a different place each time.
It could be a general option for the entire interface, or a button in each of the windows that you can use or not - after pressing the icon you can still move the window, but when you close it and reopen it, it will always appear in the remembered place.

I think that in the case of these messages, they could be more visible, and at the same time they would not be disturbing if they always appeared in the same, expected place.

How about: If the error message window was see-through and not clickable, instead clicks went to whatever is below it.

the error message window was see-through and not clickable

You want to close the window, because it bothers you after all, but you can't... You can do it anywhere, but not here? I think it would be better if hovering over them would just close them. But in either case, the warning appearing in the player's spotlight in most situations would be really irritating. Especially since it appears really often and usually about things that the player knows very well - see that screenshot above. Do you really need this?

As an option? Ok. ("Approx the warning to mouse cursor" (0-100)?) But I believe that any fixed closering of these messages towards the center is a bad idea.

Sorry @TrueBrain, this one seems to be "working as intended" and discussion about how we could do it differently doesn't belong in the bug tracker after two years. 😉 LordAro suggested a fix that could be a PR, if you still want to fix this.

To put Discord here: it was argued that the "working as intended" was true for 640x480, but on a 4k it is hard to argue this is desired behaviour. It is 100% intended, but in 2024, I would really consider this a bug :)

Not all bugs are equal; it seems :P

So open "near the mouse" but also not so close that it will likely cover what the player was intending to work on. Perhaps have different logic depending on the game screen size.