I really wish that it would be possible to make use of additional display(s).

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by mellowautomata, February 15, 2015.

  1. mellowautomata

    mellowautomata Member

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    A simple request really. I can come up with couple fair ideas that would not completely tip off advantage in MP.

    -Galactic map
    This way you do not have to zoom out of your planet and instead just look at left / right to see the map.

    -Production details
    To see your production facilities and their quotas. Additional input on occasions such as if they are not used.

    -Units / Groups with various functions
    For example, if some unit / group has run into trouble, it could pop up here and could act as a hotlink for the situation.

    -Radar alerts
    Same with these. Pop out here and leave a short link with some additional input through color.

    Yes, this would obviously provide advantage of some sort, but again, there's plenty of other stuff that also adds advantage over to other people, such as specialized controller surfaces where you can have a whole bunch of hotkeys at your disposal in no time and so forth. I would personally not see this as much more special advantage than these or mouses with handy extra hotkeys.
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  2. brianpurkiss

    brianpurkiss Post Master General

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    Multiple PIPs of multiple planes on multiple monitors...
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  3. mellowautomata

    mellowautomata Member

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    Exactly. I sincerely wish that this would be possible. And I also do not think that it adds much of an edge considering that you cannot constantly focus on those. In fact, they might even be a downfall if you use them for observing. They would rather just help you to keep your planets in check and allow you to hop from one to another without zooming in/out, which might be very helpful in certain situations.
  4. reptarking

    reptarking Post Master General

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    The amount of dox I could micro by having all 3 of my screens doing PA would be a huge atvantage. It would yes not be that huge in casual matches but in tournaments, hardware would start to deliver huge atvantages once the player figures out there optimal play. Also having 3 screens worth of space to have even more ui mods that I can micro my economy. Scouting. And so much more. I love the idea but I know I could probably take massive strides on the single monitor players in just a few weeks of adjusting
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  5. mellowautomata

    mellowautomata Member

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    Touché, I agree that with enough experience, you can probably carve a huge and rather unreasonable advantage over it. I wonder though whenever it would be possible to implement this as a mod and therefor, it would not be used in tournaments. That being said, it could also make things worse by separating the tournament community with people who want to take advantage of multiple monitors vs. people who either don't or are stuck with only one. Doubtful that this would happen, but honestly, when it comes to humans, anything is possible, especially in the negative sense of this saying.

    Though with mods, I would figure that the single screen support is probably hard coded and would not be possible to implement as a mod unless you would window PA. But PA doesn't even have windowed full screen, unfortunately. I also would wish for that as well, even though PA as it is right now, isn't performing bad at all with application switching.
  6. reptarking

    reptarking Post Master General

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    Colin has a mod that used to make this all possible. It as glitchy though. Ui mods currently in all tournament play are allowed. Most tournaments require 1 or more of them even. If this is ever perfected and a mod does come out to enable multiple screens with full pip support then I know I might use it normally but ethically as a competitive player I probably won't use it for ranked or tournaments.
  7. cynischizm

    cynischizm Active Member

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    I would also love the ability to do a multi-monitor view of PA, It was brilliant in SupCom even though you could already see the whole map at a glance if needed.

    Honestly I think it would be as much used in general play as competitive. While multiple vantage points on a single planet would be great for micro intensive tournaments, being able to keep an proper eye on multiple planets in huge team games would be equally useful.

    If they do introduce it I'm going to need to work out how to fit two monitors on my stupidly narrow desk.
  8. zihuatanejo

    zihuatanejo Well-Known Member

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    I'm eagerly awaiting this feature as well :D
  9. cola_colin

    cola_colin Moderator Alumni

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    I think you are underestimating just HOW hard it is to keep stuff on 3 screens all under your control.
  10. reptarking

    reptarking Post Master General

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    im sure that for a long time having more screens would actually hamper a player because of the giant amount of information they are getting, but I do believe that some players would accelerate even faster towards the skill cap and possibly get to a level beyond the limits
  11. mellowautomata

    mellowautomata Member

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    Secretly this is what I want to find out. I have ADD so I bet that having 3 screens worth of input might actually satisfy me and I might be able to keep it up.

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