I live in the strat view!

As a big fan of SupCom and its strategic view I am satisfied to know it lives on in PA. I would spend most of the game in the strat view, selecting units/factories and issuing orders without the need to zoom in except to identify the unknown radar blips via a spy plane (which is how recon 'should' work, not "only spy planes", but that's another forum). Unfortunately there are several issues I have with the strat view of PA. Additionally, while I've played few games yet there are some tactical issues I have with moving around large numbers of units.

Firstly there are a number of issues with Unit icons in the strat view. Namely, they are too darn big. I understand the slightly cartoonish look of most of the units, I can live with that easy; but those strat view icons are huge. Multiple overlaping blocks of icons clutter the whole screen and I can't tell what is which and which are what. Compounding the issue, most of the icons are quite similar to one another making it difficult to tell a factory from a scout car. Now, PA takes a lot from both TA and SupCom, no-one can deny that; so why not take a que from SupCom's simple and elegant minimal icons. These icons don't have to be twice the size of the cursor for a player to get a sense of what they are. A simple square for buildings (or whatever), diamond for vehicles, and triangles for planes with standard symbols for their role (X for tank, dot for arty for instance) or whatever shapes you want, just make them distinctive and not massive so you can tell at a glance what's going on.

Speaking of the cursor, why's it got to be so large, because the icons are? I find it difficult to judge if I'm clicking on the correct icons as a double result of both the icon's size and the size of the cursor. If it is so large for visibility, make it hot neon pink or something, its just too big.

There is also the issue of selected icons in strat view. There is nothing to indicate which icons are selected (that I can tell). SupCom highlighted the icons with a white border, talk about simplicity; and it worked great. I'll double-click on a unit of bots to group them up but have to zoom in just to see if I actually double-clicked or just mis-single-clicked.

Finally tactics and movement. Now, please forgive me if I just haven't figured it out yet, but I see the AI grouping bots into large formations (10-20 bots with a single life bar) and quick-healing said group from almost dead to full life with the combat fabricator while they are all moving in formation. I can't even figure out how to move my little guys in formation and usually just get my 20-30 T2 tanks plastered by 20 T1 bots I can't kill. I understand the issue with tactics in most games, but shouldn't the computer AI on my little robots be smart enough on their own to arrange themselves in effective formations and have the repair bot understand what its supposed to do just by what is grouped together when selected and moved; without me micro-managing every tiny movement they make (this is always a stickler with me and so called strategy games, the units almost never have any brains). (You still have to build and arrange the groups, you shouldn't have to devote every second of the game to moving them around and telling them what to do). If I select a unit or arty/tanks/AA and tell them to attack a group of radar blips, I expect the tanks to take up a forward position to screen the arty, the AA to move to the fringes to take down aircraft as quickly as possible, and the whole unit to advance until the arty is in range. Then just the arty attacks while the escorting tanks and AA stay in position. If I wanted tanks to run up and suicide themselves, I'd tell them to do it myself; I just don't see much of a positive function requiring all that additional micro-managing just for simple tactics like the example. Or at least get them in a darn formation so more guns can shoot at the same time. I know the game can handle it, afterall the AI opponants do it all the time.

Well those are issues I have at the moment.

Oh, almost forgot another ui issue I have!

The build bars are a bit cluttered to me. All those images are a little difficult to tell apart for first time players (like me for a while). I got the little selector buttons but I'd love an option to have a smaller build menu pop up with multiple rows corresponding to each building/unit function.

For instance

Row 1 [metal extractor][energy plant][metal store][energy store]
Row 2 [Bot fact][Veh fact][plane fact] [T2 fact]
Row 3 [Wall][Laser][AA]

I think if they were arranged like that, with a little clearer images (maybe with their strat view icons in the corner or top of the image), and slightly smaller icons the build trees would be much easier to grasp intuitively and provide a better game experience to players. Heck, maybe even have them 'float' next to the selected fabricator (though that might be a little overlycomplicated from a programming standpoint, maybe get a modder to do that )

Many of the issues you bring up are known to Uber and they are working very hard to redo the UI. Noone knows what it will look like yet, except maybe Uber. Hopefully when the overhaul does go live, most of your complaints should be addressed .

P.S. Welcome tot he forums, enjoy your time here and in game

Game Settings, UI, Selection Icons.

There are a couple of hidden gems in the settings, most of them poorly named.

Why would you play a game to look at icons?

The rest of the hidden gems are mods. There are already a couple mods that replace all of the strategic icons. The transparent unit icons one looks pretty good, although I haven't tried it.

The OP might also be interested in the Custom Build Bar mod, which adds a new tab just for common structures and makes you dig a little for the less common ones.

I would recommend the SupCom icons mod (not sure if it still works) or the transparent Icons mod. The second one especially work very well to help differentiate between bombers, planes, nukes, and commanders.

I'd love to see Uber implement this in the vanilla game:



https://forums.uberent.com/threads/rel-transparent-uniticons-version-2.55376/page-2#post-869479

There's a non-abandoned one now!

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/supcom-icons-fixed.56373/

Is it something that's really avoidable?

It takes intel to win. The strategic view keeps the most intel at your fingertips as possible.

For me it doesn't matter what game I play I want to win. If there was an advantage to zoom in on units at maybe attack the rear of a pounder or shoot a dox legs then of course I would do it.

That coupled with my brain being able to process icons faster than units and icons clearer in my peripheral which makes taking in bucket loads of info easier for my brain.

I think this game has a nice mix of strat view and zoom level. Strat view to organize units into positions and zoom in to micro attacks.

@Quitch , really like the transparent icons. Will defo download them later.

Yes. Just zoom in to look at what you are doing.

And then you lose all situational awareness and the game.

Being zoomed in isn't permanent you know.

You've lost track of the conversation, no one said about looking at nothing but icons.

What's the advantage to doing that?

Being able to see the game.

Why, does the screen turn black when you zoom out?

No, it gets covered in icons.

That are there so you can see what they are at a glance.

Seriously, icons were implemented to improve the UI for seeing your units.

And learning the types isn't hard.

What can the tactical view show that the strategic view doesn't do well enough?