Potential idea instead of a mini-map

I know there is a desire to veer away from mini-maps
So I was wondering how to create some way of relaying information to the player immediately without using a mini-map on a planetary scale.

Across planets the information needed is as much 'Which direction is everything?' as much as 'What red dots are showing up?'

So I drew this quickly as an idea


The idea being that you get a colour round the side indicating the size of units around you and how close they are in relation

WIP

Give thoughts

Why a minimap when you can see the whole planet by unzooming ?

edit: or maybe the minimap would show the whole planet on a plane screen ?

Yeah it's not bad. I do think they'll do something like a minimap, "viewports" or camera windows have been bandied about. This would be neat regardless.

Tbh, if they have quick view on units i.e. double tap 1 to go to group 1 etc.
With a combat report log of some sort,

19:00; big fat thing got sank by small flye things
19:01; small flye things engaged enemy small flye things
etc...

Then be able to zoom quickly to them, would probably be a lot better than a mushed up weird mini-map thing.

Edit: Though having your idea on top of that is actually quite cool now I think about it a bit more

A system that helps to keep track of the orientation of the planet would be neat and quite helpful. Currently I reposition the planet a lot with n, but that doesnt work very well on the poles.

I've noticed that as well. I just mentioned the idea of custom camera axis locks here: viewtopic.php?f=61&t=48390&start=20

It would mostly be useful to players near the poles.

What if they made a Tablet App that could display Mini MAP and aslo other cool stuff too
wouldnt that be great

No.
this whole "innovation" that's come with next gen games of buying more stuff with a tablet isn't innovative play, its just whoring out for more money. People shouldn't have to buy n expensive tablet + app just to get the complete package.

from what i have read 8 out of 10 People have tablets these days!!!

The media say tables are then next gaming platform: Nivida, Google etc But i think its a GOOD support Hardware, its never going to be the same as a PC for a long time, not even Consoles can keep up... PS4-XBOX1 (This is not a fan boy post so don't start)


If They create an APP with that function is no different than an extra monitor is it

Win7 64bit - Ubuntu 13.04
AMD P II x6 1090T 3.2Ghz
AMD 7950 XFX
12GIG RAM
160g SSD + 1 TB HD

I have a lot of spare monitors around from my dads old work PCs. What I don't have is money for, or need of, a Tablet. I have a laptop and I have a smartphone, what on earth do I need the middle ground for?

What are you getting angry about !!! you are responding in the same manor as those that are mad about the price of the early access

i didnt say they had to use tablets (IT WAS AND IDEA!!!) Which is the same as having an extra monitor.

agree with gardentwine about one point. Try to expose your idea in a gentle manner.

What you said

What i understand.

(i m exaggerating a little bit )

What you should have said

We are on a forum, the way we write is the only thing that people knows about us. they don't know if we are smiling / angry / or what ever.

just saying, no need to continue on this point.


Regarding the tablet, the idea could be interesting but it seems to me a bit too innovative, and i'm also doubtful about playing on a computer and a tablet in the same time. I would like prefer that developer focus on more relevant issue.

Regarding the first idea (first post) the zoom out feature makes the idea a bit useless, no ?

Actually a minimap is not really needed because we just have to zoom out and the entire screen become a minimap. I will be more interested by warnings which make me aware that i have to zoom out and see what is happening. Like the famous "your base is under attack", but it could be anything, sound alarm, blinking icone... the event which produce thos warnings could be also various (base under attack, unit under attack, new unknown radar echo, important ennemy troop movement...)

The post wasn't that bad. But please refrain from bringing up the steam pricing issue ...

An extra monitor would be far cheaper than a tablet, and a tablet wouldn't offer you anything more than a monitor would. Also, it wouldn't be a simple matter of writing an app - the only feasible way would be to physically connect it to your computer some how, and that's assuming it even supports that. Basically, Uber would have to do a lot of work to allow tablets to be used in a way that would probably be very awkward.

I think the actual number of people to have tablets would be far lower than 80% of the population, too.

I can't say I know anyone who has a tablet who isn't a more middle-aged or more high-income than me. There's no use in them for the vast majority of people.

to get back to the original idea,
I like the idea to add off-view information as some kind of statical summation at the borders.
a) view screens are usually large enough that a few pixel missing at the edges won't matter
b) it offers directional overview information, without diverting directly from the current focus
c) it offers summary information without going into much detail

one could also add localized (time dependent) flags for certain events like a big battle, asteroid hit whatever.
also for the issue with the general orientation, compass directions in relation to your current view would be nice.

from the user side the question would be, how much actual usable information can be gained, information that can't be gathered faster in an other way.

from the developer side, it would interesting how much overhead a second pass over your current knowledge would cost to generate such an statistic.

sorry for even bring up,what should not be Named

but i was only sharing an idea, i wast telling any one to jump off a cliff

this i one thing i ve never been keen on in the last couple of years, is the reactions of so many people over Ideas, its as if they bring RL issues into post these days or it could be just the way people are forced to act on Forums these days

what happened to respect these days