First off: I want to thank Uber Entertainment for creating this cool game. Title basically explains my idea. One of the main features of Supreme Commander is the strategic zoom. You could zoom out and see the whole 2D map at once with units, buildings etc. represented as icons. Considering the importance of macromanagement in SupCom, it is a very useful tool Now with Planetary Annihilation, we obviously play on spheres, which means that we only get to see 50% of the map at maximum zoom-out level. To see everything, you still have to scroll across the planet, which makes it a littlebit annoying, for example if you just quickly want to see the progress of scouting on the backside of the planet, or if your enemy is planning to sneak attack you. So a reasonable solution to this problem would be a shortcut button, which turns the player camera immediately on the exact opposite side of the sphere. With this option you obviously won't see the whole map like the 2D map in SupCom, but atleast you get to see both halfs with only one click. I think it is a fair approximation to the strategic zoom on 2D maps and a better alternative than scrolling around for every little thing. For a better understanding: http://www.bilder-hochladen.net/files/big/7klt-1d-642e.png Also, don't misunderstood me, I am not against scrolling around on planets in general. Think of it just as a helpful tool
Re: Suggestion: Shortcut to move cam to opposite side of pla Intuitive rapid navigation shortcuts are always a good idea.
Re: Suggestion: Shortcut to move cam to opposite side of pla This, because i would say its a no-brainer for Uber to implement, and multiple viewports and all will be fine.
Re: Suggestion: Shortcut to move cam to opposite side of pla I expect they already have this on their list, and if not it will most likely be very soon. Though looking at where their focus is at right now, I'm not really expecting that they'll put time into this until we hit beta. (or it might be a super easy fix, and they'll implement it in one of the next builds, aka in the next couple of weeks)
Re: Suggestion: Shortcut to move cam to opposite side of pla Yes, but not as a solution to the problem described, as it doesn't solve it.
Re: Suggestion: Shortcut to move cam to opposite side of pla Could I propose a small amendment. Going to the other side would be helpful but it would still be difficult to comprehend what is happening at the sides of the map. By side I mean imagine the current camera position is the pole the side of the map would appear at the equator. At this point distances are pretty distorted(compressed) as the surface is almost 90 deg to the camera normal. My suggestion would be make the key do a 90deg rotation rather than a 180, that way you could cycle round the planet and back to the start in 4 key presses, a quick double tap would achieve the same as the original proposal and it would be a lot easier to build a full planet wide picture. You would still have problems with understanding what is happening at the poles but they are generally a problem in any spherical mapping. A second but very different suggestion would be to set up six fixed views that can be activated. From the path finding overlay it looks like the planets are made up of 6 co-ordinate maps (it's a bit like a deformed cube), each key would then orient map to look at the centre of one of the faces of the cube. There is a great book called "the design of everyday things" (very recommended reading) that talks about controls having a natural mapping to the thing they are controlling. A good natural mapping here would be to put the shortcut keys on the number pad assigned to 2,4,5,6,8,/ the reason for this is on a standard number pad the key combination looks like an unfolded cube and it is pretty intuitive to understand where you are going, 5 is centre, 8 is up 90deg, 6 right 90 deg, etc with / 180 deg. N,/,* 7,8,9 4,5,6 1,2,3 You could even combine the two ideas so the number pad keys work relative to your current position rather than on fixed views. Or pushing the extra mile have a key toggle between num pad navigating fixed or relative views.
