UI Discussion: Improving the "Feel" of Orbital.

These are not gameplay ideas.
I am proposing these to help orbital "feel" more distinct.
Like you are calling for satellite assets from "way up in the sky".
I hope we can come up with ideas on improving on the ease of reading orbital as well.



I feel that Orbital units should be further away from the planet.
This will make them "feel" more orbital.
This should make them less intrusive and easier to distinguish from planet-side units.
This will have zero effect on balance (as long as their angular speeds are maintained).
Orbital being further out will also allow the player to quickly tell at a glance what is orbital without have to read the icons.



The orbital layer should also have some sort of thin transparent "shell".
This would somewhat behave like a grid of sorts and give the player context of moving orbital units.





Both Orbital and Air units would benefit from "leaders" projected below them (to the planet and orbital shell surface).
Again, this is good for context and placement.




I hope to hear some more great ideas from you guys about improving the look and feel of orbital.
Please do not discuss gameplay mechanics or balance issues here.


thank you!

p.s. @ghost1107 and @clopse , you guys probably want to chime in here...

I don't think air needs leaders because of its low altitude but Orbital definitely does.

I agree that orbital most definitely needs a simple visual cue to easily distinguish from masses of ground layer units.

My best idea would be something to do with the icons. And it needs to be distinguishable even when using a top-down view from above, with masses of units underneath.

Possibly different shape, also bordered with a different colour, that is unique to orbitals? Maybe a slightly lighter or darker shade of the player colour, so they stand out?

I'm no graphic designer, so let me know if these ideas are not doable.

Another idea would be stepping to orbital layer only when zooming out to a certain degree, or maybe tying this to a hotkey, where the player could toggle icon display (or selection priority even) between all, ground only, orbital only etc...

Edit:spelling

Secondary army color in the icon alongside primary would work.

As for orbital layer: it should be wireframe instead of semi-transparent. And projecting icons as "leaders" onto the surface would help too.

Orbital leaders is actually exactly what I feel is missing, mostly.. I'd love to be able to see where my units actually are in relation to the body they are orbiting. Just nothing too intrusive. Either way, good post, I agree.

I agree

Fixed paths between planets:

What I mean with fixed paths is that they're still dynamic because of the moving planets, but that all units that fly from planet A to planet B take the same path. Units in a path adapt to it changing form due to the moving planets. This creates a streamlined form of unit travel between planets, and it makes implementing features that revolve around interaction with those units easier. When in orbital view, those paths are always shown through transparent lines, even if there are no units in them at that time. Also they have different colors dependant on the distance they span. You'll see the strategic icons, but for even more information on which units are in the path, you simply hover over it with your mouse. Maybe you'll even get some kind of magnifying glass effect.

This would make orbital view much more easy to read at a glance.