Differenciated Radar Blips and The General Approach to Intel

Just wanted to bring new light to this in the sence that I wanted to know what Uber's stance was on this.

It seems nobody will any longer put this on account of "being in alpha/beta/gamma" so I'd like to know, considering a pretty crushing majority in the ballot (yes, CONSIDERING, just considering, we're not forgetting all of you who argue more constructively than with just a tickbox here) AND considering an overall majority in the comments that this ought to be put to Uber for reviewal.

many have addressed the interesting ups in gameplay value it could have or come to the aid of control/macro in this game evermore eluding the grasps of our control through it's creative vastness and multi-dimensional nature.

As it doesn't make sense, both from a lore and a gameplay perspective.

Lorewise, well a radar can easily tell the difference between enviroment/building/ground and air. So I suppose it makes sense that radar blips would show this info. (even if you can deduce it).

Gameplaywise, why shouldn't you know that? If you have radar coverage of the entire planet it would be nice to see more than random blips moving around. Maybe you shouldn't see the exact units you are looking at, but you should at least be able to make out if you're looking at a bot/vehicle, aircraft or building. (this way it isn't too easy to spot the commander when there are enough land units)

Although to revist that commander issue.
Loads of game that have already been won get dragged out for ages because it takes ages to pin down the commander, consequently it wouldn't be the end of the world if you could see the commanders on radar. Leading to a speedy resolution of the game.

Conversely a player that is behind could still try a last ditch effort to snipe the comm. Which can only fail, unless the winning commander didn't protect itself well enough.

Radar shows you where things are, vision shows you what they are. I see no gameplay reason that needs to change.

IRL arguments are always fun in games

I like the implementation where once you've scouted something, even if it goes out of vision but is still in radar range, the radar remembers what it is until it is out of range. Everything else can stay blips as far as I'm concerned; I think if you want to know exactly what's what you should have to invest in some expensive radar, or do some good ole fashioned scouting.

Ttttt

Maybe the option of investing into a controll center that increases the radar capability by providing processing for radar info that give you more information other than blimps. Also it could be used for counter radar like jamming or sending out missile that explode in the air and leave a deposit of metal shard litter emulating a pile of units of enemy radar. Slow moving stealth tanks, bots and bombers now???

you have to scout with differentiated icons too...

You make the assumption that you don't and it's a memory trick to keep them in mind once scouted especially the mobile ones and especially considering the blips are stretched over a sphere.....

how good is that scouting intel to you now?

have you ever been so high you were looking at the times tables at a bus stop to get home, then checked your watch to see if you could catch it, then check the table again because you forgot the time window, then you forget the time so you lift up your wrist again, get the time but immediately forget it as you lower it to look at the table again and so on in an infernal loop that it takes you three more times to realize you're in?

feel familiar?

these scouts never stay alive for long. I know you agree with the ID'ng idea but that 'aint enough.

You say an "expensive radar" could do the job but actually, you could put together yourself with not much more than scrap a homemade radar that can more than adequately distinguish between plane boat and car.

So the nanolathing robots of 2,000,000 years into the future can't do what you, the primate, can with scrap?

Most things you want to scout (buildings mainly, nukes/anti-nukes/advanced factories/etc) stay visible on the map in their exact position after scouting, with the obvious exception of units. Even if the blips were there/differentiated, you still wouldn't see them without a radar, and the map would remain a sphere; so remembering what was where wouldn't really be helped IMO. I have thought it would be nice if, say, when you do a flyover (or any scouting), once the enemy's buildings are back in the FOW, a glowing circle of the enemy's team color remains under the buildings you scouted for a bit before fading to give you a reminder of what you just saw.

And when I said "expensive" radar, I was emphasizing the in-game cost I think high quality intel should have. I'm not trying to drag reality into the game too much; I'm more interested in gameplay. But assuming this is the future, we could also assume everything has some sort of nano-coating that creates perfect wave cancellation interference or something as well (no radar!). I mean, if you start speculating what war would really be like then as the basis for the game, then most of the gameplay as is is out .

Why fade? why this constant idea that is never explained?? half the time you would miss it.

It could be made to fade or not fade I'm sure, aesthetically I think I'd like it to fade after 20-30 seconds or so. I'd have to try it out both ways to see how I personally liked it; I think the idea stands either way however.

you can play Supreme commander Forged Alliance to see what it's like to have intel "all the time".

I like the idea of fading so that you know how recently you scouted something.

You know it in the sup com model too because of how many unscouted blips there are in the mix.

constantly new units and structures are being put out, and at an insanely faster rate then in supcom in this game!

So with the livestream approaching and this being my biggest question I want answered on the stream today, I want to put this thread back on the table.

quick recap : https://forums.uberent.com/threads/differenciated-radar-blips.49424/page-2#post-764593

Here's a quick thought:

Differentiated radar blips = yes

BUT

Ground radar only gives generic blips. Satellite radar gives blips that are differentiated.

Could be an added incentive to play the orbital game earlier on.

why would anyone need an incentive to play the orbital game earlier on when Anchors nullify ground battles completely??

I always rush anchors. check it out 13:40:

plus what do you call "ground" is air "ground"?

Well, I'm working under the assumption that anchors may not remain as is.

By ground, I was referring to planet vs orbital. It was a loose differentiation.

Theoretically it could be expanded along the lines of:

Basic ground radar can distinguish between generic ground and generic air blips.
Advanced ground radar could further distinguish between buildings and units. Additionally it could distinguish between generic T1 & T2 units.

Basic orbital radar could distinguish the differences between the types of all units (building, bot, tank, plane, & T1/T2)




Or something like that. Dunno really, it was only a 30 sec thought.