Getting oriented on a planet: I need more direction ques

Discussion in 'Planetary Annihilation General Discussion' started by Shalkka, May 1, 2014.

  1. Shalkka

    Shalkka Active Member

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    Every planet has north and south poles and those help a tremendousy lot in verifying that you are viewing the planet right side up. However there has been a couple of situations where my sense of direction was quite lost. Anywhen when I am near poles all compass directions point allover. When you are in the north pole south means about the same as east and both seem inadequate concepts to convey direction. This is especially hard when you need to spatially refer something in team chat as in where the enemy is or where you are scouting.

    I don't usually pay that close attention to area far away from my base that I could remember from the terrain shapes at which side of the planet I am. And besides PA games take place on a variety of planets.

    There needs to a little more ques on where I am on a planet. You could overkill it by giving coordinates down to the second. But those are not that readable or inviting to use. I think the need would be well served to introduce a axis or 2 more for directions on the planet. There are a couple of naturally defined directions for a orbital body. You could have a pointer to point in the progade direction that is the direction the planet is moving in respect to the sun. Another natural direction would be the zenith ie the direction the sun is in. However for the need of structuring the land strategic scenes there is a real need for those direction to corotate with the planet. It would be great if two bases would remain in the same direction to each other. Another requirement would be independent of the already established direction. That leaves a quite narrow band of direction orthogonal to the poles that is any two on the equitorial that would likewise be ortogonal to each other.

    There is a difficulty in picking from those the best to canonize but say that we fix the zenith of game start as the 0 meridian for that planet and draw two minor axes based upon it. Now if you are near the north pole you have something to strcuture directions with that are not dependant on planet content. You could also track the zenith. Comparing the Time Designation Zero zenith with the current zenith you could read off the local time at the Time Designation Zone. Voila now you have a handle on the planetary spin also.

    Kerbal Space Program had a great system of representing orbital realtive directions with symbols instead of using arcane verbal terms. These directions could maybe be called +Z, -Z, +D, -D for Zenith,Zone,Zero Noon and Midnight and Dawn and Dusk. Even if they were unexplained made up alphabeths them being there for directions marks would convey their semantics (N and S being letters retricts the choice of symbol to letters) ie it would be safe to ignore them. They would also be minor-directions ie much smaller letters to the familiar N and S.

    Would these navigational aids help and are there any other navigational aids planned to be added?
  2. thetrophysystem

    thetrophysystem Post Master General

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    When you face the opposite hemisphere, east is in the west and west is in the east. This is because those literally spin with the place, if left stationary they are backwards when faced from the other side.

    Besides that, maybe small white sticks in the ground each hemisphere quadrant corner. White spikes such as you see white structures when a line of structures are queued. Possibly only visible when you hold shift or have caps lock selected.

    If they must be marked, make one with a cross on top, make one with a cross on bottom. Something universal and subtle.
  3. epicblaster117

    epicblaster117 Active Member

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    Just turn pole lock in the option menu on helps a LOT with orientation.
  4. thetrophysystem

    thetrophysystem Post Master General

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    They say they can't give good orders based on just a top and bottom, sides are needed.

    The wierd thing is, if you have a base then east and west still work. If you are on opposite planet from them, it usually works as long as you don't end up in the middle of them and on the outside of them somehow.

    If you are trying to give east-west directions from a pole, then you are doing it wrong, geography doesn't work that way.
  5. BulletMagnet

    BulletMagnet Post Master General

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    Just say what time of day it is at the location you're interested in. As said by the OP, it doesn't need to be accurate down to the second. I think morning-day-evening-night-etc will work well enough.
  6. Geers

    Geers Post Master General

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    How do you lose your sense of direction when you have a multi-planet GPS high zoom camera?
  7. Shalkka

    Shalkka Active Member

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    It's not a GPS, it doesn't show coordinates.

    I would be happy if I knew right a way the right direction and amount to scroll in. Even small unnotated notches would help a lot,but please do mark one of them in bold or something to not get them confused.

    Current time of day travels relative to ground and is accurate for only that instant.

    Maybe the poles could stick to edge of the screen instead of falling off of it so I wouldn't even need to zoom out to get sense of direction?

    orientations.png

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