How many people would like the 2D version included?

I tried to describe negative effects of the distorted geometry.
However since I stated that I am against 2D maps, since they have huge distortions/disadvantages, I´m outta here.

Quite frankly, I think any attempt to turn the 3D worlds into 2D maps would be absolutely naff.
Particularly given the very small size of the planets we are likely to be fighting on, the distortions would make them worse than useless, as the distortions, regardless of which projection you use, will make them near enough unreadable.

I'm sure the Uber team can come up with a more suitable and appropriate alternative to give players strategic info.

I want a Google Earth Interface, that is all.

I imagine it to look and play a bit like populous on the PC. Which is fine when you have 20 units but when you have 2000 and you want to keep looking back at your base then switch back to the enemy’s base you are going to keep scrolling round a sphere. :s

This is why the strategic zoom was so good because you did not have to click the mini map to scroll around. You could just zoom in and out and see everything in the process. The strategic zoom will be worthless with a 3D planet. I guess you will be zooming out to space but that will not really help you see around the planet.

Why don't you give it a try before you start imagining the worst.

I vote for the Dymaxion projection.
We may have to invent a monitor to match the shape, but hey ...

I will be giving it a try whatever happens to it, i cant w8 :s
So much h8,

It never ceases to amaze me that no matter what the conversation, there is always a relevant xkcd.

(off topic) pity there isn't an xkcd for your sig, which makes me cringe every time I see it.

You can turn off signatures in the user control panel. Always a good idea on this sort of forum.

If the problem is we need a display of the minimap, how about just using two spheres? You can accurately display about half the information on each sphere. Then you put the rest of the information on the other sphere.

Focus the "front" minimap on wherever your mouse is, spinning both little globes in the corner when you move around. You have one to see what's less than half the circumference of the earth away from your pointer, and one to see what's more than half the circumference of the planet away from your corner.

You can see any kind of units within reasonable range of each other at the same time. The only possible issue is units being about a quarter circumference away, which might be displayed on both spheres, but that doesn't sound all to bad either. You'll quickly get used to it, I think.

Well you will be able to divide the screen to view multiple locations at once, just make one part smaller and put it in the corned, then zoom it out, you have a half sphere mini map.

Assuming the small view would scroll along with your main view, that'd work perfectly. If you have to set it manually, it would probably still work pretty well. Being able to pop open multiple windows sounds like an awesome feature.

Why would you need it to scroll? I mean, SupCom never had a scrolling minimap because the game wasn't based around scrolling. I don't know many players who used anything but strat zoom. Which brings me to the next point: why would you want or indeed need a minimap?

I imagine that I would have my game running multiple windows something like a CCTV control room. My main one would be where I was currently operating and would obviously take up the larger portion of the screen, with a few smaller ones around it for overviews. One for each planet that I had an interest in and perhaps one set to the system overview mode.

The way the game will work -based on my interpretation of what has been said by Uber- really removes the necessity for a 'minimap' since potentially any window you create can become a minimap. Only it's 100% as interactive as your main screen, which is a million times better. You see a situation developing on another planet and you can either just maximise that small screen and check it out or use strat zoom to go out to system overview and zoom in on the other planet, leaving your window configuration intact. It's seamless and far better than trying to figure out a 2D way of displaying a 3D object.

I think multiple monitor setups are going to be a must for this game. Is going to be interesting.

They'll be a help, I wouldn't say a must though. Honestly with statzoom in supcom I didn't look at the second monitor that often. If PA achieves the same ease of looking around the map then it won't be as big an advantage as it seems to be. I'm interested to see how this is going to work with the multiple planets though.

Multiple windows, yes. Multiple displays, not so much. I think it's unreasonable to assume everyone has the facility to use multiple displays, though it is becoming a lot more common these days. Even for desktop users.

Both of these posts hit on very good points, I've had 2 monitors before I got vanilla Supcom, and frankly, Strat zoom was just more convenient for me, but that being said it will be interesting to see how multiple planets effects that, and as wolfdogg said, multiple monitors might not be required if we can split the main screen into multiple view ports, admittedly multiple monitors might be better suited to this, but I'd say they'll be far from being required.

Mike

Presumably with relation to ships being most likely to take damage in port?
I take the view that it's safer for the crew to be in port. I'm a shipbroker by trade!