I live in the strat view!

Graphics.

Okay. Does the added graphical clarity help win the game in any significant way?

Does it matter? The game isn't there exclusively to be won. You don't lose anything from it.

So there isn't an advantage from zooming in? It's strictly eye candy? Glad we got that settled.

That brings us back to square one: Why someone would lock themselves into a permanent strategic view:

I guess the answer is "NO".

It's easily avoidable as I've just explained. All things being equal if you could choose between a good looking game and a bunch of boxes, why would you pick the boxes?

Ability to zoom in != obligation to zoom in.

If someone doesn't want to zoom in they certainly don't have to. More importantly(or tragically?), they are probably better off for it.

You are avoiding the issue. Why would you choose a bad looking game over a good looking one?

Dude what the hell. If you take out the icons, it literally takes 10 times longer to determine what a unit's identity is. Even the enemy units you encounter. The default settings... people like you... you're literally shooting yourself in the foot. Ya sometimes you have to zoom in to figure out if a bot is stuck due to a nav glitch. Ripping out the strat icons is ripping out visibility. Delaying response time. Delaying information.

No one said anything like that.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEFCON_(video_game)

I´m happy we can disable the uniticons in the options so all are happy in this thread ;-)
.. but I´d like to see some more options for this ..

- the distance when the icons appear/disappear should be adjustable

- friend foe colour options .. like "show all enemy forces red and all allies blue" or something

- size of the uniticons adjustable .. although we can easily change that ourselves

yeah defcon icons were great and had a fantastic readability ..

The ability to disable HUD elements is meaningless if the game is not playable without them. There is a distance where they are needed, but it should not vary with planet size.

Replays are for eye candy.

I just though I'd put that there because the game is 100% icons.

maybe you want to try the new version of my mod ..

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/rel-transparent-strategic-icons-v3.55376/

I think its better readable now ..

I think I completely agree with you that the distance cutoff should be sane and not based on arbitrary stuff like planet size.

I also happen to think that they should do stuff like fade in and out, if they do have a threshold to disappear set.

But my opinion is very much that I would never ever want to hide these icons ever, except for when I engage the cinematic view camera.

Sometimes I feel like I have to zoom in WAY to close in order to avoid interacting with my orbital layer.

One thing I would like to see added for the strat view is the ability to disable layers. Maybe buttons (and hotkeys) that disable visibility and the ability to select the orbital icons, or the ground icons. Make it really obvious that it's disabled (a large banner at the top saying "Planet Only View" or "Orbital Only View") with a single click there to reset it to default.

In the last patch there was something like that, back then the draw of ground level icons was tied to the display of the orbital shell. If you put the shell to modal it would only show the shell if you selected an orbital unit (difficult without the shell to begin with!) and only then hide ground icons. Don't think you can do it now.

The orbital view really needs some serious polishing.

*rips the thread of our bmb's hands and delivers it back to lokied with a kind and apologetic smile*

-I, and I think most everybody would indeed agree about the large icons and cursor... actually a good point
-I think you'll come to agree the uniqueness of the icons works pretty well, though, once you're used to them
-same thing with the build bars. i, too, found them cluttered at first, but the sorting category tabs help a lot until you're more familiar
-as was already said, there is indeed an option under "UI" for having your selected units a diff color. very handy.
-formations are brand-spanking-new - not even a week yet. they've admitted there's a long way to go after this first iteration. units should be organizing themselves into groups. I notice they do when they pour out of a factory, but once you move them a few times or start microing them, the formations kinda go away.

again, welcome to the game and the forums! there's so much to love and enjoy.

If I might recommend the following mod as something people might find useful

https://forums.uberent.com/threads/rel-transparent-strategic-icons-v3.55376/