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Radar/Tactical overlays/split screen |
Kenny_Naboo
Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: January 11, 2010
Posts: 3823
From: LobsterTown
|  Posted: 2010-04-21 01:05
I put this in the Beta forums, but thought I might include it here for the rest of you players to comment on what you think.
OK, not really much improving ship A or weapon B. I think in terms of ships and weaps, or factions, I'm pretty satisfied with the balance as is.
I'm thinking user interface. How information is presented to you, the pilot, the gamer.
Radar Overlay
Right now, when you're flying hot in a huge furball, I can honestly say that most of the time, many of us are pretty disoriented.
How many times have you pressed TAB to put the viewer/perspective on your target.... and then BAM fly straight into a planet. Or suddenly get Alpha'ed by 3 dreads that you didn't notice was approaching you rapidly a minute ago?
Happens more to n00bs I suppose. And dang, it was frustrating, no?
So the more experience players would simply have a hand on their mice and pan the camera around pretty often. It gets sorta tiring after awhile and you're left wondering..... "Dammit!! This is a 23/24/25th century starship.... and I don't even have a doggone RADAR!!"
Yup. We need a translucent radar overlay.
You can implement it as a permanent fixture on the right/left/top of the screen.... or you can do it like a resizeable/moveable pop-up window (i.e. Enhancement/Missions/Profile). Make it toggleable on/off.
It WILL be a great help and be welcome by many. How to read the radar? Easy. Top-Down perspective with the bow of the ship facing upwards. The ship will remain constant, leaving the rest of the "world" to rotate around it.
Next:
How about split screen Tactical Display for players with multi-monitor set ups?
Eg: I could have my main game screen on my main 22" monitor, and have a smaller 17" or 19" as a secondary display. I could configure DS to put my F2 tactical permanently on my smaller secondary display.
Maybe if I had a third display similar to the secondary, I could put some other stuff on, like the chat screen or something?
That's food for thought. 
Information is central to warfare. The more information you have, the bigger your advantage.
[ This Message was edited by: Kenny_Naboo on 2010-04-21 01:06 ]
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Starcommander
Marshal
Joined: December 14, 2005
Posts: 579
From: In your base, stealing your cookies
| Posted: 2010-04-21 01:45
I like! Especially with the multi monitor support idea. +infinity
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AdmiralChaos
Chief Marshal
Joined: October 08, 2008
Posts: 274
| Posted: 2010-04-21 04:26
Quote:
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On 2010-04-21 01:05, Kenny_Naboo wrote:
How about split screen Tactical Display for players with multi-monitor set ups?
Eg: I could have my main game screen on my main 22" monitor, and have a smaller 17" or 19" as a secondary display. I could configure DS to put my F2 tactical permanently on my smaller secondary display.
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Kenny_Naboo
Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: January 11, 2010
Posts: 3823
From: LobsterTown
| Posted: 2010-04-21 05:11
I'll be happy with the radar overlay first.
I think it won't be overly difficult to implement.
But the multi-monitor would be a big bonus. A really unique and killer feature that could very well be a first for a game of this genre. 
[ This Message was edited by: Kenny_Naboo on 2010-04-21 05:15 ]
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philll
Admiral
Joined: September 13, 2003
Posts: 268
| Posted: 2010-04-21 05:58
really good idea, or as a shortcut, maybe just put the tac screen as a small pop up in a corner. might save the devs some time.
eve already has the dual-monitor support I belive.
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Azreal
Chief Marshal
Joined: March 14, 2004
Posts: 2816
From: United State of Texas, Houston
| Posted: 2010-04-21 06:15
we cant get masses of asteroids or even the rotating dictor fields of before w/o major lag and desynch. I dont see this working w/o the same results.
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Pegasus
Grand Admiral
Pitch Black
Joined: August 02, 2005
Posts: 434
From: Eleventh galaxy on the right!
| Posted: 2010-04-21 06:38
Works wonders in Supreme Commander in solo or miltiplayer, I often have the map view on a 2nd monitor.
Obviously going to require more coding.
What I like to see and this is something Jack and myself are working towards eventually, and that running Darkspace off ATI Eyefinity with the game spread over 3 monitors, I would like to see support for this aswell.
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Kenny_Naboo
Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: January 11, 2010
Posts: 3823
From: LobsterTown
| Posted: 2010-04-21 07:10
Quote:
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On 2010-04-21 06:15, Azreal wrote:
we cant get masses of asteroids or even the rotating dictor fields of before w/o major lag and desynch. I dont see this working w/o the same results.
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The radar can be processed client side. After all, graphics intensive games with huge environments; eg Battlefield 2, are more taxing on the servers n everyone has a minimap cum radar... I don't see why this can't be pulled off on DS.
It's a subset of F2 Tactical anyway.
It may require recoding of the game engine perhaps but it isn't impossible.
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Rebellion
Marshal
Faster than Light
Joined: June 20, 2009
Posts: 730
From: sol
| Posted: 2010-04-21 12:47
absolutly wunderful ideas id like to see both of them inplemented
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JBud
Marshal
Joined: February 26, 2008
Posts: 1900
From: Behind you.
| Posted: 2010-04-21 13:50
Nintendo DS fan eh? nice Idea, would be pretty hard to implement unfortunately, and considering while quite a few of us have multiple monitors, it would be pointless to do for what is probably only a quarter or less of the community
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Rae
Admiral
Raven Warriors
Joined: May 23, 2002
Posts: 284
From: 10 minutes away in a fast boat
| Posted: 2010-04-21 16:58
I think prolly a poll would be needed on that one.. I'm sure there are more than a quarter of the people playing DS would utilize that feature. I'd like to see it, and have always wanted it. If it gets built, it will get used. Just my .02 cents
Quote:
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On 2010-04-21 13:50, Scientia *JBud* wrote:
Nintendo DS fan eh? nice Idea, would be pretty hard to implement unfortunately, and considering while quite a few of us have multiple monitors, it would be pointless to do for what is probably only a quarter or less of the community
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Chewy Squirrel
Chief Marshal
Joined: January 27, 2003
Posts: 304
From: NYC
| Posted: 2010-04-21 17:25
The radar could also be another benefit of the scanner....
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Kenny_Naboo
Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: January 11, 2010
Posts: 3823
From: LobsterTown
| Posted: 2010-04-21 22:41
Quote:
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On 2010-04-21 17:25, Chewy Squirrel {om nom nom nom nom} wrote:
The radar could also be another benefit of the scanner....
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I don't think we should tie the radar to the scanner.
A radar should be part of the basic sensor suite of any ship. If you have F2 Tactical, then you should have a radar already. What we need is just an option to have it as a windowed overlay.
We could call it a short range or tact radar, something that shows everything in the immediate vicinity of your ship as green/red/yellow blips in an overhead view.
green = friendly
red = enemy
yellow = other objects like planets, etc
And if we could target those objects by clicking on the radar blips, that would be nice too.
[ This Message was edited by: Kenny_Naboo on 2010-04-21 22:43 ]
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