Mini-map pings are great, but the animation is perhaps a bit slow?
tk-421
Join Date: 2006-11-03 Member: 58315Members, Reinforced - Shadow
Join Date: 2006-11-03 Member: 58315Members, Reinforced - Shadow
<div class="IPBDescription">An opinion on the "blips"</div>Basically the title says it all - the new pings are a great addition to the mini-map and it's very useful to see where important action is taking place.
My other $0.02 on them however - by the time the three concentric circles meet and you know where the action is - it's already too late. The animation feels a bit slow as compared to other RTS games. It would be great if a) they didn't need to scale from outside the mini-map all the way down to the point of interest or b) the animation was a tad bit faster.
Maybe others have opinions on the rings as well?
My other $0.02 on them however - by the time the three concentric circles meet and you know where the action is - it's already too late. The animation feels a bit slow as compared to other RTS games. It would be great if a) they didn't need to scale from outside the mini-map all the way down to the point of interest or b) the animation was a tad bit faster.
Maybe others have opinions on the rings as well?
Comments
Would it be possible to have a double tap (or something) that moves back to your original position after you have delt with the alert? There would be nothing worse than constructing somewhere on the map, etc, moving away and then forgetting where you were doing it originally.
It could be a 'back' button that appears, or something.
There are a couple of options.
1) Placing of a marker to double tap back to. (Spacebar key)
2) Cycling command stations on tapping <u>backspace</u> key. Set a primary or the one you are in is always primary.
See if you can get more feedback and see if people think it could be usefull and if a majority say they would like it I will pass it on.
The more people that show interest in any idea the more justified it is to spend time on implimenting it.
The issue I see is that essentially you have two categories of alert.
- Structures
- Units
If you have multiple alerts, that could be an issue. Also, how long before an alert times out and is no longer registered? Not being able to select alerts is the real issue.
That is why I had the idea for this, as it was also a way of improving communication (excuse bad graphics, it is just an idea, sorry if you have already seen it):
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->When the commander jumps in, the right hand side of the screen has 4 (or so) of the players on the team. It displays health/ammo/location(maybe)/player alias and icon.
<img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_O5wLta7OteY/TJ5PQcVFu2I/AAAAAAAAAGc/vLx8jhhkis0/s912/10.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
This is something I would call a 'ping' bar. So when somebody communicates (text or mic) their alias pops to the top of list, indicating how they are communicating. New communications would stack underneath, and eventually push others off the top. This means that anyone you need to click on does not move just as you are about to click on them.
<img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/_O5wLta7OteY/TJ5PQexzBhI/AAAAAAAAAGg/WQdaitjNZq4/s912/11.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Clicking on the player opens up health/ammo options at bottom right. This allows you to heal/arm the player when in screen view.
Double clicking would take you to the players location, so in imminent death you can aid someone. That or the player in trouble can 'ping' (tap push to talk so it gives an audible 'pinging' down your speakers) so that they pop onto the list without having to type/talk when in times of action. This would inform the commander that there is danger in that area if they die before he can save them.
<img src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/_O5wLta7OteY/TJ5YfPaT7cI/AAAAAAAAAGw/DMpeKwvt3BU/s912/12.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Griefing could be solved by the use of mute.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
It could probably work for structures as well.
What if whenever there was an alert, it became bound to a certain key, so you can double tap it and bring your view to it.
Imo some buildings should be automatically hotkeyed for ease of use.
IE 1 is always command center or whatever. Or squads.
It would allow you to see who pinged, and for what, clicking can take you there. Would need a culling to prevent ping spam. Also notify when upgrades are done. Make sure to tweak it properly so that new ones force old ones off the screen, otherwise when too many events start happening you create a backlog.
At the same time, Spacebar to jump is also maximum awesomes.
I do like that it does the whole screen, the problem is it takes too long to figure out where the event occurred at a glance to the minimap until about 0.5 second into the animation. Perhaps at the start have a red box/circle that the others will eventually converge upon, but lets you jump there immediately.