Rethink the concept of a "minimap." Possibly "strategic zoom."

HeatSurge

I play a substantial part of the RTS game on the minimap. Mostly distant move orders around the map.

Sometimes I wish I could just remove the minimap and be able to zoom the main view out to a point where my area of influence covers most of the screen and then play only with the strategic icons - which was my preferred mode in supcom2, see "strategic zoom."

If that's not possible, can you make the "big map" where you hold down the map key a toggle and clickable for at least movement orders?

If you're not sure what I mean, let me know and I'll record a video of what I envision the perfection of RTS control with the current state of popular tech (small-ish monitors at 1024x768 through 1920x1080 and mouse+keyboard).

coolitic

But wouldn't that be OP? I think I like current minimap, helps you see if enemies are attacking teammates nearby and helps you navigate.

HeatSurge

I don't like being artificially limited in what I can do through intentionally bad UI choices, using a mouse (instead of your fingers on a touchscreen), limiting zoom levels, limiting sizes, limiting selection, etc. etc. This isn't a full-fledged RTS game so not all those features are really needed, but I feel like it could still be significantly improved... maybe the project is too big for this game though, perhaps NS3 :-) .

sotanaht

coolitic wrote: »

But wouldn't that be OP? I think I like current minimap, helps you see if enemies are attacking teammates nearby and helps you navigate.

Better interface is never a bad thing.

xen32

You can issue move orders on comm minimap, queuing those also works.

HeatSurge

It works for move orders, but nothing else. What I'm suggesting is make the overlay map (the one where you hold the key right now) an optional commander map on full screen with icons for players and buildings and enable everything to be done there... I'd rather look at that than scroll around any day, even if you lose some minute precision.

BeerTent

This may help, I've bound my map overlay to the mouse button, the one that brings it up over the entire screen? It won't work for build orders, but it does allow you to click on say, reactor core super fast, relay your orders and construction, and then return to sub-access very fast. (Assuming summit)

Still though, In my opinion, Supp-Comm: FA got it done the best possible way. Dat strategic zoom to any possible level would be the best.