Ah, so it's click from Strategic View to zoom in. That makes sense. I'm used to SupCom where you hold the pointer over where you want and use the scroll wheel to zoom in. Either way seems quite workable to me.

Well here's the thing...you can, right now, click on the strategic map and the main window goes to that location. Just tried it. No, it doesn't change zoom level, but I wouldn't want it to. So whatever minidump was saying about, who knows.

I think we have that.  The situational map we are looking at is pretty mcuh what Drizzt has up there.

If we had the ability to use a 2nd monitor, for the sole purpose of viewing a strategic map full time, that would rock!  Even a $50 USB monitor would rock.

*EDIT*  Even better than a $50 USB Monitor.  How about an Android/IOS app that would allow our tablets to be the strategic map, and clicking on it would shift our in-game focus to the new region?

Quoting The_Gear,

reply 75

CTRL+1 while I have a selected troop of units. From then on I push 1 when I was zoomed out to tell them to do "x". Also hotkeys for commands, structures helps.

Would a window of commands help when only zoomed fully out? Example: Zoom out fully, push a button to expand a window to display commands, but only opens when zoomed fully out? Just tossing some ideas out there.

I like use of the Troop Groups to be able to be sent about, having a dedicated set of commands, for the Full Zoom Out would be beneficial, but I think it should be perhaps something we can click on the UI to have it drop down, but not always visible.

OR...have the list of commands be an optional part of the UI that can be turned off in options for those of us that have them memorized.

the thread title caught my eye, it was one of the suggestions i was going to post. in total annihilation i was used to moving around the battle by quickly/easily moving out and back in again...scrolling was more tedious...and btw...it'd still be nice to have scrolling across the field by moving the mouse to the sides. feeling comfortable in the world is really key to enjoying the game. (i was surprised it wasn't included because i figured it was the the next iteration of total A..(and was hoping it wasn't like supreme commander 2..i liked supreme commander 1 though )

The zoom level as shown in the benchmark demo in the game would be nice, seems to zoom much further out than the game currently does, although i've only played briefly since the last update....

Update...ohGOD it's worse...starting a new game starts with the strategic map up.  THE GAME IS LITERALLY UNPLAYABLE NOW.  THis is NOT a beta, it's pre-Alpha.  I'd never let my coders release UIX in this state.

You can close it by clicking on the name "Strategic map" or whatever it is called in the top right corner. Worked for me anyway. When the space bar didn't work it is the first thing I tried, took all of 5 seconds. If you want to be taken seriously all of your shouting and ranting isn't doing you any favours.

I Pressed EVERY button on the keyboard.  Restarting the game 3 times (back to windows and full restart) finally made the strategic screen disappear.  Who on EARTH uses space bars to dismiss dialogs?  NO USER INTERFACE WORKS THIS WAY!!!!  To make matters worse NO EXPLANATION of this mechanism (either in game or in the online walk-through) is present.  IF you decide to deviate from known standards, please use something reasonable to show the user what to do. 

Keyboard layout is AWFUL!!!   Scrolling with arrow keys?  Is this the 1990's?  I'm right handed (like most folks) so...

Look at your keyboard.  Now hold the mouse in right hand.  Now REACH ACCROSS YOUR KEYBOARD WITH YOUR LEFT HAND TO SCROLL THE MAP or TAKE YOUR HAND OFF THE MAIN UIX INTERACTION TOOL to scroll.   Look..this was resolved ages ago:  AWSD = scrolling / keyboard moment.  EVERY game uses this.  Stick to making your UIX soild using solid UIX principles.  Screwing around with UIX and controls doesn't make you "innovative" it detracts from your player's experience. 

Scrolling raises you zoom level depending on Terrain, uncomfortable visual experience, drawing your eye away from unit.  Fix your z-axis instead of trying to "show off" a technically advanced but UIX deficient interaction.  The jumping up and down breaks eye contact SOMEONE study how eyes / brains render things so you understand this point.

The UIX right now is horrible.  NEW PLAYERS SHOULD NOT HAVE TO THINK ABOUT SIMPLE UIX INTERACTIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!! <--- PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD UIX TEAM READ THIS.

Let's talk about how units are designed.  Zoom out.  It's almost impossible (even on my 4 k monitor) to quickly distinguish unit types at even a modest zoom.  The designs are too similar.  A destroyer looks very much like a cruiser from distance (where you need to work due to scaling).  Your units need to be distinctly shaped / colored / animated at a reasonable distance for things to work well.  Look at other RTS's....the units have VERY distinct features (especially around the perimeter) to make them stand out from one-another.  This is a critical part of UIX design and right now it's fatally flawed. 

Now this is beta so I'm not screaming about it BUT the experience I've had with Stardock's other recent releases tells me someone has taken over UIX who is not really thinking about things from a usability standpoint.  UIX is a big weakness in Sins of a Solar Empire (Still one of my favorite RTS games) but in that game the UIX fights you, ESPECIALLY that horrible empire tree and cinematic tracking.

WHO IS IN CHARGE OF UIX AT STARDOCK?  The game itself plays reasonably well when I can get the UIX / controls out of my way.  Same problem with Sorcerer King Your dedication to threading THE UIX (Amazingly bad decision) absolutely destroyed that game's potential...SK could have been one of my absolutely favorite games but UIX screwed it up.

You UIX *DESIGN* needs an overhaul from top to bottom.  So far, it plays like a mediocre RTS.  It has the potential (based on pacing / game-feel) to be something special like T.A.

Agree with a lot of what you're saying rdytmire, except the WASD camera control stuff.  There really aren't many RTS games that use WASD to control the camera, due to the importance of building/control hotkeys.  This game seems to use right-click-hold as the primary method of panning the camera, and it seems fine to me along with edge scrolling, zoom-out-zoom-in, or strategic map (space) movement.  Nothing crazy different from the likes of SupCom here.

My main (and really only serious) complaint at the moment is unit clarity.  Not being able to tell the difference between units without mousing over them is made worse by mousing-over not working when the unit is in an army.  I'm sure with experience I'd start to distinguish different units easier, but their differences are definitely too subtle.  

Every major successful RTS has placed great emphasis on having each unit being immediately recoognizable.  I'm slightly shocked that Frogboy says 

while also being seemingly ok with the current unit silhouettes.  Guys, I admire your conviction on avoiding the icon-sprawl, but you need to go above and beyond with unit design if you want to make it work.  Symbols let the players see at a glance exactly what's going on.  Take them away, and the graphics need to convey the same information if you want a successful game.

A particularly painful point is with the current metal/rad extractors.  Fucking hell are these hard to see.  This is actually the main thing turning me off the game right now - with the effectiveness of raiding extractors (they die easy), it's just a huge pain going around checking they're all intact.  I have to mouse over each node to be sure.  

Here's a simple idea:  add icons to the strategic view at each node to show a)how many of each resources there is, and b)whether they are being extracted.  Keep it simple, like having the number of each be greyed if it's not being extracted, coloured/bold if it is.  I just want to be able to hit space every now and then and see straight away if I'm missing out on resource income, without having to poke around for ages checking.

It's that stuff that's missing right now.  Strategic clarity.  And honestly guys, with a game like this that is so heavily focused on macro, these things that seem somewhat overlooked are make-or-break.

Totally agree with Cerzi, especially about extractors, there needs to be different/bigger/visually more prominent 3D model. I have hard time distinguishing between empty and populated resource node too.