Distinct Sector Lines, Very Large Maps, and GC III

I think you do have a point here, based on playing a lot of the largest maps on both GC2 and 3.   It highlights, I think, one of the important differences between GC and Civ, for example.   Even in a big Civ map I can click anywhere and I know where I am because of the terrain, water, etc.   But GC necessarily has a lot of space that looks the same (and it should be that way, don't misunderstand me - large distances between solar systems is a key feature of space).

I have two suggestions that might help.   One is that the minimap could use some work in terms of providing "reference points".   Exactly how this would be enabled I am not sure.   Perhaps planetary/solar markers could be made more distinct somehow. or relic locations more pronounced.   Not sure, there is a tough trade off here with appearance and functionality.   Making system names bigger quickly would get to be more in the way than not, I think, for example.    Worth thinking about though.    That "where the heck am I " feeling doesn't add to the game.  Of course at present different ZOIs are colored differently in the minimap but although helpful, doesn't really help one "locate themselves" perhaps because of the difference in scale.

At present I am using rally points to help me --- I name them "Southwest" or "Central Drengin Jump off" (heh heh bad news for the Drengin)  and so forth.    I am finding on big maps rally points are handy even if never used for sending ships.   I might add that I use really points to send ships that I know will then be redirected when they get there...somewhat inefficient in moves, but a big savings in brain capacity, lol.  Making rally points more obvious on the map might be a help.

In an insane map well heaven help us.   Well, maybe that's why it is called insane.

Secondly, some sort of coordinate system might be introduced.  With hexes it's obviously a bigger challenge.   But they had "alpha quadrant" in Star Trek, etc. so perhaps something simple could be done there.  Again, I don't have a quick answer.    But something that serves for signposts in the galaxy would be handy.

Quite.

I think another problem here is, and I really didn't notice it until I was examining my screenshots, there are SO many more things on the map in GC III than in GC II. In GC II there was quite a bit of "empty space" even on maps with a lot of stars, which cut down on the visual overload. But with nebula, black holes, and everything else that has been added to the game...

Well, compare this (GC II)

Now don't get me wrong.  I LOVE all of the extra stuff on the map!  But it can be a friggin nightmare when one is trying to slowly go through the map step by step to find things.  

I first really noticed the lack of major grid lines/sector lines when I was trying to count the number of habitable worlds on a map that was created (I eventually found out I accidentally hit random causing the problem). Even using the arrow keys to move a set amount to the left/right or up/down wasn't good enough since I couldn't be sure of what was around the edges of the shifted screens.

I eventually got SO frustrated that I resorted to taking a ton of screenshots and adding my own lines via an editor just so I wouldn't go cross eyed trying to figure out everything that I wanted to.

===

Mind, I realize this is something of a poweruser complaint.  But I also think this is something you don't realize that one misses until one really tries to examine the map.

I guess I am saying that I want major grid lines/sector lines as that help cut down maps into easy to digest chunks while cataloging/navigating/surveying/examining larger map sizes.

@Developers: Just because the map is hex does not mean that sector lines must also be.

Adding a visual grid of large squares over the map would be trivial to implement. They need not have any game function. They could just be a visual reference.

actually i think they should be hexed based if you have square lines you get into the question of is this hex in that sector or this one? im not usually too ocd about things but this little detail would bother me constantly

further the square grid would then just kind of be cut off on any of the angled sides.

on a side note if the largest maps are well insane in size would it not make sense to have multiple levels of lines? hex->region->sector->??

personally if this were implemented i would run military starbases with movement enhancing modules along the region and sector lines to create highways/superhighways

This seems like an excellent notion.   Not a hard problem to divide a hex map into scale hex areas, I would think.   If the current map sizes don't "fit" exactly right because of the number of hexes isn't exactly right there is no reason the different sizes have to follow some rigid progression.

I could even see a choice on the rally button "head to the alpha quadrant" meaning as soon as you get there you go idle for new orders.

I fully support the idea of region and sector lines.

You do get lost in terms of location and scale without them. They were a major help in GC2, regardless of the starbases per sector mechanic, whick i didn't care about.

As far as the geometry is concerned, hex regions are the easiest to do, they could be rectangular but that is harder to implement. If you ever worked with hex maps and algorithms you know what I mean.

Another cool Idea would be to also assing sector names as strings, that would add depth and provide an easy äddress for most objects in space:

"The economy base in the regina system at the mutara sector", You can find it much faster than searching the regina system on an insane map.

(shifts this to Future Ideas from Beta Feedback)

====

It's been quite some time about this, and after I mentioned it in passing in another thread, I think I'd like to bring this up again for discussion.

From a User Experience point of view (as opposed to a Game Play/Feature point of view) there are very few things I really really miss from GC II.  One is the list of uncolonized worlds/worlds held by other factions.  I understand that might be in the pipeline however, so I'll keep my powder dry on that for the mo.  Another was a simple screen where one could instantly change the production queue order for a planet/starport in a quick bang-bang-bang manner.  That probably isn't in the cards given the way GC III is headed, but hopefully the Govern screen will eventually "do enough" to replace that functionality more or less.

There is one relatively simple thing (from a user UI stand point if not from a programming one) that will be IMO a godsend on any map larger than, well, large and that is sector lines.  When there are a ton of things on the map that I can't find easily via the current UI system (uncolonized worlds, worlds held by other factions, ships belonging to other factions, unclaimed resources and so forth) I then have to spend the time slowly going over the map, zooming in and out of tactical, hunting and pecking for what ever I am trying to find.

Not a big deal at all on any map Medium or under.  But once one hits Large, hunting-and-pecking starts to become a real problem as I have no "guidelines" to help me make sure I am not going over the same patch of the map five times.  And it's just flat out easier to have a guideline as I skim about the map.  

Now I understand the two main points against this.  The first being that the vast majority of the player base is playing on small maps where it doesn't matter as much.  If at all.  So there isn't much call for this from the user base.

Point absolutely taken in advance.  Non-infinite time and resources and Stardock has to prioritize.

The second point that is sometimes brought up when I have mentioned this to the devteam is that it might look ugly due to one reason or another.

Well that argument I am much less sympathetic about for a couple of reasons, though I absolutely understand the rationale.

First off, can sector lines REALLY be that much uglier than Range Lines?  I'm trying to think how they'll be more oft-putting than them and coming up short.  The only thing I can think of is that an easy implementation might have them cut across hexes and thus look oft-putting to many players.

Point taken, absolutely.

Thing is, that's why I am suggesting that we make this a User Setting, with the default set to OFF.  People would have to enable it via options in the first place to see it.  And if they in turn hate it on their screen?  They can easily turn it back off.

And, as I said in the other thread a few minutes ago, if Stardock wanted to make it so only the really hard core players wanted it, they could make it so it was a setting only available by manually changing something in Prefs.ini.  That way someone really has to go out of their way to enable it.

As I understand it, there is something like sector lines already enabled in the code, but only available in debug builds.  That's what the console list tells me at any rate when I try to use the sectorline command via console.  If so, perhaps it can be polished up a bit and enabled to be used for those of us who would really like it.  Even if it is a bit on the clunky side and even if we had to go through hoops to enable it.

So to sum up one of the things that would greatly enhance my playing of GC III would be a realtively minor thing like sector lines.  It would make maps easier to navigate and "digest" when trying to find things.  Hopefully it can be enabled one day, even if I have to go out of my way to do so.