How can I see the map of the planet?

Hello,

I play the Alpha and I can't find how I can see the map to see my ennemy and my base.
Currently, I move the camera around the planet and that make me dizzy. Maybe the strategic zoom is not implemented yet? I can't find it!

Thank you

I just zoom out really far ( I use a mouse)

No, when you zoom out, you see the celestial system with the sun, the planet and the moon.
In this view, you cannot see your bases and the ennemy bases around the planet.

I speak about a view of the selected planet where you could see the map of this planet.

Massive discussion has surrounded the idea of a minimap, Uber is looking at making one, but they are skeptical about it.

Try going into settings and turning on Pole Lock. It sucks when your base is near a pole, but it's less dizzying than an unconstrained camera.

The N key also orients you to the North Pole.

Hum ok, thanks for this information.
But I am not talking about a minimap. I am talking about a strategic zoom. I don't like games like starcraft when you have to move the camera to see the different location of the map.

I though that PA was TA with massive scale. No strategic zoom is a huge mistake of gameplay when you have to move the camera around the planet to see the map.

I hope they will introduce a view V1 between the celestial system view V2 and the classic zoom out of a view on a planet V3. V1 should be a planisphere of the current planet.

They do have strategic zoom. I constantly zoom in and out to move around the planet. Is it not functioning for you?

You will not be able to see the entire planet at once because its a sphere. You will see 49-50% of the planet's surface area at once.

And unwrapping a sphere is nearly impossible to do in an easily legible way that represents distance and proportion well.

First, with the SupCom strategic zoom, you see all the map
Second, well I am curious to see a replay of your point of view in a real game in video (come on, I am waiting for that)

Unfortunately not true. The sides of your "half-view" are compressed and you are not able to see distinctly.

I hope they will find a way because it is like to play Starcraft for now (and I hate that). I would love to play TA with strategic zoom and several planets

Ah, I get what you are after now. As stated above, I don't think strategic zoom will do anything but camera zoom, so you will only ever be able to see ~50% of a planets surface at once.

But, as is, the strategic zoom is functioning in the game. You are asking for something a bit different.

This seems to be one of the most discussed topics, and it's one that the devs are still working on. Doubtless they will find the option that gives best playability.

I hope! Because every guy I put on my chair to play the Alpha goes crazy because he can't see the entire map.

For example, you have to scout the planet:
In SupCom, you zoom out and do few clicks on the map.
In PA, well, I am curious to watch a video where a guy gives order to a aircraft to scout the planet

The strategic zoom is what you have in the game right now. What Uber will come up with additional overview assistance is another story. But you can't compare TA or SupCom with PA in this regard. These games had all flat maps. Of course its no problem to zoom to full map view in SupCom. A spherical map is spherical, you can't see the hole map by design.

In the current state of the alpha you have no other possibility as to adapt you playstyle. Give you scouts shift-moveorders to the edge of the planet, turn camera, add more orders.

We have to wait some more to see what Uber have in their minds on this topic.

Edit: Uber said multiple times that they want to user their Chrono-Cam feature for such things like small windows which show a different view. Imagine they will implement a simple notification system for events like "Enemy spotted" or "Unit under attack" that occur on the far hemisphere of the planet with a live view popup. And you could jump to that location by single click.
However they will solve it, PA will play differently than TA or SupCom, you will have to adapt a little in either case.

Ok, thanks for your answer

That's seems lot of micro, I hate that. I though PA would be a macro game

Yes, it will. When its released at the end of this year. Don't judge the game on its current state, its alpha. 80% of features are missing. Give it some time.

I'm hoping they realize that 'zooming out' just doesn't cut it on a planet.. and that they implement a TRUE strategic zoom. At the moment it's not strategic at all.... it's a pain in the ***.

My personal favorite idea is to zoom out.. and at a certain zoom level the planet 'unfolds' into a flat representation of the entire planet.

I hear you but that view would be even more limiting when you end up playing in a system with 3 planets 5 moons and an asteroid belt. There would be no way to see the orbital weapons or how close the other planet orbit is getting in to your planet. That said purecaldari is right we need to wait to see how this develops. But as it's projected to go I don't see how a flat representation of one planetary body (that inevitably would have scale issues) would be that helpful. Something that I have heard kicked around is multiple view ports Uber has indicated they are going to work on that. If that is the case perhaps you could link them in a way you could see the entire planet at one time (one screen the dark side of the moon, and one screen the light side).

You have the celestial system view for that.

It is not a good way because when you believe see one half of a planet with your view, you only see 25% because the sides are crushed by the curvature of the planet

What's the point in have a Spherical map that can then be zoomed out to be a flat map? Kind of defeats the purpose of having planets. I mean if you can see the whole planet on a flat level why use any other view?

Even if it did expand one planet out flat for some reason there will be other planets and there is no way to see all of everything from any vantage point.

It is more complex than playing in a 2D map but one of the things I really like about this game is that it takes place in 3D space. Well that and the chance to crash planets into each other.

Perhaps you could have 4 or 6 viewports running to babysit your plant. However I don't think you will want to. It sounds like there will be auditory and text displays to alert you "Enemy Detected in orbit of PlanetX" or "Enemy ground troops detected on PlanetX" or some such so that you don't need to actually watch everything on the map just have good radar placement. You could continue to working on your asteroids rockets and only go back to your home planet when you get an alert.

That's actually a very good question.

If you re-read what you've just said, you are basically saying that a sphere is less practical than a flat map in every aspect. And it's true.

The real question is : Do we want a game where the main difficulty is coming from playing on a sphere, or a game where the main difficulty is having big scale battles to manage, over several battlefields ?

In my opinion, having a sphere flattened as an option is not a bad idea at all. It does not remove any strategic aspect that a sphere is bringing (ie. no borders).

Actually, I was thinking of making a mod for Supreme commander where a unit can move from one edge of the map to the other (kind of a virtual sphere on a flat map). I'm pretty sure it would me more playable than PA (currently), with the exact same strategic depth *on a single planet*.
That's probably how Uber have designed their game before having their engine (kind of easy to do).

I don't see how having a flat view is removing the possibility of smashing planet. It's not like you are removing any 3d from the game, it's just a view.