[IDEA] Minimap

First I know that the idea is to have the whole planet and to move around it to see the units and select them, but I thought it would be useful to have some kind of minimap at a certain zoom level close to the ground.

It would really help doing the micro-management of the units.

Speaking of selecting units, a 3 layer/level minimap could really help to select the Orbitals units, because for now, if you didn't put a rally point "outside your base" you'll take sometimes to find and command the wanted units.

There will be no minimap, at least this was the results of the previous threads regarding this topic.

But it is (was?) planed to have multiple viewports/windows, even on one screen. Which somehow gives you some sort of minimap.

actually neutrino caved in in one of the recent livestreams, there is going to be some sort of minimap, probably not of the classical variety though...

Indeed he talked about experimenting with a kind of miniature overview.

Do you by chance remember which one?
All I could quickly find was this, which is what I was trying to describe.

he said it in the September 13 Livestream, starting 9:20, here:

I would like a mini-map but it would have to be done right to handle whole planets and star systems.

Not trying to be a jerk here, but I am really perplexed by all of the debate over minimaps. What I think that everyone is really asking for is the ability to have another window to view action either elsewhere, or at a different zoom level than the one in your "main" window. Uber has already communicated that multiple active strategic zoom windows will be integrated into the game at a later date. This will essentially give everyone the ability to completely customize their UI for all of their minimap needs and then some, because each window will be active and playable and can be sized and set to any level that is desired, and focused anywhere in the field of play. That being the case, why would you want something like a traditional minimap that is fixed and cannot be customized? Honestly, I don't get why Uber is even wasting time and resources catering to all of the people trying to make this game more like every other inferior RTS title out there, just to make it a little more familiar to them initially. After 5 minutes using what was originally planned (once it's implemented), they would forget all about the obsolete mechanics of titles that PA is trying to differentiate itself from.

Another feature that will complement the multi-window strategic zoom is a strong warning/notification system. Between those two features, staying on top of the action, and managing things in several places at the same time should be much easier.

So I guess what I'm asking is for Neutrino to step in and end this debate once and for all by committing to his original (and in my opinion vastly superior) vision on this aspect of the game.

I think what would work for me is multiple views as mentioned above but have them work like picture in picture. If something happens, large battle, commander in danger, etc, a mini view pops up on the action. When you click it the main view swaps with the mini view so you can micro your commander and once danger is averted you can click the mini view to return to your pervious location before being rudely interrupted by your enemy.

It sounds good to me in theory but it may not scale to massive multiplanet lots of player team battles...

That's the sort of system that most of us were referring to when we said mini-map. A well done mini-map (or multi-view system) plus a good notif tool would really be helpful for fighting across multiple worlds.

Yeah, that goes without saying. However, I'm not sure you speak for all of the mini map requestors out there. I might be wrong, and I hope I am (because that would mean that they are just inheritantly being impatient), but it feels to me like they are asking for something different....more "traditional".

I hope so too. A traditional mini-map would be almost useless in PA with all the different planets that you could be dealing with at once. Not to mention the fact that planets are round.

Yeah, and darac's pop-up window idea sounds interesting for the notification system, but I'm not sure how that would work. I mean what events would be deemed worthy of a pop-up window? If it was EVERY attack, it could get very annoying as windows would be popping up every few seconds. If it was Commander related only, it might never pop-up. Personally I would rather see a persistent icon of my Commander on the screen somewhere, so I could always see his health bar, and could double-click it when he started to take damage and started to blink. Of course, there is already a mod for that! I have a feeling that line will become as used as "there's an app for that!" in this game.

Well, what I would really like to see is a simple view of the whole planet like the real life world maps we use today. Essentially it would be a stretched mini-map. Otherwise, you have to look over the whole world every 5 seconds to see where you are being attacked.

I think a notification system that's built into the current chat would work well. You could adjust what warrants a notif in settings and when one appears, click it to jump to that location. It would also serve the purpose of your command icon because it would just alert you when your commander gets attacked.

I think a "flat" mini-map actually would cause more confusion then anything else since you would have to keep switching between flat and spherical maps. Plus, PA is built on the planetary scale so something flat and small would really be a step back.

kingjohnvi didn't say it should be small. I want a view that can wrap around the planet so I can see the whole surface of one planet in 1 view. Preferably it should be resizeable and zoom-able to.

I meant small as in only looking at one planet at a time. I see the advantages of a flat or unwarped mini-map but a flat map would be undoing the whole logic of planets.

Yeah, I think flattening things out might make things easier, but kind of admits defeat with the current planetary design. Once you start going in that direction, it could quickly turn into why have planets at all?

I think the spherical planetary map lends itself well to coordinated strategic team play, which I think PA is being designed to explore as a viable gaming option. Personally, I'd like to see where it goes before significantly altering it. Leave that to the modders.

Are you sure it will be moddable unless Uber makes an effort to make it moddable?
Unless Uber provides an example of how to wrap a camera around a planet how do you expect modders to make a minimap for Doughnut shaped planet?