Planetside Idea Lab

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by Thunder_Hawk

i feel that there is a redundancy with who is controling the planet. there is the logo above the planet, the color glow of the planet, and the area it ocupies in the radial grid. i think the most effective one is the empire logo but the color glow is nice. the color on the grid seems to break up the starfield background and i personally dislike it.

The logo and planet glow denote Capitol Domination. The grid color denotes a planet lock.

Yes, all extra information would have a toggle.

I also feel that it is redunant listing how map bases your empire ontrols in the interstellar view. people can quickly glance to the side and see how many bases your empire controls.

A chorus of posters were desiring as much information in the center area as possible, whether it's redudant with the side windows or not. They didn't want to have to look at a planet then search up and down the sides for the corresponding continent to get the information they needed. Having toggled info in the center provides an easy compromise. If people don't want to see that, they can leave it off.

yet another question i have, on the planetary view, will the warpgrate's color reflect the empire controling the other side? ie: the wg is red if tr has a lock on the other side

The warpgate colors will probably stay as the devs have made them, to help people recognize which gate links to what gate on another continent. As for links themselves, fredthedeadhead has suggested that very thing, showing friendly or enemy links branching off from the continents in the side windows. In the Slight Map Change thread (see link above), I believe he has an illustration already made up for people to check out.

[Super_Ryu7]

more empire specific weapons and vehicals would be sweet there are not many now...

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by Super_Ryu7

more empire specific weapons and vehicals would be sweet there are not many now...

I agree, but that subject is a bit off topic, don't you think?

[EarlyDawn]

I think he's requesting that you brainstorm some up sometime in the future. This is what you get when you start advertising good ideas, people start looking up to you to make their notions a reality.

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by EarlyDawn

I think he's requesting that you brainstorm some up sometime in the future. This is what you get when you start advertising good ideas, people start looking up to you to make their notions a reality.

Gotcha. Well, Super_Ryu7, new weps and vehicles will have to wait a while as I have quite a backlog of stuff that needs doing. But eventually, yeah, more stuff on the way.

Makes me wish I were getting paid.

[Hayoo]

Revision 4 to map (aka Complete Overhaul! TM)

Originally Posted by Hayoo

It's easy to see that simply sticking continents in space, as many have suggested, just wouldn't work. So I came up with another solution through myriad sketches and scribblings:

• Remove the side cont windows, but keep one window that displays the selected planet (this helps avoid the future problem of not having enough side windows for additional planets).
  
• Give the global map the ability to zoom in but lets you scroll across the starmap to view another planet at the same zoom level, or jump from one planet to another using an overview window.
  
• When the starmap is zoomed in, place the image of the continent on each planet (making sure there's future room for at least 2 more large conts or island clusters per world). This allows the display of warplinks on each landmass.
  
• Situate the planets close enough so you can see at a glance which planets connect to the one you're looking at.

The redesigned layout uses the current improvements I've illustrated in previous posts as the view for the stellar map. But now you can zoom in close to the planets to reveal continents on each globe. In the Zoomed View, clicking on a continent will reveal it's warpgate links to each planet it connects to (this is another reason to arrange the planets in a radial fashion, so that the links are closer together). You may double click on a planet or its continent at anytime in this view to bring up the continent or cluster map, which will have tabs for easy toggling between orbital, planetary, cluster, and continent views.

Layout elements:

• Top windows: Your location; cavern windows
• Side windows: Galaxy Overview (w/zoom slider), Selected region window (orbit, planet, continent), Region incentives, and Chat pane.
• Center area: zoomable starmap

Since the latest UI is only halfway done, I'm only going to show thumbnails.


Standard View (planet links shown)


Zoomed In (warpgate locations revealed)

http://psforums.station.sony.com/ps/...ssage.id=48850

[Hayoo]

Full size images of overhauled map finally up:

Zoomed out view



Zoomed in View (land warpgates)



Zoomed in View (orbital singularities)



Collapsed windows



Continent map tabs

[EarlyDawn]

[Hamma]

Sweet

[Hayoo]

glad you guys like it.

[7ruth]

Why Is oshur is the center??? Why not the mysterious core?

oh BTW #400 baby!

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by 7ruth

Why Is oshur is the center??? Why not the mysterious core?

oh BTW #400 baby!

It's only by virtue of it being equal distance between all the empires, plus with the one island being called Nexus, for now it seems appropriate. When/If they start adding more planets, then I can move Oshur from the center.

[Hayoo]

Graphics showing how the lattice and zones work with sea gates.

Sea gates provide more environments to fight in and more options for invading a planet.

[EarlyDawn]

The issue I see with sea areas is that you could conceivably spread the population too thin.

[Hayoo]

Originally Posted by EarlyDawn

The issue I see with sea areas is that you could conceivably spread the population too thin.

The same was said of Core Combat and Space. As with any expansion, additions for the type of game that Planetside is should only be released as the population expands or if you can garauntee a population explosion. Otherwise there's no point, seeing as unlike most MMO games, there are no NPC targets out there.

With BFRs coming out, PS is seeing signs of attracting attention from areas that weren't interested before. If SOE can dangle the hook, more players will bite.