This is related to an
Issue I filed in Mantis. Basically, how to improve the strategic UI by "showing" movement/etc instead of telling us what moved in text.
OverlaysOverlays: The idea of an overlay is to allow players to visualize the current state of the strategic overview.
Sim City has an example of what I mean. Some ideas for overviews follow.
- Danger/obstacle visualization: Colors tiles based on how dangerous they are. This is particularly helpful for seeing how outposts/etc change the danger levels of terrain. The danger view could also illustrate impassible terrain, such as walls or terrain requiring an ability that the player hasn't earned, or "high value" targets for the overlord.
- Food/Scrap/Mana production: Not sure how useful this is in the long run. I often find myself wondering how each tile is contributing to my food and scrap stockpiles, perhaps because I don't have a good grasp of the strategic mechanics.
The strategic overview could also roll in a "fix" for a common complaint re: viewing shaded/windy tiles... when in an overview mode, the normal movement and action rules could be suspended, allowing the player to view information on any tile revealed by the FOW.
Edits: Removed bug report description, to focus on overlay.
