Minimap feature...unsure if working correctly.

[afguy200105]

First off, I just want to say that I really love this game, and am very pleased by it as it tends to waste alot of my time  .  I downloaded the Mac client and installed all updates, as of 3.908 (before I was using Windows under boot camp).  I have not encountered any showstopper bugs as of yet, but have not really delved into a game much since switching to the new client.  One thing I noticed immediately was that at the top right of the screen, there is no mini-map like their used to be before the Unity switch.  I noticed that in the settings panel under interface, there is the option to turn on mini-map, and it says it will show right above the ship blips on the top right side of the screen.  The mini-map still does not show if the option is check marked.

I am wondering whether the mini-map is supposed to appear when the option is checked, or if there is some other feature that it does?  I see the option on the bottom left that says map, and when clicked, can bring up a full screen mini-map, but unsure what good that mini-map is for.  Its not very mini  .  Once again, I could be wrong, but just would like some clarification on these issues.

[keith.lamothe]

The full-screen one is the only one that currently exists.  It wasn't until more recently that we realized that people really want an actual "mini"-map, and we simply didn't have time left to implement it for 4.0 and get it stable, etc.  We plan to add an option to get it to draw much-reduced in the bottom-right corner or something like that

That thing on the settings panel is either a typo on our part of a misunderstanding on yours, I'll check to see which

[x4000]

Thanks for your support, and glad you're enjoying the game!

For the time being, the minimap as it used to exist is gone.  You can bring up the "not very mini" map by holding T, or by using the view you found.

The settings option you're referring to is actually talking about the bounding box of the viewport display indicator inside the minimap itself, it's not referring to the overall minimap.


Depending on feedback, we might add back in a traditional minimap at some point, but it was just too small to be useful most of the time, and something that took up a lot of screen real estate that we simply didn't have available with the larger fonts on 1024 wide monitors, so we went with this alternate solution.  Other massive RTS games have done the same recently, such as SupCom not showing the minimap at all by default (and it was a pretty useless one when they did show it).  With a game like this, the actual in-game zoom is something we'd prefer to emphasize, as it's just so much more functional.

Some of the other functions of the minimap, like alerting you if there are enemies on the planet, have been made more obvious in general, and have been put into the alerts box on the left side of the screen for even easier viewing.

We re-thought a lot of things with this new version.

[afguy200105]

Thank you for both of your quick replies!  I understand your viewpoint on the mini-map issue, and it does make sense.  The one thing that I did like about it was that when an attack by a wave was coming, and you had the advanced warp sensor on the planet, you could just look at your mini-map and see a blinking wormhole, and knew which one it was right away.  With multiple planets, it was an easy way just to check with all the different waves coming.  The alert box is great as you said, and is easy to see if there are enemy ships.  If possible in future versions, could the mini-map feature be turned on/off as an option, if there is enough support for it?  Screen real-estate is not really a problem for me on my 27 in. with 2560x1440, but for my macbook pro it is, and I can see why, besides time and stability, that it was not implemented.

[x4000]

Definitely, if there's enough desire from players from it, we'll consider it -- mostly it would only do well on larger monitors like yours, though.  I should note that the blinking of the wormholes also works with the minimap on T -- actually, should be easier to see than ever, because everything isn't all crunched together.  But, points taken.

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, I certainly plan to have the option to show it in the bottom-left corner (will have to figure out something to do with the selection description window, but that's doable).  It basically will be not-recommended-for-1024-wide resolutions, hence the option part.

[orzelek]

Yea, I certainly plan to have the option to show it in the bottom-left corner (will have to figure out something to do with the selection description window, but that's doable).  It basically will be not-recommended-for-1024-wide resolutions, hence the option part.

Top-right corner is suddenly busy or something? Lack of mini-map there makes that corner very empty...

[keith.lamothe]

Top right is very busy on 1280 resolution, and completely blocked by the resource bar on 1024.

[x4000]

And chat/messages.

[Baleur]

Thanks for your support, and glad you're enjoying the game!

For the time being, the minimap as it used to exist is gone.  You can bring up the "not very mini" map by holding T, or by using the view you found.

The settings option you're referring to is actually talking about the bounding box of the viewport display indicator inside the minimap itself, it's not referring to the overall minimap.


Depending on feedback, we might add back in a traditional minimap at some point, but it was just too small to be useful most of the time, and something that took up a lot of screen real estate that we simply didn't have available with the larger fonts on 1024 wide monitors, so we went with this alternate solution.  Other massive RTS games have done the same recently, such as SupCom not showing the minimap at all by default (and it was a pretty useless one when they did show it).  With a game like this, the actual in-game zoom is something we'd prefer to emphasize, as it's just so much more functional.

Some of the other functions of the minimap, like alerting you if there are enemies on the planet, have been made more obvious in general, and have been put into the alerts box on the left side of the screen for even easier viewing.

We re-thought a lot of things with this new version.

I agree, i barely ever looked at the minimap anyway pre-4.0, well i must admit that i did enjoy looking at the huge colored blobswarms there when big fighting took place. 
I love the new mini-notmini-map, very clean and crisp, wouldnt it "kinda" work in the top right corner? If the ship blobs are exaggerated in size a bit? As a big quick overview of where the ships are in general terms such as north, south, west, east, rather than as a detailed minimap (which i also think is quite hard to pull off in a game like this or supcom).

[Panopticon]

The new "minimap" is one of my favorite new features. It really does improve access to the battlefield while minimizing interface real estate. I think it's a really brilliant little feature.

[Draxis]

Is there a way to rebind the new minimap to the thumb button on my mouse?

[x4000]

Probably, yes. If you go under input bindings and find the minimap key, there is a mouse option. Click that, then press the thumb button, and that should do it if your mouse labels it's thumb button anything less than "button six." I'd expect it is button four or five.