Hi all. I'm pretty new to the game, been knocking around some in MP the last few days and having lots of fun. An idea percolated to the top of my brain the other night, and I thought I'd share.
If I am not getting something that's already there, or if the idea's been beaten into the ground I apologize, but I couldn't find any threads in the forums about this, so here we go:
The way I understand the Map Log to work is it's just a list that goes in in the order the Map Log points are added. What I think would be positively swell is if you could either break it out by system, or maybe even create your own categories and tell it where to put different points.
So, for the system idea, it might look something like this:
Sapphire:
-Mining spot right in front of my favorite asteroid
-Hidden station
-Black Hole
Cerulean:
-Hawk
-Space Station
And so forth.
Or, for the build your own categories idea, you might set it up in terms of tasks like this:
Trade route 1:
-station to buy from
-gate to next system
-gate to system after that
-station to sell from
Mining Locations of interest:
-good asteroid field 1
-planet to get bio matter from
And so forth. Basically allowing us to group our map log nav points how we like, and order them how we like.
Another thing I thought might be really handy is if you could have a nav point set that a hotkey applied to, sort of like a 'home base' nav point if you will. I noticed in MP the other night in the warzone I was always going into the nav window to choose the one I put right in front of the military carrier to get back for the next mission.
I'm not sure what the unintended consequences of that might be, but I'm having trouble seeing how it could be abused.
Anyways, just thought I'd throw it out there. Love the game by the way Vice. Great to see a one man dev team that's into his project.
Wiley.
Map log and hotkey idea
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Vice
- Administrator
- Posts: 12227
- Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2003 1:38 am
Map log and hotkey idea
That is an interesting idea. One concern I could see arising is adding another layer to sort through to get to a logged nav point (equating to maybe 3 or 4 clicks to access rather than just 2). But the organization benefit would be a plus. In addition to adding layers, are there other possible directions for organization?
Quick tip here. I wouldn't even use a map log point for this. Just -right- click on the carrier's icon on the nav map to lock a jump point right to the ship, then turn to a heading of 180 degrees, bring your pitch to 0, then hit the jump drive. You'll jump right into the hangar.I noticed in MP the other night in the warzone I was always going into the nav window to choose the one I put right in front of the military carrier to get back for the next mission.
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Earl
- Lieutenant
- Posts: 124
- Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2009 6:06 pm
Map log and hotkey idea
Cool idea! When I go exploring, I log in chunks anyways, so it doesn't bother me to have a big long list because they're already in order. But, if I could get to a system and then take a moment to map my log points, I could have my escape route and common destination at my fingertips...
Or, even better, the log allows you to map a lot of points to a single key, and chooses the nearest one as the one it pulls when pressed.... So on my keyboard, maybe 1=escape, 2=station, 3=carrier. But the jump would only occur if it was in range, and possibly it would ask you to travel a distance on a heading to reach a jumpable distance. You would have to probably jump max distance in that direction to get there for it to make that final jump to location. It would be hard to overuse/abuse it, because you'd have to spend a lot of time logging empty and useless points in space.
The benefit would be that you could make those jumps in combat with less time searching a log or making sure before hand it was prepared. You could go about your business without being too scared someone would get the drop on you. I can think of a few other ways that it could be used in combat as well....
This might make jumping away way too easy though. Might go well hand in hand with that jump tracking/blocking device suggested.
[Edited on 8-14-2009 by Earl]
Or, even better, the log allows you to map a lot of points to a single key, and chooses the nearest one as the one it pulls when pressed.... So on my keyboard, maybe 1=escape, 2=station, 3=carrier. But the jump would only occur if it was in range, and possibly it would ask you to travel a distance on a heading to reach a jumpable distance. You would have to probably jump max distance in that direction to get there for it to make that final jump to location. It would be hard to overuse/abuse it, because you'd have to spend a lot of time logging empty and useless points in space.
The benefit would be that you could make those jumps in combat with less time searching a log or making sure before hand it was prepared. You could go about your business without being too scared someone would get the drop on you. I can think of a few other ways that it could be used in combat as well....
This might make jumping away way too easy though. Might go well hand in hand with that jump tracking/blocking device suggested.
[Edited on 8-14-2009 by Earl]
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Wiley
- Ensign
- Posts: 3
- Joined: Thu Aug 06, 2009 4:19 pm
Map log and hotkey idea
Thanks for the tip on the right clicking. I'd figured out it would autozoom you in on a sector, but hadn't found that aspect of it.
As to the ideas, what I'd be inclined to do with the menu would be to have it save its state even through exiting. That way, the last category you were working with would still be open when you go back in. I'm more or less thinking like the favorites setup in your web browser, or windows explorer but have the last category you were in stored so when you go back into the nav point menu you wouldn't have to keep drilling down. Then have it so you can drag categories/map log points where you like,in terms of tree structure as well as order.
If the last category was persistent, you also wouldn't be adding the clicks unless you were putting stuff in different categories every time.
I take it the ability to drag and drop might not be part of the interface right now? Maybe apply right-click to put it into a 'move' mode, then you'd click on a category, or alt-left click or something of that nature?
Just some thoughts. I love armchair game design.
Wiley.
As to the ideas, what I'd be inclined to do with the menu would be to have it save its state even through exiting. That way, the last category you were working with would still be open when you go back in. I'm more or less thinking like the favorites setup in your web browser, or windows explorer but have the last category you were in stored so when you go back into the nav point menu you wouldn't have to keep drilling down. Then have it so you can drag categories/map log points where you like,in terms of tree structure as well as order.
If the last category was persistent, you also wouldn't be adding the clicks unless you were putting stuff in different categories every time.
I take it the ability to drag and drop might not be part of the interface right now? Maybe apply right-click to put it into a 'move' mode, then you'd click on a category, or alt-left click or something of that nature?
Just some thoughts. I love armchair game design.
Wiley.