Warzone 2100 wish list - all can contribute_part 3

[lav_coyote25]

ok here is the begining of the 3rd part of wish list. other wish lists are now locked and stickied - please read or do a search prior to making a wish/request here... thanks.

[Zarel]

ok here is the begining of the 3rd part of wish list. other wish lists are now locked and stickied - please read or do a search prior to making a wish/request here... thanks.

How's about, instead of a wishlist thread, we just have a whole wishlist subject? That way, people can make specific wish threads, and we could discuss each wish separately?

[Buginator]

It would be nice if we can put all this stuff in the wiki, and people can vote on what they like, or don't like.

I don't think anyone has time to go through all these wish lists things...

[ClockWork]

If only we had more people helping out with the progression of this games greatness. that’s my wish.

[ratarf]

See also: http://forums.wz2100.net/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2212
One topic per suggestion and a summary in the wiki would be great. It's not THAT much work to put the suggestions in the wiki, I was experimenting with listing them in an offline document, and it took about half an hour for 5 pages... So it's definately doable to migrate the info to the wiki, especially if everyone would collaborate and create 1 topic per requested feature Just my opinion ofc.

[Rman Virgil]

It would be nice if we can put all this stuff in the wiki, and people can vote on what they like, or don't like.

I don't think anyone has time to go through all these wish lists things...

* It is a good idea which I worked on in the first Wz wiki created in 2004 thru 2005, going back with the wish-ideas to 1999. Peeps
in the WZ community during that period were completely UNsupportive of Wki itself and indeed thought it was an inapproriate to stupid format. How times have changed. (it's still up btw... it was a free service so it has ads... yuck.)

* Anyway, I did pick-up on the task again in 2007 (no ads this time) and it does cover wishes-ideas articulated since 1999 to the present. 90% (at least) of the wishes-ideas are repeated in cycles almost verbatim by different peeps over the years, in the different bbs. The remaining 10% are the rare-one-offs that are not only highly original but extremely well thought-out.

* This process-task is very "clerical" to put it neutrally .... I don't have the best temperament for it so it is very tedious and not much fun for me - but I keep at it steadily as a labor of love because I firmly believe it will be a good thing to have - an evolving WZ idea repository in which wiki is the perfect container, IMO.

* So, actually knowing what's involved in this transference process, I'll be pleasantly surprised if someone actually takes up the task and follows thru to completion. That too is very rare. Most stuff started is aborted a long ways from the finish line - about the same ratio: 90%+ unfinished to <10% finished. As well I think most wishing is verbal masturbation that rarely yields in-vitro fertilization and a live birth. Much just simply remains jizzy-jazzy on the walls of passing fancy....

- Rman.

[Zi-Chan]

First Suggestion: A Button at the MiniMap to pop up a Map on the whole Screen, with a Transparency, to make it easy to overview everything. Closeable with the same Button again and the right Mouse Button.

Later Development of this Screen-Map could allow to select and control Units with it - easy for selecting huge Armies without Scrolling.
No Satellite Command Post needed for showing the Map - the Computers of the Command Centre should be able to create this Map just by computing the revealed Parts of the Map and the Locations of all Units, Buildings and Features.
No Satllite Command Post needed for controlling everything too, because it would be just the same when controlling something by scrolling to it - just in an easier Way.

Second Suggestion: Showing Units and Structures using very tiny Symbols on the Maps. Buildings (Base, Bunkers and Weapon Towers), Tanks (small, medium, heavy and super heavy), VTOLs (small, medium, heavy and super heavy), Cyborgs (small and big), (Rearming)Landing-Pads, Sensor Towers, Commander Units, Transporters. 17 different tiny Symbols. Higher resolution than 640x480 needed for that of course. Here some Doodles to show, what i mean (the Symbols should be smaller than here though and a bit transparent):


Third Sugesstion: Zooming out more on the Battle Field. Badly recommended from me.

[Buginator]

First Suggestion: A Button at the MiniMap to pop up a Map on the whole Screen, with a Transparency, to make it easy to overview everything. Closeable with the same Button again and the right Mouse Button.

We do have a sizable minimap now. You use the scroll wheel on the window, and it gets bigger/smaller.

Second Suggestion: Showing Units and Structures using very tiny Symbols on the Maps.

Like what SupCom has?

Third Sugesstion: Zooming out more on the Battle Field. Badly recommended from me.

More? The more you zoom out, the worse the performance is on old hardware.
It has to draw *lots* more stuff...
Remember, we could limit the zoom like the original, and the game will be faster.

[Zi-Chan]

We do have a sizable minimap now. You use the scroll wheel on the window, and it gets bigger/smaller.

Ye, i noticed that - but a Button is much easier than scrolling out and then in again with the Mouse and you can give the WholeScreen-Map a Hotkey to show and to close.

Like what SupCom has?

If u mean Supreme Commander - YES! It's the same, which "Populous - The Beginning" (an innovative Game as old as Warzone) had. Game zooms out and then the Units and Structures turn into Symbols - just the same like at Populous. I really like that. =] But i would want it on the MiniMap too - not only on the WholeScreen-Map. Deactivatable with a Button around the MiniMap.

More? The more you zoom out, the worse the performance is on old hardware.
It has to draw *lots* more stuff...
Remember, we could limit the zoom like the original, and the game will be faster.

Don't limit (or set it higher). Let the People decide, how much they want to zoom out. You will have to change the Fog though - it annoys when zooming out.

[doom3r]

If u mean Supreme Commander - YES! It's the same, which "Populous - The Beginning" (an innovative Game as old as Warzone) had. Game zooms out and then the Units and Structures turn into Symbols - just the same like at Populous. I really like that. =]

I asked twice for this fearure but noone was really interested.
Game would become a lot more tactical with a full-screen zoom-out map like in supcom, which has, for me, the best zoom system ever in rts games.

And I would really like to see that feature (which made Supreme Commander so special to me) in Wz.
I think I'd quit playing supcom if Wz had it. (Maybe )

[Per]

Higher zoom range will come once we manage to improve the render sufficiently. The original way the render works is quite wasteful, drawing lots of stuff that you don't really see. Once we get a proper culling algorithm in place, we can more easily allow greater zoom. And no, we also can't offer this as an option only for people with good enough hardware right now, because of the bad way the current render works.

[Rman Virgil]

-------------------->

* Besides Bug and Per's caveats and input.....

* Zi-Chan.... I''ve liked and wanted much of your ideas for a long time but, IMHO, to truly advance in these
areas of command and control of combat groups (and other key areas of evolution as well), the WZ Widgets system has to be replaced. I believe Freddy has been working on this for the WRP source but I don't know how far along it is. If brought to term this will be provide a powerful impetus to major advances-innovations.

- Rman.

[fisk0]

I'd like there to be a clearer way to see how much sensor coverage you've got. The current thing you get when you press Z isn't very good.
Maybe there could be an overlay on the mini map (which could be toggled on and off), as well as well as coloured circles when you press Z, so you can clearly see what kind of sensors cover which areas (like, white circles around standard sensor towers, yellow for vtol strike towers, green for wide spectrum towers, red for cb towers and pink for vtol cb towers, or something like that).

By the way, if naval units gets added to the game, I think they should be available early in the tech tree (in the real world we've had naval warfare long before the engine was even invented), but could be very expensive early on (and you'd need a lot of research before you can mount them with heavy artillery stuff, and of course, module upgrades on the harbour/naval factory building before you can construct those really heavy bodies).

[EvilGuru]

Maybe there could be an overlay on the mini map (which could be toggled on and off), as well as well as coloured circles when you press Z, so you can clearly see what kind of sensors cover which areas (like, white circles around standard sensor towers, yellow for vtol strike towers, green for wide spectrum towers, red for cb towers and pink for vtol cb towers, or something like that).

Try Shift + F12. Not exactly what you're looking for but very close (maybe even superior).

Regards, Freddie.

[Zi-Chan]

Maybe there could be an overlay on the mini map (which could be toggled on and off), as well as well as coloured circles when you press Z, so you can clearly see what kind of sensors cover which areas (like, white circles around standard sensor towers, yellow for vtol strike towers, green for wide spectrum towers, red for cb towers and pink for vtol cb towers, or something like that).

Try Shift + F12. Not exactly what you're looking for but very close (maybe even superior).

Regards, Freddie.

Nice, didn't know that Hotkey-Combination - guess, i have to check the HotKey-Options once
Tested that right now - looks good, but it generates much more CPU-Load, like 10 Tanks per Circle - omg pumpkin