territory view

[deathincarn]

posted on May 2nd, 2012, 8:32 pm

Last edited by deathincarn on May 2nd, 2012, 8:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.

i had an idea when i was thinking about the whole borg space thing the other day. i was thinking maybe a territory view of some sort could be implemented if possible.

in fleetops there is often alot of 'back and forth' and some areas are for the most part remain consistently under someones control. so i was thinking maybe each player could have a kind underlying Territory view denoted by a colored semi transparent cloud if u will (of the players chosen color) in the minimap or on the actual main view that changes dynamically as ships are moved around and how consistently that territory remains under a players control. then the player can kind of see what territory they are holding well, and where territory could be perhaps be reinforced with a turret, or maybe even see if they are losing territory (ie they are being pushed back by their enemy) etc.

also allies could see each others territory etc, not sure though whether you should be allowed to see an enemies territory cloud tho.

just a rough idea i had.

any comments or adjustments to the idea guys?

posted on May 2nd, 2012, 8:45 pm

Sounds similar to one of mine, though it seems to have been forgotten.

posted on May 2nd, 2012, 8:56 pm

Sounds similar to one of mine, though it seems to have been forgotten.

oh i must have missed that... sorry

posted on May 2nd, 2012, 9:11 pm

well i dont think enemy seeing it would be a good idea, as it could give away ships or stations that were well hidden or just missed due to someone not paying attention. and i dont know how that would work with cloak.

but to show how strongly you hold an area would be interesting, but what would you gauge that on? it couldnt compare it to current enemy strength as that would give away to much information.

interesting but difficult to implement in a fair way 

posted on May 2nd, 2012, 9:18 pm

i don't think this can accurately be gauged by an automated algorithm, for instance if you have no ships or turrets near an area, but you have good scouting on your enemy, and your ships can get there quicker, then you effectively have a high ability to defend that area, despite not putting any units there.

also i question the usefulness of this, the player should be able to get a feel for where they can defend and where they can't defend.

tyler's old idea is something i support though, but is different from this idea. this one is about where your ships are, that one just told you where each player on a team had scouted, mainly something for replay makers/observers.

posted on May 2nd, 2012, 9:45 pm

I support this sort of idea, it reminds me of Galactic Civilizations 2 where territory you controlled was bordered by your color. In terms of determining territory I would probably base it off of every object a player owns. The further away ships and stations are relative to each other the weaker the influence of territory. Each ship and station would generate a certain value that determines the strength of your territory. The higher the value the more likely the space in the radius around each ship and station would appear as your color on the mini map.

posted on May 3rd, 2012, 1:10 am

This is a great idea, however it needs some tweaking.


How about stations only give territory. The more stations grouped the bigger the territory sphere. Ships within the home territory can recieve a race specific bonus
Fed: defensive bonus
Kling: offense bonus
Romulan: sneaky bonus - cloaking uses 50% less energy?
Dominion:no idea yet
Borg: assimilation bonus

Territories can only become visible on the mini map when a scout is within its sensor range of the enemy station. Or this could apply to any vessels in general. The territory sphere could stay visible on the mini map after ships leave range however, changes in the territory wont be reflected until vessels return within range.

posted on May 3rd, 2012, 2:16 am

Territories can only become visible on the mini map when a scout is within its sensor range of the enemy station. Or this could apply to any vessels in general. The territory sphere could stay visible on the mini map after ships leave range however, changes in the territory wont be reflected until vessels return within range.

This could actually be done by giving stations a bigger circular minimap icon similar to the Argus Array. I might experiment with this in my mod now. 

posted on May 3rd, 2012, 3:04 am

It is entirely possible using LODs and simple emitters.  you can overlay a 2d texture really easily and it works great. 

posted on May 3rd, 2012, 3:49 am

hmmm sounds pretty good so far,

I was still thinking itd be more dynamic though. I guess I d have to see it in action. Itll probably work just fine, Im just so visual.

I think its rise of nations that has territories in it, the way it works in that game is each city has an amount of territory assigned to it, as it grows the territory does as well. kind of like a sphere of influence.

My thought would be rather than each station having a "blob" that appears where it is, then, multiple blobs for multiple stations. instead you end up with an ever growing sphere per building.

So heres a pic. the left image shows what I think you are suggesting, the right is what I was thinking.

posted on May 3rd, 2012, 5:28 am

My thought would be rather than each station having a "blob" that appears where it is, then, multiple blobs for multiple stations. instead you end up with an ever growing sphere per building.

Yeah the only way that I know how I can do this is the "blob" method, I don't think the circle method is possible via simple map icons. Still gives me something to experiment with though. 

posted on May 3rd, 2012, 9:47 am

Theres also the company of heroes method where they use flags to be captured by either side and a preset area around the flags. This means that you can only build the in the area you've captured (could be replaced by useing dilith/tri moons instead for example). Rather than simply tagging the moon with a ship it would have stay in the area without any enemys present. More ships/more cumilative hull points the faster a "sector" would be captured.

posted on May 3rd, 2012, 4:20 pm

Theres also the company of heroes method where they use flags to be captured by either side and a preset area around the flags. This means that you can only build the in the area you've captured (could be replaced by useing dilith/tri moons instead for example). Rather than simply tagging the moon with a ship it would have stay in the area without any enemys present. More ships/more cumilative hull points the faster a "sector" would be captured.

The main problem is that this might create issues with people trying to build at chokepoints or someone building a turret near an opponents mining area. If the map is divided into 'sectors' it takes away some of the free movement aspects that you have and limits your actions.

posted on May 3rd, 2012, 5:23 pm

Building at chokepoints isn't really a problem for this idea, it's done quite well without it.

posted on May 3rd, 2012, 10:20 pm

well i actually got the idea from watching a recent rugby match, where after half-time the commentators show how much territory each team was holding (based as a percentage) and i thought having something similar although in the actual game and of course and being dynamic would be super cool. and be of use to players during the game as i have already stated.

jus saying thats where the original idea came from. i just enhanced it.