Minimap

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 12:08 am

Does anyone know how to control or mod the minimap functionality?

I am with monday joe, and want to find a way to make the large maps more navigable.

One idea I had was to have two layers of minimap, replacing the cinematic window with a grid that would determine the scope of the left minimap.

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 12:30 am

I really like the grid idea, though i only mod fallout 3 and galciv 2 i have no idea how to pull it off

[Sulu]

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 1:10 am

Last edited by Sulu on September 22nd, 2009, 1:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

Well I suspected as much, looked through just about every file in the armada II directory. It must be wholly contained in the engine / source code.

I liked armada II, still think it's just about the best trek game (but I haven't played them all). FO was a awesome remake and made me see it's potential so I started thinking of a mod.

I am convinced it would be an objective improvement. I don't know if anyone else has experienced this but sometimes these things are interconnected like a web. If I can't find a way to make very large maps practical the rest of the game-play changes I have planed would be meaningless or imbalanced 

I should probably elaborate in case anyone has any ideas.

The core of this new gameplay would be having maps based on star systems. That is in massive maps, stars with gravity wells define systems with planets, most map objects. Between these systems are nothing, nebula's perhaps. The systems would be around the 4500 units diameter, with something like 20,000 units between systems.

So with at least 3 systems per player, that means 50k^2 gives a two player map.....

Well I just mentioned gravity well, so you can guess I would be bringing back warp speed. But I loved the fleet operations feel for the battles and of course you can't have that with ships zipping around.

Why so big?

I wanted to have little "worlds" of fleet operations game play but a greater scope to the entire game, bringing the general gameplay towards civilization building and letting the fleet operations feel be the result of... well fleet operations within each system.

By compartmentalizing combat zones a single game can yield multiple "fleet ops" engagements. This also presupposes a revamp of resources (making them more complex).

I am not really interested in doing much if I can't actually increase the scale of gameplay and obtain this duality, mostly because fleet ops can't really be improved without new elements save balance fixes and perhaps new armadas.

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 9:09 am

In the map exchange section (I think) there is a thread about a pack of 8-player maps. One of them is 48k X 48k, and it's the biggest I have in my maps directory.

My computer has WXP as OS, and with 1.5 gigs of RAM, playing that map taxes my machine moderately. If the map was bigger and with more objects, I doubt my computer would be able to keep up.

Possibly, if I tried to use that map in a Multplayer game would also get me out of sync with the rest of the players.

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 3:24 pm

I wonder why it takes ram to record nothingness in space without objects? maybe it's keep track of every point on the map? In bridge commander there are no limits as if there was a reference frame like architecture.

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 5:54 pm

Lol i can see it now.. "Where did i put that piece of space? is it over here? no... Over there? no... where did it go???"

posted on September 23rd, 2009, 11:14 pm

I don't know how it's stored a game in progress. I do know how my computer reacts. The bigger the map, the more sluggish moving around it becomes. Having more factions it also affects game speed. And I noticed that there is a progressive degradation, but usually you don't notice it, unless you save the game quit, and load it again.

Oh, and I correct my prior statement: I have a 50k X 50K map. It's from the same pack of maps by RCIX, if I'm not mistaken.

posted on September 24th, 2009, 2:08 am

Oh, and I correct my prior statement: I have a 50k X 50K map. It's from the same pack of maps by RCIX, if I'm not mistaken.

Hmm. I'm fairly sure that i only made a 20kX20k map as the largest one i made, most were ~10-50k.

[DarthThanatos]

posted on September 24th, 2009, 11:16 am

Last edited by DarthThanatos on September 24th, 2009, 11:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

I stand corrected.

The creator of the big map pack is not you, but Mr. Leet Gamer.

Here you can download the zip file containing those maps.

Credit goes where credit is due.

The error came because I also downloaded a map pack from you, and I thought it was the only one I downloaded. When I checked my FO download folder more carefully, I noticed my mistake.