Aces High Bulletin Board

General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: AKcurly on January 17, 2003, 06:05:07 PM

Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: AKcurly on January 17, 2003, 06:05:07 PM
If you fly Aces High to furball, please move along, there's nothing here for you. :)

AKDesert is the only 512x512 terrain we have right now, but I'm sure that will change soon.

For the following discussion, let's put aside textures, map shape (symmetric) and field altitudes (extreme variation.)  There's no point in re-hashing those issues - everyone knows how everyone feels about it, ok? :)

Here's my only complaint about 512x512 maps in general:  It is very difficult to get an idea about how the war is going and where you are needed next.  It's not hard to find fights - just unclick the 3 top left buttons and you can easily see where they are.  But, it's almost impossible (with the current clipboard) to get a strategic sense of the war.

How about this for a solution?  Give us one color to assign to each country rather than one color for friendly, one color for enemies?  I don't know if it would solve the problem, but I think it would help.

curly
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: Innominate on January 17, 2003, 06:08:42 PM
i second that
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: Kanth on January 17, 2003, 06:17:22 PM
Or perhaps make it an option like the rest of the color settings.

For those who want to assign colors to the nme(and their bases) based on country so that they can.
Title: :0)
Post by: Hammy on January 17, 2003, 06:17:52 PM
Very Good Idea.

I knew there was a reason i liked having you as a team mate ;)

Hammy
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: Wotan on January 17, 2003, 06:18:23 PM
well actually alot of that "confusion" on the desert map comes from the the fact of zone placement. While it opens up a much larger front as you said its hard to gauge how the war is going.

Multiple colors would help you see whats up  but replacing zones as to create "whole" counties would be better imho.

On the small maps one of the things that adds to seeing how the war is going is the 3 seperate areas on the maps. You immediately know what side is pushing and where. That and they are small maps :)
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: icemaw on January 17, 2003, 06:19:07 PM
Lol curly was just thinking that last night. Btw I like the map aside from the color of the terrain that hurts my eyes after an hour or so. Tunisai does that too dont know why. The sac dessert terrain is what I allways ran in AW and it never hurt my eyes strange.
Title: Re: 512x512 maps
Post by: beet1e on January 17, 2003, 06:43:18 PM
Quote
Originally posted by AKcurly
If you fly Aces High to furball, please move along, there's nothing here for you. :)
Oh!  So buh-bye Lazs, Poopster, Apache et al...

AKCurly, I like the idea, especially when enhanced by Kanth's suggestion. Those people who like the colours the way they are can keep them that way, and others can more easily differentiate between the opposing countries. All we'd need then is a fourth country, and hey-presto - WB before the death knell (WW2A).
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: Puck on January 17, 2003, 06:48:08 PM
How about two color enemy (so we can hate Purple and Gold again? :) ) and use transparent colors for zones?

Then (since Pizza is the only zoned map) rather than the brown map we'd have a tinted brown map with each zone a different tint depending on who owned it.  

Just wondering.
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: Saurdaukar on January 17, 2003, 06:50:58 PM
Actually a good idea Curly.  What if there were "territories" surrounding bases that represented captured ground?  When said base was captured, the "territory" could turn the the color of the relevant team.

And heres another thought... what about bases that no one controls?  Bases that show up as grey or something - neutral - until someone captures them?  This would cut down on the massive furballs in the "usual spots" when a map first loads.  In addition, it would provide an interesting twist to the offense/defense gameplay that we always see - it would result in "meeting engagements" of sorts.

Any merit to this, or no?
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: sax on January 17, 2003, 06:57:23 PM
I 10th that, great idea:)
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: Virage on January 17, 2003, 07:07:14 PM
I like the idea of different colors per country.  But HTC obviously had its reasons for doing it this way, I doubt their positions have changed.

While we're at it, why not just 2 teams? Seems to work for many other online games.  Is the multi team just a bad AW leftover?

512x512 maps should stay imo.  But the land mass doesnt have to fill the whole map.  I think a land mass with 6 base fronts would work well for the size of the community right now.
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: JB73 on January 17, 2003, 08:07:47 PM
the only prob i see is what color?

i use cyan for squadmates, blue for friendlies, yellow for mission, white for wingman, red for enemies. what would the 3rd color for the other country be? ... could you change it?... would it be called knights and bishops color for me ... or country 1 and 2 and 3?

dont get me wrong .. i LOVE the idea. i asked my CO back when i first started why we couldnt do that. he said you gotta look @ the icons:(






also a side point to the "zone placement" on the AK map ...

what if HQ was moved to the rim in the center of a pie piece... so each country started with a full piece, instead of that 1 area thats get neglected far away?
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: Yeager on January 17, 2003, 08:23:10 PM
Good idear....

Kanth however has the right approach.  User defined.
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: Airscrew on January 17, 2003, 08:33:50 PM
I like it Curly,....I also like the idea about tinting or coloring the zones
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: Swager on January 17, 2003, 08:53:15 PM
Seems like alot of fluff for now.  There are higher priority things that need changing first.
Title: Re: 512x512 maps
Post by: X2Lee on January 17, 2003, 08:59:30 PM
Quote
Originally posted by AKcurly


How about this for a solution?  Give us one color to assign to each country rather than one color for friendly, one color for enemies?  I don't know if it would solve the problem, but I think it would help.

curly



Great Idea!!

It makes it easier to pick the bish outta the furball  :cool:
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: gatso on January 17, 2003, 09:27:34 PM
Unless anything else come up I'm submitting this: http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=74186 (http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=74186) in less than a weeks time. Comments would be appreciated either in thread or by email gatso@99thastag.com

Gatso

(and i agree a differentiation of colours for all three countries would be a very useful feature)
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: DamnedRen on January 17, 2003, 10:35:19 PM
Personally I'd like to see two country's made up for the type of planes flown. An axis country and an allied country. So if you belonged to the Axis you flew German and Japanese planes, etc. If you belonged to Allies you flew the US and English stuff. Anyone can change countries to fly for the country with your equipment.

And if HTC could make the planes "life sized" then we could do away withh all the icons completely and you'd have to identify the plane and then fight him. Shots would come when the enemy filled your windscreen.

To much of the purist? Or too difficult the game?
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: J_A_B on January 18, 2003, 12:01:41 AM
I agree, the IFF colors should be an option.  

I'd love to have an AH setting for each country to have a unique color.

J_A_B
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: Toad on January 18, 2003, 12:05:06 AM
Curly, good idea.

Kanth, great addition to it. Choice is always the best.

Ren, the planes are "life sized" to the field of view size. That' why the "zoom" is there. It reduces the FOV and thus plane size is scaled up accordingly. There's some old threads on this.

Want a two sided war? The CT is your place. CT even has a funky "reduced" icon idea, where they cut off icons outside 3K I think but then decide to give you icon help when you're close.

You might want to check it out and see if it's what you want.

Choice is good.
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: GPreddy on January 18, 2003, 12:29:23 AM
Good idea but I dont know if ht needs to go that far even. If we could have a simple highlight command it would make things much easier. It could work as the dot commands do now with syntax something like

.highlight [country] -or-
.highlight [field_number]

that way you could cut icons down to one country at a time or find that field your buddy is asking for help with. It could even allow for displaying fields nearby or that have spawn point local to it.
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: Shane on January 18, 2003, 12:40:53 AM
Quote
Originally posted by DamnedRen
Personally I'd like to see two country's made up for the type of planes flown. An axis country and an allied country. So if you belonged to the Axis you flew German and Japanese planes, etc. If you belonged to Allies you flew the US and English stuff. Anyone can change countries to fly for the country with your equipment.
To much of the purist? Or too difficult the game?


sigh...  they already HAVE this!!  it's called Combat Theatre.

:rolleyes:
Title: Re: 512x512 maps
Post by: Thunder9 on January 18, 2003, 01:05:45 AM
>> Give us one color to assign to each country rather than one >> color for friendly, one color for enemies?

AKCurly --

Sounds like this would be a bit like the old Air Warrior way, where the three countries each had a specific color, which was user defined (in the later versions).

I like the idea, as long as the colors would be user defined in AH as well.  It would make it quite a bit easier to pick out the nme that you're trying to reset during a major furball.  Of course, this might have just opened up a different can of worms!  :D
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: BlauK on January 18, 2003, 09:23:14 AM
In addition to user defined colors for countries... it would be nice to be able to define the icon and font sizes !!!

At the meoment when one looks at pizza map zoome dout to max, all the icons overlap and nothing can be read. I would like to have the icons zoomed out (small) as well to look at the general strategic situation. When I want to read the details, I zoom in.

This font size already came for plane icons, Can we, please, have it for map icons as well???
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: lazs2 on January 18, 2003, 09:45:30 AM
I know I'm not suppossed to comment but... The maps are confusing enough as it is so... how bout you make the color setting optional in the pizza map?  
lazs
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: Sixpence on January 18, 2003, 09:58:22 AM
What Shane said
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: lazs2 on January 18, 2003, 10:37:33 AM
I have no problem with axis vs allied and multi colors in the pizza map (only)..  further reduction in numbers will help people hide from each other.  I can see it achieveing WB like numbers in no time.  It would certainly get rid of the riff raff.
lazs
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: AKIron on January 18, 2003, 10:52:54 AM
Great idea Curly. You can get a general idea as to how the war is going from the number of fields owned by each country on clipboard. That does little to help knowing where best to deploy forces though as you've indicated.

Sheesh Lazs, all YOU need to know is that the field isn't green.
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: Kanth on January 18, 2003, 11:18:51 AM
BlauK,

Right Click on the + and - instead of left click and you will have what you want.

Quote
Originally posted by BlauK
In addition to user defined colors for countries... it would be nice to be able to define the icon and font sizes !!!

At the meoment when one looks at pizza map zoome dout to max, all the icons overlap and nothing can be read. I would like to have the icons zoomed out (small) as well to look at the general strategic situation. When I want to read the details, I zoom in.

This font size already came for plane icons, Can we, please, have it for map icons as well???
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: GunnerCAF on January 18, 2003, 11:41:41 AM
I like the idea.  I would use it.  If you don't like it, you could set the colors of both enemy countrys to the same color.

Gunner
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: guttboy on January 18, 2003, 12:30:19 PM
AMEN to individual colors for each country....makes it easier to kill Bish or Knights (depending on who pissed me off earlier in the week!).  :D
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: AKcurly on January 18, 2003, 06:10:30 PM
Quote
Originally posted by lazs2
I have no problem with axis vs allied and multi colors in the pizza map (only)..  further reduction in numbers will help people hide from each other.  I can see it achieveing WB like numbers in no time.  It would certainly get rid of the riff raff.
lazs


Lazs, there's a dog whizzing on your rose bushes!  Quick, go check - move along now. :)

curly
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: rc51 on January 18, 2003, 07:34:29 PM
the map is too big .
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: lazs2 on January 19, 2003, 09:26:08 AM
rc... watch out that curly doesn't send his dogs over to your rose bushes.   Fortunately I have guard cats.
lazs
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: NUKE on January 19, 2003, 10:00:45 AM
.http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=53785
I had suggested this same thing awhile ago for the same reason.

My Idea was to have 2 colors for enemy bases and strat but still have only red for enemy radar markers and plane/gv icons
same here a couple months later:
http://www.hitechcreations.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59304


I asked Hitech ( in blue) about it but he said he didnt think it was a good idea if I remember correctly
 

Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: hazed- on January 19, 2003, 07:46:38 PM
we were talking about this sort of thing the other day curly and i must say i think a 3rd colour would help.
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: BNM on January 19, 2003, 10:53:53 PM
I like the idea. Would like to see the "aircraft icons" you see from the cockpit, as well as the "field icons" and "aircraft dots" on the map, country specific. Always liked it in AW.
Title: 512x512 maps
Post by: aknimitz on January 20, 2003, 12:04:44 PM
I think it is an excellent idea...even better is the idea proposed that we could simply change the color of the countries just as we change the color of them combined now (and of squadmates, wingmen, etc).

Nim