Space Map Concepts (With pictures)

I see that's there's a few threads on the space map and how it might work, but I thought i'd make a thread on my thoughts and concepts, and i've included a few pictures to help it explain it/make it less boring to read.

I've based my main design on the suggestion that co-ordinates be for solar systems instead of planets, as I really like the idea of being able to see a map of a whole system instead of the just individual planets. However we don't really know anything about the current system and most of it is probably already in place so I've also included a concept for individual planets as well.

SOLAR SYSTEM DESIGN

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• List of planets/solar systems (toggleable) on the left.

• Tabs would show:
  • All systems you've visited
  • Recently visited systems
  • Most visited systems
  • Favourite planets
  • Systems for current missions.

• Solar system map shown on the right.
  • Planet's graphics would be based on their main overall 'theme' (ie the major biome on the planet)
  • Name and threat level displayed under each planet.
    • The threat level would initially just be displayed within a specific band until you had spent some time on the planet surface, either 0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60-80, or 80-100. This way it gives players a rough idea of the difficulty but also maintains an air of mystery.
  • Planets involved in current missions would be labelled.

• Clicking on a planet in the solar system would select it.

• Current co-ordinates are displayed in the bar at the top.

• • New co-ordinates can be entered here too (Could also have a 'random' button to just generate random co-ordinates)
  • As the devs have suggested that they want to simulate space by not having all co-ordinates apply to planets(/solar systems) some co-ordinates could apply to just empty space, or asteroid fields with places for pvp, or black holes etc.

• The button at the bottom would take you to the planets surface.

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• Placing the cursor over a planet a brings up a notes window, which you can be used to write short reminders.

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• Double clicking a planet displays planet's flora and fauna
  • You have to discover them for yourself before they will appear in the list
  • Clicking the pictures brings up more information.

• The tabs at the top would show:
  • Creatures
  • Plants
  • Missions for the respective planet

• Clicking the star icon would add the planet to your favourites.

INDIVIDUAL PLANET DESIGN

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• The three boxes would contain the name, threat level and main 'theme' of the planet

• Clicking the planet would drop you onto its surface.

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• The flora/fauna display would be pretty similar, allowing you to change tabs and scroll through currently discovered species.

Please tell me your thoughts and feel free to let me know of anything that you don't agree with!

 

Nice, but how come your space station already knows EVERYTHING about the planets?

 

Thanks for reading! Well I was thinking the only thing you'd know before you visited a planet would be it's threat level and basic theme All the creatures and plants wouldn't be filled in until you've actually been to the surface and seen them for yourself as I said in my post. And the notes section is just for you to fill in yourself so it would be blank by default. Assume there's some kind of basic planetary scanning device on board I'm just making the assumption that due to planets having different threat levels, they'll tell you before you go to the surface to prevent new players accidentally visiting level 100 planets and getting well and truly mullered.

 

I like the idea of having some sort of interactive map to see all the planets you have discovered, but the layout seems a little cluttered. I think the "theme" of the planet should be able to be visible from the map e.g. an earth like planet will have green land masses and blue water. Also wouldn't the threat level of a planet depend on the players level, or is it more of a "this planet has enemies that do high damage" sorta thing?

 

I think it would be cool if you could look up themes or threat levels for planets, and you should add a size indicator (in width, weight, or surface area, or just small, large, huge, Etc.) and a resource indicator to tell you if it has large amount of iron or something, not accurate.

 

Yeah sorry, my drawings aren't exactly great. It would hopefully look a bit more streamlined if everything was actually lined up nicely/made to fit with what it contained. It's more for the general idea than a final finished product I did think about just having the name and threat level written underneath each planet for quicker identification, which might be better in retrospect. I'll update it now!

I did write 'The graphics for the planets would be based on their main overall 'theme' Something simple like a more lava or ice or tentacle looking planet, and the theme section would just back up the picture in case players couldn't tell. I didn't want to base too much on the graphics of the planets because of the sheer variety in procedural generation with regards to different coloured version of the same terrain and things. It might be hard to differentiate blue grass planets from ice planets for example. It's more that I would just prefer that there was SOME kind of graphical interface rather than the entirely non-graphical one that they are currently said to be using, even if the look of the planets didn't exactly match up to the actual planet that had been procedurally generated.

With regards to threat level the impression that I got was that it was more of a 'planets are a set level' kind of deal. So to get the better gear you have to decide to go to harder planets. This way planets can have different ores etc when they are generated based on their difficulty. This is all me making massive assumptions though seeing as we have hardly any information other than a rating from 1-100 being involved.

 

First, I love your picture, the replicators are the reason I play Zerg or the Tyranids, I loves them sooooo much

Second, this could probably be an advancement/upgrade for your ships main scanner, thoughts on that?

Also would it not be better looking (more streamlined) if the Name and Threat were displayed inside the planet? Than you just put a gold star around the name and threat/behind it, or hell around the whole planet when you have a quest or goal there. I love this though, when clicking on a planet it should zoom into the planet and do your individual planet display, with tabs for general information, flora and fauna, player made notes on the world etc. I'm assuming that bar on the left of the IPlaD (Individual Planet Display) is all the other planets in the solar system so you can easily jump in between all of them. Pressing back, or esc, would send you back to the system view... This is my opinion on a way to ONE: Streamline the process your describing here, at least in my opinion others may disagree, and TWO: employ both your SysD (System Display) and IPlaD. Hope I helped or gave you some ideas great post!

 

Thanks, and I like your ideas.

 

Cheers for reading! Having a big gold star over the planet would kind of defeat the point of having nice graphics to look at. I was thinking of a less obnoxious little glow around the planet, or small a question mark icon or something. Something obvious but not too intrusive.

The text was just for ease of use, as planets will come in different colours it would be hard to choose a text colour that would be easily readable over all the planets. Using white text underneath the planets (on the black background of space) would be easier in my mind, and not look any more cluttered. Streamlining isn't always just reducing the amount of space that things take up.

When I made the individual planet system it was based on the assumption that they wouldn't adopt the solar system co-ordinates route instead. Therefore planets would be all on their own and not grouped into solar systems, so the bar on the left just displayed the same most visited, favourites etc tabs. However combining the two systems might work quite well! I'll have a look see.

 

Love the concept, all we need is a huge red button that says "NUKE"
nah, but really, the concept is great.

 

Ok I brought it up sounded good to me but your right, with the different biomes it would be hard to find a good color (unless you just used two, if over x brightness use black under/at x brightness use white?)
I didn't mean having a gold star ABOVE the planet I meant like have it behind the planet, would basically look like the planet had 5 small golden triangles stick out of it... course than who knows, those could be pyramids from some ancient race lol
EDIT::OOOOOH OOOH OOH OOH LIIIIIIGHT BULB! What if the name of the planet wrapped around the top of the planet (like an arch) and than you had the DR under it?

 

i think the map should be something like this at first and depending on star systems you find you can zoom closer in and see something like below.

and then of course smaller the planet menu.
also i think instead of just arriving you should have to fly through space for a brief bit to get there so you can have space pvp battles or something

 

Hehe yeah I just meant as in it might look a bit obnoxious and cheap having a big gold star, so a glow might be a bit more subtle. Doesn't really matter though, it's the principle that counts Yeah a lightbulb or something along those lines would be fine. DR? I'm used to DR standing for dissection room lol.

Yeah I thought about having a system similar to Spore but I didn't want to make it too complicated. It would be a lot of work to make something like that out of pixels! Something like my idea would be relatively easy because they'd only have to draw a few planet types but it would also be more interesting than an entirely non-graphical interface Nice idea though!

 

Is DR danger rating?

 

i do like your idea for the solar system menu very much but i am curious about how the galaxy map works i will ask now

 

I'll just stick to typing in coordinates

 

Thanks for your constructive input. I don't know what I would have done without it.

 

MY GOD! MY SARCASM DETECTOR IS GOING CRAZY!

 

why is that?

 

Do go on. Really. I'm so interested to hear more. You seem to like posting in threads just along the lines of 'I don't want this so it shouldn't be in the game' without any justification or constructive criticism.