#31 More strategic information on star map
The following items are things I've always wanted to
be able to visualize easily from the star map:
- unexplored vs. known
- inhabiting civilizations
- class of controlling civilization (friendly,
neutral, or hostile)
- within range of ships (one-way trip)
- within range of ships (return trip to friendly
system)
I was also thinking along the same lines as you, but
was trying to figure out a way of getting as many
channels of information into the star map at once so
we wouldn't have to keep toggling through different
display options. However, I was trying to keep the
existing color and brightness display intact.
Although one could argue that once a system is
explored the stellar type information isn't all that
important, I really like the varying the brightness
based on depth.
My rough idea was that all explored star systems would
have an outline halo drawn around it whose shape,
stroke type, color would indicate the additional
information. Concentric shapes could be used for non-
mutually exclusive information but this might get a
bit too noisy and result in information overload. For
this discussion lets keep it to one halo shape per
system.
Here's what I had came up with so far:
UNEXPLORED & OUT-OF-RANGE SYSTEMS HAVE NO HALO:
Unexplored systems out of range of the player's
current ship designs would look as they do now with no
halo shape.
HALO STROKES INDICATE REACHABILITY:
Explored systems out of range of the player's current
ship designs would ) would use a dotted line for any
halo shape.
Systems within reach of the player's current ship
designs, but only by doing a one way trip (e.g. a
colonization or do-or-die conquest fleet) would use a
dashed line for any halo shape.
Systems within reach of the player's current ship
designs, allowing for return to a friendly system
would use a solid line for any halo shape.
HALO SHAPES INDICATE TYPE OF CONTROL::
Reachable unexplored systems would show a box as their
halo.
Systems known to be controlled by a hostile
civilization (i.e. at war with the player) would have
a traingular halo.
Systems known to be controlled by a the player's own
civilization or that of an ally would have a circle
halo.
Systems known to be controlled by a civilization
neutral to the player would use a pentagon for a halo.
HALO COLOR INDICATES INHABITING CIVILIZATION:
If the system is not known to be inhabited by any
civilization then a light gray color is used for the
halo.
If the system is solely inhabited by the player the
system's halo is shown in white (N.B. using the same
color for your stuff in all games makes switching
between games a bit easier).
When the system is inhabitted by another civilization
the unique color assigned to that civilization is used
to draw the halo.
When the system is inhabitted by multiple
civilizations, each of their colors is used to draw an
equal part of the halo.
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I've taken a look at drawing halos around systems. I've
attached the java files I modified, put them in the
org.gjt.universe.gui directory. When I use the Milky Way,
sol does not have a halo. When I use a random system,
halos are sometimes drawn, but once in a while not. This
is easiest to see by zooming way in and out. Every once in
a while a halo will appear or disappear from around a
system. Anyone have any ideas what I am missing?
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Thanks to Allan we have the basics of drawing halos (in
halo.zip). Currently all halos are red triangles
(hostile). The next step would be to do some sort of
lookup of the system, the SystemScreenObjectHandler does
have the CivID.
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The shape of the halos is currently drawn by checking the
RelationshipType of the system. As I feared this gets damn
slow as you start zooming out. Because of this I am
reluctant to commit my changes to CVS, so the files are
still in halo.zip
I've made the halo for explored systems 1/4 of the normal
halo width.
I don't understand "in range". I haven't had a probe not
reach a system, sometimes it just takes a while.
Are player colors defined anywhere?
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Caching the relationship for the duration of the turn helps
with performance.
I changed the only color used to blue. Blame it on my
military background, but red means enemy to me, and I hate
seeing my home system in red.
I'm not sure how to deal with the nearly unlimited number
of civs and different colors for each one yet.