Oh, but there is in fact, indirectly. Designed by SD coders (smart & intelligent, i might add) as a standard set of concepts.

You must eXplore to be the first (or last!) to discover what could become the edge in the overall picture. AIs DO send scouts in the unknown for a good reason.

- Colony Rush would become a matter of fast(er) ships aiming straight to the wanted parsecs rather than gambling that the Arcean's yellowish territory (shown to you, btw) is indeed possibly more of a potential IN its nearest regions to your effective range assuming Cartography tech has any value. Thus, the evaluation of distance and turns MUST have an influence on the final number of owned planets by anybody once everything has been distributed.

- There is something fundamental about GC2 that makes it somehow different than anything else; pure simulated Luck and better handling of the research advantages.

a) What would become of having Warp Drive(s) first in larger maps if the very last PQ24 is 5 sectors away from your homeworld but is ALSO only 2 sectors away from the Arcean above? They know about its presence surely more than you during early turns, correct? Can that be considered strategic planning or tactical decisions for either colonizing empire, algorithmic based or not? Or simply, boosted random chances to take and figure out?

What if your Logistics range is +20 (first, again)... do you see where it matters that anyone on a map isn't lucky enough to be nearest to the greater amount of planets yet to be taken away from YOU?

c) What about, the very last Toxic PQ17? OR, even all other harsh planets revealed straight out the gate? What would you then research asap - Aquatic or Heavy-Gravity?

So... i'll repeat;

No, you aren't the only one.

The main map is the EXPLORING factor... any other modifications excludes this fundamental feature from the Fog-of-War aspect and from the issues presented in my previous comment above.

SD could make this sort of thing optional to please you or anybody else wanting it... but, i'd sure want Enhanced Espionage, Constructors micman, MCC fix, balanced tech-trees and what else (please read the whole **Please Slam my game** thread by Frogboy, to get a grasp over current priorities) implemented by GC2 development staff before IT.

Speaking up, never hurts... to all.

A question Zyx, are you playing the game with planets, stars and asteroids turned off in the minimap? Because if you don't I don't see how you can claim you're having any extra challenge at all.


KK

I think that this is definitely something that needs looking at. I wouldn't mind also having a main map toggle for star and planet names when close up, and one to show the player's rally points even when zoomed out, but showing the mini-map information as an overlay would be really useful during exploration.

Click on the minimap to zoom it in and leave it zoomed in. One. Click.

I am precise in sending out ships. I just send the colony ship to the star (its exact location selected through the minimap) and then evaluate the planets before proceeding further.

Frankly Ubercat I'm disinclined to continue this discussion as you are becoming argumentative and aggressive with your posts. Making derogatory speculations about how I play the game when I'm trying to help you out is not terribly polite in my opinion.

This seems like a fine way to present infomation already available in a more convenient form. I support this. I support this defiantly. It is not a large thing, but it would defiantly be nice. Or may I die trying. (sorry, could not help myself)

Well it's not surprising when your so called "help" is frankly no help at all.


KK

Indeed. I've stated twice that I can't afford a giant monitor like he has, so his system (which I still don't understand) probably isn't practical for everybody. What I've explained, with what I thought was great clarity, would be no inconvenience to anyone at all. It's not like he's doing anything with his FoW, so what's wrong with putting some symbols in it?

Well, that IS true. Since the mini-map doesn't really have a direct FoW (not, in a main interface sense kinda way).

My whole argument about this is more of the sensors_range (even if abstracted to the perception levels) type that are expressed and increased by technologies obtained. The basic 'reasoning' behind a FOG concept is just that, a smoke screen that hides elements from the player. Light up the playfield with exact locations of planets (not talking Mini-Map & cartography, here... btw) and stars and you might as well take out the whole Fog overlay itself and be done with it.

You wanna see everything all the time? Simply go into Cheat-Mode and hit CTRL-U - there's your precious option.

The extra-challenge is only there if i have it, otherwise the entire dynamics are changed.

This doesn't make any sense. Why do you keep talking about cheating? You already know where all the stars are from the beginning of the game. After researching Stellar Cartography, you know where all the planets are as well. All you have to do to see where to send your ships is zoom the minimap, squint, and compare it to the main map to estimate the best tile to set as a destination. For those of us who's memory doesn't operate like a steel trap this also involves a lot of looking back and forth. Why bother with all that effort? Put the minimap data on the main map and spend your time on better strategy, instead of interface fiddling.

I can't imagine how to explain it better than that.

Neither do i.

Does this mean that you're sticking with the cheating references?

I'm not exactly sure where all this 'cheating' accusation stuff is coming from. The only thing I can suggest is that either the original poster has failed to communicate properly.. or more likely, several people in this thread have failed to read thoroughly.

Allow me to re-state the original poster's case.

The minimap contains the information on the location of stars and planets (if you have stellar cartography), however, it is a small element on the screen, zooming is awkward, and even directing ships through it is a little hit and miss.

The original poster suggest putting this information on star and planet location - not planet quality, location of asteroids or anamolies or any other information that can be gleaned only from exploration - directly on the main map instead of in that tiny little window.

Repeat - he does not want extra information revealed from the start of the game. He merely wants what I myself have often found a little akward to work with - the minimap information, displayed in a different format. I support this; it'd allow the reformatting of the screen altogether for a larger game field, if we could make the minimap redundant.

Thank you for trying, but I've explained it enough times in enough ways now, that I don't think even smoke signals would work. These cheating accusations can't be any more than a particularly bizarre strawman.

Homo Sapiens are a weird species. I bet I could go on any forum on the internet, offer all the users $1000 each, and there'd have to be 1-2 people telling me where to stick my money.

I think it would be a good idea too. I play on a laptop, and I often have to zoom in/out on the minimap when sending my scouts or colony ships. It is both time-consuming and confusing - I am often wondering things like : is this sector on the minimap and that sector on the general map the same?
I support this idea.

Probably...

And I'm a Nigerian Finance Minister who just needs your bank account # so I can deposit that 250 million dollars.   

Sentient species taste better...

Then, all of this is BIG mis-understanding on my part (thus, i must excuse myself for mis-reading the initial info), as i couldn't get the underlined section above from anywhere in the OP nor into further comments written by either me or anybody else!

If that's a case for things such as a tiny sparky_flashy_colory dot for Stars & Planets straight ***INTO*** the FOW... then, i would tend to agree on the principles at least.

You gotta grasp my reasoning too though, Ubercat; it might ease exploration but it still is a fundamental change to the usual context.

All is good, and i'll support this -- it even could be tied up with some new sensor range(s) properties, in fact... since the Immense map could certainly use less guess-work as soon as someone's capacities can reach more than half its size worth **of the almost unknown resources & strictly speaking true & unrevealed PQ potentials*.

Problem solved, to me.

Nope, and i no longer need to explain why or how i was drawing a conclusion based on some INDIRECT pseudo-cheating conditions as they could be compared to what we've been used to experience in -unaltered- main galaxy screens.
Right?

I think it would be good, as an option. Wouldn't it take more processing to implement?

I hope you can understand my former belief that you were being deliberately obtuse as nowhere in any post did I make any suggestion that cheating was involved. Indeed, the following selections show just the opposite.





I don't understand what you meant by pseudo cheating, either, but that's ok. I rarely look into the cheats available for a game, so I don't even know what can be done. No harm, no foul.

nevermind, deleted

You can just right-click on the minimap to issue move orders, FYI. Since this is unlikely to ever change. No need to 'guess' at where a planet / star is. Just zoom in, right click on it, and be done.