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lol obscenities are written on the guild wars mini map all the time... then again EVERYONE has acces to using the feature not jsut a commander

I'm in favor of this idea, or some variation on it. Mini-map might just be too small to do much efective with it, but then again, I've never seen it done before.

But creative, and if done well, could be VERY helpful.

Don't draw, just replace the orders box with a textbox for use by the commander.

I'd be in favour of this, some people work a lot better with pictures as opposed to capital letters.

Making a side feature would perhaps be better, like a new screen with a blown up version of the minimap. You could bring it up with anotehr button or something, and when it had been edited by the commander, you'd get a warning in the top left hand corner, or your minimap would flash and say "Press Button X to bring up Tactical Screen".

If not, this current idea would be great. NFL like.

This is a great idea. I'm all for it.

And as a bonus, the additional tools would accelerate our discovery of which maps look most like genitalia. It's a win-win!

Don't worry, there'll be commanders out there who will draw John Toms insetad of arrows. /mrgreen.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="mrgreen.gif" />

All you need... a white board. /doh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":doh:" border="0" alt="doh.gif" />

With the mini-map being so small, I think its function would be limited. I fly in 1024 X 768 (or whatever) resolution, so my map is smaller than some. I like Chrono's idea (can't believe I just wrote that) of another window that could pop-up similar to the F-keys.

If the drawing idea is not possible (or even if it is), I think a text-box somewhere (like guitarism mentioned and has been discussed in the past) with static orders would be helpful.

This would be ideal in my mind: a text-box with buttons next to it, so that a person could click the order he's going to take on, and then his name would appear next to it for all to see. Here's a rough idea (I know, I know. I have GIMP, but I still don't know how to use it. MS Paint will have to do for now):


So we have a F6-sized text box, top 3/4 scrollable with previous non-completed tasks (this could be divided into "completed" and "in progress"), bottom 1/4 has text entry. On left/right are buttons to mark "assign" and "complete" if comm (clicking "assign" when someone has already accepted the order will give them an urgent reminder message); and "accept" and "complete" if pilot. There is also be a button to clear out the people performing a task and make the task available again--maybe it should be labeled "clear pilots" instead of "clear orders". For consistency, maybe the buttons should go on the bottom like in the F6 menu.

So a comm can open an F-key (would F9 work?), and type in an order, and designate how many people he wants to do it. "Probe mid-low (selects "2" from drop down box)", clicks "assign order." Voob 1 and Voob 2 both click the "accept order" button, comm gets "quiet" notification that someone has taken the order on (order changes color, or flashes lightly, etc., no more big red urgent messages than necessary.) And everybody who looks at that window will see those two pilot's names next to the order.

When the order has been completed, each Voob clicks the "complete order" button to signify they have completed it. The order changes to another color (or something), pending comm confirmation. Comm checks mid-low, sees it's probed well, he clicks the "complete" button, and the order disappears (or goes into a "completed orders" section in case he ever wants to reinstate it).

-OR- Comm checks mid-low, sees they did a bad job, reinstates the order to those two Voobs (by clicking "assign order" with their names still on it), they get a notification (big red urgent message) that the comm wants them to go back and do it again.

This would be ideal for one-time low-urgency orders (probe this sector more, pickup this tech), or any-urgency constant orders (defend miners/constructors, probe paths to green doors)--all of which would be assigned to 1 up to a few people instead of the whole team. (Whole team orders are almost always urgent, so they might not fit here well)

Feel free to expand, delete, change or flame this idea. I can see use in it, but I don't comm much. If those who comm think this is stupid, then so be it. And people who don't like any kind of change--what are you doing in the misc. dev. forum anyway?

So, the final question is: would this be a coding nightmare?

(Man, that's an ugly picture)

pkk wrote:QUOTE (pkk @ Oct 9 2006, 08:20 AM) All you need... a white board. /doh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":doh:" border="0" alt="doh.gif" />

Thats not a half bad idea. Just have a key make the mini map bigger so that the commander can draw on it and everyone else can make it bigger to take a closer look.