Feedback On Minimap

[Playford]

In normal and "trench run" missions the current minimap works well. But in the open space missions it's worthless.

 

The first reaction for some is to replace it with a 3D variant. While that could work, I am somewhat sceptical of that approach and am going to suggest something different.

 

Get rid of it entirely and replace it with a completley different system.

 

Freelancer is a 2003 space combat and trading sim, a full on space game, and it doesn't have a minimap. It does have a map system, but it is in no way usable during combat, it's used solely for long distance travel and navigation.

 

So, how did space combat work without a minimap, you ask?

 

Waypoints.

 

Every enemy in weapons range was marked with a waypoint, while they were on screen they would have a targeting box around them (just like enemies in archwing have a triangle thing around them), but when they go offscreen, there would be an arrow showing which way you have to turn to have them in view. It worked remarkably well, and even during fights with ~10 enemies you always knew where everyone was.

 

A similair system could work for archwing. Enemies that are too far away are simply marked with a red dot to prevent too much clutter on screen, as they get closer that dot turns into an arrow that starts small and gets bigger as they approach.

 

That right there tells you everything you need to know, which way you have to turn to have your target in view, and if they are offscreen how far away they are so you can prioritize.

 

Also one more thing, the whole axis lock... please give us the option to disable that if we wish, I played Freelancer for an unhealthy amount of time and can handle free movement. It did have what was considered a default plane, and you ship would level out to be parallel with it but only if not given directional input for a few seconds, it even had a "returning to normalcy" effect after a hard fight that was very enjoyable.

 

TL;DR

Play Freelancer.

Unfortunately, the game is not on any DD service that I'm aware of and only option beyond Ebay has you going 'yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum' which is... not nice.

[Fenrir121]

The only problem I see with that is screen clutter, Right now you rely on those waypoints to find the towers in intercept.. while there could be 20-30 craft on your tail while you're looking.

[Orbister]

i would love a system like the one you are proposing and those arrows don't even need to be big, so screen cluttering can be avoided, or the game could also group-up bunches of enemies that are near to each other in one single arrow until you get close.

[Playford]

The only problem I see with that is screen clutter, Right now you rely on those waypoints to find the towers in intercept.. while there could be 20-30 craft on your tail while you're looking.

 

As I said, smaller waypoints for distant enemies should reduce clutter, and enemies should be marked with a triangular waypoint so they are distinct from hexagonal waypoints used for intercept towers and players.

Edited October 30, 2014 by Playford

[adiamorph]

This is exactly the kind of change I was hoping for, because the way the open Archwing maps work definitely needs to be more spacey. And I'm not sure they would want to make it too much like a space game, unfortunately. I especially thought about that with the axis lock, I feel like they'd think it's not Warframe enough :[

 

But if their goal was to eventually go all out in suiting the game mode for space, then I'm all for it.

 

I support this because right now there's this space sim in development I'm looking forward to called Limit Theory which is like 99% inspired by Freelancer but that would be off topic

[Playford]

[snip]I especially thought about that with the axis lock, I feel like they'd think it's not Warframe enough :[ [snip]

 

After 1000+ hours, I welcome Warframe not feeling like Warframe.

Edited October 30, 2014 by Playford