I don't think its an easy job to remake maps from any game whatsoever, those maps still have a lot of bugs that need more time and dedication to optimize and some of the maps we the community asked for them.

And who said that remaking some cool old maps that we loved means that the Dev's want to make a sup-com successor?

They are just maps! there is nothing more than that, anyone can make maps they wa you want it, it does not mean anything at all.

When the Map Editor gets better, I will remake some really awesome maps from old games that I love. (C&C. TA)

I get it. Many of you want what you had in "the other game" because it works and it is comfortable. Tell me, do you use control groups? Do you use attack-move? Do you set patrols? Do you use any hotkeys? Full honesty time. Most of us use a keyboard when playing RTSs, so hitting space bar to bring up the strategic view is not the end of the world.

There is nothing I said in any of my posts that is inconsistent with my statement. It is not my responsibility to ensure you don't make a bad inference, it's yours. I'm fine if you don't want to take that responsibility, but it's you in the end that looks silly.

Here is my argument, however I admit this argument is thin, perhaps full of holes, so that's why I'm not vehemently defending it, at least until I can try the implementation:

Hitting space bar is one quick action. Go from any zoom level and location, then hit space bar for the full screen map. If you want to go back, just hit space bar again, or maybe you click on the map. Easy. The scroll method takes a little longer, maybe multiple passes of the scroll wheel, though I expect some would ask for a zoom scroll speed setting so it's not a show stopper. Now let's say for some reason you wanted to go to max zoom out without going to the strategic view. Now it's a scroll in one direction to get to the strategic view, then one click back the other direction. Again not a show-stopper, but a little annoying. Zooming back in to a new location is, yet again, one or more passes of the scroll wheel.

To be clear, I'm not saying the scroll method is a bad system. I'm just saying I'm happy to give the space bar method an honest try before I worry about not having the scroll method.

Yeesh this is a lot of talk about a simple UI thing that isn't a big deal and we haven't even been able to experience yet. Tiring.

I play RTS titles like this to have huge competitive battles, and best implementation of a UI to  achieve that that I have seen so far has been a SupCom style Strategic Zoom. Having icons just plain works. This game should be the next generation of that, so starting there is maybe a good option, but it can be improved upon.

In another thread I suggested a picture-in-picture solution where your units were initially represented by a number bubble (someone else made a cool bubble diagram that displayed a lot of info that would fit nicely into this idea) that when you mouse over turns into a view of the units inside the bubble that you can select and command. It would be a 'fair solution' since units wouldn't be individual icons (they would be a group represented by a big circular icon that itself is a representation of what the group is made up of thru clever use of iconography), that when moused over turns into a picture-in-picture zoomed in view that as long as you keep your mouse inside (and maybe make it rezisable if you grab and drag the edge) you can lasso and micro manage individual units at a see-able zoom level while not having any individual unit ever represented by an icon.

That being said once the battle is over I love to be able to watch the replays of those huge, easily controlled battles zoomed in and without icons to see all the eye candy, so even if when I play it is only icons, the replay is always there to watch from any angle I please, and I would always take ease-of-control of my forces in battle over any other consideration.

Lazy? You know this is alpha, right? Let them work on gameplay fundamentals, then they can tweak the UI to satisfy the QQs.

Despite a supreme commander zoom possibly not working on very large maps, the current zoom could be expanded a little, it would be nice to see a little more when zoomed out.

I'm sure I have seen maps on supreme commander that are as large, well at least on the modded Forged Alliance Forever. As long as the zoom to strategic overvie is seamless, so one can quickly zoom to another point on the map. This ability on supreme commander was partly what made it so successful in my opinion. It was such a slick interface.

The ability to zoom out to a view with icons, see quickly what was going in at a glance on the battle field, and zoom back in to just where was needed. It would be cool to have both options in game, try them, see who likes which best..?

I think this is the biggest SC FA map in the standard game, so are the maps in Ashes that much bigger?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVhZJz5k4YE

Please remember that this game is effectively in Alpha, so there are many bugs and its not yet the final game. The devs do listen to feedback and changes to the zoom may well happen.

There is no need to be quite so negative!!

To be honest you are the retarded one expecting a finished and polished game in pre beta. the game will continue to have new bugs..we are here to give feedback..to improve the game...kinda the point of the founders program lol

OMG you gotta be kidding me.  I'll patriciate as I see fit or you give me my full money back and ban me from this disaster that is AotS.  Double post. I don't care.

disregard* whatever.

I'll go play Sims or something.

Next post like this and you'll be shown the door.  

So if its cool with everyone can we get back to talking about the map? 

As I said before I'm not artist so a mockup may be a little outside of my abilities but if you are interested in just some ideas for information to be displayed ill list them below. 

A count of total sites on the map with an amount each side control 

Ex 12/40 10/40

A heatmap of sorts not sure how it would loom but something that will make it easy to view a higher concentration of units in an area. 

Someone else mentioned a breaking news sort of update so if there is a new site captured while viewing the map maybe it gets highlighted or it illuminates and that area gets a little larger so we can tell which one was captured. Possibly do the same if a control group gets engaged by a new force while viewing. 

Edit: Oops I thought this was the mockup thread ignore me 

So, I haven't bought the game (yet), but I'd like to chime in on the concept of zoomed out strategic type view. (long time SC: FA player)

Strategic view is to oversee the entire area where _multiple_ battles may be taking place. Basically...get an overview of the whole war. Which is a feature of this game. In wars, you need a quick way to get a basic overview and concept of what is going on in each battle, and ideally (for video games) be able to quickly zoom into that area to direct your units. I understand the Dev's don't want to simply copy SupCom, and want to show the power and beauty of the game engine by always rendering the full unit, but the further you zoom out, the less relevant that becomes.

Using icons has a long history in battle/war management, all the way back from sand tables and paper maps and up to grease pencils on a board. For example, modern day CAOC (combined air operations center), here's an UNCLASS view of the big wall screens, which can give an good overview of the area of responsibility. See all those symbols?

Granted, we have the luxury of full knowledge of visible units, how to render them, etc, etc, but at a very large scale icons work because they let us take in a lot of information at a quick glance and tells us the most important bits that we need to know. Once you get below this level...yea, I don't mind the Dev's doing their thing, because it's their game. Although it's great that they take and incorporate feedback from us, they still have their vision of how it should work.

Also...as with some of the others, I have no clue what "click to zoom" means. The way it was used it sounded like click to zoom out which doesn't make any sense to me. If you're talking about click from strategic view to zoom into an area/battle on the map, that does make sense.

EDIT: Here's a bunch of modern day military symbology. Doesn't need to be nearly this complicated, but basic differentiation between "artillery vs tank vs fighter vs bomber" is very useful http://axisandallies.wikia.com/wiki/Military_Symbols