Map Radar Selection

[jacob814]

TL;DR

Just like how pollution, turret coverage, etc can be toggled for map view, there should be another toggle for radar coverage, etc.

What ?

In more detail, I am suggesting a feature to show radar coverage ( let me make this clear, not the area it will scan but rather what it shows in real time). I envision when toggled on, it will show all radar coverage with an opaque blue color. It would also show each of the radar stations with, let's say, a white dot. I believe this would be extremely useful when laying out radars. This feature could also toggle on automatically in the main view (without the map pulled up) when placing a radar so you know the boundaries of the previous radars.

This could be expanded on even further by also showing a black border of the next chunk you should place a radar for maximum efficiency of a radar. Kinda like this:
[img]radarcoverage.png[/img]

I am no graphic designer so this is only an example. I believe the devs could implement this a lot better.

If you have other ideas or suggestions about this I would love to hear it and may add it to the post. Thanks for reading.

[Ingolifs]

This is already in the game. It appears slightly lighter on the map, you may have to remove pollution and logistics to see it.

[Lav]

Not quite. The area around the players has the same effect, which is a bit annoying when you're trying to build a 100% coverage radar grid.

And if your radars are powered by solar energy, they will turn off during the night - but it would be great if their nominal coverage was still displayed.

[Impatient]

I second this feature request. Would be nice to see the location of a radar station and the inner and outer covered area.

A little Rant

Ever played an mp-game with 20 to 30 players and a lot of fluctuation? It can be a one player half-time-job to find and efficiently replace all those radars, eating up the bases power supply. I played this and did this and had a lot of fun. I identified two different types of players, placing radars in a careless or lazy way:

The first is the easy one. I call this player type the "nest builder". This player clumps up 10 to 20 radars next to each other somewhere at the center of the base and is happy about this efficient and effortless way he figured out to handle radar coverage. I can only wonder what the motivation is to do so. I guess this type of player has observed, that 10 radars uncover the map faster than 1 radar, but the player is too lazy or too afraid to go to the outskirts of the base. AND actual radar coverage and wider area uncovering of the map seems to be of no importance. The good thing - once the "nest" is found 15 radars can be replaced by one radar at once.

Cost: A bit of searching or a bit of luck to discover the nest by just running by. Gain: A nice one-time (unless there were several players with the same glorious idea) decline in radar power consumption.

The second one is the though one. I call it the "radar-guerilla". This type of player (in the entire number of players playing like this) scatters radar stations all over the base, without any pattern. The motivations are advanced, compared to the ones of the nest builder. The player wants the base covered, sometimes also the outskirts, mainly to see what is placed where, to see native attacks or weak spots and later, when there are robots, to be able to use the map view to work on the base. But the player shows no motivation whatsoever, to walk at least a little distance and maybe place power lines, to put the radar in a location, where the area it covers does not overlap the covered area of another radar. If there is no radar coverage or the edge of the covered area is too close, this player simply drops a radar on its current location. Frequently. Depending on the discipline and lazyness of the players, this can produce a two- to four-fold radar coverage on the base. With the effects on the already high total power consumption of radar stations in the base. And then everyone shouts in the chat, that "we need more power" / "some1 please up the power production".

Cost: Hard, long, never ending labor. Gain: Tremendous reduction of power consumption (like 25% to 50% of the bases total).

[JohnyDL]

The third type of player is the radar troll who can either be clever and place radar 5 chunks apart in a grid draining the power by stealth that is hard to tell or by nesting in a few out of the way sites using the excessive power drain of radar early game to kill the energy used by the other players, it's easier to find the nests thanks to the power grid but at a glance seeing radar are too close is kind of tricky