I need a mini map for combat

[vmxa1]

Already, I am not afaid to expose my ignorance yet again. I find that when I get into a tactical combat screen, I spent way to much time trying to find where the targets are. The scroll is slow and the grid is large.
Why not give us a mini map so we can see the red dots and no where to head? Is there something I am missing (again)?
WhY you are at it, why do I have to take such care to be sure to get in a bombardment round?
If I attack the planet, conclude the arial combat and then offer me a bombardment round. I have more than once screw up and forgot to select attack planet and take control and missed my shot.

[Cabbagemeister]

Or if not a mini map, at least a combat pause button. This would allow us to stop combat and scroll the screen over to where we need to be. Lots of times I find that by the time I've scrolled over properly, both sides have already started firing and the battle is in full swing. The scrolling is just too slow (especially at anything but the most zoomed-out view) to let the player make any real strategic inputs. Also, I'd love a pause button just so I could have time to zoom in and watch the enemy ships get annihiliated by my hordes of fighters. That would be cool.

When they came up with the whole real-time combat concept, QS assured us that it wouldn't turn combat into a reflex-oriented click-fest, and that it would be slow enough that we would have plenty of time to do what we needed to do. Now we find that that's not exactly true, and AI-controlled ships can launch hordes of missiles at us before we even figure out where they are. (Though I guss reflexes wouldn't help all that much with the slow combat scrolling...)

Give us a pause button!

[vmxa1]

Yes and I sometime wish I had a Home key to jump back to my fleet. Once I start looking around the map, I have trouble locating my ships.

[Killazer]

You can press f to follow fleets. Guys need to read the hotkeys for battle screen

[Eric S]

Know the feeling, all. I found my combats usually go better if I just watch. The best thing I've found is to zoom all the way out as soon as combat starts, provided you're precise enough with the mouse at that scale. I can't get the galactic map to zoom, but the -/= keys next to backspace work to make the combat map zoom. (I seem to remember trying the numeric keypad -/+ and they didn't work, but that might have been on the galactic map).

I just wish there were a way to take control during watching if the AI is doing something stupid (had it happen once already, would have been happy if just the general retreat button worked). And one that works better than the MoO 2 version, as I once lost a huge fleet in MoO2 because the ships wouldn't move within range of the planet, and the planet had a stellar converter on it. So, the ships circled the planet, didn't attack, and just let themselves get blasted one ship at a time, despite the fact that I hit the button to take command as soon as I saw what was happening (at least 50 turns prior to the end of combat).

[Harry Seldon]

I've had combats where MY fleet gets lost with the AI controlling it. I can't find the planet, it can't find the planet, and my fleet happily flies to the edge of the map and back again until time runs out.

[BlueDEvil]

With such ridiculous combat screen, I would choose cede control most of the time. It is ridiculous to watch or control them.

[Daz]

Thats fine, but from what Ive heard, if you want to bombard a planet, you have to do the battle part manually.

[Proteus_MST]

Yep, a minimap would really be nice,
or the ability to zoom further out, up to a point where you can see the Battlefield as a whole on your screen.

[Eric S]

Originally posted by Killazer
You can press f to follow fleets. Guys need to read the hotkeys for battle screen

Yes, that will center the selected fleet, but doesn't help if you don't have a fleet selected. I'd think two more hotkeys could be added (I looked for them, but didn't find them).

• hotkey for "select next fleet" which would pick one if none are selected. Maybe picking the one closest to the center of the display would work.
• hotkey for "select next fleet and center display on it." None of this slow scroll to the selected fleet either. If you insist on making combat realtime, make the commands work in realtime.

[vmxa1]

The follow key is a real pain to me. If you use it it will try to track the fleet and if the fleet is not moving you can not pan the camera until to stop the follow. Ugly.
The battles are fun to watch once you get good size fleets into the game. The problem is it is a bugger to find the opposition and if you zoom out the visuals are not as interesting. I have taken to waiting for my fighters to head out and just follow them, but I then do not get to see what happens back at my fleet. Well I could if they were in close proximity to each other, but that is not the case normally.

[Harry Seldon]

Originally posted by Daz
Thats fine, but from what Ive heard, if you want to bombard a planet, you have to do the battle part manually.

I was ceding control last night and my fleet still bombarded the planet. I didn't get any options for it but I had a SitRep note complete with flaming city pics.