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Hello,
Recently I've caught myself squinting at the minimap on multiple occasions because I couldn't make out what kind of building / size of army / exact positioning / etc. was shown.
I thought about that a bit and suddenly something jumped to mind.
When the game came out, the Minimap was as big as it is now; the MAPS, however:
old:
124x124 Steppes of War
108x160 Crossfire
new:
192x192 Alterzim Stronghold
158x162 Frost
These are just the few maps that came to mind, some quick calculation gives me that Alterzim Stronghold has a surface of 140% larger than Steppes of War.
+ Show Spoiler +On February 27 2014 21:54 Cyro wrote:Very very good point and i'm super interested in this now too Your calculation is wrong, you assume 192/124 which = 1.55 (rounded to 2 decimal place) which could also be stated as 55% bigger, but that's only using one axis. The map is a square so you could calculate area like: 124*124 = 15376 192*192 = 36864 36864 divided by 15376 is equal to ~2.4.. so the map has 2.4x as much area, on the same minimap space. Objects would have to shrink to about 42% of the size or detail would be lost Not ~+55% area gained, but ~+140%. Much bigger problem
So while the minimap was obviously designed for smaller maps, we ended up with much larger maps on which everything seems 'cramped'.
AFAIK, Gameheart etc. included larger minimaps, which is so much clearer than the small minimaps we have now.
Does anybody think/know Blizzard has considered increasing the maximum size of the minimap (either optional or forced)?
I don't have bad eyesight but I have trouble distinguishing certain things on the minimap as well as gauging speed. On unclear streams it is even worse. Anybody else suffering from this problem?
Kind regards
EDIT: For comparison
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/h162iiS.png)
Alterzim Stronghold Real Size
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/OaEjUuz.png)
Steppes of War Real Size
![[image loading]](http://imgur.com/F06eOM6.png)
Alterzim Stronghold scaled down
You can already see how much detail is lost in this scaling down, even though I used a pretty clear font to display it.
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These days Blizzard is somewhat distracted by heros of the storm, thankfully the modding community have stepped up and asking one of the observer mods if they think this feature would improve their package and if it could be programmed differently (depends on cameras I'd imagine). I do agree the minimap has lost some of its focus point in recent years.
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On February 27 2014 20:12 aka_star wrote:
These days Blizzard is somewhat distracted by heros of the storm, thankfully the modding community have stepped up and asking one of the observer mods if they think this feature would improve their package and if it could be programmed differently (depends on cameras I'd imagine). I do agree the minimap has lost some of its focus point in recent years.
I mean that the minimap becomes bigger while player, not while observing (preferably both  )
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interesting, this has never occurred to my thought at all.
for me personally I think it would be great to have some optional options but blizzard isn't really into that, looks like they want one unified experience across all players.
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The unit dots are indeed very small on big maps, it's kinda hard to notice a drop with peripheral vision... Maybe they could standardize it rather than make it dependent on the size of the map?
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Russian Federation262 Posts
Interesting thoughts, ts.
Btw i agree, that with map design involving from year to year maps became bigger and notice drops\oracler flying to your base is a little bit harder, then before. On the other hand its just a part of the game and if you are playing jjakji on a big map you must be prepared for much more attention needed to put on the minimap.
As for implementation of some sort of standarts by devs - IDK
P.S. Maybe we need address this to Blizzard or just copy to Bnet forums...
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United Kingdom1381 Posts
One thing I noticed while I was doing some testing for Gameheart is that minimap icons don't have a minimum size. So if you build a sensor tower on Alterzim Stronghold, it's virtually invisible on the map (at least at my resolution).
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I think custom UIs (while playing) should be available anyway. Sadly starcraft is developed by Blizzard so if we'll ever see that feature it'll be when LOTV comes out, maybe even years later.
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I see there's more people over here who, like me, never really thought of it, but actually agree
On February 27 2014 20:36 ETisME wrote:
interesting, this has never occurred to my thought at all.
for me personally I think it would be great to have some optional options but blizzard isn't really into that, looks like they want one unified experience across all players.
Most options are optional!
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Russian Federation125 Posts
I wanted to stretch my minimap to whole 2nd monitor by using some other programs,
I saw few dayz ago how day9 showed miniman from the game streched to a whole monitor on stream.
So i guess that it is possible at least to do using stream. may be play on 1 monitor and open stream of you games on 2nd monitor. It will be Huge minimap on 24 inch monitor
ANd yeh it sounds a bit cheesy Lets call it minimap awareness hack
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On February 27 2014 21:36 dargul wrote:I wanted to stretch my minimap to whole 2nd monitor by using some other programs, I saw few dayz ago how day9 showed miniman from the game streched to a whole monitor on stream. So i guess that it is possible at least to do using stream. may be play on 1 monitor and open stream of you games on 2nd monitor. It will be Huge minimap on 24 inch monitor ANd yeh it sounds a bit cheesy Lets call it minimap awareness hack
Day9 uses it in observer tools tho. I also think taking a small part of your stream won't be that clear for you...
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On February 27 2014 20:55 wishr wrote:
Interesting thoughts, ts.
Btw i agree, that with map design involving from year to year maps became bigger and notice drops\oracler flying to your base is a little bit harder, then before. On the other hand its just a part of the game and if you are playing jjakji on a big map you must be prepared for much more attention needed to put on the minimap.
As for implementation of some sort of standarts by devs - IDK
P.S. Maybe we need address this to Blizzard or just copy to Bnet forums...
Do they ever read BNet forums..? I never have the idea they spend much time there.
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United Kingdom20344 Posts
Very very good point and i'm super interested in this now too
These are just the few maps that came to mind, some quick calculation gives me that Alterzim Stronghold has a surface of 53% larger than Steppes of War.
124x124 Steppes of War
192x192 Alterzim Stronghold
Your calculation is wrong, you assume 192/124 which = 1.55 (rounded to 2 decimal place) which could also be stated as 55% bigger, but that's only using one axis. The map is a square so you could calculate area like:
124*124 = 15376
192*192 = 36864
36864 divided by 15376 is equal to ~2.4.. so the map has 2.4x as much area, on the same minimap space. Objects would have to shrink to about 42% of the size or detail would be lost
Not ~+55% area gained, but ~+140%. Much bigger problem
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On February 27 2014 21:54 Cyro wrote:Very very good point and i'm super interested in this now too Show nested quote +These are just the few maps that came to mind, some quick calculation gives me that Alterzim Stronghold has a surface of 53% larger than Steppes of War. Your calculation is wrong, you assume 192/124 which = 1.55 (rounded to 2 decimal place) which could also be stated as 55% bigger, but that's only using one axis. The map is a square so you could calculate area like: 124*124 = 15376 192*192 = 36864 36864 divided by 15376 is equal to ~2.4.. so the map has 2.4x as much area, on the same minimap space. Objects would have to shrink to about 42% of the size or detail would be lost Not ~+55% area gained, but ~+140%. Much bigger problem
Wow I am retarded 0.0
Hahahahah
Yes, I am interested too 0.0!
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I prefer having the dots adapt to the minimap size, but I understand the point. If the dots would be persistent in size though, even small armies would suddenly look like 200 supply on a big map and it would distract me more personally. Its just a getting used to I guess.
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Haha ,when I bought my current monitor 1-2 years ago I calculated the gain in minimap size beforehand.
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On February 27 2014 21:59 FeyFey wrote:
I prefer having the dots adapt to the minimap size, but I understand the point. If the dots would be persistent in size though, even small armies would suddenly look like 200 supply on a big map and it would distract me more personally. Its just a getting used to I guess.
I mean an overall scaling up of the minimap, not just the dots displayed on it.
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I've posted about this so many times but I still think it's much more important. The really only important thing I think this minimap issue would apply to is things like drops. But if you're a good toss player for example, you have 2-4 obs already and spotting them is very easy if you have the multi-tasking.
The bigger issue for me, and another player on my team is vision of your OWN units. Since the removal of STC, some color blind players have had real issues being able to tell apart things like zergling battles, banelings, etc. For myself, I know from experience that I played much much better with STC as I was able to evaluate and see my own army much better. I'd be able to vividly see how many stalkers I had without having to stare at the bottom pane for the ideal ~12 stalkers in PvT for example. I'd still really like to see this thing make a comeback and it's already present in Gameheart and everyone seems to love it.
In terms of "unfair" advantages, STC does no such thing. It just makes your units have a more vivid color so it's easier to see. All of the other mods like being able to see cloaked units were clearly imbalanced, but as a result of them being removed, had STC due to being unable to edit your files. ;~;
For me though, the red markers point to engagements have always been enough for the minimap, and well, playing BW... you just stare at your minimap more than the main screen almost >.> You just know where your buildings and such are so you don't have to pay as much attention to main screen until engagements.
my2c
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STC is missing badly as well, I loved it to death.
But you cannot deny it is much harder to spot stuff and gauge army sizes/position/movement speed via minimap.
STC might be a bigger miss, but since I noticed this, it has bothered me 
Here's the original thread of STC, for people who don't know what -Kyo- and I are talking about:
http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=216725
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I always wished for a minimap-enhance key (like it exists in nearly every game  ).
Just press a button and you see the whole map in the middle of the screen.
This + customizeable colours of both minimap and battlefield (different colours would be even better).
I am not colourblind but it is sometimes pretty difficult for me to distinguish my and my opponents units on the small map (and the minimap colours of the colourblind mode are too dark and therefore make it more difficult to see drops).
I think one can dream.
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EPT
