Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I realize this seems like a minor thing but I would really like to see a couple of new options for color coding stars and jump lines in the starmap to help with general geographic awareness and basic route planning. In particular it would help if there was a set of color options that highlighted the security "class" distinctions players most care about: hisec, losec, NPC null, and true null.

I would love to see a new setting to color code stars by security "class" in addition to security status. This would give all hisec (0.5 - 1.0) stars a single color, all losec (0.1 - 0.4) stars a single color, all NPC null stars a single color, and all true null stars a single color. This would make it much easier to identify contiguous hisec space and hisec islands, contiguous losec space and losec enclaves, and contiguous nullsec space. It would also help identify the boundaries most relevant to players; those between hisec, losec, and null.

The current setting to color code stars by security status is simply too "busy" visually to convey this information, especially when it comes to hisec islands and small losec enclaves. The subtle distinction in the colors that matter the most between hisec, losec, and null is very tough to spot if you have problems with colors in the yellow/orange/red hues (which is about 2% of the guys out there -- all the protanopes and deuteranopes really).

Likewise it would be very nice if there were two new options to color lines by security class as well. The first (contiguous security class) would be to color jumps by security status the same as stars; so all intra-hisec jumps are one color; all intra-losec jumps and jumps between losec and hisec are a second color; all intra-nullNPC jumps and jumps between nullNPC and losec are a third color; and all intra-truenull jumps and jumps between true null and nullNPC are a fourth color. This option would go nicely with the option to color code stars by security class as a way to get a good geographic layout of space with regard to the security divisions players actually care about. It would also help immensely with "at a glance" route planning.

The second (boundary security class) would be to color all intra-anysec jumps a neutral color, such as gray. Jumps between security classes (hisec to losec, losec to nullNPC, and nullNPC to truenull) would then have distinct colors. This option would be extremely helpful in understanding the geographic boundaries players are really interested in and would help to highlight boundary systems for route planning as well.

There are really no existing settings for color coding lines that helps convey this information at all. The "jump type" comes closest but the colors are very hard to see when combined with the "security status" star colors and overall the geographic boundary info between hisec/losec/nullsec just isn't easy to figure out.

I think the mishmash of colors is actually hiding how useful it can be. For instance, looking at your starmap with jumplines colored by standings and stars by something very neutral (e.g. incursions) actually gives a very useful geographic concept of space (assuming your standings aren't too insanely wack). It works precisely because it's only a few colors providing a smaller amount of useful information about contiguous regions of space.

The proposed addition would do exactly that; restricting the map to just four colored regions (hisec, losec, nullNPC and truenull) rather than the overwhelming rainbow that is the security status colors of today (in addition to the complete lack of useful line colorings to go with the security status star colors). It would also help fix the fact that the current security status colors are the most difficult to distinguish where they matter the most (in the yellow/orange/red range).