Minimap is gonna suck

[Svip]

But isn't the minimap too small anyway for it to matter if there was a tiny border indicating coastline? A tile here and there is surely not going to make big a difference on the minimap. The only reason you notice it in the examples, is because the player have discovered so little, that minimap is zoomed so much in.

I doubt near the endgame, it would even be possible to draw a border for the coastline that would even be detectable. And if civs get different colours based on land or sea, the colour difference between civs (as many more are added) may become what's really confusing. 'Was that Civ A or is that just Civ B's sea tiles?'

 

[Xur]

But isn't the minimap too small anyway for it to matter if there was a tiny border indicating coastline? A tile here and there is surely not going to make big a difference on the minimap. The only reason you notice it in the examples, is because the player have discovered so little, that minimap is zoomed so much in.

I doubt near the endgame, it would even be possible to draw a border for the coastline that would even be detectable. And if civs get different colours based on land or sea, the colour difference between civs (as many more are added) may become what's really confusing. 'Was that Civ A or is that just Civ B's sea tiles?'

With that logic, why even have a minimap?

 

[Svip]

With that logic, why even have a minimap?

Because it provides a quick overview of the world, and is a quick UI feature to move the viewport to anywhere in the known world quickly.

It will also provide a quick overview of where civilisations are, particularly where numerous are clustered, as well as an approximate illustration of the world's continents.

 

[Gorbles]

Because information is lost the way they do it, the coastline goes completely invisible.

It's easy to fix, too (in terms of design), just make the water somewhat transparent so the water can shine through, or add a slightly blue tinted version of the Civ's color to the mix.

How does this work for colour sets that are already a form of blue, or a colour that doesn't noticeably blend well (rather: ones that blend too well) with the sea blue?

 

[Ryika]

You simply avoid a specific tone of blue and reserve it for the water. Or you just turn up the brightness of the blue, and then all colors that you can't use as default colors are saturated, bright blues that you wouldn't want to use anyway.

 

[Xur]

For reference this is how civ5 does it (it just doesn't color seatiles):

This is what you can expect civ6 minimap to look like if nothing is changed:

You might not see the big issue, but this is an eyesore to me at least....

 

[Hakan-i Cihan]

For reference this is how civ5 does it (it just doesn't color seatiles):

This is what you can expect civ6 minimap to look like if nothing is changed:

You might not see the big issue, but this is an eyesore to me at least....

I think that both cases brings issues of each own. In civ 5 version as it is now, you cannot see for example if you need open borders for your ships to pass certain part of the seas in the early game.

 

[Uberfrog]

I think this is a fairly simple issue for them to fix in the final version. It might be good, for instance to draw borders as a line and leave sea tiles uncoloured, so you can see coastlines as well as territorial waters.

 

[Hakan-i Cihan]

I think this is a fairly simple issue for them to fix in the final version. It might be good, for instance to draw borders as a line and leave sea tiles uncoloured, so you can see coastlines as well as territorial waters.

Assuming you meant to draw cultural borders (not continental borders) this looks like a good solution.

 

[Ryika]

The Beyond Earth Minimap has issues of its own, but it does a pretty good job at keeping water and borders both visible:

 

[Hakan-i Cihan]

The Beyond Earth Minimap has issues of its own, but it does a pretty good job at keeping water and borders both visible:

Yes, but at the moment we have similar effect of visible terrain and terrain in FOW in the minimap. That mechanic seems already confusing enough together with this it will be a mess. I actually hope that they remove that then your suggestion is also a good one. I would still prefer Uberfrog's idea though.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Sea-tiles are colored the same as land, so any contours of landmass will eventually render the minimap useless.

Maybe I am misreading the minimap but the sea tiles are blue and the land tiles are green to me. So they are definitely different colors.

Also, keep in mind that this minimap is showing a very early game which is why we are seeing a very zoomed in and pixelated perspective. We are only seeing a few tiles, not the whole map. Once the whole map is explored, I am sure it will look more like the civ5 example you provided.

 

[BrokenBokken]

It could definitely be better, but all I use the minimap for is quick map movement and to notice when cities are captured in foreign wars. Won't bother me too much.

 

[SammyKhalifa]

Maybe I am misreading the minimap but the sea tiles are blue and the land tiles are green to me. So they are definitely different colors.

But not when they're in a Civ's cultural borders, from what I can tell.

Not you, but I don't understand the blowback here against the OP's legitimate concern. What's the point of a map that doesn't look like the land/terrain it's supposed to represent?

 

[Plus Ultra]

"Minimap is gonna suck" is a terrible title for this thread.

In any case, I share the OP's concern regarding water borders.

 

[Xur]

"Minimap is gonna suck" is a terrible title for this thread.

In any case, I share the OP's concern regarding water borders.

Yea, I guess the title is terrible. I just wrote my thoughts without much consideration. In my personal opinion though, I'd rather just mod out the entire minimap if this minimap is what we get at release.

 

[Spaceturtle]

What's the point of a map that doesn't look like the land/terrain it's supposed to represent?

The minimap right now might be ugly, and even confusing, but it's not completely useless. Borders have an impact on troops and boats movement, so it could be more useful to see the cultural borders rather than the coastline.

It would be great if they managed to address both issues though. Maybe with less opacity, as other people suggested.

 

[shaglio]

The simplest solution would be to put a toggle button on the map edge that will allow you to switch between the civs' land borders and all borders. That way you can see the outlines of the continents when you have it on "land borders" view, but you can flip it to "all borders" to see if there are any straights you wouldn't be able to pass through without open borders (like between Africa and Madagascar in Xur's example). Sort of like a lens for the mini map.

 

[Hakan-i Cihan]

Just thaught about it, the lenses work on the minimap too, right? If so, then the continents lenses would show the coastlines.

 

[Xur]

Just thaught about it, the lenses work on the minimap too, right? If so, then the continents lenses would show the coastlines.

Lenses does not affect the minimap. Here is an image with the political lense turned on, and as you can see the minimap has not changed. The minimap always has the political overlay.

Spoiler :