Feature/Mod Request: Hour lines on the globe

[Waladil]

This is something that seems really easy to add, so easy that I might do it myself, in point of fact. It wont look as good as if someone with better image editing skills/programs did it, but it would work. Anyway, the actual suggestion:

Add 24 lines on the globe images, evenly spaced, representing hour marks. These would be for people, such as myself, who have a distinct preference for certain mission times. Me? I hate night missions. I much prefer to do day missions if possible, so I try and time my Chinook launches to arrive before dusk/after dawn.

Basically the way it would work is you would get a crash site, and the ETA of the Chinook. Then, wait for the terminator to be the appropriate number of lines away from the crash site. (If you've got a 2:30 ETA, then 2 1/2 sections away, etc.) Launch at that point and you'll arrive at the desired time!

Yes, you can ballpark this now, and I do so constantly. But having a visual aid would be nice.

EDIT: Started work myself. It really is far cruder than what someone better than I could do, but it works.

Edited May 11, 2013 by Waladil

[thothkins]

at the minute I just gauge the day/night border and roughly get it abut right. No way I'm going near a night terror mission soon

it'll be interesting to see this one.

[GizmoGomez]

I second the idea. It could be an option in the settings, "Show time zone lines."

[Ol' Stinky]

How about an icon next to the crashsite marker that indicates whether it's currently a night or day mission? Like this:

Sorry for the terrible art job. ;P

It should also tell you when you examine the crashsite, the same way it tells you the tileset and size of the crashed UFO.

[The New Romance]

How about an icon next to the crashsite marker that indicates whether it's currently a night or day mission? Like this:

Sorry for the terrible art job. ;P

It should also tell you when you examine the crashsite' date=' the same way it tells you the tileset and size of the crashed UFO.[/quote']

Looks quite cool to me!

[thothkins]

that does look quite nice. Not to mention quite useful too.

[Nightclubs]

I really like the little icon idea, it does exactly what's needed without any added clutter on the map.

[erutan]

re: hour lines: I sort of like the uncertainty of things now when deciding when to launch my transport. Plus a decent amount of the time you might be hitting multiple crash sites in a row.

The little icon would be useful, but it'd probably come down to how simple this was to code into the game, and it'd only be useful for edge cases where you're about to land at a site right on the day/night border.

[Waladil]

As per my original idea, I've re-started work on adding hour lines. Last time I made the mistake of trying to edit all 80 files manually. That only gave me a splitting migraine. Also, I chose a silly shade of turquoise.

This time, I'm using a much more sensible gray. Also I'm using automation to do the work for me.

On the icon, that would be nice to have but it'd be really hard to mod (at least at the current level of moddability). Also not particularly useful because it only tells you what the current time is at the site which is very rarely unclear: It would only clarify things in about a half-hour gray area where the terminator is hard to gauge. I wouldn't hate having it though.

[Ol' Stinky]

Well, for me, it's that half-hour I want it for the most. I can clearly tell when it's midnight on-site and can avoid sending my troops into trouble. Also, on second thought, there'd be no need for the day icon; the absence of the moon icon would be enough info.

Anyway! Would you mind sharing your work with us when you've got something up and running? I'm sure there's a whole bunch of us who'd like to use it.

[Sathra]

Its already in the modding forum.

[steelwarrior]

I´d love it that one gets a feedback when one send out the troops if they will arrive at day or night time ;-) - so I can time the sending of the troop transporters...