Anyone else bothered by the awkward lighting in the system map?

sanc · Jun 18, 2016

I submitted this as a bug report last year, as it came in with the Horizons update, but now that the Engineers update is out I think I have my answer. It's not a bug, but a design choice.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...em-Map-light-source-bug-(or-is-it-a-feature-)

And I just think it's awful. I used to love exploring in ED and spending lots of time in the system map but I just can't now. It looks so terrible and unpleasant, very much unlike how it used to look. Planets were only illuminated on one side, toward the star, and it gave a comfortable warmth and consistency to the map. Changing it to add harsh edge on the opposite side of the planets was not only unsightly, it was unnecessary. What did it fix? Who asked for it? Who likes it this way? Anyone?

Cdr Voorheez · Jun 18, 2016

No problems here. Not noticed to be honest until you highlighted it.

Gully Foyle · Jun 18, 2016

Cosmetics. Does not impact my gameplay at all.

Warpfactor · Jun 18, 2016

Can't say I'm really that bothered with it, but then again I didn't start playing until after 2.1 was a thing. I never got to see the original system maps.

sanc · Jun 21, 2016

I guess they plan on making a more extensive system map somewhere down the line anyway, right? Guess I'll wait for that.

For now it breaks the fun out of the game for me. I spend a lot of time with the system map and it's so distracting how unnecessary and cheapening of a change that was.

Cdr Voorheez · Jun 21, 2016

I'm just glad it loads quicker. I'd rather have that to be honest.

EUS · Jun 21, 2016

Nice catch, now I'll never unsee it.
Bizarre FD would do this.

CDR Michael Darkmoor · Jun 21, 2016

Being that this is not an actual view of the orbits (as in the once promised Orrery), I'm trying to understand why it makes a difference at all?

sanc · Jun 22, 2016

CDR Michael Darkmoor said:
Being that this is not an actual view of the orbits (as in the once promised Orrery), I'm trying to understand why it makes a difference at all?

As a design rule it made for a stable overall image composition. Planets were drawn with illumination on the left and shadows to the right. This is consistent with the logic of the system map's presentation with stellar objects to the left and planetary objects to the right. Although not to scale with the objects themselves, it was an agreeable standard.

Now there is no standard and the lighting does not agree with any rule as far as I can see. Gas giants with rings seem to follow the old rule while some planets have a white edge accompanying the dark side of the planet. Sometimes this edge is large and sometimes it's not, but it's always inappropriate.

It doesn't create any new logic, it just breaks the old one. I get how that doesn't affect flight mechanics and may not matter to most players, but I think a system map should look systematic and have an overall consistent design logic.

I'm not a general MMO player either so it also worries me that something I like can just be changed irrevocably for apparently no reason. I mean literally no reason. No one wants these white edges, right? What do they accomplish really and who asked for them?