Project Reality Forums

now i KNOW this was suggested before, but not like this

When most people want to have the compass and map in PR they always think about something taking a weapon slot, or when you open the map a compass pops up, and those have their own problems. But i think there is still a way we can simulate the use of a compass on a map simply by changing the mouse pointer in game when you open the map into a circle with the degree markers on it. So something like this.




And for example the way you would use this is simply put your mouse cursor over the target you want to find the degree something is from that target, no clicking no nothing, just move it over the target and read it.

(the map was taken from another thread)



So lets say for example you are sq7

You want to tell sq 5 there are enemies near him at a certain direction, but you want to be more specific than just saying "enemies your your NW"
So you hold your cursor over sq 5 and just read off the degree, so in this case, about 325

So now all sq 5 has to do is look 325 and he should see the enemy.


I also think this can be used for the new mortars coming to PR, for example you put a marker on a enemy, and then open your map and hover your cursor over the mortar teams position and read them off the degree and estimate the range they just should put it on to fire ( im still working out some sort of map marker idea that could help estimate range)

of course the new mouse reticule wont look as ugly as my drawings, but the devs can make it look prettier and easier to read probably by adding more degree markings around the circle


Sorry if my suggestion is unclear, if it is then ask me for another explanation, but all im really asking for is to replace the in game mouse reticule with this circle with degree markings

hmm, this sounds like a nice touch. any response from the devs?

I like the suggestion actually.

theres all ready a compass ingame at the bottom of your screen !

Would be nice, but we should remove the compass on the bottom of the screen then. Anyway need DEV statement if possible....

Looks like a nice idea! However, the thing you have drew is simple the same accurate as "enemy at your NW".
If this is integrated, it would have to be much more accurate .
Good idea anyway.

This is an brilliant idea! ... the only downside i could imagen is if the game only uses one cursor, so you would have your bulky compas cursor even in the Mainmenu?

Phatcap wrote:Would be nice, but we should remove the compass on the bottom of the screen then. Anyway need DEV statement if possible....

If you do that, how are you supposed to tell what direction your looking at?

whatshisname55 wrote:If you do that, how are you supposed to tell what direction your looking at?

Map with compass....??
would make firefights last longer and give the suppressing guys actually an advantage. Now you just see the tracers "245!" fire a few blind shots and the hunter becomes the prey. IMO the best thing would be having a Compass like the one in ArmA.

this has been suggested bofore :S ... i agree with this though compass should only show up when the map is up .. the M map not the Enter spawn screen map. But overall i like the idea from the other threads

Redamare wrote:this has been suggested bofore :S ... i agree with this though compass should only show up when the map is up .. the M map not the Enter spawn screen map. But overall i like the idea from the other threads

In the first line of my post i said i knew that..BUT people always suggested to do something that was hard coded, but this doesn't seem hard coded, unless changing the mouse cursor in game is hard coded, and since were on the BF2 engine...it could be

I think this is a nice idea, as long as if the compass at the bottom is removed and the marker on the map has specific enough degree angles to make it easier when spotting enemies.

Um, I think the point was not to have the compass ONLY visible when the map is up, but to have the MAP have it's own compass on it, built in to the SL's icon.

Startrekern wrote:Um, I think the point was not to have the compass ONLY visible when the map is up, but to have the MAP have it's own compass on it, built in to the SL's icon.

NO!!! not built into SL icons, that would looks bad and only be useful for SL,s


Its just changing the mouse pointer into a compass, so instead of having the arrow we have now, which doesnt help at all, we could have a compass that would help tell degrees of things from friendly units

Ah, I see. That's even more spectacular, in that case.

This is quite interesting as long as it's not bulky.

I don't say this is necessary ATM but adding it eventually would be nice... Perhaps adding some small lines vertically, horizontally and diagonally, so as to prevent hardcodness? Just some small black strips so you have an idea of the direction, which is permanently present if the OP's idea isn't possible?

AFAIK you are able to edit individual squad leaders/members icons, right? Just like you guys removed the arrow, add some non-rotating slashes...

Does that make sense?

I think the cursor ingame menus and map is the same used in the main menu.

If anyone want to fiddle around with it (after backing it up), the mouse is in:
EA GAMES/Battlefield 2/mods/pr/menu/External/FlashMenu/Cursor/cursor_arrow

Not really sure if thats the right directory for the one ingame and if you can edit it though.

I belive you would have to somehow link a compass image to follow the cursor while the map is displayed, sounds like a lot of mucking about in python. On real maps and charts thry have a Compass rose in one corner of the map for you to take a bearing with a tool and transer the bearing to the compass rose finding th bearing (you would also have to account for magnetic drift by what ever it is in that time and place, but that dosnt exist in BF2 engine fortunatly )

Guys saying to remove HUD compass: I don't think you're understanding the suggestion, he wants a cursor compass in the map to be able to find proper directions for other players, therefore that compass will not turn, and there is no view direction on the map for your character, I am not aware of any other way to tell which direction your looking, so the HUD compass would have to stay, not to mention if your in a firefight and someone calls out a heading, so you have to open your map where you can't see where your looking easily and then align yourself from there, you may very well be dead by the time you get it right
I think the HUD compass thing is one of the situations where gameplay > reality.