Ransom Adventure #4

So there I was sitting in space cloaked having just scanned the system and getting ready to run over and run a combat site since the system was empty when all of a sudden, dun DuN, DUN!!!!!  Real life called and I had to step away for a little while.  I return to the system to discover people in local and probes on scan.  But what's this?  There's an Astero on scan!  (Not to be confused with the Stratios which is what I did last time.)  Grabbing my trusty vengeance I zoom to the site I had scanned down previously.

[ 00:34:52 ] (notify) For initiating combat your security status has been adjusted by -0.0073.
[ 00:34:54 ] (combat) Warp scramble attempt from you to Astero

BB#53 Tin Cans Sharing Tables

Today's topic comes from a tweet from @erlendur in a conversation he was having with a pilot about having multiple overview tabs open in separate windows:

So that is the topic this month:  The Overview.  Is it sufficient?  If not how can it be improved?  Is there some way to replace it?  Does it give too much information, or not enough?  Please be creative and specific as the overview currently is the heartbeat of the GUI.

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Strangely enough the topic of the Overview has been on my mind a lot the past couple months.  Eve is one of those games which looks awesome, and really goes to the effort to make things look good.  But it is also a game built on calculations, equations, and having the necessary intelligence available.  I find it striking one of the questions offered in this month's blog banter has to do with the Overview giving too much information.

I'm not sure how many people think the Overview shows too much but I for one find it to be a very sadistic piece of work.  As I mentioned Eve works hard on providing a beautiful playing experience and then you have the Overview allowing you to do stuff and interact with the universe.  One is a table with columns and characters, the others is a depth inducing background with little cans floating in a sea stars.  (I know graphics aren't everything, I do play Dwarf Fortress.)

Now I enjoy tables and columns as much as an accountant but I want my star sea full of cans as well.  Unfortunately Eve makes it quite difficult to have both.  The art of positioning your Overview in a way which allows you the use of its vital information and not consume your whole screen is something everybody is still struggling with today.