FreeOrion

It would be really nice if some display or another allowed me to see which starlanes are covered by the existing lighthouse network.
If I knew, I would not build unneeded lighthouses, and I could see where I needed to build more.
I could plan my trips better, rather than be surprised.
Yes, I could go from star to star for all the micromanaged stars and turn on the radius effect for each one that had a lighthouse. Tedious and Cluttering. Give me a hotkey or a report so I can see this on the rare but vital occasions where I need it.

For that matter, a way of telling how long a fleet will take to get from one star to the other would be nice, but then the question of why comes in. Why that short or long a time?

I second this. It would need to be able to be toggled on or off so you don't have to see it all the time.

EricF wrote:I second this. It would need to be able to be toggled on or off so you don't have to see it all the time.

Plus-seconded (ahum, is 'tertiered' a word?)

It doesn't even have to be a togglable overlay, by the way. I'd be happy enough if every system on the main map (including empty ones) had some sort of mark (like an asterisk) inside or beside them, that shows they're within range of one of your lighthouses. Could be appended to the system's name if there's one.

I like the toggle idea.
But anything would help.
Thanks for your support and votes.

I think that's not only needed for the Interstellar Lighthouse, but for all effects that affect a certain area (that is, beyond a single system). My suggestion would be to add another clause (e.g. "highlight") to an effectsgroup, where you can define a scope of objects that can be highlighted and a name for a toggle switch for the UI. Then have a context menu for the galaxy map that displays all those toggles to the player.

These kind of indicators have to be scriptable anyway, as we can't just add something to the backend code that checks for specific content.

Vezzra wrote:My suggestion would be to add another clause (e.g. "highlight") to an effectsgroup, where you can define a scope of objects that can be highlighted

Sounds like a very good idea to me.

...and a name for a toggle switch for the UI. Then have a context menu for the galaxy map that displays all those toggles to the player.

I would suggest a more streamlined approach (at least as a default in the parsing of the highlight clause) for the name used for the UI toggle/select element-- let it be simply the name of the corresponding top level content (Lighthouse in this case). Then either (i) most simplest, have a new file within default/customizations to specify a list of content names to appear in the dropdown list, with support for individual entries to be commented out with a pound sign, and supporting user-ordering of them akin to sitrep order, or (ii) have the UI automatically determine the list by scanning all the content for things with a Highlight-bearing Effectsgroup. I much prefer the customizability of the first approach, but I suppose the two could be combined for thoroughness, especially if trying to support the more specialized naming.

Specifying a distinct name along with the highlights clause would allow a extra degree of flexibility when dealing with complex content, but I'm not sure where, if anywhere, that would really be needed, and I'm not sure it's really worth the extra code complication.