Any chance of combining the functionality of Map Pins & Lenses?
Example 1: New City Pin & Settler Lens
Selecting the City Pin, before deciding where to place it, could bring up the Settler Lens and show a 3 tile radius around the Map Pin as we move it around, helping us decide where to place it. Once placed, City Pins could interact with the Settler Lens still, making it easier to decide where to place our 2nd or 3rd new City.
Example 2: Water Park Pin & Amenities Lens
Selecting a Water Park Pin, before deciding where to place it, could bring up an Amenities Lens that highlights Entertainment Complex, Water Park, and Colosseum tiles (as they, or buildings within them can emit an Amenity AOE - Area of Effect). This Lens could highlight their AOE coverage, along with the strength of the AOE effect(s). This Lens could also follow the Water Park Pin as we move it around, showing it's potential AOE coverage, helping us decide where to place it. And once placed, Entertainment Complex, Water Park, and Colosseum pins could interact with the Amenities Lens still, making it easier to decide where to place other such districts.
While in 'Map Tacking' mode, lenses could reflect maximum potential AOE, ignoring what buildings have been completed within districts, or whether the district has even been built (say it's under construction, or nothing more then a map pin).
Having the option through the Lenses Menu to show current/actual AOE (instead of potential) would still be useful for identifying districts that would benefit from building upgrades. Alternatively, we could simply use potential AOE, and highlight districts/pins that don't meet that potential.
Other Uses:
Of course, the usefulness of this wouldn't be limited to Water Parks and Amenity Lenses. It would be useful for Industrial Zones (Factories, Coal/Oil/Nuclear Power Plants) along with their Production and Electricity AOEs (Gathering Storm changes some of this). I could even see this being useful for Aerodromes, highlighting the area our air units could cover.
Back to the Settler Lens: Adding to Example 1
It would also be useful if, while the Settler Lens were active, pressing a hot key would change the functionality of the scroll wheel, allowing us to quickly switch through these AOE Lenses, making it easier to find the perfect new city location. Pressing the hot key again, or exiting the lens view, could revert the scroll wheel to it's default functionality.
Taken a step further, LAMP (Lens Augmented Map Pins) could show adjacency bonuses.
Any chance of combining the functionality of Map Pins & Lenses?
Example 1: New City Pin & Settler Lens Selecting the City Pin, before deciding where to place it, could bring up the Settler Lens and show a 3 tile radius around the Map Pin as we move it around, helping us decide where to place it. Once placed, City Pins could interact with the Settler Lens still, making it easier to decide where to place our 2nd or 3rd new City.
Example 2: Water Park Pin & Amenities Lens Selecting a Water Park Pin, before deciding where to place it, could bring up an Amenities Lens that highlights Entertainment Complex, Water Park, and Colosseum tiles (as they, or buildings within them can emit an Amenity AOE - Area of Effect). This Lens could highlight their AOE coverage, along with the strength of the AOE effect(s). This Lens could also follow the Water Park Pin as we move it around, showing it's potential AOE coverage, helping us decide where to place it. And once placed, Entertainment Complex, Water Park, and Colosseum pins could interact with the Amenities Lens still, making it easier to decide where to place other such districts.
While in 'Map Tacking' mode, lenses could reflect maximum potential AOE, ignoring what buildings have been completed within districts, or whether the district has even been built (say it's under construction, or nothing more then a map pin).
Having the option through the Lenses Menu to show current/actual AOE (instead of potential) would still be useful for identifying districts that would benefit from building upgrades. Alternatively, we could simply use potential AOE, and highlight districts/pins that don't meet that potential.
Other Uses: Of course, the usefulness of this wouldn't be limited to Water Parks and Amenity Lenses. It would be useful for Industrial Zones (Factories, Coal/Oil/Nuclear Power Plants) along with their Production and Electricity AOEs (Gathering Storm changes some of this). I could even see this being useful for Aerodromes, highlighting the area our air units could cover.
Back to the Settler Lens: Adding to Example 1 It would also be useful if, while the Settler Lens were active, pressing a hot key would change the functionality of the scroll wheel, allowing us to quickly switch through these AOE Lenses, making it easier to find the perfect new city location. Pressing the hot key again, or exiting the lens view, could revert the scroll wheel to it's default functionality.
Taken a step further, LAMP (Lens Augmented Map Pins) could show adjacency bonuses.
Did I get carried away again?