Expanse View

**Location:**  Infinite Lagrange Wiki -> User Interface

The Expanse View is one of the games two main views giving access to a wide variety of status information, commands, and sub-views.

## Controls, Status, Indicators

This view has a variety of buttons and controls for accessing additional views as well as status information and indicators. These are primariliy located along the top and bottom of the screen.

Top row, left to right:

* Mission Button allows the player to access the mission view. Indicates pending items with a number is a yellow square.
	+ Contains the following tabs:
		- Agreement Management tab (Trojite and NR/GMC servers only?)
		- Main Missions tab
		- Quests tab
		- Rally Attack tab
	+ May be one of:
		- Phase I
		- Trojite, Phase II
		- Node Recovery/Galactic Mutual Cooperation, Phase II
		- Data Rescue Agreement, Phase II

## The Expanse

One of the primary purposes of this view is to allow the player to interact with places and objects within the two-dimensional space of the star system in play. To this end, the majority of the screen is occupied by a view of some portion of the "expanse".

### Visibility

The game enforces a number of rules as to what the player is able to see in the expanse. Part of this is to encourage exploration, and part to simulate the "fog of war".

#### Exploration Phase

The play area of each system/server is 9000Gm squared, centered on a star. At the launch of each server only the parts of the system that have been directly explored by the player, or members of the player's union, are visible. Exploration occurs in 500Gm square blocks - 18 x 18 blocks or 364 blocks per server. When a player moves a fleet into a block that they have not previously been to (even if a union mate has) there is a 60 second exploration animation which sometimes results in the discovery of a "mysterious item". If the block has not been previously explored by anyone in the player's union then, at the end of the animation, it will be "lit up" and the contents (minus fleets) will be visible.

Note that when a player leaves a union, the explored space map reverts to showing **only** those parts that the player has, themselves, directly explored. If the player then joins a new union, the explored space map will then show area explored by themselves and/or members of the new union.

    The exploration phase of the game is in effect up to the point where a Galactic Event unlocks GALACTIC INTEL, which gives all the players complete intel on the entire star system. On the Node Recovery/Galactic Mutual Cooperation servers, this is about two-thirds of the way through the chapter progression. (Phase I? Trojite?)

#### The Fog of War

While fixed items such as bases, outposts, resource nodes, and cities will all be visible in any explored space, fleets follow a different set of visibility rules that are sometimes refered to as "the fog of war".

In player versus player conflicts, it is important to consider what the opponent is able to see. A scout fleet in the right place can provide critical intelligence.

    The space around any player or union base, structure, or fleet is illuminated, and any fleet in the illuminated area will be visible. The size of the area that is illuminated varries. In all cases, the area is centered on the exact location of the fleet or structure.

* Fleets illuminate a region determined by the largest ship in the fleet:
	+ Frigates and Destroyers illuminate a region of 30Gm square
	+ Cruisers and Battlecruisers illuminate a region of 50Gm square
	+ Carriers illuminate a region of 70Gm square
* Bases illumniate a region of 120Gm square
* Outposts illumniate a region of 60Gm square
* Mining platforms ?
* Union occupied cities ?

### Zoom Level

The expanse view can be zoomed in and out to display more detail or to display more area. The default view at the default position is centered on the players base, where the 10Gm by 10Gm square of the base region occupies most of the display. There are something like seven different levels of zoom (depending on how they are counted).

The player can only interact with space and/or objects in space when zoomed in to operation level. At operation level zoom, clicking on a location or object will select that location/object but will not move the display center. To move the display center, the player must drag the view.

Generally, unless the display is at operation level, clicking on the display will move the center to the clicked location and zoom in by one level.

#### Operation level

This range starts at approximately 50% more zoom than the default and goes up to about one-fourth the default zoom. In this range, everything within the field of view is displayed, though on some hardware, some of the individual elements may be difficult to pick out.

#### Fine level

Going from one-fourth of default up to about one-eighth of default. In this range, fleets are only shown as stylized arrows, operations are directly selectable.

* Fine detail, resource level zoom
* Fine detail, resource level zoom, resource display off
* Coarse detail, resource level zoom
* Coarse detail, resource level zoom, resource view off
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#### Resource-level

Going from one eighth of default up to about one twenty-fourth of default. In this range, there is a mode selector in the upper-right corner. In addition, there are two levels of detail, depending on how far out you are zoomed.

* When the mode selector is not checked, a normal expanse view, but with fewer details is displayed.
* When the selector **is** checked, a 10Gm square grid is superimposed on the display and the availability of resources is indicated with green shading in the individual squares of the grid - the darker the green, the more total resources, but not number of nodes or their status. A single level 6 node will give the square the brightest available color, and the color does not change, even if some or all of the nodes are depleted.
* On Trojite servers, the grid view will show areas where trojite is available using red squares, rather than green. Again, color does not indicate the number of nodes or their status.
* At the fine resource level, fleets and operational circles for non-union players are still shown.
* At the course resource level, only the movement trail for fleets are shown, and operation circles of non-union players are hidden.

#### Medium level

Going from about one twenty-fourth up to about one thirty-sixth of default. In this range, the player's own operational circles and fleet traces are show. City boxes and docking points are visible. Non-player bases are shown.

* Coarse level zoom
* Coarse level zoom, further out
* Coarse level zoom, farthest out
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#### Coarse level

In this range, union bases are shown as tiny blue squares, player operations and structures are shown as tiny white squares or circles. Cities are named dots. No non-union bases, fleets, structures or operations are shown. As the player continues to zoom out, even their operations and buildings become too small to see. The player base and union bases are still indicated.

#### Max zoom

At the farthest zoom out, the player can see a large section of the system and the user interface elements change.

## Selections and Actions

At the **Operation Level** of zoom, anything in the expanse can be selected to get detailed information or to perform an action, with the exception of Operations (which are the only thing that can be selected at **Fine Level**).

Clicking on something/somewhere will give a command and information popup. The available commands and information vary depending on what, exactly, was clicked on. Generally, the popup contains three parts: the graphic box on the left side, the information box on the right side with buttons for more details, and the command bar at the bottom.

The information box may contain one or more information icons including:

* The structure is docked to a Resource node or docking point
* The structure or fleet is in a Scattered Asteroid Belt which cannot be entered by Cruiser and larger ships
* NPC cities and structures under attack will respawn their defenses if the attackers do not complete the attack within one hour. A respawn timer will be visible to indicate when that will occur
* Player structures under construction will have this icon and timer to indicate progress and time until completion
* Player fleets engaged in mining operations will have this icon and timer to indicate progress and time until completion of the current activity, which may be a) moving to the node, b) returning to the dropoff point, or c) mining until the available storage is full.
* **Distributed Collection** - resource nodes located inside an Advanced Mining Platform will be marked with this icon to indicate that resources collected from the node will be delivered to the mining platform

### Bases

Bases fall into three basic categories: the player's own base, bases of other players in the same union, and bases of players in other unions or no union. The information displayed and available commands vary.

    The base image visible in the graphic box part of the popup can indicate, to some extent, the status and development level of the base. Inactive bases are the most obvious, but by looking at the port protrusions, it is possible to estimate a rough development level. Or you can look at the Player information popup which will show the current Prosperity.

#### Player Base

The graphic box shows the base image, the current number of hit points, the X/Y location, and the distance to the player's base (which will always be 0). If there is a pending "Quest" then a large exclamation point will appear to the left of the base image.

The information box shows the base name (which will be the same as the player's in-game nickname) and player symbol, the number of ships docked, the player in-game nickname, and union (if they are in one). The detailed information buttons are shown below. The "Share" button and the "Marker" button are available on pretty much any "fixed" object such as structures, bases, cities, and resource nodes.

* If there are ships docked at the base, hitting this button will show the counts by class in the information box
* Will bring up the Personal Profile/Services & Settings popup
* Will bring up the Share popup, allows the player to share the location of their base
* Will bring up the Marker popup, allowing the player to put a personal (or union, if they are an officer or leader) marker on the base

The command bar contains:

* Will bring up the Quest popup, allowing the player to view, accept, or discard quests
* Will start the Guard command sequence, allowing the player to dispatch a fleet to guard their base ( available for any of the player's structures, structures of other union members, union occupied cities, and resource nodes)
* Will switch to the Base View

#### Union Player Base

Similar to the player base. The graphic box shows the base image, percentage of hit point rather than the number, the location, and the distance/direction to the nearest player structure.

The information box shows the base name (same as in-game nickname) and player symbol, the player in-game nickname, and union (same as the player's). The detailed information boxes are similar (and obviously do not include the fleet details).

* Will bring up a Player information popup
* Will bring up the Share popup, allows the player to share the location of the base
* Will bring up the Marker popup, allowing the player to put a personal (or union, if they are an officer or leader) marker on the base

The command bar contains:

* Will start the Transfer command sequence, allowing the player to transfer a fleet to this base. Transfers can be made to any player or union player structure, making that structure the fleet's temporary base, which affects Retreat commands and Rally commands
* Will start the Guard command sequence to dispatch a fleet to guard this base

#### Non-union Player Base

Similar to union player base, but with different commands. The graphic box shows the base image, percentage of hit points, the location, and the distance/direction to the nearest player structure.

The information box shows the base name (same as in-game nickname) and player symbol, the player in-game nickname, and union (if they are in one).

* Will bring up a Player information popup
* Will bring up the Share popup, allows the player to share the location of the base
* Will bring up the Marker popup, allowing the player to put a personal (or union, if they are an officer or leader) marker on the base

The command bar contains:

* Will start the Rally command sequence, allowing the player to create a rally of union players to attack the base
* Will start the Attack command sequence, allowing the player's fleets to attack the base

### Fleets

Like bases, fleets fall into three basic categories: the player's own base, bases of other players in the same union, and bases of players in other unions or no union. The information displayed and available commands vary.

There is a correlation between the fleet size and how it is displayed.

#### Player Fleet

The graphic box contains the fleet graphic that roughly shows the fleet size, and will contain a utility ship graphic if one is present. The distance and direction to the nearest player structure, hit points, and position will also be displayed.

The information box will contain the fleet name and player symbol, number of ships, player in-game nickname, and union.

* Will display the counts, by class, for the fleet in the information box
* Will display the storage capacity and contents for the fleet in the information box
* Will bring up the Personal Profile/Services & Settings popup
* Allows the player to post a reinforcement request in their union chag

The command bar may contain:

* If the fleet contains utility ships and is mining, this will halt the mining activity
* Begins the Reinforce command sequence, allowing the player to reinforce this fleet (max reinforcement count is shown, usually 5 ships)
* Allows the player to retreat this fleet back to it's "base" - the last union structure that it was **transfered** to (usually the player's base)
* Brings up the detailed fleet view

#### Union Fleet

The graphic box contains the fleet graphic that roughly equates to fleet size. There is also a distance and direction to the nearest player structure and the current position.

The information box contains the fleet name and player symbol, the player in-game nickname, and current union (if any).

* Will bring up a Player information popup

* Begins the Reinforce command sequence, allowing the player to reinforce this fleet (max reinforcement count is shown, usually 5 ships)