Substitute Icon for Off-Screen RTS Character Selection
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Solution Overview
Problem
In Real-time Strategy (RTS) games, players face difficulties in quickly issuing instructions to characters located far away on the screen, as they need to switch the screen view and scroll to target the character, which is cumbersome and disrupts the fast-paced nature of the gameplay.
Innovation Solution
A computer-readable storage medium with an information processing program that detects objects outside the visible area, displays substitute icons, calculates pointed positions, and executes operations to allow players to issue commands quickly and intuitively, even if the target character is not on screen, by displaying substitute icons and allowing motion execution based on pointed positions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the player switches the screen view to locate a distant character, then the character can be targeted, but the operation becomes cumbersome and time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a cursor as an intermediary element that can be positioned on the screen to indicate the intended target location. The cursor acts as a mediator between the player's input and the distant character, allowing the player to select characters outside the current view without switching screens. The system detects when the cursor is positioned on or near a character to establish selection, resolving the contradiction by maintaining operational simplicity while achieving accurate character location.
2Loss of information
If the player scrolls the screen to find the target character, then the character becomes visible and can be selected, but the operation time increases and disrupts real-time gameplay
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by allowing the cursor to be positioned and moved across the screen before the actual character selection is finalized. The system prepares the selection state in advance by detecting when the cursor is positioned on a character, allowing the player to quickly select distant characters without the time-consuming process of scrolling through the screen to locate them.
3Ease of operation
If the game screen is switched to display the selected character, then the character is visible for operation, but additional operations are required to issue commands to distant enemies
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the character selection operation with the command issuance operation. Instead of requiring separate actions for selecting a character and then issuing commands to them, the system combines these functions so that positioning the cursor on a character and confirming the selection directly establishes the target for subsequent commands. This reduces the number of operation steps while maintaining ease of character selection.
Data Source
AI summary
An instruction target object which is located outside a predetermined area of a virtual space is detected at an interval of the unit time, and a substitute icon associated with the instruction target object is displayed in a screen. Next, after it is detected that a first operation has been performed on the substitute icon from the operation data, it is detected that a second operation has also been performed. Based on the pointed position in the screen when the second operation was detected, the instruction target object associated with the substitute icon processed by the first operation is caused to perform a predetermined motion.