Anybody read the latest devBlog?
Alright, I’ll admit it’s not the most recent post there – I only have myself to blame for the delays, and to all my readers I apologize for it. Nevertheless, if you have read this devBlog, then you’ve seen the concept art, you’ve read the information about the ships… and that alone should prove enough to sustain all Eve players’ chatter for about a year.
I, on the other hand, have one comment to make about that last line: FINALLY!!!
I can’t remember how many times I’ve emptied my client’s cache in the last MONTH and had to re-fit my entire tab overview wardrobe with new settings… all over again. Configuration of the Overview has been clunky, at best, ever since it’s been introduced. With the promise of an ”Import/Export Overview Settings” function, this will finally be less of a hassle. It’s my hope that players will start to use it much more and personalize the view settings properly for a more… let’s say mature… game play experience.
I’d like to go back to a post put up by Mule from the “A Mule In Eve” blog, and try to revisit his explanation of the Overview Setup. Many have read his post before; so please understand that while I know I’m essentially repeating what he already said, I just wanna try and make it clearer, and bring it back into the spotlight of the current events.
Overview Setup
The Overview window
To start, here’s an explanation of how things work: If you look at the Overview screen when you begin, you have one tab only and it is filled with pre-arranged selections. There’s a way to setup the Tabs, and a way to setup each Tab’s Preset. You can have up to 5 tabs displayed in the Overview at the same time (only one at a time, though, please) but there’s no limit to the number of presets you can have. For each Tab you choose to have in the Overview, you must determine which Preset will be associated to it – both for the Types and States.
So that means, “In this situation, I want to see this type of item in my Overview, but it must be in this state for it to show up“.
Here’s how you set it up. Start by opening the Overview Settings (the small arrow, upper-left corner of you Overview window).
Open the Overview Settings.
Tabs
The "Overview Tab" tab
In the Overview Tabs tab, you will find 5 rows and 3 columns. The first column you must name yourself: this is the name you want to give to each Tab. I named mine like so (but please feel free to name yours as you wish):
- PvE
- PvP
- Mining
- PODSAFE
- SHOWALL
I admit this is much like Mule’s setup. It’s also a very generalized name scheme, and should work for most of you.
In the second column you’ll have to choose which Preset you want to associate to it; this means you’ll need to setup each Preset with a Filter Type and a Filter State (explained further).
The third column determines the Bracket filtering – Bracket filtering is another thing entirely, which I find has been poorly explained in previous blogs, so I will attempt to demystify it and make it clear for all of you. More on that later; for now, just know that you must choose a Bracket filtering preset for each Tab.
Presets
OK, here’s the long part.
I say this because up ’til now, the Eve client has been devoid of a permanent Save option, which means that every time you empty your cache, you lose the presets, which sucks big-time. In the upcoming Apocrypha expansion, this will be fixed, as we will be blessed with 2 new functions: Import Overview Settings and Export Overview Settings. Check this blog for more on that as the info becomes available.
Filters
Filter by Types of objects
Go to the Filter sub-tab. From here, you’ll find a scrollable/expandable menu that shows every single type of object you can see in space. Simply put a checkmark besides those you wish to see in each Tab. For example, in my Mining Tab, I will want to see Asteroids, Asteroid Belts, Drones, Pirates, jetcans, and for different types of mining I want to see Ice debris, Harvestable Gas Clouds… and maybe my mining pals. So I add a check to each of these. Every other item can be de-selected (easily done by right-clicking the main item category and choosing de-select all).
You need to repeat this for each situation. For example, in PvE, I’ll want almost everything to show up, except for actual Planets, Moons, Asteroid belts, asteroids… but everything else I will probably need. In PODSAFE, I show only Planets and Stargates. And so on.
So start with one Preset. Choose all your Filtering Types options. Then we move on to States.
States
Filtering by status
Go to the State sub-tab. States are, essentially, the possible conditions in which you find each object. This has more to do with standing and allegiance than anything else. Some people like to take out certain states, leaving most of them there. Mule takes out anything “positive”, such as high standing, neutral standing, good standing, in your corp, in your fleet, in your alliance, etc. Because there are really a lot glitches and confusion with this, I leave everything checked. This way, if I’m mining, I’ll be able to see my pals, their cans, and I’ll be able to use my Remote Repair modules/drones on them if need be. And when I switch bracket filtering (right-click the Overview menu and choose Apply Bracket Filtering), I can take out all of these, leaving only pirates, rats, and the asteroids I’m mining, in such a way as to avoid erroneous targeting.
Anyone playing a support role will be greatly helped by this, but I guess you have to know how this works before it can be effective. I will only mention what Mule mentioned before me: if you play around with this section, weird things will happen – unless you know what you’re doing.
Appearance, Ships & Columns
You can setup your appearance to have a certain background color...
... by ColorTag (which we see less)...
... and by what electronic warfare module your opponent uses (essential!).
This is mostly for setting up the looks of things. The Appearance tab lets you set up colors, background colors, color icons to identify the states properly and rapidly. Set it up to be representative.
Display the ships' names and other useful info.
The ships tab is there to help you identify each ship on screen. For each ship in the screen, you’ll see an icon on top of it, the ship’s name, and its distance. You can configure this further to include the corp to which it belongs, its alliance, adn other id points. Note that beside each of the id points are some kind of bracket – you can click on these to change them and add text. Here’s how I’ve setup mine:
+ Name - type ( Corp ticker [Alliance ticker]) distance
This will give you a result such as:
+ Senpai – Velator (QCLL [QCCA]) 3,095m
Also be aware that you can move these IDs up and down the list. very practical to know who you’re fighting with, and if they have a BIG gang waiting for you in their cloaks.
The Columns tab
The columns tab is to see what information you will be getting from the Overview window. This is heavily related to how much screen real estate you can spare. In my case, I have a 4:3 laptop screen, and a 16:9 desktop monitor. In each case, you have either more or less space on screen to display info; so choose wisely. I’ve setup my columns to have Icons, Distance, Name, Type, and Velocity. If you must take one out, choose the type – I can somwhat recognize if the ship is small, medium, or large just by looking at the icon. But I suggest you keep all 5, in every circumstance.
A quick note on this and the EWAR setting: If you put a checkmark in the Appearance – Ewar setting, your Overview will display an icon of the type of module affecting your ship; this will always be layered on top and to the right of the overview, even if you have 1 column or 9 columns. Very useful!
Overview Tabs
This is where it all comes together. Once you have setup all your Filtering options by Type and State, all your Appearance options as well, then you can setup your Overview to have all 5 tabs of your choice, each with its own Filter (or Type) and its own Bracket (or State). During gameplay, you can quickly click on one tab when you change jobs, such as going from PvE missioning to a corp Mining op. There is also further filtering, which is to turn on or off each tab’s Bracket filter.
Brackets
For each Tab you select in your Overview window, you can choose to enable/disable further filtering, this time by State. It’s a quick way to take your friends/corpmates/those-who-don’t-deserve-to-get-shot-at out of the Overview quickly. Simply go to the top-left arrow, right-click and select Apply Bracket Filtering. Only the items you’ve checked in the State sub-tab will appear — the rest will vanish from the Overview. (If you know what you’re doing, this can be a very powerful feature in the Overview tab.)
When you "Apply bracket filtering", you automatically take out everything that is left unchecked in the State sub-tab filter.
When you click "Show All Brackets", you disable any "state" sub-tab filtering, thus showing you everyone in the vicinity in your Overview.
Practical applications of the Overview
As you can clearly see, the practical uses for these are enormous. You can avoid having too much clutter in your Overview if you set everything just right. I use the PvE tab view most of the time, unless I am travelling to other systems in a shuttle – then I use the PODSAFE tab view. Or, when I mine (which is pretty rare, but for some is quite often), I switch to Mining. It’s a good idea to also setup bracket filtering properly so that when you’re mining (for example) you can avoid shooting your mining buddies by switching on the bracket filter and eliminating them from Overview, leaving only NPC rats, PC pirates and enemy drones in the window. Your reaction time will then be quicker, and your aim will not need to be as sharp when nervously scanning the window with your eyes looking for enemy ships. Even better – with less in the screen, you won’t have to scroll down to find the bad guys.
Many Thanks
I have to thank Mule for his original post. He helped me understand the whole concept better, and some of his screenshots are actually used here – without direct permission. I just hope he finds my explanation a little more in-depth, a little clearer.
And thanks to all who read this. Please feel absolutely free to post your comments and modification suggestions; I always love to read them, and I will add anything you feel is missing or correct anything not explained properly.
