Why is zoom in CO2 not like zoom everywhere else?

[lollipop guild]

I've seen a lot of discussion about having more zoom levels, but not much, if anything, about why the zoom is in 'levels' at all. What I mean is, if you think of it like your phone, you can pinch and 'zoom' the screen display to any magnification, whereas with CO2 you can only zoom to a very few set 'levels' of zoom. My question is, why can't we have a zoom function that mimics the zoom we're all used to. I only mention smartphones because it's difficult to describe the type of zoom I'm thinking of, so smartphones pinch-zoom function may be the best way to explain what I have in mind.

The reason this came to mind at all is because I was trying to screenshot my game today and with the current limited 'levels' of zoom, I can't get the full map to display in a screenshot at a reasonable size on my laptop's screen. It's either way too small, or too large to fit the whole map in the screenshot. A smartphone style zoom would solve all these problems.

 

[jimcarravallah]

I've seen a lot of discussion about having more zoom levels, but not much, if anything, about why the zoom is in 'levels' at all. What I mean is, if you think of it like your phone, you can pinch and 'zoom' the screen display to any magnification, whereas with CO2 you can only zoom to a very few set 'levels' of zoom. My question is, why can't we have a zoom function that mimics the zoom we're all used to. I only mention smartphones because it's difficult to describe the type of zoom I'm thinking of, so smartphones pinch-zoom function may be the best way to explain what I have in mind.

The reason this came to mind at all is because I was trying to screenshot my game today and with the current limited 'levels' of zoom, I can't get the full map to display in a screenshot at a reasonable size on my laptop's screen. It's either way too small, or too large to fit the whole map in the screenshot. A smartphone style zoom would solve all these problems.

How much game playing function are you willing to sacrifice for a more refined zoom function?

There's a limited amount of programming that can be stored in memory for the real time calculations the game makes as you play. It is cyclically accounting for all of the movement, line of sight, movement, and combat resolution you see as the game runs -- recalculating each bit of information multiple times per second in some instances (such as hit probability and damage). That information is reflected in the graphic display.

The zoom as it is structured now continues to display that information in real time after calculating what is best portrayed on the screen to facilitate game play at that level. Four levels of zoom for that display were the best balance of both realtime game calculation and graphic display for the program language selected to develop the game. Using that same language to change that display convention to an infinite number of zoom levels would drive a need for more graphical programming at the expense of the real time status calculations, possibly turning the feedback to the person conducting combat to a crawl.

Your cell phone can do that because the zoom it offers only deals with a graphical file as opposed to a graphical file which is showing what goes on in the background on the phone.

In this case, there's a lot going on in the background that you can't necessarily "see" but is critical to the smooth operation of the game as it runs.