I'm glad I got your attention.

The ferry icon should never have shipped with a retail game. And not replacing this asset to the recent patch makes no sense. I will make a big red X right now in Photoshop in 2 minutes for free. It would be a huge improvement.

I for the life of me, don't understand why the blinking beacon was removed from beta to be replaced by someones sadistic fascination for torture.

Yesterday I had two ferry routes and I can usually follow the purple line to the X (takes ten seconds to find the point). I was trying to enjoy the compelling side game in SupCom but...now with the latest patch the purple line itself is nigh invisible and their is no visible purple for other routes except for the first ferry route.

We often have to redo routes when transports are destroyed, and reassigning troops and factories to the new ferry points.
Please put me out of my misery. Somebody, anybody.

Now let's play this compelling side game called "ferry icon hide and seek". It's a combination of 'hide and seek' and 'wack a mole' to try and find/click on the hiding ferry icon:

These are real scale pictures from the game, I just cropped them so they aren't large size.

Can't you see it you blind man:


What? Still can't see it?


Well maybe fully zoomed in, scouring the countryside (which I have done too many times).


Oh silly me, there it was all along.

I LOVE HIDE AND SEEK MINI GAME! I R BESTEST AT IT EVAR!

I totally agree, they really should decrease the transparency of the ferry line thingies. I can't think of any possible downside, if the lines were 80% opaque instead of... hm.. 10% like it is now (or maybe even less).

Honestly I think it should be a brighter purple color, maybe pulsating with strobes and what not...

Please give me a big purple pulsating.....beacon

So you purple lovers didn't vote for choice 2 huh? In the closet about your Purple Rain love huh? LOL

But seriously, they used to have a red beacon that was dropped and blinked. It was very visible and wasn't just an icon but an object. A little shimmering light/color effect to make the icon visible on different terrain would be much appreciated.

The manual calls it a Ferry Beacon right?
I don't see it beaconing...

The tutorial video still shows a slightly different colored , more solid looking device getting dropped out instead of the transparent purple marking...a wee bit confusing the first time...

I woulda been able to see it in the first shot if the transport's shadow hadn't been covering it!

Anyway, they seriously need to change that...o.O

you need to adjust the brightness on your monitor, I can see it on that first pic while it's even scaled down.

Only just dude, and even then only cause I know where to look because of the zoomed in one.

Its hella hard finding that in snow, or even seeing shield domes.

I dont want my monitor brightness turned up that high I havto wear sunshades just to use me bloody comp

It's amazing to me that their is always a skeptic or someone that has to go against the grain on what I consider even the most obvious of things. Funny world.

On an LCD with a 1000:1 contrast at 400 nits, it may look visible, if you really have to play devils advocate. Sorry but if you can't see this thing doesn't belong in the game, I really can't value your opinion, normally I would but this is just too logically obvious to me.

But hopefully GPG realizes that their are alot of CRT users still out here.
Many gamers have realized that CRT's have been far far better than LCD's in image quality for many years and only recently are getting decent comparatively with 8 bit IPS panels. But that's another subject.

BTW, the shots are not scaled down at all, pixel precise actual identical shots, just cropped as I said.

I do but not everyone has perfect vision either, hell ya need a screen magnifier, full zoom and predator vision to see that thing in snow.

LCD yes, all on default, this should be EASIER to spot on a CRT since it is more capable of setting out different colors.

The fact that so few people have this "problem" means that it is not a problem just a wrong setting on the players side.

I had played the beta for a bit and then all of a sudden the ferry icon seems to have "disappeared". Then I zoom in and see this faded purple thingy.

It is not the easiest thing to see. If enemy units were as difficult to target as that ferry beacon you'd attack-move everywhere to get anything targeted.

So now you are the majority? Your the only one without the "problem"!

BTW, I I used a configuration program to adjust my blacks/whites gamma/contrast, so I dunno what it is that you speak.

I conced it will look different on LCD's but CRT's are different.

Anyway, glad to hear it is ok for you. I'm sorry if changing it to a more visible icon would detract from your gameplay experience.

I watched the tutorial on how to use this ferry mode but I still can't get it to work like the tutorial said. I put down that ferry beacon with F and move troops to it. They load onto the transport but then the transport just drops them again. I am not quite sure how to make it continually go to the position where I need it to unload. Can someone give me a quick pointer because it's driving me nuts.

And oh yeah, I was looking all over for a little beacon nubbin but I couldn't find one. I thought it was just completely broken until I zoomed all the way in to the terrain and saw that barely visible purple X. Please, save my eyes and increase the transparency, make it a different color, or give me a nubbin like in the tutorial.

How about the transport drops a little black beacon (or something simlar and apropriate for each side) with a pulsing light on the top? This could be a permement fixture on the map until it was destroyed and would also solve the problem of a ferry route being lost when the origingal transport is lost.

@Darkheron:

Revisit the Advanced tutorial on the subject (from the game's start-up menu); it's very clear.

To summarize, with transport sitting on the ground where you want the loading point to be, click on the Ferry icon (or hit 'F'), and then left-click on the ground where you want the destination point to be.

A very faint purple X will show on the ground (underneath or near the transport), and so to ferry something, just select your units (or even a factory), and then right-click on that purple X.

Doh! thanks. I think I was so busy looking for the blinking marker that I let that part get by me hehe.

Fixed. I have not talked to *one* person (not counting you) who have said "why, I think the ferry icon is fine and can locate it at any zoom level".

I'm on a CRT monitor and my contrast is just fine (heck, some people are saying I need to turn down my contrast or gamma).
My vision is fine. I'm in my mid 20's and have never needed glasses.
There is no reflection in my screen, I often play with dim lights as well.

Yet there is just *no* chance of finding that ferry icon within 10-20 seconds at a medium zoom level. It's unneccesarily hard to find. It could be way brighter/animated without looking "ugly" or "distracting".

I just hold shift when I send troops to their death, err I mean ferry beacon.

I just zoom in to find it the first time, then build a wall section near it.

Yeah I still have't figuired out how to use that ferry system properly.

I don't mind the icon persay, but it should show up more when you are holding shift. Just making it glow would be fine with me, right now it seems to be too easily eclipsed by everything else out there, and I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who loses it.

Figured I'd chime in with my 2 cents.

I can see the icon in the first picture, but only if I crouch down slightly so that my eyes are level with the position of the marker. I'm using an LCD screen and anyone who's ever used one should know that if you position yourself lower than the screen, the top of the screen appears to get darker etc. So moving my head down has the effect of adjusting the contrast really.

That said, it's damn hard to see the icon on snow. Though when I've used the ferry function on grassland, I've had no problems seeing it. This should be an easy fix involving a color change.