Map color key

[Rmack]

Is there anyplace that gives an explanation of the various colors that appear when you manipulate vectors in map mode?

[Geschosskopf]

2 hours ago, Rmack said:

Is there anyplace that gives an explanation of the various colors that appear when you manipulate vectors in map mode?

Solid blue is your path within your current SOI.

Yellowish-orange is your future path in the next stage of your journey.  If dotted, it's showing what your path will be after a maneuver node within your current SOI.  If solid, it shows your projected future path in the nest SOI you enter.

Purple is the 3rd future segment of your path.  This is usually seen on the far side of the next SOI you will enter.  If solid, it's if you do no maneuvers before exiting the next SOI.  If dotted, it's what will happen after you do a burn at some point before leaving the next SOI that's insufficient to capture there.

Those 3 are all you get unless you up your number of patched conics in settings.cfg.  If you do, you can see green, red, and other colors.  Which is only useful if you're planning a Voyager-style multi-fly-by mission, so I don't recommend doing that.

[Plusck]

2 hours ago, Geschosskopf said:

Those 3 are all you get unless you up your number of patched conics in settings.cfg.  If you do, you can see green, red, and other colors.  Which is only useful if you're planning a Voyager-style multi-fly-by mission, so I don't recommend doing that.

Even with the default patched conics limit, if you add a maneuvre node in the next SOI, you'll get the next colour dotted line, on which you can add a node and get the next colour in the next SOI, and so on and so forth.

[Geschosskopf]

I should also add a tip about the way the lines are drawn now in 1.1.x....  This can be changed in the Settings menu off the Main Menu (not the in-game ESC-Settings option).

It used to be that orbit lines were of uniform thickness and brightness throughout, so it was hard to tell which way something was going without warping a bit and observing motion.

In 1.1, this got changed so that the line immediately ahead of a ship or planet is very thin and dim, and gets progressively wider and brighter with distance.  For objects in closed orbits, it's brightest and widest immediately "behind" the object so it looks like the object is streaming a comet tail. (NOTE:  Actually, this isn't really "behind" the object, it's a full orbit AHEAD of it, but the effect is still to make it look like a wake).  Thus, you can tell at a glance which way something is moving.

UNFORTUNATELY, in the vast majority of cases, you want to place a maneuver node in the near future, or land on a planet in the near future, and your near-future path is the narrowest and dimmest part, almost being invisible against the background of a planet.  However, you can fix this.

In Main Menu / Settings, there's a check box that allows you to reverse the fade of orbit lines, so the thick, bright part is immediately ahead of your ship.  You can also work a slider to vary the rate of dimming.  I find that 90% gives good overall results.  But then you have to train yourself mentally to think of the bright, thick part of the line as an arrow pointing in the direction you're going, instead of a wake showing where you came from.