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Navigation suggestions |
Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
|  Posted: 2013-07-21 08:37
Here's a list of features which I think may make the navigation view more suited for its role.
None of these suggestions are absolutely critical or urgent, but would be nice to have down the line.
- Add a Worm Hole device (B) to the bottom, next to the FTL device (J).
This will let a player know when the device is ready, and how far it can reach. It's 150k and 300k for WHII and WH, but this is not indicated.
- Perpendicular ladder lines on the navigation line.
This makes it easier to visually gauge distances when there is no object to use as a reference.
- Take ship size into account when checking for course collisions.
Unless I'm gravely mistaken, this could be accomplished by running two parallel lines of collision checking, spaced by the width of a ships armor ring hitbox which gives a bit of extra buffer room compared to the actual and very uneven ship model hitbox.
I'm sure many of you have had those situations where you barely clip a planet mid-jump, very infuriating indeed.
- Shrink ship and planet icons when you zoom out.
The display gets extremely stuffed up and cluttered when you're zoomed out, this could help alleviate that somewhat.
- Display a blue arrow or line showing your ships current direction. Same length as navigation plot.
Part of the issue stated before this one, that when you are zoomed out enough to plot an appropriate long-distance or off-screen path, you can't really see which way you're even facing.
- Change navigation line color to yellow when intersecting with an enemy interdictor field.
Basically this would alert the player if the jump they have plotted will be interrupted by an interdiction field.
- Also change navigation line to yellow when intersecting with a gate, instead of red.
Gates are non-lethal but still interrupt your JD. If the line turns yellow, this will mean it holds a lower priority than a deadly intersect somewhere between you and the gate. Just ask poor Mr. Steven...
- Draw a ring to represent maximum jump or wormhole deployment distance.
At a glance you'll be able to see just how far you can jump with what fuel you have left.
- Personal and group or team synchronized rendezvous points.
The coordinate system in DS is a bit of a mess, and it's hard to communicate a specific spot to your team or group. This would allow you to effectively tell your team where help is needed, where to build something, where the enemy is located, where to regroup at, and possibly several other things. Personal way points would be useful for having a pre-planned point of retreat, or could be used to mark several points of interest, such as marking a platform cluster you overshot or plan to attack later.
-Make all of this optional.
Some of you like your navigation rough and tough... Me? I prefer the sophisticated military grade navigational assists which should be on any high liability futuristic battle dreadnaught! 
If any of you have further suggestions, please add to the list.
Devs... again, this isn't telling you to drop everything and do this, it's just a list of things which would be super helpful if you ever get around to it or find any of these easy to implement!
[ This Message was edited by: Fluttershy on 2013-07-21 15:08 ]
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AdmiralChaos
Chief Marshal
Joined: October 08, 2008
Posts: 274
| Posted: 2013-07-21 09:17
I like and approve of all of the above.
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PokeYourWaffle
Marshal
Joined: October 10, 2010
Posts: 112
| Posted: 2013-07-21 11:11
I like the idea's, but I do believe ship size is already taken into account, because I have to drag my navigation line further away from the planet when I am in a station, compared to when in a dreadnought, very rarely do I hit planets this way, and if I do it's usually down to human error.
[ This Message was edited by: PokeYourWaffle[Helper] on 2013-07-21 11:12 ]
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UnknownCode
Fleet Admiral
Faster than Light
Joined: May 28, 2005
Posts: 3
| Posted: 2013-07-21 13:49
I want one thing and one thing only, group waypoints, where the group leader can set optional waypoints, thats all really.
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Pantheon
Marshal
Palestar
Joined: May 29, 2001
Posts: 1789
| Posted: 2013-07-21 15:05
We don't sort devices, so not doable.
Not doable.
We do take size into account, people don't take turning circle into account when initating a jump.
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Doesn't need to be done, you've brought this up four times now.
No, less collision checking the better.
^
Doesn't need to be done.
You are insane.
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Doran
Chief Marshal
Galactic Navy
Joined: March 29, 2003
Posts: 4032
From: The Gideon Unit
| Posted: 2013-07-21 15:32
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Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
| Posted: 2013-07-21 15:43
Added some form of shared and/or personal way points to the list.
Thanks UnknownCode, totally forgot to add that >_<
[ This Message was edited by: Fluttershy on 2013-07-21 15:45 ]
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Taelon
Marshal
Joined: December 26, 2011
Posts: 255
| Posted: 2013-07-21 18:07
Lets not forget autopilot so we completely dont have to do anything...
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Ravendark
Marshal
Sanity Assassins
Joined: July 01, 2010
Posts: 443
| Posted: 2013-07-21 18:27
he has some good suggetions. but NO is the word... sadly. where's the -7.6 8.6? anyone? no? i lost my keys for my dread...
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Enterprise
Chief Marshal
Joined: May 19, 2002
Posts: 2576
From: Hawthorne, Nevada
| Posted: 2013-07-21 19:36
Bro, do you even Darkspace?
-Ent
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Taelon
Marshal
Joined: December 26, 2011
Posts: 255
| Posted: 2013-07-21 19:42
he plays maybe as much as you do Ent hehe
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Sheraton*XO*
Chief Marshal
Faster than Light
Joined: January 18, 2013
Posts: 482
From: Keel Mountains
| Posted: 2013-07-21 22:29
Also I want a big red easy button! Honestly, I do believe most of these points have been brought up at one point or another and have all been rejected. In the first place, having to keep in mind your surruoundings when plotting a jump or even an emergency jump is one of the fundamental skills needed, in my estimation, to efficiently play darkspace. The game does require a degree of multi-tasking. At any one point when plotting a jump I can be: "keeping in mind which arch of my shields is facing hte last known enemy weapons fire, quickly glancing around to gather where my ship is oriented in relation to the F2 map to plot a jump. Plotting that jump in the next instant, and then hitting F2 and quickly returning to rotate my shields. These are just some of the mental gymnastics that must be processed in a relatively short time in order to efficiently jump away and survive.
Second, I have never really had any problems with dreads crashing into planets or any ship. Most of my crashes are due to human error or to my ship trying to execute the last order it received upon spawning the ship.
Third, I do not think making any of this optional helps the developers with its implementation, if it were even to go ahead, because they would be coding quite a few things into the game with no guarantee that anyone would actually be using them. This seems like time invested for no assured return.
-Sheraton
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*FTL*Soulless
Marshal
Joined: June 25, 2010
Posts: 787
From: Dres-Kona
| Posted: 2013-07-21 23:01
Only thing i remotely like is the group target locator, Would add another element to forming groups.
But that could easily be fixed if we just had some sort of orientation system, cause i could have my map orientated differently from my buddies and just confuse the heck out of them trying to tell them where to go. Heck even when you know the general area it still takes forever to find a cord spot
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Fluttershy
Fleet Admiral
Joined: September 24, 2011
Posts: 778
From: Fluttershy
| Posted: 2013-07-22 05:47
Quote:
On 2013-07-21 23:01, Soulless *CO* wrote:
Only thing i remotely like is the group target locator, Would add another element to forming groups.
But that could easily be fixed if we just had some sort of orientation system, cause i could have my map orientated differently from my buddies and just confuse the heck out of them trying to tell them where to go. Heck even when you know the general area it still takes forever to find a cord spot
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Honestly, just a little compass would be incredibly helpful in making sure you and your allies are all on the same page.
I almost always have the map oriented where the gas giant in kaus is "South", not sure about everyone else.
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Kenny_Naboo
Marshal
Pitch Black
Joined: January 11, 2010
Posts: 3823
From: LobsterTown
| Posted: 2013-07-23 05:11
Actually... there may be some truth in that compass thingy. I find coordinates unusuable ATM because there's basically no indication of orientation to a "galactic North" of sorts in F2.
If only I knew which direction X+/- or Y+/- was in. In that aspect, a compass, or a for real toggleable grid overlay in F2 would help.
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