So I have played / used this game since nearly the beginning. I was and still am critical of its developmental stages, but I have always suggested changes with that criticism. I have never simply posted hater troll BS. I'm an old man who worked for 30 yrs in the Aerospace Industry in Military, Government (not the same thing BTW), Commercial and Private sectors. My main roll was that of Comm / Nav, and Guidance. Off skills to venture into Fuels, and Engine support systems. The game's cockpit and CV displays are really really poor. So much could be done with easy code to improve these. In space there is no Compass...no up, no down... why do I have a ground based compass and HSI (Horizontal Situations Indicator) in space? At best I should have a GSI, Gravitational Situation Indicator, but that is a complicated instrument which would be a Helms display and not Captains display. My suggestion is to remove the HSI and Compass along with that square grid thing you have in the upper right corner and replace them with two different Square grids. The top Grid will be a "look down" of the ship with the top always being the forward, and a second grid below that one showing a side facing of the ship with top always showing what is above. With these two grids you now have a proper 3D representation of your area around the ship. I can see an object is in front or to any side, and look on the lower grid display to see where that objects relation is to your up or down forward or rear. All objects will have a different color / designation. Primary colors used to discern Factions would not be used, but RED would always for aggressive / threats. The two Grids would be scalable to range in sync with each other. Advanced scaling would be to allow separate scaling to give a "look down" grid of maximum scanner range, and a "side view" showing maximum weapons range. An advanced player would know just because they can see an object in front of them, that object would not be displayed on the "side view" grid until it was within weapons range. In Atmosphere the HSI and Compass are great. The "map" is not. An aircraft doesn't need a display that shows targets without displaying those targets Elevation. Again the display on the "map" should be broken down into two displays. The "map like" one showing an objects location with your ship in the center, but a second "map" display showing that objects elevation over the ground. The Lower display of the elevation should include a ground contour. Advanced coding would hide any object the ground would mask from your sensors... but that's a bit more than just fixing the display issues. On ground both vehicle and on foot, the displays look good to me. I wouldn't change them at all..maybe limit the identification of objects based on technology ... ie a simple scanner uses RADAR type positioning, where things behind mountains cant be seen, and advanced scanners that utilize EMF/GMF which only certain ores / advanced stealth tech would shield these objects. Personal Status Upkeep. Do you know in 1985 The US Navy Seals had access to and used Re-breathing devices allowing them to stay underwater for over 16 hours. That tech is now so advance (in 2020) a re-breather can provide over 48hours of air... Come on guys... is air really that difficult for a person who has a replication device as common carried tech? The air requirement is kinda dumb. While I can see a "suit"requiring a fuel source...air would be the least hardest thing to produce. A 12oz bottle of water would yield DAYS of air...DAYS. Food and Health is another thing that needs adjusting... Eating Nutrients should ALWAYS increase health if there is no underlining reason for health to be lowered.
I agree with you general assessment of cockpit views. And yes, the map/radar thingmabob in the corner is piss-poor at best. I would love to see examples of what you propose. My one question is: Why, if you've been playing since "nearly the beginning" (3 or 4 years), did it take so long to come on board? Apparently, you joined today. Not a criticism, merely curiosity. It took me 6 months to join the forum/community.
I'm a lurker not a speaker. I dont offer advise until I have an understanding of direction. While suggestions can be helpful, they also can be ignorant. The Game Devs do what they want. I was hoping they would step up and offer a "blueprint" of their direction and ask for suggestions on specifics. My greatest beef with the game is the lack of common sense when it comes to Bio-science. The Games difficulty level is adjusted by altering the Bio-science to a level that is absurd, both environmentally and player. They put so much effort into making the tech and physical environment "science" look so cool, they ignore the "science" of life. Eating every few minutes to stay alive? Animal life all around but no edible plant life around? I have a device which reconstitutes matter, but I cant make a edible food from it? Have you ever watched "Naked and Afraid"? How long can a person live without eating? How little food does a person need to stay alive? Basically I want the Devs to make their game and I will decide if its a game I want to play. As for me & Myself, I would make a different game..and I am not them.
This sounds like the kinds of things that would irk a scientist, not a gamer. I mean no disrespect I completely understand. I for one tend to stay away from military themed shooters for similar reasons but that kind of realism is not a lot of fun imo.
I appreciate the sample. Thank you. To the best of my knowledge, unless something changed recently, there has always been edible, indigenous plants. Corndogs (look like cattails ), berries, oranges, alien honey. Some were food, some were medicinal like Aloe Vera. To your point, though, I was always annoyed that they made the honey perishable when, in fact (which I pointed out to them) it is not. I agree there is a great deal of incongruity in the game and they don't always put the same priority that I do on what to fix, i.e. the CROSS-HAIRS. Or why are the Gatling guns using the same ammo as the minigun turrets when the Gatling barrels have twice the bore diameter? Still, I do not want an overabundance of realism since galactic survival, in itself, is fantasy. I've watched N & A. If they don't show tits, what's the point? Survivor Man was far more informative and useful. S
A good instrument to replace alt and compass in space is a 3d vector indicator - if t would illustrate you movement vector (drift) relative to your forward direction. One of the hud scripts I used to use in space engineers did this and it was actually quite handy especially with auto thrust off. The script was an artificial horizon within atmosphere and switch to 3d vector mode when you get to space.
Situational awareness is my biggest beef with this game, I never know who's shooting me or where the baddies are... I would also love some sort of Lock Target function and while we are at it, some camera blocks that I can place strategically around my ships/bases and can cycle through them... CCTV-like. Should be as easy as extending the drone tech...
Amen! Funny you mention cameras. I was just thinking if I could place a remote camera near aft section of my Eagle, it would greatly improve docking with the various pods providing an alternate view to line op the rear of the pod. And again, I agree completely with your post.
Same here, all my large ships have docking ports to dock with stations... It's really hard with just the external camera!
I love your space station! It's classic! I can't tell from the pics, are your docking port walk-thru or just connections? In any case, I think they're great.
This really is one of those perennial issues with space games. You have to convey information about objects in three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional plane in such a way that a laymen can immediately understand and utilize it in an emergency. This is a nontrivial challenge. I can accept that the plane of reference for a given planetary system is something to be taken for granted in a video game. In-setting, an experienced spacefaring civilization would certainly have rules for determining such things systematically to make newly discovered stars and exoplanets navigable. Perhaps "north" in an orbital playfield is always towards the star, and towards the galactic center for the system as a whole. The survival stuff is pure game, though. None of it bears any resemblance to how real metabolism or chemistry works. It's really just there so you have to perform certain tasks, which in turn are there to push you into building better ways to doing them. I wish the compass was visible when using turrets, though. It's really hard to indirectly aim artillery when you can't determine azimuth.
Thank you! I have a couple of these giant space station (and a couple of ships), they were meant for a scenario I thought about building but never did because of the lack of Autopilot/ability to send the character to other places. In asnwer to your question: both! They're meant as "walk-thru" access points for ships that are too big to "land" on a station and also connections.
Only once, and the idiot they had on there drank water from a stream and had to be rushed to the hospital. 3,3,3,3 3 Minutes without Air 3 Hours without Shelter 3 Days without Water 3 Weeks without Food
@Bollen and I have basically been saying that same thing. I don't know if it could work this way, but how about this: 1. Press 'V' to go to 3rd pers. view. 2. Press again to go to Camera. This opens a window like the Control Panel but with a viewscreen, say 10 custom switches to name and select cameras and activate the keypad (similar to the motion sensor) to control zoom, pan and light. The camera view should have a VISIBLE cross-hair as I see one of its purposes to be for precision landing and docking. 3. Press 'V' again to return to 1st person view. Just an idea. I really like to have, and hope we can get, some kind of alternate viewing system.
Lets just say science... Why would a heavy armor make you burn energy faster? (Cause i may believe that it would consume more power to move with the actuators but food? ) There are some horrific misconceptions in the game in an electrical engineering perspective too... Well it is a sci-fi game with a little bit more grain of fiction! To everyone else: When we mention misconceptions etc from the science or the engineering side. We do not want the game to be hyper realistic. Just to be a little bit more accurate according to the knowlege of humanity.
Yes, yes, yes! I love it... But ideally we would have a camera block that we would have to place in the strategic points where we want these views to toggle through...
Exactly! 10 switches for up to 10 cameras (or some such number). In addition to a new CP tab for the cameras, a small window could appear in the upper left corner of the screen when cameras are activated showing the view of the selected camera while still viewing ahead....maybe?
