with the addition of the hud_gauges.tbl i was thinking about an old idea i had for an optional targeting method referd to in
this thread. its a simplified targeting method that should reduce some of the screen clutter involved in target leading. by removing the reticle and the lead indicator and maybe even the targeting box and replace it with a moving gunsight. rather than replacing the reticler on the lead indicator you can place the moving gunsight on the ship. this would have 2 advantages, it keeps your eye on the enemy ship so you can better predict its moves, and it reduces screen clutter. in addition the gunsight could be scaled to indicate the margin of error in the shot (larger size to indicate a less likely shot) taking in account fof, speed, distance and the enemy's manuvering capabilities.
it occured to me that this might be easyer to implement than i thought. for it to work the gunsight would be the same distance from the center of the screen as the lead indicator is from the targeting box, but in reverse (if the lead indicator is to the top right of the targeting box, the moving gunsight would need to be to the lower left of the hud center. it would be used as an alternative and not a replacement and could be specified in the hud_gauges.tbl table. i frankly would rater look at space ships that a lead indicator during a dog fight.
