[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]I always thought the tactical overly feature in Homeworld was an excellent way of getting a good overview of where ships are located and their types.

Would it be hard to implement such a thing in FS? It would allow you to quickly identify objective craft, get a better picture of your surroundings etc. etc.
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[Galemp]

You mean, essentially draw a target box with target info next to it on every ship on the screen?

[mikhael]

That's pretty much what I meant when I asked for the Virtual HUD in the other thread, Galemp.

[Prophet]

I think Maeglamor means the "sensors" view. A kind of a map that would give you a view of the battlefield. X-Wing Alliance had something like that.

[CaptJosh]

I think in this case it would be a radar map of the area, only on the main part of the screen, with indicators on the radar map of what's there. Really, that's not useful for a fighter pilot. Tactical maps of the whole battlefield are something that C & C(Command and Control) needs, not a pilot. It's not something the pilot generally has time to take advantage of. When he or she might, there's nothing to see, usually. e. g., between waves of an attack.

[Flaser]

Originally posted by CaptJosh
I think in this case it would be a radar map of the area, only on the main part of the screen, with indicators on the radar map of what's there. Really, that's not useful for a fighter pilot. Tactical maps of the whole battlefield are something that C & C(Command and Control) needs, not a pilot. It's not something the pilot generally has time to take advantage of. When he or she might, there's nothing to see, usually. e. g., between waves of an attack.

IMHO that's not quite true.

In the Homeworld series tactical overview was active even in combat view, not just the sensor manager.

Basicly it used different targeting boxes for different classes of craft.
Strikecraft were identified by a triangle, corvettes by a square, frigates by a rombus, capital ships by a convex 'pointy' hexagon...
...and so on and so.

An important aspect is that it showed all craft even beyond visual (but within sensor range).

It makes it easy to grasp squad and strike group level movements and you can quickly pick the point where you can make the real difference.

[Galemp]

That level of detail isn't something Alpha One can take advantage of, though. There's a world of difference between being in charge of the battlefield and fleet movements, and just ordering your squadmates to 'disarm my target.'

[CaptJosh]

Precisely. It would add to system overhead from the game without producing any noticeable advantage. This is a shooter, essentially, not a strategy game. If you'd like to play a Freespace strategy game, may I suggest the Freespace mod for Homeworld 2?

[aldo_14]

I don't think Maeg want's to use it for tactics, though, just to see where everything is.

[CaptJosh]

Well...Hmm...I wouldn't mind some different shaped...say...blue?...indicators on screen for what's in front of me. It would help prioritize targets better. I'd never be wondering, "Now where the hell did those bombers get to?"

[Mongoose]

Originally posted by CaptJosh
Well...Hmm...I wouldn't mind some different shaped...say...blue?...indicators on screen for what's in front of me. It would help prioritize targets better. I'd never be wondering, "Now where the hell did those bombers get to?"

If you press B, you can find them pretty quickly.

[CaptJosh]

Only if they've already launched bombs. in a number of missions, they jump in too far out. Your tactic wouldn't work then.

[karajorma]

Bollocks. B targets bombers if there are no enemy bombs currently in flight.

[Prophet]

If there are no bombs "B" will target bombers...

The tactical view would be very useful for quickly checking the overall tactical situation. And for seeing where everyone is at the beginning of mission...
Or seeing what happens behind the Sathanas.
Or checking how near the stupid transport is from the jump point
Or checking the bearing and distance of the Shivan bombers closing in the said transport.
Etc...

[Kazan]

yep B targets bombs then bombers

it's bound to one of my left hand tumb buttons on my X45 i use it constantly

[CaptJosh]

Hrm...Odd. You'd think I'd have noticed that. Maybe it's because I just use my target next enemy button on my joystick so much that I locate the bombers pretty quickly. That and I do pay attention to my radar and listen for the "A wing of Shivan bombers just jumped in. Keep them away from the..." message. Maybe I should map my hat switch to some other things. I never use it for POV switching, and it'd be useful to have at least 4 other things I could do without needing to reach for my keyboard...

[WMCoolmon]

It'd be prodigial child's play to display a geometric icon over the ship with the IFF color. Just add the code in wherever my hud-target-info stuff is. The 2D bounding area is already calculated then.

[StratComm]

To the dozen or so "B targets bombers" responses, that's actually one of the only user interface changes made from one game to the next.  It doesn't work like that in FS1.

[karajorma]

Yeah but we were talking about FS2

[Roanoke]

Soon as bombers appear or the default arrival message is shown I start wacking B to "scan" for bombers.


The overlay would really need a toggle option IMHO. Screen would get messy oyherwise.