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HUD

#1
Hi there! There has been little talk about what the HUD might look like. In case Josh hasn't read my comment on the KS page, I'll post it here again:

"Josh, there is another matter I'd like you to think about. You might have seen footage from games like I-War or Independence War 2, where the HUD displays the vector of other ships to clearly show what direction the ships come from and where they are (probably) headed. If you are not familiar with these games, you can find Let's Plays on YouTube for both games.

Anyway, I'd like you to consider a similar system for LT, because it would make assessing the flight vector of incoming ships much easier."

Here is a German Let's Play for I-War (1): http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF597593B112E2FE6

Here is an English Let's Play for Independence War 2: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL14AEF074EF9F488A
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Re: HUD

#2
Something occurred to me while thinking about dropping mines in a fight.

Naturally, I'm looking forward in my fighter.
Knowing what's behind me is important in many cases, though.
While there is probably going to be some sort of ELITE-style RADAR display, that typically only shows relative position and in a terrible resolution. Just a few pixels of vague information.

  • I imagine seeing a wireframe (for a clear distinction to real ships) of my current target while it's behind me.
    The position of this wireframe would be point-mirrored through my own ship's center.
    If I see the wireframe in the top left of my screen, I know at a glance that the real thing is behind me, low and right.
  • An alternative would be to mirror the target's position on a plane that goes across the up/down, left/right axis of my ship.
    It's hard to tell which way "feels" right.
  • Alignment would be the same as the original. Not mirrored.
  • A spin off would be that not only the current target is displayed like that but to have it a toggle to overlay all objects behind me as such.
    Green wireframes for friendlies, red for hostiles. Whatever coloration is used on the regular HUD markers.
    That way it would be more of a rear mirror view. Probably toggle-able.
    Nice for parking backwards into a hangar. =)
  • No idea how this would work with the Field Of View in the game. If I have a small FOV, it may be useful to translate the target's real position anywhere outside my FOV and shrink the wireframe's position into the FOV.
    That would result in a 360° virtual view... while simlpy looking forward.
The original idea was to use it in a dogfight when dropping a mine but it sounds like a useful bonus on the situational awareness front in general.

Could also be useful when flying an attack on a larger ship. When evading fire, I'd always know when I'm flying straight away from it, giving it's gunners a zero deflection shot.

Even more useful for knowing where exactly a missile is approaching from.
There is no "I" in Tea. That would be gross.
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Re: HUD

#3
Gazz wrote:Naturally, I'm looking forward in my fighter.
I don't think that this has been discussed yet, but as it has come up, I've got to ask: why?

I have always taken it as a given that you can look in any direction (well, at least the four or six main directions anyway).

Let's face it, a space ship with a glass windscreen is just silly. You'd most likely want an armour-plated hull all around you, and not an especially weak point right in front of your face. Therefore, you'd be using a display in your cockpit anyway. Which means that it would be silly to have only one, forward-pointing camera (or sensor array, or whatever takes in the information that's projected on your view screen) on your ship. You'd have at least an additional tail camera, and port and starboard cameras as well, and maybe even up and down cameras.

At least, that's how it works in the mother of all epic space games, Elite.

Combine that with weapons that point somewhere else than straight forward, and the infamous Monty Python tactic is very viable: fly away from your enemy at top speed and use your rear laser/gun to kill him/keep him from pursuing. No need to launch an insta-mine-field for doing that.
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Re: HUD

#4
Commander McLane wrote:I don't think that this has been discussed yet, but as it has come up, I've got to ask: why?
Because I don't like crashing a fast but fragile hull into things or flying into a hail of oncoming bullets. But that's just me.

I don't doubt that there will be ways to look in different directions but I hardly ever use those in a fight.
There is no "I" in Tea. That would be gross.
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Re: HUD

#5
Based on combat flight sims I've played, I'd want to know not just the position of my opponent, but also his orientation and velocity. This is especially important in a twisting turning close-in knife fight so you can try to predict his immediate actions. For far-off opponents it's also useful so you can see if he's approaching or running.
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Re: HUD

#6
I'd like a rearview camera. If ships evolve to the point of being able to dogfight in space, having a rear-view camera is a no-brainer.

But I'm going to agree wholeheartedly about wireframe. I'm a sucker for kitsch 80's/90's films about hacking and displaying wireframe for ships not in sight? VERY cool. 8-)

Trying to find a weak point in the enemy cruiser? See wireframe mockup of it in your subsystem targeting. Everything retro is cool again.
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Early Spring - 1055: Well, I made it to Boatmurdered, and my initial impressions can be set forth in three words: What. The. F*ck.
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Re: HUD

#7
In general - I like my HUDs minimal. Clean lines and no areas of solid colour if at all possible.

HUD features I'd like (in order of importance to me):
  • Cycle HUD colour
    If I'm facing something light-coloured and my HUD is usually lime-green I will have a hard time seeing it (especially as I'm a little colourblind). Being able to switch the HUD to a dark colour (think dark olive) with a single keypress would be very useful.
  • Target locking
    If I'm fighting a particular ship, I will want some way of locking onto it to keep track of it. I'd like some kind of indicator of its position (even if it's offscreen). When it's onscreen I'd want a reticule to assist in 'leading it' with weapons fire. Ideally this reticule would be customised to the flight-speed of my currently-selected weapon. I'm not sure if it would need to show a full flight vector preview though, that might be too much.
  • Customisable HUD components
    Here, I'm really talking about a "build your own HUD" feature. Why? Because there are so many different ways of playing the game. Since the game will be playable as a hybrid space-shooter and/or 3D space RTS, 'HUD components' that one player would use all of the time might be a complete waste of space to another player.

    What I have in mind here is a form of 'HUD editor' mode. When in this mode you have a list of available 'HUD components' which may be dragged and dropped onto your screen and arranged as the player pleases. Hit save and you have a HUD configuration saved (which you could name if you wanted). Exit the HUD editor mode and the components are locked in place (no longer draggable).

    Also useful would be to have (perhaps a maximum of 4) HUD configurations bound to hotkeys. So [Ctrl+Shift+1] might switch to HUD one, [Ctrl+Shift+2] switches to HUD two etc.

    What kind of HUD components am I thinking about?
    • Weapons status
    • Ship damage status
    • Information about current targetted ship (legal status, bounty available, ship class, damage state and so on)
    • At-a-glance summary of allied ships showing some kind of status indication (so I can manage them better)
    • Some kind of radar. I'm not sure if the Elite-style "golfclubs" radar would be appropriate. I think it would become a total mess when lots of ships are nearby and I expect LT to have many more ships involved per 'encounter' than classic Elite did
    • A 3D compass pointing out "things of note" such as jump gates, stations, friendly carrier-class/resupply (if they exist) ships
    • I'm sure there will be plenty of other important things that I haven't thought of - depending on the final features of the game
Nobody suspects a Toreador …
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Re: HUD

#8
@Toreador

I'm the same way. Let me keep my screen clean. Josh has mentioned that the HUD will be customizeable to some degree. That being said, I have a pair of small 7" LCDs (from headrest video systems), and I'm going to figure out a way to move most of the HUD to those so my main screen is spic and span! :D
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Early Spring - 1055: Well, I made it to Boatmurdered, and my initial impressions can be set forth in three words: What. The. F*ck.

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