Forums » Suggestions
HUD Additions & Gameplay Additions
I'm suggesting a number of changes to the current HUD in this thead, as well as some game elements that our current HUD doesn't support, some of which would require some (perhaps major) gameplay changes (and yes, it is different from this thread: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/10192 ). For those of you who have played Freespace and/or Freespace 2, you will instantly know exactly what I'm talking about. Now, I don't want to imply that I want VO to turn into a Freespace clone, or anything like it. However, I think that there is a lot that VO can use that helped Freespace turn into the game it was and still is.
Use the following pictures as reference:
http://homepage.mac.com/dimpfinator/.Pictures/Vendetta/fs2huduncluttered.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/dimpfinator/.Pictures/Vendetta/fs2hud.jpg
1. Radar
I think that they did a terrific job with the radar in Freespace, as it was an all-in-one deal, and was positioned in an easy-to-see place. The center of the radar shows the ships in the front hemisphere of your ship, and as they pass the circle, it shows ships in your rear hemisphere, and can tell you at a glance exactly where the enemy is. It also included a range scanner, with which you could set the range of the radar, useful for eliminating dots outside of your immediate concern, particularly useful in close up fights (and potentially EXTREMELY useful in cap ship battles, where there are way too many turrets to mess with your targeting, which I have a few other comments about, but that's for another topic).
2. Warning indicators
On the Freespace HUD, when enemies began firing on you, a small warning noise sounded, and the target lock icon would flash (the bottom one on the right side of the reticle), and when a missile lock was achieved, the missile lock (the top icon) would light up. Also, a collision indicator would appear at the top of the hud when such events occured.
3. Health indicators
These appeared in several places, though I would argue that the most beneficial was the one below the target reticle in the main reticle. It told you at a moment's glance what your enemie's current health is. Your health appeared (when you were damaged. w00t for shields and 1337 piloting. :D ) over the main reticle, as well as subsystem damage along with it.
4. Target Monitor (lower left)
This was an invaluable assistant in combat, as it showed the target's health (though that was usually more readily checked in the center of the reticle), as well as a number of other things, including subsystem targeting (which I'll get into some other time). Other things that this showed was the speed of the target, the distance to the target, as well as the target’s orientation in regards to you. Also, it had the ship name, and type, as well as (if appropriate), the cargo that the ship was carrying (supposing you had scanned it). This system could be useful for both combat, and mining asteroids, which is why I suggest it.
5. Turning prompt (or whatever you’d like to call it.)
Freespace 2 had a terrific system for telling you how far you had to turn you ship to face the enemy. On the edge of the screen, it had 2 triangles (like in the upper-left hand side) that grew closer together as the enemy got closer to your front, as well as displaying the distance to the enemy, which prevented having to check all over the screen for distances, speeds, etc. It made it easy to focus on combat, rather than constantly checking up on speed, and relationship to the enemy.
6. Auto-Target (see bottom-right corner)
Auto Targeting was a feature that you could turn on and off, and would automatically target the closest hostile. Very useful, as in the middle of a dogfight, the game shouldn’t force you to look around for the guy who’s closest to you. I understand that the current system has a “target closest hostile”, but frankly, the current targeting system could use a little work. (more on this in another topic, I suppose)
7. Speed indicators (see left side of reticule)
This was an excellent, easy to see system that showed exactly what you were traveling at, as well as the maximum potential speed, among other things. I think what I overlaid on the picture is pretty self-explanatory. It’s simply more comprehensive than the current system (god I wish had been in the beta… :D)
8. Monitoring list
This should be a modifiable list, in which you can add specific in-system ships, or maintain a list that, if a specific ship type is in a system, they are automatically added to that list, which monitors health. IE: SMV Great Lady would automatically added to the list, or the Sola, etc, no matter your nation, and they would appear in nation-specific colors. Note: this is different from a Group list.
9. In-flight weapons configuration
This is a possible change that may be made. I would suggest that it be possible to link and unlink weapons systems in mid-flight, without prior preparation in a station. I suggest this, largely because of secondary (L) weapons systems. It was possible to Dual-link a single missile system, so it would fire 2X the normal number of rockets/missiles. This is preferable to the current system, because it allows you to fire multiple of a kind of a missile without having multiple of it’s type aboard.
10. Energy Transfer system
This is likely to be an extremely unpopular suggestion, simply because it suggests that our current energy/battery system is not adequate. What this would basically amount to is having separate values for boost energy available and gun energy, akin to the FS2 system. The reason that this would be useful is because of something known as the ETS, or Energy Transfer System, which regulated which system got the most energy, and could be configured to give your engine extra power while in normal flight, without boosting. It however took away from shield recharging (no, I’m not demanding shields) and gun recharge. You had to be able to change your preference in-flight according to situation, and necessity. For instance, while chasing an enemy, you would turn up Engines, but would later turn them back down for continued combat. I understand that this would require pretty major changes to the code, but take this with the understanding that most of my suggestions are pretty long term.
11. Countermeasures
This allowed you to decoy missiles (which I personally believe should be much more deadly, and allow you to strike an enemy effectively outside of the standard 200m range that most combat goes on in.), and would be accomplished by basically dropping mine-like objects in space with the intention to decoy the missiles to them. However, I have a number of suggestions on how we should accomplish this here:
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/1494?page=5#116467
One last thing: I also think that we should (eventually) have an option to be able to control our ships using the numberpad. That's my favorite way to fly. Frankly, I don't like having to constantly move my mouse around to move my ship. I've even taken to using my trackpad instead.
I don't see any reason to *not* implement my ideas, but if anyone has a beef with them, don't hesitate to comment! IMHO, I don't think we get enough feedback from the game right now, and part of the difficulty in combat right now is due to how many different places on the screen you have to routinely check up on in order to check weapons ammunition, your health, speed, energy level, and opponent's health. They are all spread out all over the place. If more features were concentrated on the center of the screen, things would be much simpler.
Just my thoughts… Hope you bothered to read them.
~Seldon
Use the following pictures as reference:
http://homepage.mac.com/dimpfinator/.Pictures/Vendetta/fs2huduncluttered.jpg
http://homepage.mac.com/dimpfinator/.Pictures/Vendetta/fs2hud.jpg
1. Radar
I think that they did a terrific job with the radar in Freespace, as it was an all-in-one deal, and was positioned in an easy-to-see place. The center of the radar shows the ships in the front hemisphere of your ship, and as they pass the circle, it shows ships in your rear hemisphere, and can tell you at a glance exactly where the enemy is. It also included a range scanner, with which you could set the range of the radar, useful for eliminating dots outside of your immediate concern, particularly useful in close up fights (and potentially EXTREMELY useful in cap ship battles, where there are way too many turrets to mess with your targeting, which I have a few other comments about, but that's for another topic).
2. Warning indicators
On the Freespace HUD, when enemies began firing on you, a small warning noise sounded, and the target lock icon would flash (the bottom one on the right side of the reticle), and when a missile lock was achieved, the missile lock (the top icon) would light up. Also, a collision indicator would appear at the top of the hud when such events occured.
3. Health indicators
These appeared in several places, though I would argue that the most beneficial was the one below the target reticle in the main reticle. It told you at a moment's glance what your enemie's current health is. Your health appeared (when you were damaged. w00t for shields and 1337 piloting. :D ) over the main reticle, as well as subsystem damage along with it.
4. Target Monitor (lower left)
This was an invaluable assistant in combat, as it showed the target's health (though that was usually more readily checked in the center of the reticle), as well as a number of other things, including subsystem targeting (which I'll get into some other time). Other things that this showed was the speed of the target, the distance to the target, as well as the target’s orientation in regards to you. Also, it had the ship name, and type, as well as (if appropriate), the cargo that the ship was carrying (supposing you had scanned it). This system could be useful for both combat, and mining asteroids, which is why I suggest it.
5. Turning prompt (or whatever you’d like to call it.)
Freespace 2 had a terrific system for telling you how far you had to turn you ship to face the enemy. On the edge of the screen, it had 2 triangles (like in the upper-left hand side) that grew closer together as the enemy got closer to your front, as well as displaying the distance to the enemy, which prevented having to check all over the screen for distances, speeds, etc. It made it easy to focus on combat, rather than constantly checking up on speed, and relationship to the enemy.
6. Auto-Target (see bottom-right corner)
Auto Targeting was a feature that you could turn on and off, and would automatically target the closest hostile. Very useful, as in the middle of a dogfight, the game shouldn’t force you to look around for the guy who’s closest to you. I understand that the current system has a “target closest hostile”, but frankly, the current targeting system could use a little work. (more on this in another topic, I suppose)
7. Speed indicators (see left side of reticule)
This was an excellent, easy to see system that showed exactly what you were traveling at, as well as the maximum potential speed, among other things. I think what I overlaid on the picture is pretty self-explanatory. It’s simply more comprehensive than the current system (god I wish had been in the beta… :D)
8. Monitoring list
This should be a modifiable list, in which you can add specific in-system ships, or maintain a list that, if a specific ship type is in a system, they are automatically added to that list, which monitors health. IE: SMV Great Lady would automatically added to the list, or the Sola, etc, no matter your nation, and they would appear in nation-specific colors. Note: this is different from a Group list.
9. In-flight weapons configuration
This is a possible change that may be made. I would suggest that it be possible to link and unlink weapons systems in mid-flight, without prior preparation in a station. I suggest this, largely because of secondary (L) weapons systems. It was possible to Dual-link a single missile system, so it would fire 2X the normal number of rockets/missiles. This is preferable to the current system, because it allows you to fire multiple of a kind of a missile without having multiple of it’s type aboard.
10. Energy Transfer system
This is likely to be an extremely unpopular suggestion, simply because it suggests that our current energy/battery system is not adequate. What this would basically amount to is having separate values for boost energy available and gun energy, akin to the FS2 system. The reason that this would be useful is because of something known as the ETS, or Energy Transfer System, which regulated which system got the most energy, and could be configured to give your engine extra power while in normal flight, without boosting. It however took away from shield recharging (no, I’m not demanding shields) and gun recharge. You had to be able to change your preference in-flight according to situation, and necessity. For instance, while chasing an enemy, you would turn up Engines, but would later turn them back down for continued combat. I understand that this would require pretty major changes to the code, but take this with the understanding that most of my suggestions are pretty long term.
11. Countermeasures
This allowed you to decoy missiles (which I personally believe should be much more deadly, and allow you to strike an enemy effectively outside of the standard 200m range that most combat goes on in.), and would be accomplished by basically dropping mine-like objects in space with the intention to decoy the missiles to them. However, I have a number of suggestions on how we should accomplish this here:
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/1494?page=5#116467
One last thing: I also think that we should (eventually) have an option to be able to control our ships using the numberpad. That's my favorite way to fly. Frankly, I don't like having to constantly move my mouse around to move my ship. I've even taken to using my trackpad instead.
I don't see any reason to *not* implement my ideas, but if anyone has a beef with them, don't hesitate to comment! IMHO, I don't think we get enough feedback from the game right now, and part of the difficulty in combat right now is due to how many different places on the screen you have to routinely check up on in order to check weapons ammunition, your health, speed, energy level, and opponent's health. They are all spread out all over the place. If more features were concentrated on the center of the screen, things would be much simpler.
Just my thoughts… Hope you bothered to read them.
~Seldon
The only one I agree with is #9. And, as my English teacher would be quick to tell you, it's presumptuous to say that you find no flaws with your ideas. Obviously you don't, they're yours. :D
Yes, well, after NO comments for about 5 days...I can hardly be blamed for thinking that they're decent ideas. Having been reading through the boards here, I find it rather probable that many of our current VO players have NOT played Freespace, and have not played other Space Sims that incorporate many of these elements, which is why they were such terrific games. In fact, having played Vendetta for some time, I have come to be more and more aware of how essential many of these features were to fun gameplay.
I played freespace for a very long time. And the other Descents too. I don't anymore, but VO still has a place on every one of my computers.
Since you clearly don't agree with me, would you care to explain why you don't? I also enjoy Vendetta, but it is incomplete, as has been stated by the devs. As per the function of this board, I am offering suggestions, and ones that I think have some viability, and are thought out, rather than a few I could mention.
I'm not suggesting that we bring in the LMAO Über Gun, or anything like that, but having been snubbed by the collective boards here, I'm not feeling like I should keep on telling my friends about this game, or how "cool" it is simply because of the community
[/rant]
[edit] And (save perhaps 10 and 11) how the [heck] could any of these features mentioned above possibly hurt gameplay?
I'm not suggesting that we bring in the LMAO Über Gun, or anything like that, but having been snubbed by the collective boards here, I'm not feeling like I should keep on telling my friends about this game, or how "cool" it is simply because of the community
[/rant]
[edit] And (save perhaps 10 and 11) how the [heck] could any of these features mentioned above possibly hurt gameplay?
In short...
#1: Already mentioned it (although most of my post was to the crazy 3d idea). Harder to use, more distracting, more processor-intensive, less useful. Read other thread reply. Back and Front make more sense than one big circle.
#2: That's even more annoying than our current red flash. At least our current system lets me play sans sound without having to look at tiny little indicators for damage. Also, we have no targeting, so why a target lock? Another dupe from your "other" post.
#3: You mean like the big green one on the right side of your display?
#4: You mean like the big one in the upper-right? We don't need a little ship-orientation-chart, it's distracting.
#5: Do we really need things to be -easier-?
#6: Read the binds thread. We already have it if you want it. Personally, this is another thing I find annoying. It's really not that hard to actually WORK a little, unlike in FS.
#7: See above
#8: Unnecessary
#9: Unbalancing, if I understand your rather garbled phrasing
#10: Totally different game. This suggestion is just as major and dumb (at this stage in the game) as the "only allow us to fly forwards" one. Plus, there's a zillion threads already about this, although most of them dealt with the X-Wing version, there's little difference.
#11: Therein lies the road to changing a game of skill to a game of "who can fire the missiles first". Realism is not always good, and swarms are already too uber. Countermeasures imply stronger missiles imply stronger countermeasures ad infinitum.
You can already fly with your keyboard. Press ; to turn off mouselook, then you can (by default) use the arrow keys to fly. If you want to change it to the numpad, just change the key bindings from they arrows to the keypad. If you're on Linux, a1k0n might or might not have put in the numpad (before, it treated the numpad as normal numbers). If he hasn't, bug him in the Linux forum some more.
#1: Already mentioned it (although most of my post was to the crazy 3d idea). Harder to use, more distracting, more processor-intensive, less useful. Read other thread reply. Back and Front make more sense than one big circle.
#2: That's even more annoying than our current red flash. At least our current system lets me play sans sound without having to look at tiny little indicators for damage. Also, we have no targeting, so why a target lock? Another dupe from your "other" post.
#3: You mean like the big green one on the right side of your display?
#4: You mean like the big one in the upper-right? We don't need a little ship-orientation-chart, it's distracting.
#5: Do we really need things to be -easier-?
#6: Read the binds thread. We already have it if you want it. Personally, this is another thing I find annoying. It's really not that hard to actually WORK a little, unlike in FS.
#7: See above
#8: Unnecessary
#9: Unbalancing, if I understand your rather garbled phrasing
#10: Totally different game. This suggestion is just as major and dumb (at this stage in the game) as the "only allow us to fly forwards" one. Plus, there's a zillion threads already about this, although most of them dealt with the X-Wing version, there's little difference.
#11: Therein lies the road to changing a game of skill to a game of "who can fire the missiles first". Realism is not always good, and swarms are already too uber. Countermeasures imply stronger missiles imply stronger countermeasures ad infinitum.
You can already fly with your keyboard. Press ; to turn off mouselook, then you can (by default) use the arrow keys to fly. If you want to change it to the numpad, just change the key bindings from they arrows to the keypad. If you're on Linux, a1k0n might or might not have put in the numpad (before, it treated the numpad as normal numbers). If he hasn't, bug him in the Linux forum some more.
#1: Already mentioned it (although most of my post was to the crazy 3d idea). Harder to use, more distracting, more processor-intensive, less useful. Read other thread reply. Back and Front make more sense than one big circle.
I know. I extracted this from that because it didn't seem to fit in with the conversation in that thread, and I hoped to get it more attention here, as the conversation there was heading towards Wormhole aesthetics, or sumethin. HOWEVER, some people prefer the FS radar to the current one, as the current one makes you look all over the screen to assess your status. It's simply more convienient to have it as an all-in-one thing, and having the the rear hemisphere "stretched" as you put it, it can make it simple to see where the enemy is comming from when he's attacking from the rear.
#2: That's even more annoying than our current red flash. At least our current system lets me play sans sound without having to look at tiny little indicators for damage. Also, we have no targeting, so why a target lock? Another dupe from your "other" post.
...you're hardly looking specifically at the indicators for warning, but when they begin to flash off to the side of your reticle, you notice. While we don't have a target lock (currently), I was pointing out the features of the FS HUD.
#3: You mean like the big green one on the right side of your display?
Hardly. That can stay where it is, but I don't want to have my eyes constantly roaming across the screen looking for distance indicators, enemy ship status, and my own health, among other things. I want a small number in the bottom center of my reticle that displays target health. It's useful, I promise.
#5: Do we really need things to be -easier-?
This will affect *all* players, so I really don't think it will affect much except how much work you have to put into simply FIGURING OUT where the hell the enemy is. All modern combat systems have something like this, and I don't see why something thousands of years in the future wouldn't.
#8: Unnecessary
Why the hell is it unnececary? It prevents needless target switching, particularly when you're trying to guard a capital ship that is taking heavy fire.
You're looking at this on paper, or rather HTML, and I would suggest that people framiliar with Freespace take a look-see, and refresh their memory of the gameplay features in that series.
I know. I extracted this from that because it didn't seem to fit in with the conversation in that thread, and I hoped to get it more attention here, as the conversation there was heading towards Wormhole aesthetics, or sumethin. HOWEVER, some people prefer the FS radar to the current one, as the current one makes you look all over the screen to assess your status. It's simply more convienient to have it as an all-in-one thing, and having the the rear hemisphere "stretched" as you put it, it can make it simple to see where the enemy is comming from when he's attacking from the rear.
#2: That's even more annoying than our current red flash. At least our current system lets me play sans sound without having to look at tiny little indicators for damage. Also, we have no targeting, so why a target lock? Another dupe from your "other" post.
...you're hardly looking specifically at the indicators for warning, but when they begin to flash off to the side of your reticle, you notice. While we don't have a target lock (currently), I was pointing out the features of the FS HUD.
#3: You mean like the big green one on the right side of your display?
Hardly. That can stay where it is, but I don't want to have my eyes constantly roaming across the screen looking for distance indicators, enemy ship status, and my own health, among other things. I want a small number in the bottom center of my reticle that displays target health. It's useful, I promise.
#5: Do we really need things to be -easier-?
This will affect *all* players, so I really don't think it will affect much except how much work you have to put into simply FIGURING OUT where the hell the enemy is. All modern combat systems have something like this, and I don't see why something thousands of years in the future wouldn't.
#8: Unnecessary
Why the hell is it unnececary? It prevents needless target switching, particularly when you're trying to guard a capital ship that is taking heavy fire.
You're looking at this on paper, or rather HTML, and I would suggest that people framiliar with Freespace take a look-see, and refresh their memory of the gameplay features in that series.
Harry, it's not as if when you make a suggestion, everyone is just going to jump to support you.
Sure, sometimes it happens, but don't expect it to happen all the time.
What you're suggesting is a very significant change in the HUD, and frankly I've come to like the current one, and would rather see the devs put their energies into ship balance, or changing the way missiles work, rather than what seems to be a lot of work for a cosmetic change. For people to want to support your ideas, you are going to need to pursuade them.
The last thing we want is Vendetta turning into Freespace 2, or any other space game. Sure, the Freespace 2 screen might be nice for Freespace, but how would it look for Vendetta? Draw up a proposition that isn't just a screenshot from another game.
I don't see any reason to *not* implement my ideas, but if anyone has a beef with them, don't hesitate to comment! IMHO, I don't think we get enough feedback from the game right now, and part of the difficulty in combat right now is due to how many different places on the screen you have to routinely check up on in order to check weapons ammunition, your health, speed, energy level, and opponent's health. They are all spread out all over the place. If more features were concentrated on the center of the screen, things would be much simpler.
As roguelazer said, you of course think that your ideas should be implemented, but as he obviously had beef with them, he commented as you asked.
You complain that Vendetta's HUD spread things out around the screen, but looking at the Freespace 2 screen, it doesn't seem a whole lot better to me.
The center reticle is practically the same, but Freespace's is more cluttered. They shove a lot of icons onto it, which seem a bit distracting to me.
The weapons list in Freespace is on the bottom right in small letters, the weapons list in Vendetta is in the center left with large numbers and icons. I don't see anything better about the left side and the right side.
The targeting information in Freespace is in the bottom left, and in Vendetta it's in the top right. Okay. Not much difference in terms of looking around. If you want to look at your weapons and then who you're targeting, you still have to look across the screen.
Health information is on the bottom in Freespace, and on the center right in Vendetta. Well I suppose that the bottom of the screen is closer to the reticle than the right side, but in my eyes, the bottom of the screen is slightly more intrusive than the side.
So I suppose that there is a bit more eye movement in Vendetta than Freespace, but Freespace was Freespace, and Vendetta needs to be Vendetta. So how can you take elements from Freespace and apply them to Vendetta without losing Vendetta's character?
I believe that you have a far more convincing argument if you have some sort of synthesis of ideas, rather than saying "This is how my favorite game was, now make this game into it." Present your views, but also present opposing views. Now why are your views better than the opposing views?
Sure, sometimes it happens, but don't expect it to happen all the time.
What you're suggesting is a very significant change in the HUD, and frankly I've come to like the current one, and would rather see the devs put their energies into ship balance, or changing the way missiles work, rather than what seems to be a lot of work for a cosmetic change. For people to want to support your ideas, you are going to need to pursuade them.
The last thing we want is Vendetta turning into Freespace 2, or any other space game. Sure, the Freespace 2 screen might be nice for Freespace, but how would it look for Vendetta? Draw up a proposition that isn't just a screenshot from another game.
I don't see any reason to *not* implement my ideas, but if anyone has a beef with them, don't hesitate to comment! IMHO, I don't think we get enough feedback from the game right now, and part of the difficulty in combat right now is due to how many different places on the screen you have to routinely check up on in order to check weapons ammunition, your health, speed, energy level, and opponent's health. They are all spread out all over the place. If more features were concentrated on the center of the screen, things would be much simpler.
As roguelazer said, you of course think that your ideas should be implemented, but as he obviously had beef with them, he commented as you asked.
You complain that Vendetta's HUD spread things out around the screen, but looking at the Freespace 2 screen, it doesn't seem a whole lot better to me.
The center reticle is practically the same, but Freespace's is more cluttered. They shove a lot of icons onto it, which seem a bit distracting to me.
The weapons list in Freespace is on the bottom right in small letters, the weapons list in Vendetta is in the center left with large numbers and icons. I don't see anything better about the left side and the right side.
The targeting information in Freespace is in the bottom left, and in Vendetta it's in the top right. Okay. Not much difference in terms of looking around. If you want to look at your weapons and then who you're targeting, you still have to look across the screen.
Health information is on the bottom in Freespace, and on the center right in Vendetta. Well I suppose that the bottom of the screen is closer to the reticle than the right side, but in my eyes, the bottom of the screen is slightly more intrusive than the side.
So I suppose that there is a bit more eye movement in Vendetta than Freespace, but Freespace was Freespace, and Vendetta needs to be Vendetta. So how can you take elements from Freespace and apply them to Vendetta without losing Vendetta's character?
I believe that you have a far more convincing argument if you have some sort of synthesis of ideas, rather than saying "This is how my favorite game was, now make this game into it." Present your views, but also present opposing views. Now why are your views better than the opposing views?
*takes a deep breath*
I'm not going to touch this for the forseeable future, because any more comments I make are *likely* going to be just as ridiculed, and I'm honestly sick of seeing my own work going to naught because of many of the old-timers who have been around since the beginnings of this game, and have obviously had to put up with many ridiculous topics, and many silly suggestions, and I realise that some of the content I posted above may have echoed what has been suggested before. As you said, I too would like to see the devs put their energies into something else that will attract more players, as I can simply go and play other games while this is in progress.
I understand that this would require some major changes, and would likely cause a good deal of ruckus amongst some of the older, wiser players, who I have not come to appreciate, simply because they act as though they know EVERYTHING about game design, particularly this game, having shot down so many ideas, many of which may have been horrible. I also know that many propositions come from frustration with the current game style, and I know that Vendetta NEEDS to stay Vendetta, and not be a clone of Freespace 2, but I'm saying that a lot of thought went into the display and targeting systems for Freespace 2, in order to supply the pilot with all the information he needed. If it became too cluttered, he could turn certain features off. However, Vendetta is much more a WYSIWYG interface, and it doesn't supply a lot of information vital in space combat.
As for roguelazer's "beef" with my comments, because of the time I had taken to try to make my ideas clear, and hopefully find an ally in another Freespace player who could vouch for my ideas, I took it rather badly when he said "....This suggestion is just as major and dumb (at this stage in the game) as the "only allow us to fly forwards" one." particularly after having "ripped" my entire post to shreds, mainly with one sentence answers consisting mainly of "Nah, your ideas are [censored for younger members]" (paraphrased for effect)
My evidence: #8: Unnecessary
NO explanation as to WHY, just "Unnecessary". o.O
That hardly seems fair to an honest effort at improving our gameplay interface. Now, I'm starting to want to troll, so I'll just post this now.
Edit: And YES, I WILL post something later on WHY my suggestions will make a difference. I'm just too fumed right now.
I'm not going to touch this for the forseeable future, because any more comments I make are *likely* going to be just as ridiculed, and I'm honestly sick of seeing my own work going to naught because of many of the old-timers who have been around since the beginnings of this game, and have obviously had to put up with many ridiculous topics, and many silly suggestions, and I realise that some of the content I posted above may have echoed what has been suggested before. As you said, I too would like to see the devs put their energies into something else that will attract more players, as I can simply go and play other games while this is in progress.
I understand that this would require some major changes, and would likely cause a good deal of ruckus amongst some of the older, wiser players, who I have not come to appreciate, simply because they act as though they know EVERYTHING about game design, particularly this game, having shot down so many ideas, many of which may have been horrible. I also know that many propositions come from frustration with the current game style, and I know that Vendetta NEEDS to stay Vendetta, and not be a clone of Freespace 2, but I'm saying that a lot of thought went into the display and targeting systems for Freespace 2, in order to supply the pilot with all the information he needed. If it became too cluttered, he could turn certain features off. However, Vendetta is much more a WYSIWYG interface, and it doesn't supply a lot of information vital in space combat.
As for roguelazer's "beef" with my comments, because of the time I had taken to try to make my ideas clear, and hopefully find an ally in another Freespace player who could vouch for my ideas, I took it rather badly when he said "....This suggestion is just as major and dumb (at this stage in the game) as the "only allow us to fly forwards" one." particularly after having "ripped" my entire post to shreds, mainly with one sentence answers consisting mainly of "Nah, your ideas are [censored for younger members]" (paraphrased for effect)
My evidence: #8: Unnecessary
NO explanation as to WHY, just "Unnecessary". o.O
That hardly seems fair to an honest effort at improving our gameplay interface. Now, I'm starting to want to troll, so I'll just post this now.
Edit: And YES, I WILL post something later on WHY my suggestions will make a difference. I'm just too fumed right now.
[edit: oops]
I've been procrastinating on homework, and have instead made some screenshots with my ideas, and a few of other people's. Here's the first one:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/newscreenie1-01.jpg
In the interest of being kind to the devs, I haven't totally redesigned the HUD or anything. The features I've put into it are:
•A target health monitor beneath the reticle
•Max/Min speed displays on the side of the speed display thingy
•Current velocity monitor of the targeted ship
•A new "sector" chat tab...included in the interest of having a cap-ship chat tab
[edit: The monitoring list would appear above the right side radar and below your ship stats, or between your target stats and your own ship stats. (Read: I forgot to include it...and only have so much time to slack off making pretty pictures. :P )]
I think these changes are neccecary because they take away from the space-quake style that we currently have, and put emphasis on using the resources available to out-maneuver your enemy, as well as making routine things like enemy HP checkups easier. I understand that the Devs have a limited amount of time to work on this game, and I can be reasonable with that. However, I prefer to post a topic with a LOT of content in it, because that way, SOME usefullness can be gotten out of it, even if some of the ideas are lousy, or just against the nature of the game. With these changes, I don't think that the nature of the game will change at all, but having looked through a bunch of reviews today online, I saw that one of the major complaints by the reviewers was that the interface (HUD) was too simple.
Here's another, with one additional change:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/boostscreenie-01.jpg
This one shows my concept of something like what the Boosting should show when you go over the max normal flight speed, shown with a yellow bar overlapping the green.
This one is with a FS2 hud stuck smack-dab in the middle...though I'd rather have put it off to the side. (I've only got so much time to procrastinate..)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/newscreenie2-01.jpg
The following two are for this ( http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/7396 ) thread in mind (I know, I put the cockpit up a bit too high, but it shows that it can look good with this view, even in a Valk):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/cockpitscreenie1-01.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/cockpitboost1-01.jpg
Cheers
~Seldon
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/newscreenie1-01.jpg
In the interest of being kind to the devs, I haven't totally redesigned the HUD or anything. The features I've put into it are:
•A target health monitor beneath the reticle
•Max/Min speed displays on the side of the speed display thingy
•Current velocity monitor of the targeted ship
•A new "sector" chat tab...included in the interest of having a cap-ship chat tab
[edit: The monitoring list would appear above the right side radar and below your ship stats, or between your target stats and your own ship stats. (Read: I forgot to include it...and only have so much time to slack off making pretty pictures. :P )]
I think these changes are neccecary because they take away from the space-quake style that we currently have, and put emphasis on using the resources available to out-maneuver your enemy, as well as making routine things like enemy HP checkups easier. I understand that the Devs have a limited amount of time to work on this game, and I can be reasonable with that. However, I prefer to post a topic with a LOT of content in it, because that way, SOME usefullness can be gotten out of it, even if some of the ideas are lousy, or just against the nature of the game. With these changes, I don't think that the nature of the game will change at all, but having looked through a bunch of reviews today online, I saw that one of the major complaints by the reviewers was that the interface (HUD) was too simple.
Here's another, with one additional change:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/boostscreenie-01.jpg
This one shows my concept of something like what the Boosting should show when you go over the max normal flight speed, shown with a yellow bar overlapping the green.
This one is with a FS2 hud stuck smack-dab in the middle...though I'd rather have put it off to the side. (I've only got so much time to procrastinate..)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/newscreenie2-01.jpg
The following two are for this ( http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/7396 ) thread in mind (I know, I put the cockpit up a bit too high, but it shows that it can look good with this view, even in a Valk):
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/cockpitscreenie1-01.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v178/Dimpfinator/cockpitboost1-01.jpg
Cheers
~Seldon