Hi all,
Just got a stroking idea now and checked rapidly on the HUD improvement list to see if it was already posted but seem not.

The idea of a compass in the HUD would be to tell the player witch direction he is taking relative to his ship. So there would be a kind of Vector that would tell the direction and by it's length the speed, instead on fixing object around the ship to figure out the direction.

It would be useful in some combat situation and precision flight using unassisted mode.

Plus, the compass could also tell the up and down against the elliptical plans.

So what you think ?

Forgot to tell, the best way to figure the compass to me would be to have x,y,z sphere relative to the ship or relative to the sector.

You might have a look here:

http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/7692

See: direction indicator

There are charts, diagrams, mockups, etc.

That was me not updating the HUD list with pre-2007 topics...
and this is me now adding these two topics to the list.
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/1573
and
http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/17056

*adds 'em*

...?

Thats a link to the thread I referenced, and then a link to THIS thread. I'm mystified.

Anyway, check out the thread Planes.

I've done some reading of the previous thread and to what I've seen up to now is not as intuitive as it should be. What, I envision is much simpler and dont interfere much with the current HUD. This would be 2 little sphere at center down of the radar of a max 1 inch (2 to 3 cm) in diameter. 2 is to have a distinct one for movement indicator and the other for direction indicator. Remark that these 2 could be unifed also...

I'll make a modification of multiple screen shot to present what i'd like to see. Any good method to post them ?

Upload the image somewhere, then use [img][/img] tags around the URL to the image.

EDIT: Thanks to mgl_mouser for the tip about no-ops.

direction... that doesn't mean much in space.

direction in respect to what?

the only thing remotely useful would be a velocity indicator, in respect to the ship's own azimuth, as was discussed in referenced threads.

perhaps a distance and heading indicator pointing towards the nearest dock-able item (be it a cappy or station dock).

but a "direction" indicator means nothing in space. besides, up is down and down is up. ask relayer.

There's a map with relative positions drawn out. A compass could be nice. Let it be in respect to a north star, so to speak.

the north star means little to people in the southern hemisphere. let alone anyone outside this planet.

in a galaxy scale, one might use it's black star at it's core (most galaxy seem to have a black star at it's center), but even that isn't enough to give you any meaningful bearing info. a compass only has meaning in a 2-dimensional plane such as a planet surface.

in space, you need at least 6 points of reference to establish a position and heading.

The map isn't relative, at least in terms of one system's position as compared to another. The actual positions are unclear because they are reached via wormholes. The universe is presented as a 2D map for simplicity of navigation.

Ok, I'll express more details of my view. I've made 2 mockup and posted them on deviant art
1st image :

if image not working here is a link to follow
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/59316495/

2nd image :

if image not working here is a link to follow
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/59316611/

On these 2 screenshot, I've made 2 little sphere one beside each radar screen.
The one on the left is pointing the ship movement direction. In flight assist mode, the little white arrow should almost always be in the front. Almost because in fast movement the ship nose is not always following the aiming cursor. Without flight assist mode the white arrow shall point in the direction you're going, so no waste of time to analyze the space junk direction to know where your going, only check the arrow.
The one on the right will point out were the ship nose is pointing in relation to, select one of desired option, relative to the system, the sector or the galaxies. For the system and the galaxies, I suggest pointing the X axis to the center. The up and down, because yes upper case in space there is still an up and down, shall be base on the elliptical plane.

Now for the usefulness of those sphere, In fight it can be really useful to know where you are going because, in asteroids fight you may know where is the asteroids are but you do not want to crash yourself on it. The direction sphere will be useful for group tactical move. A squad could coordinate an attack on a groups of enemy base on a common direction sense. So instruction like "3 guys goes from below and the 2 other take them from up" would make sense. Or on mining mission, knowing from where your gone to find your asteroid with Xetricite would much easier if you could base your second search of the asteroid after selling the ores not only on the heat signature you left on it.

I'm sure many other player could come up with much more use of these little to sphere.

An other thing, numbers are always useful. So a xyz degrees (like x=178°,y=30°,z=90°) can be useful for tactical moves.

A pretty long post, I wish I was able to make myself the most clear. :)