I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but a perusal of several pages in this forum didn't seem to reveal any mentions of it (but I haven't been around very long!). A game I played several years agothat was similar (but not as good) to Vendetta and enjoyed immensely was Wing Commander: Privateer. In this game, you could get an enhancement to your radar that changed the size of the ship dots on your radar, revealing essentially what type of class each ship was (smaller for fighers, largest for capital ships, etc.). Are there plans for something like this in the game? If this was already mentioned, anyone mind pointing me to the thread? Thank!

-elusive

hm... a similar system is used in the game Escape Velocity by Ambrosia Software (and its sequels...) as well as the game Ares (also by ASW). the former uses only 2 different shapes, a 1-pixel and a 4-pixel (square) blot to represent fighters and capships. Ares uses a variety of shapes for transports, fighters, warships, drones...

that would be nice, having it represent not only the size, but also the class of the ship.

Maybe we already have mass detectors, but since all the ships are basically the same size, it doesn't make a difference. ;)

Seriously, I think this is the first time that particular suggestion has been made. I have mentioned the phrase 'mass detector' before, but in a different context and with a different effect in mind.

I've often thought that something like that would be useful. It's especially nice when you first jump into a system and glance at the radar (though, in Vendetta you have to fly further into the system before this is helpful). You can see instantly if you have possible trouble on your hands. If you see fighters, you're more likely to have trouble generally speaking. I haven't been around long enough to know what pirates generally use.

Along similar lines, would it be possible to implement some sort of system in which everyone from different races doesn't show up as hostile by default? For instance, a trader from another nation isn't really a hostile, but shows up as such on radar. What if there were a couple toggles for the radar that rotated through different modes such as:

1) Combat Mode: friendlies show as green, hostiles as red, missiles, etc. yellow (or what have you).

2) Trade/General Mode: your race shows up as green, other non-hostile races show up as their race color (red team could pose a problem in this regard) or just a generic color, like blue. when they perform agressive actions toward you (i.e., fire, or, say, boost toward you within a certain proximity) they turn red.

3) Navigation Mode: highlights wormholes and inanimate objects (i.e., roid and other solid objects that can damage you). I'm not sure how this one could be implemented, but could be useful in situations like racing, tricky navigating, or running away fast. :-)

Perhaps these could be sold as software upgrades to your radar system? Different modules?

-elusive

It would be nice to have a system where fighers were circles, bombers were squares and so forth. Then the bigger the ship the bigger the dot would be. The closer the ship the brighter.

It would make the radar much, much more useful.

Don't forget radar masking. Also gotta have that.

=)

ooo what about an item that can make a fighter look like a trader. Or a trader look like a turret ship. /me makes his bus look like a cap ship

i don't know how much programing all this would take, but maybe a good temporary solution would be showing the enemy ship info in the target info box. And if you get close enough it could also show the enemy's structural integrity.