I know this has been mentioned, but it really needs to be done. I think that the target info and your ships info should be switched. I guess it's cool to see what part of your ship is hurt, but does it really matter?

If we had our ships health, name, whatever, in the top right, and the targets ship stats, as well as a picture of it in the middle right, we could know to attack or not better. Maybe with extra detection equipment you could switch the picture of the ship to a listing of what weapons and other devices the target has.

Why does it need to be done? Why do we need to know what part of the ship we hurt on the target? And more importantly, why do we need to know what type of ship the enemy has when all battles are fought within visual range? Sorry bro, I totally disagree with you. If or when regional damage is implemented, I think knowing where your own ship is damaged will be more critical than you think. In any case the HUD is going to be customizable in the future.

No, you misunderstand. I'm saying that it doesn't matter to see what damage is. I don't think regional damage will be implemented, correct me if I'm wrong. I'm saying that I want to know what ship the enemy has, and possibly what weapons he has.

When capital ships are implemented, I can't very well turn the ship to zoom in to see what ship the enemy is in. Also, there will be many many ships when the game is out. I'm not going to memorize every variant.

To be fair, I often target people as soon as they enter sensor range - well beyond visual. Usually I do a quick zoom in to see what they're in and then go from there. It would save me a few seconds if I could see what ship the other guy was in just by targeting him.. maybe make it one of those windows that you can toggle on or off like the inventory? I wouldn't need to keep looking at what ship he's in once I know, but it would be cool to not have to zoom in each time a new target approaches.

I like Starfisher's method of an expanding thingy with a pic of their ship. A little wireframe model, maybe with damage indicated if you're within a certain range?

I must agree with grund on this one. The idea of seeing where the craft is damaged is kinda pointless. It doesnt matter where you are hit, just that you are hit.

regional damage doesn't currently exist and I've never heard mention that it ever WILL be implemented.

Thus, being able to see the targets information past the point of Name, Distance, Score, and Bounty is more important.

Already, the idea of Score on the HUD itself seems rather silly since it doesn't reflect a pilots skill at fighting, they could be Bot Kills or Player Kills, but it doesnt say THAT in the score.

Here is some information I think should perhaps be included in a redesigned HUD. I've used myself as an example of Lock-on info

Name: [SDF] Black 1
Distance: 1000m
Ship: Vulture
Payload: 2x Guass Cannons
PKs: 153

This accuratly reflects my standing as of the time of this post.
Only information that would help defeat me is present. Knowing my score and bounty aren't displayed since they aren't relative to my defeat.

My name, and distance are displayed for the same reasons as they are currently, for ID and proximity and to help determine intent.

However, my Ship and my Ship's Weapons Payload is displayed to allow you time to formulate a tactical strike against me to improve odds of defeating me.

My PKs are displayed as an honor type item (similar to the targets USAF pilots paint on their fighters after shooting down an enemy fighter) and also to give a way to semi-determine my fighting skill against a human opponent.

Not ALL that without some sort of scanning gizmo, surely. Payload for instance should be scan-only.

While we're on the topic of HUDs, I think I'd like to see a more minimal approach to the HUD design. I mean the whole frame motif that they got going is okay looking, but it undeniably takes up more space than it needs to. This is especially bothersome when the HUD doesn't scale according to your screen resolution. Transparency is a good thing though, so at least there's that.

Not to copy any designs here or anything, but I think one of the best examples of minimal HUD design can be found in Halo. Yeah yeah, I know a lot of people talk about this game a lot that most of you are probably sick of it. But there's no denying that the artists behind the game knew how to organize the game very well while still making it look cool. Granted yes, Vendetta's current interface is probably nothing more than a placeholder, but I'd just like to use this as an example of how Vendetta's HUD could be better without sacrificing functionality.

http://nikon.bungie.org/screenshots/entdepot.101703/s2.jpg

Notice the motion sensor at the bottom left. A slightly larger version placed to the left and right bottom portion of the screen would be more than enough to substitute for Vendetta's front and rear radars.

Weapons and ammunition information would be neatly tucked at the upper left corner, while hull integrity and money would sit at the opposite corner.

In-game chat wouldn't even need its own frame or gradient blob or whatever, since the chat is littered with enough bright colors to give it enough contrast with the background of Vendetta's universe. So it can simply float between these two elements, making it easy to read, yet unintruisive.

This leaves plenty of room for cargo capacity, group status, and sector map information for similarly sized HUD elements along the left, right, and bottom corners respectively.

The current reticule system is fine, except maybe its tracking could be more accurate for boosting targets. The placement of the engine and battery information is also fine. Although I think the center bars could be bent or curved at the center rather than at the bottom, just to complement the fact that we're in space and there is no "ground" or "bottom".

The end result would look something like this...

http://mmiski.tripod.com/revised_HUD.jpg

Please read the bumped thread.

Hm. did you ever played in privatter ? There was very intresting radar. It shows space all around you, just like a normal radar does, but it also shows you relative altitude of a target. It draws a line up or down to show how far the target is form plane on wchich you were.

This has two advantages:
1. you don't need to jump from one radar to another to check what is before or after you
2. it's ONE radar, not two (more minimalistic :>)

I considered that, but it had one major disadvantage: it's confusing as hell.

Okay, place Ciuciu's type Radar (I should've thought of that from the game G-Police)

Add the information I've previously said, but with some sort of scan mechanism.

Another G-Police reference: Some missions in GP require scanning other craft as they fly past your Havoc Gunship. To scan the craft, you lock onto it and keep the ship pointed in the general direction of the craft for 10 seconds and you get a data readout on it.

Perhaps the same type of scan order could be implemented in Vendetta to produce a much more informative HUD readout.


As for minaturizing the HUD. Cut the whole side piece displaying engine/Batt and just display the ammunition on projectile weapons in a corner. Now the leftside of the HUD is clear.

On the righthand side it's semi-unavoidable for some stuff to be there, but as I've said, and others have said, kill the wireframe. That cuts down on the space.

Speedometer and Batterometer (I rather like that word actually) can be placed where the wireframe was but on a MUCH smaller scale, just say 2 bars, one Green on Red. Green=Speed, Red= Battery. Label them with initials S and B.

Now you have the basic HUD reformed and more clear.

The Chat screen would remian stationary but the location of the current "Lock-on" info would go where Player Stats are right now since we dont need to see our own stats while flying do we?

This should remove a lot of clutter across the HUD making pilots less likely to get Sensory Overload