I know theres been a few topics on this, I've browsed most of them to see what people are asking for and tryed to make a polished up interface.

I couldn't really think of a way to add the ships direction to it cleanly, however, I'll add any ideas that people have to it.

The ships distance from nearest massive object I've added to the target interface, it seems to fit in there ok.

I've added the players location to his info for ease of not having to open nav window, also changed 'money' to credits, sounds a little better I think.

Added a progress bar below the players ship info, this allows the player to quickly see their lvl, as well as how far they have to go until the next lvl.

Replaced the players hull % with a bar instead, looks a tad prettier, also added a second bar for shields (if its implented)

Altered the colour of the players ship to a more pleasing one, damage could be shown as red, also just added 1 view, maybe we could have it as an isometric view of the ship eventually?

Merged the mission and message windows so you can see both, will need to figure out a way to scroll up and down on both of them independtly.

Altered the grouping bars a little to look more prettier :-9

Removed the players equipment list, it didn't really seem to be much use to me, and with people asking to see what items they have more clearly, as well as what items they have looted, I thought maybe that info would be best as a scroll up window (maybe where you can rebind your weapons to if you forgot to do it on a station). Failing that I will just add it to the bottom.

Any suggestions people have for improvements will be greatly appriciated, atm its just a way to put peoples words into a picture so we get an idea of what players want :-)

http://img14.exs.cx/img14/7489/Vendettadisplay.jpg

Not bad. I see a few problems, I'll address them at random.

I'm not sure about shields. I think they were removed for some reason, but I know they were once in the game. With how easy it is to run and escape in this game, I don't think I blame them.

Player loation would be nice, though it needn't be so big.

I don't like the radars above, though that's just me.

I would rather have hull % as a number. It can be a bar too, but I still want a number.

I like your idea of the mission chat being a smaller window above general, except that it would make it difficult to talk to the mission computer as you normally do. I think the tab system works nicely at current, and has room for adding more tabs, though I do like your design.

I'm going to add target speed to it (as noted in your other thread).

I thought about the % and i'll probably add it next to the bar as well, just to see how it looks.

I moved the radars to the top as in a fair few games they are placed there (should make it easier for player transition form other games). Also it allowed a little more space on the screen to play around with.

I've tryed to keep the VO style to the interface, i've just tryed to bring it a little more to current gaming standards :-)

Interesting. The best space game I'd played to date was Freespace. Radar at the bottom seems most intuitive to me.

I'm fine with the current ship damage display, especially when in a group. Small, unobtrusive. One of my biggest irritants in E&B was the group display taking up so much darn screen real estate. I constantly wished I could turn it off.

I completely agree about combining the chat/mission tabs, the current mechanism is very awkward for me especially when doing group combat. Constantly having to switch back/forth between the tabs to see group messages and who killed what bot ... is very problematic.

You know what I'd like to see? *engage dream mode* Dual monitor support. I have dual 19" LCD monitors, and I'd love to have a configurable size chat window on my other monitor so it doesn't clutter my HUD.

Put a 3d arrow between the two bars, below the cross-hairs. About where you have the 'closest object' number now. A vector-arrow, which shows what direction you are travelling. The 'closest large object' isn't needed so close to the center, it's not needed in direct combat as much.

And I really like having the top and front view of my ship. When part-damage is put in, it will make sense to be able to see what is damaged. We needn't see it on enemy ships, though. Just our own.

The 'how far to next level' can be smaller, and needn't be meters. How about just 3(8%)/5(20%)/2(95%)/2(12%) somewhere? It's not information you need in a tense situation, so you should have time to interpret it. The numbers can be different colors (Levels bright, percents a little dimmer) so it's easier to tell them apart on the fly, but it really does not need to be a meter. Just wasted space.

I went more for bars than numbers with %'s as i'm a strong beleaver of the phrase 'A picture paints a thousand words'. If theres to many number around it can get a little confusing i find (personal preference I suppose in some cases).

Wih the ship display itself, i've not really noticed a difference on the damage i take in regards to what part of my ship is damaged. Since we don't have shields atm, having the forward part iluuminated as damaged doesn't mean much, because hiding that part from incoming fire still brings my hull down the same ammount, I actually beleve the damage display of the ship is more important if the ships have shields.

Also, like I said prevoiusly, I'd prefer an 'isometric' view of the ship rather than a top or side view, as this could show a little more info, and would also be a bit cooler visually (I'll have a look at it later)

I'll have a look at putting that direction indicator in as well :-)

You don't understand, they are implimenting a part-specific damage system later. So knowing that the lower part of your ship is yellow might become important later, so you can protect whatever components.

Bars and other such things are only needed for information you need QUICKLY, such as your damage or the enemies damage. Battle-important information should be close to the reticle, whereas non-important information should be further out and not take up much of the screen. Thus, the numbers instead of bars for your levels, since that is not combat-pertinent at ALL.

I see what your saying Direcoyote, and i know I'm new to the game, the idea's I've shown here are more eye candy.

This is becaise alot of number huddled all over may be good for someone who knows what they are looking at, but for a newb to a game, they can be 'extremly' overwealming and cause a player not to bother, also the same with old graphics, i know the developers are planning on adding a better interface, but I just wanted to give an idea of a style here :-)

In regards to the damage system, if knowing which part of the ship is damaged, will an isometric view not be better? Otherwise you'll need 5 views (top/bottom/side/front/back) which really will take up some space.

I would still like to see a vector indicator in the form of a reticle on the HUD, similar to how your current nose direction is indicated by a reticle. It makes it easier to tell if your current velocity will be taking you -into- that asteroid you see, or -next- to that asteroid you see, and the like.

A vector arrow isn't as immediately clear where exactly you are going as a reticle would be.

Octopusfluff, can you post a rough image of what you mean? i'll have a look at adding it then :-)

octopusfluff, such a 'reticle' type velocity indicator would only help you if you were facing the direction your velocity was moving. If it's behind you, or to the side, the velocity indicator would then be inaccurate.

We don't need player info on the flight HUD, since we can call up the character sheet at any time with K.

Other than that though, hot. Very, very hot. I would play that.

In the thread where I posted it before, I specifically mentioned that possibility, where if it was behind you, it would show your reverse velocity vector -- the other half of the invisible line -- so you'd know where you were moving -from-. A simple color or graphic change could accomplish this. For dealing with to the side, there is a concern there.. I think the answer would be a 'in that direction' type arrow, similar to what you get when your target has moved away from the center of your screen. Even a vector arrow wouldn't be useful for telling -exactly- what direction your velocity is when dealing with any direction laterally, in any case.

It was used to great effect in Terminus. While I love how this game is turning out, Terminus had a much more robust and realistic flight model, and its in-game targeting/flight computer was a lot more advanced. Shame Terminus was a dead-end game poorly supported and abandoned shortly after launch. :/

I don't have an easy way of putting a rough image together at the moment, but I may try to do that tomorrow. Terminus, which is my main model for this, just used a tiny little rectangle, which turned into a tiny little x when it was showing reverse velocity.

Forcystus, I would disagree; I hate having to bring up a window to tell if I'm making progress in my level advancement. I have a serious aversion to anything that blocks my view while I'm out in a dangerous environment.

What might be good, tho..
Use the same area for level data as targeting data. When you have no target, have it switch back to the level data.

Okay, here is an update to the layout :-

http://img13.exs.cx/img13/4870/vendettadisplay2.jpg

I've reduced the size of the group and player lvl windows.

I've added the 3d version of the players ship (sorry for the non VO ships)

Added % to the player and target damage bars

Added targets speed in its informayion

I've also moved the nearest object number to the top of the target interface to allow space for a direction indictor at the bottom, once i have a good idea of how to do it graphicly :-)

That's not bad. I would still rather have my damage/enemy damage directly under the two bars, so I can at-a-glance without serious eye-re-manuvering see what he and I are at. Again, information that is directly important to a combat situation should be as close to the center of the screen as possible, so your eyes do not have to stray much. Thus:

- Speed and Energy bars
- Velocity indicator (Near the center, no eye-straying)
- Damage (Both personal and target)
- Distance from largest object (arguably)
The last is arguable because it is only needed to jump, but jumping is important to escape which is part of combat.

Everything else should be away from the center of the screen. What is on the sides is less important, as long as it is transparent enough that you do not lose enemies that pass under them when turning.

I like this one a little better. I'm still against the bars for the level meters, I just don't think it needs a graphical representation. But in your mode, it seems like it would be easy to impliment a 'HUD customization' process so that some users can have the Radars on the bottom and ships on top or vice-versa, and still switch between tabbed/merged chat interfaces depending on what they want. Which is a really great idea.

I think a HUD customisation is extremly important, maybe just an option in your settings where you can switch certain windows off and on. I'm sure having the radars and target player info switchable shouldn't be to tough either :-)

In regards to the enemys damage, how about having the damage bar float above the target you are firing at (this is how it was done in Earth and Beyond). means you have the info pretty much exactly where you want it :-)

Also, turn the cargo back on. We have an option to shrink it, it's not much in the way and can be useful information. It's the only way we can see how many rockets we have left, for instance.

I think damage only deals to these areas: Front, back, top, Left, Right, bottom. Thus, Front&Top view will show all of those areas without needing 5 views.

Shields are usually 'Blue', whereas Armor is 'Green' or 'Red'. Your Tie Fighter should be all blowed up right now. :D

I'll alter those colours on the damage bars, I knew those colours already, just mixed them up :-P

I'll be re-adding the weapons you have installed, mainly for the info on ammo using weapons, but since theres a few people asking about cargo management I'll leave cargo from it, that can maybebe in a pop up window or something :-)

(btw, is there only like 4-5 people that read this suggestion board?) :-P

I think DireCoyote and I must count for at least two people each. :)