Binos, magnifiers... heck, even a live-feed probe missile

[Poro]

Would it be possible, within an OXP, to create some kind of magnification function for the game? In the X series there was something like vision enhancers that had a hold-down key to quickly zoom in.

I appreciate this may strike veteran players as a needless frivolity, but there are so many times that I intuitively just want to tap a key and have a look at that fight up ahead, or check out that distant twinkling object. Yes I could hit J to fly closer, and then inject away, but I'd like to observe from outside a Hyperspace lock.

What would also be funny, as a pay-off, is if you glance into the sun or even catch the flare from an exploding missile through such devices, your vision within the game whites-out for a limited time.

The reason I mentioned the probe missile in my title is that I was wondering if the viewpoint of the player, as expressed in the plist file for starboard and port, could be seconded by an advanced probe missile? I.E. after firing, you hit a nominated view and cut to the viewpoint of the missile.

[JazHaz]

Or even a guided missile, where you fly the missile yourself?

[Corny]

Either way, zooming in would be nice
(Wasn't there already a post about this somewhere in the near past?)

[another_commander]

All this would require extensive core changes. We avoid these at the moment, because we would like to get a stable release out in the foreseeable future, if possible (btw the new planet code is also an extensive core change, but this was planned from long ago).