Oolite Bulletins

Hello all. Apologies for the following rambling 'thinking out loud' post.

I may be alone here but I think that it would be great to have several targets identified on screen at the same time. Is this in any way feasible?

When flying about (for example, you've managed to finally(!) identify a Rock Hermit, and then notice another ship appearing on the scanner that needs identifying in case it's hostile...)

Also with multiple identification, in a dogfight you could also at a glance see which ships are which without repeadly rescanning them. This would also be helpful in the recently discussed Moolite...

Maybe as an upgrade? (2,3 or 4+ scanned objects depending on upgrade level) of course, when out of scanner range, the details are lost again.

ramble over.

Mmm. Currently the only way to do this is to lock multiple missiles onto the different targets.

Perhaps a 'Target Memory' upgrade to your shipcomp - allowing you to select previous/next lock-ons?

Yes that's the sort of thing I was babbling on about. A target memory upgrade would be superb (and probably expensive to buy - being a non essential and all that)

I wasn't even thinking as offensive (as with missile locks) but I guess having the option ('identification' rather than 'locking on') there would be good.

Thanks again for the swift and positive sounding response!

I was mulling over the idea (of writing myself, as a learning exercise, rather than imposing on Giles's time) making a Naval Combat Computer. It would work somewhat like the HUD in fighter planes - ALL objects would automatically get an identity box, which you can cycle through. The identity box would look like the current Scanner Targeting Enhancement green box, except there'd be essentially 3 types - hostile, powered and unpowered. Each box would also come with a concise data block indicating whether the target was approaching or receeding relative to your ship, legal status, ship type etc. The currently locked target would be indicated by a diamond. A 'missile' indicator when within probable missile range, and a 'shoot' indicator when your lasers will probably hit. It would also have a 'pipper' denoting exactly what your laser will hit at a sensible range. Other features would include missile autotargeting - it would be able to automatically target all your missiles at hostiles and release simultaneously on your command.

Sadly round tuits haven't been forthcoming, but if Giles doesn't go implement it first, well, I may still do it as a learning exercise!

Needless to say, it would be insanely expensive like all naval kit is, in the tens of thousands of credits range, and only available at tech level 12 or better.

Multiple targets on screen would mess up the floating pointer around the crosshairs, which is really really helpful, particularly in dogfights.

An alternative to having several targets highlighted at the same time would be to toggle between ships, the 'live' being the main target. You could lanch a missile and then quickly switch to another target and launch another missile.
See my previous post and click on the picture https://bb.oolite.space/viewtopic.ph ... lite#10697

In practice this idea works brilliantly.

The only problem I can forsee is that Oolite tends to have many more objects floating around, the targeting computer would also pick up asteroids, cargo cannisters, boulders, so a busy screen would wear your finger out.

I've heard from a reliable source that Faulcon de Lacy are working on a military version, an FOF device that just targets ships - bloody expensive though!

Wow. That's pretty extensive.

Funny that I started with the idea because I lost a rock hermit on my scanner - but now I'm seeing much more potential! I'm now looking forward to seeing the upgrade if/when it happens!

Perhaps its worth having an upgrade with a simple version that is cheaper, and a more expensive/high tech level version with all the bells and whistles?

What about a selectable list, à la vendetta-online?

The simple version could be really simple: you only get the info as per normal (after making the ident system active and pointing at stuff).

The only actual difference being the info remains visible (name, distance and status) after pointing at other objects/ships.

Flags on the radar screen could be useful too, with the current target highlighted, then we can have a few keys to select e.g.

B - Select next in front (in the V-shaped field of view)
V - Select next hostile
etc.

TGHC wrote:

Multiple targets on screen would mess up the floating pointer around the crosshairs, which is really really helpful, particularly in dogfights.

It wouldn't because you'd only have one selected as a primary target at any one time. The rest would just get an infobox. You'd be able to cycle around the targets (select target category - hostile/powered/unpowered, then something like Space cycles - most military flight sims have something like this).

winston wrote:

TGHC wrote:

Multiple targets on screen would mess up the floating pointer around the crosshairs, which is really really helpful, particularly in dogfights.

It wouldn't because you'd only have one selected as a primary target at any one time. The rest would just get an infobox. You'd be able to cycle around the targets (select target category - hostile/powered/unpowered, then something like Space cycles - most military flight sims have something like this).

I really like this idea!

implemented Target memory Expansion for v1.64 (r323)

Basically the shipcomp keeps track of each ship you target (either with the ident computer or the missiles), memorising up to 16 different targets. You can use the '+' and '-' keys to select from previously locked targets within scanner range.

Note that by selecting a missile target and cycling the M and + keys this means you can launch a salvo of missiles onto a target without retargetting each time.

do you publish snapshots? nightly builds?

It'll be in the next linux nightly build, otherwise you'll have build from SVN or wait for one of my Mac development patches (I'll probably do one this weekend, if I have time...)

Sounds great!

Looking forward to trying it out as and when the latest update is out and about - and I can afford the upgrade of course...