Oolite Bulletins

If I read the thread on the ANTS correctly, one of the perceived problems with it is that targetting in Oolite should only be possible by getting the target in the middle of one of the 4 gunsights.

If that is true then my suggestions probably won't fly either, but here goes.

I'd like a piece of equipment that can cycle through anything displayed on the scanner, and make it the current target. I want this for scooping cargo because trying to find the canisters in the dark is pretty damned hard, even with the scanner a 5x zoom. It has obvious uses for combat too, particularly if it had a "target closest hostile" function.

Perhaps it is because I'm flying the fairly fast and agile Cobra Mk3, but I have no trouble getting any hostile ships in my sights to get them targeted, so I don't think this function would make the player's life all that easier in combat.

I'm figuring it isn't a stretch in Elite technology terms, because it is all happening already on the scanner. The scanner is sensing other entities, transforming the spatial difference to an abstract display, and even differentiating entities based on their type and "hostility". The only difference is that instead of displaying them on the scanner it would make the little arrows on the HUD show a general direction, and drawing a box if the thing is within the current view - basically adding a single routine to the ship's scanner software.

I would be happy for it to not even target the thing in question, in terms of a missile lock. I'd just like a box round it so I can find the cargo cannisters more easily.

Would that be a more acceptable alternative? A special cargo scanner that can box cargo cannisters on the HUD? It would be hard to explain why that is all it does when the combat uses are obvious and no more difficult, but I don't need it for combat so don't really care.

I wouldn't mind a piece of equipment that could tell me what was in a cargo cannister (with some percentage of error) too. I'm assuming the cannisters would have RFID-like technology on them for automated handling, and this could be picked up on. After all, you don't check each cannister as it comes in the scoop, but you know what's in it. Illegal things would be stashed in other stuff, so narcotics would show as "Food", Firearms as "Machinery" etc.

targeting turret

To expand on that (I was posting from my PSP).

If turrets are added to the mix then they should have the ability to acquire a sequence of targets adding each in turn to target memory until all the memory slots have been filled.

This would probably appear as an in-HUD flag with a legend something like 'Turret acquiring targets' ... '12 targets acquired' - and then those targets can be highlighted.

On that note I would not be averse to highlighting targets that are already in target-memory, say with a red targeting box for each.

Should I code this into the way target memory works?

I think it sounds pretty good.

A turret that would sweep around adding targets would be cool.

I don't think everything in target memory should be boxed at the same time, that would make the screen too busy and not really add any value. You can see roughly where things are on the radar. It is just the current thing you really need to know about.

I don't use the target memory because I would have to get each cannister in the cross hairs first, so I may as well just scoop them as I find them.

I use target memory in dogfights, but only when heavily outnumbered.

Take one's shield down, he runs. Move to next and do the same, or send off a missile at a previously targeted ship.

It can get very tactical when facing 6 or more, especially when more join in from different directions. Some seem to lock on and need immediate attention, etc.