Oolite Bulletins

How about some kind of laser targeting system to help snipe small ships at longer ranges. I'm thinking of the sidewinders and whitetails which can be so hard to line up on at a distance. The system I have in mind is some kind of low power laser that illuminates the target, causing it to glow red (say) on the screen when the sights are properly lined up. If you have a scanner targeting enhancement, that could change colour too.

As it would have to be mounted on the laser array, it would probably require some sacrifice of laser power, so the individual blasts would do less damage but more of them would hit their target so you wouldn't overheat them by firing into empty space.

Hitting targets at long distance is difficult, certainly if you use the keyboard controls. Several suggestions have been made already along the lines of what you are suggesting. In Xelite the targetting reticule changes to red when the target object can be hit, not wasting laser fire, this obviously helps to prevent your military laser from overheating so quickly.

If you have the targetting enhancement, that gives you the target legal status, it also gives you the range... I use that...

Sure, CWolf, but even with that it can be hard to hit targets at a distance even when the sights appear perfectly lined up, especially if you use the keyboard.

Suppose. I use keyboard and I generally rely on the sound effect at long range to see if I am hitting them, as for aiming it is a little trial and error. I think a slight alteration to your idea could work well though, a limited gimbal fitting to the turret mounts allowing the guns to be a fraction more accurate when a ship is within the currently existing box.