Oolite Bulletins

The oolite targetting system is really primitive. Simple "friend or foe" displays were sufficient for classic Elite, but become very frustrating in larger battles and missions where specific ships must be located and monitored. Managing large group of mixed friends and enemies is very confusing. Missions that require finding particular ships quickly and then escorting them (like the localhero one) would be made much more enjoyable with more advanced scanner/targetting system.

I think the "X-Wing" style targetting system is really excellent and a good model to go on. The joy and fun in the game is being immersed into the mission goals and status, not (for me) on the mechanics of targetting and keeping track of goal targets (after all that's what computers are good for!). In order to build multi-part missions with multiple subgoals and have them be playable, the ship targetting system needs an overhaul.

In order to support large battles and larger missions where specific targets need cover/support, being able to:

+ target "nearest enemy"
+ cycle through all ships
+ cycle through all enemies, friends
+ store important targets into target memory hot keys so that you don't need to "-" and "+" your way through dozens of ships to find the location and status of just one.

For purists this new targetting system could be excluded from "strict" mode.

I thought some of the additional equipment available via OXPs covers some/most/many of your suggestions already...

OK, I haven't come close to trying out all OXPs yet. Do you have the names of one in particular that addresses targetting?

Ok, having looked (precisely) what you requested - the OXPs I thought did what you wanted don't quite (but perhaps they could be modded).

The three I initially thought of were:

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Multi-Targeting_System

and

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Scanne ... nhancement

and

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Target ... ry_Upgrade

Oops

I agree that there is room for a 'Military Targetting System' or something - your scanner can already show all objects in space around your ship, so why do you have to aim your laser-sights in order to target one? PgUp/PgDn to cycle through all objects in your vicinity makes sense IMO..

CmdrLUke wrote:

In order to build multi-part missions with multiple subgoals and have them be playable, the ship targetting system needs an overhaul.

While I agree that there could be more enhancements to the target computer, I would not agree with the above statement. The quite complex missions with huge and confusing battles in Assassins.oxp are playable (and have been played by many Ooliteers) with the targetting system as it is now.

And I am also concerned with the making-things-too-easy-may-take-the-fun-out-of-them effect.

Commander McLane wrote:

CmdrLUke wrote:

In order to build multi-part missions with multiple subgoals and have them be playable, the ship targetting system needs an overhaul.

While I agree that there could be more enhancements to the target computer, I would not agree with the above statement. The quite complex missions with huge and confusing battles in Assassins.oxp are playable (and have been played by many Ooliteers) with the targetting system as it is now.

And I am also concerned with the making-things-too-easy-may-take-the-fun-out-of-them effect.

That depends entirely on the subjective notion of "fun." For me, the search is not "fun" if it goes on longer than 2 sweeps of the shipping lanes. "Fun" for me is engaging the enemy and scooping up the canisters afterwards . Missions in, for example, Xwing are very hectic and involve large numbers of targets, and the "fun" is in doing the mission (preventing attacks on targets, escort duty, destroying targets, etc.), not trying to find out where the enemy is. The targetting system is a tool to execute the mission, it's not part of the fun of engaging (for me).

In assassins missions holding down ¬ on the keyboard will identify your target amongst a group. Holding down this key causes Oolite to mark on the scanner the last ship to hail you (lines come up around its golf club). In the battles I've scripted the target always tends to send a cheeky taunt over the comms channel, so you can use this to ID him.

LittleBear wrote:

In assassins missions holding down ¬ on the keyboard will identify your target amongst a group.

I’m pretty sure I don’t have a logical not sign on my keyboard. :-)

Odd! On the PC build holding down ¬ (` in small case) does the trick.

That’s a ~ on my UK keyboard layout.

LittleBear wrote:

Odd! On the PC build holding down ¬ (` in small case) does the trick.

Very odd, i do not see that sign on my standard 102 keyboard either. and i´m using a PC
It has however a danish lay-out.

The small case key ` has these two other signs,

| and ´

but not the sign identified by hex #AC or 172 in the ASCII table... ¬

I´m using the small case "½" key,the upper key is "§".. of that key. which is the key above the tabulator key...

Maybe its a Dell thing! I get (on the key next to the 1 and above the Q) ¬ and `. Hmm my Acer laptop is the same.