The Hollow Box
- Thread starter Ozram
- Start date
The idea is you'd know once you did a passive scan on them. Never mind.
Idk, I send a generic 'hello' to anything nearby anyway - not really trusting the radar to function (as it goes, it doesn't always tag a ship that is shooting you as an enemy either - even if they've been firing at you some half a minute or so... which is, in the least, annoying).
But what comes to the hollow boxing to separate scanned/unscanned - I'd rather keep the radar as it is now and put a marker in contacts list next to targets you've scanned to make browsing the list swifter. In busy places, for example comp.nav beacons, the list can contain a heck lot of names... lots of re-checking at times as names get populated when either you scan them or they scan you... Would be nice to see with a single glance at the list whom you've scanned already.
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Not until my experience with NPCs is the same as with players. Just minus the combat logging..
Local Broadcast: Hello! - Problem solved.
This.
We are not civilians anymore like the npc's.
We were chosen. So yeah, read the lore, it will make sense.
Or they could make the NPCs combat log occasionally! Easier to code for
Lol !
Legacy_LuckyLuke
Banned
No hollow box on Mac version. That's something to think about
No hollow box on Mac version. That's something to think about
No Horizons either
runs away
[sulk]
My career had been mostly exploration. I love seeing other commanders in open, as it is a rare experience. Even tonight trading I haven't seen another human in my 5 hr session. So I say keep the hollow box. The game is empty enough even when we can identify other humans.
I suppose that might come in handy keeping track of wings in an RES that I will engage later or something. Definitely not an A1 priority though.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
It stems from a need to be able to identify players in a multi-player game - otherwise all ships would look the same and players would not know if there were other players around them.
From the Kickstarter FAQ thread here:
If this was the case why are NPC ships ranked with the EFoP ranks? EFoP is also responsible for handing out bounties when members attack other members.
From http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Pilots_Federation
By the established lore I would say that all ships we encounter in-game are actually members of the Pilots Federation, NPC or otherwise.
But back on topic I would have to disagree with removing the hollow box icons. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy knowing that I am actually playing a multiplayer game when I spot hollow boxes, without the hollow box I would feel forever alone.
I strongly disagree with this. I too get the fuzzy feeling when I jump into a system and see some hollow boxes. And if I'm hauling goods, it lets me know I need to be very cautious and watch for anyone trying to get on my tail (who would actually be a threat). And if this is supposed to act as some deterrence to griefers, I don't think it's an effective one. If someone is looking for someone to harass, it's not that difficult to just head to a known populated area and start scanning for cmdrs. A group this would have a negative impact on is legitimate pirates who might be hanging out on rare trade routes or any place where there may or may not be players present.
As for the immersion aspect, that's a little ridiculous. System authority has their own color square, as do wingmates and hostiles. The hollow square is reserved for members of the pilots federation (players) and the solid square is reserved for regular joes with names like Gigglesnork that say things like "I'm gonna boil you up." It would not make any sense lore-wise for our ships to not be able to distinguish between different types of ships.
As for the immersion aspect, that's a little ridiculous. System authority has their own color square, as do wingmates and hostiles. The hollow square is reserved for members of the pilots federation (players) and the solid square is reserved for regular joes with names like Gigglesnork that say things like "I'm gonna boil you up." It would not make any sense lore-wise for our ships to not be able to distinguish between different types of ships.
System authority have their own color square? I don't think so. Your reputation with different factions is what you're talking about, I presume. That can alter things... Also, what's our scanners being able to distinguish what type of ship we are looking at have to do with the topic at hand. What we are talking about is distinguishing between pilots (human or NPC). Disagree if you like, but it IS less immersive by far the way the hollow box works. All it tells you is that you have some other human playing the same game as you. Humans and NPCs share the same ranking qualifiers as well as have access to the same ships. It's one of the most immersion breaking elements of the game and it seems to me from the majority of responses that it's there mostly because players are afraid of each other. Ridiculous, but I can accept the obvious and glaring flaw in design. Perhaps if one day they implement persistent NPC characters those can have hollow boxes too.
If we really want to talk about breaking immersion there are dozens of things in this game that break immersion. Things like jumping into SC and seeing no persistent NPCs is like going through a ghost town in a system with billions of inhabitants. I don't think removing the hollow box is really going to make much of a difference when you put things in perspective. At the end of the day the only argument I see having much merit is one of balance. You could argue it's unfair to traders for pirates to see them right away and that's about it.