Newcomer / Intro Radar symbols

Balin

B
I've just started playing in Open so I now have a vested interest in knowing what all the symbols mean.

I know that green is friendly, red is hostile, flashing red is 'shooting at me', triangle has deployed hardpoints, square hasn't.

But what about hollow square boxes? And how do friends or wingmates show up?

Any input greatly appreciated :) Thanks!
 

znôrt

znôrt
10 Sensors: This displays an area of space around your ship, which is represented as a triangle at the centre of a disc.

Contacts that your ship’s sensors have detected display as markers on the disc; a contact that sits on the disc above the triangle representing your ship is in front of you, a contact to the left of the triangle is to the left of your vessel and so on.

A contact’s height is represented by a vertical line that connects it to the disc.

The length of the line describes how far above or below you the contact is; a contact sitting on a tall vertical line is high above your ship, a contact hanging from a small vertical line is slightly below your ship etc.

The appearance and colour of a contact marker contains information:

A flickering marker indicates that the contact has such a weak signature that it is not resolved. Unresolved contacts cannot be targeted. To resolve a contact, fly towards it.

A square contact indicates that its weapon hard points are retracted, while a triangle contact indicates that its weapon hard points are deployed.

A hollow marker indicates that the contact is a human commander, while a solid color maker indicates the contact is an AI commander.

Colour is used to indicate your relationship with the contact:
• Hostile contacts are coloured red.
• Neutral contacts are coloured orange.
• Allied contacts are coloured green.
• Wingmen contacts are coloured cyan.
• Wing hostile contacts are coloured purple.
• Contacts representing structures and anomalies are coloured white.
• A contact that flashes white signifies that it is currently attacking your vessel.
Click to expand...

https://d1wv0x2frmpnh.cloudfront.net/elite/website/assets/English-PlayersGuide-Latest.pdf
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
151344
 

Hossi

Hossi
Just a few additions:
-Triangeles in Supercruise means... probably nothing
Can mean an interdictor but can also appear on ships that don't have an interdictor.
It might be a bug. I see these quite frequently on random cmdrs.
A while ago I was hauling with a friend (winged up), and after a few hours his icon switched to a triangle while in supercruise.
He didn't do anything. Didn't have an interdictor, not even weapons on that ship.
In general: Treat every hollow icon as hostile unless you know them

- Players that aren't hostile are normaly yellow. Blue if you are winged up, and green if you are in the same squadron

- NPCs are green if you are allied to their faction, or if you are fighting on the same side in a cz.

- NPCs arre red if you are hostile to their faction, or fighting on the opposite side in a cz. Everyone is red if you are fighting them. That means that not every red icon in a CZ is an enemy! Keep that in mind if you fight there

- Don't approach a starport if its red. Just don't.
 

Rob_the_Sparky

R
I'm not 100% but in SC I think it shows as a triangle when you use scanners. However, I've not tested this but a triangle shows that hardpoints are deployed so the logic is there...
 

Krieger

Krieger
Rob_the_Sparky said:
I'm not 100% but in SC I think it shows as a triangle when you use scanners. However, I've not tested this but a triangle shows that hardpoints are deployed so the logic is there...
Click to expand...
You are 100% correct. Scanners deploy when you use them (also supercruise) so your sensor blip becomes a hollow triangle. If you select 'retract weapons' your blip becomes a hollow square again.
 

Hossi

Hossi
Krieger said:
You are 100% correct. Scanners deploy when you use them (also supercruise) so your sensor blip becomes a hollow triangle. If you select 'retract weapons' your blip becomes a hollow square again.
Click to expand...
Sorry, but thats just a myth.

In normal space the icon turns to a triangle if you deploy hardpoint. Everyone knows that. But you can't deploy hardpoints in supercruise.

So what causes the icon to switch to a triangle in supercruise?
"Deploying an interdictor or using a scanner" is the normal answer that you will get here. But this answer is wrong. A myth. And I can prove it.
I tried it out 5 minutes ago, just to see if anything has changed since the last time I did this. I've got multiple accounts, so I can observe myself.
Andf I can tell you:
-Deploying an interdictor does not turn you a triangle
-Deploying any scanner in the game does not turn you a triangle
-Switching Cockpit modes does not
-Using the FSS does not
-Honking does not
-Firing surface probes does not
-Scanning the whole system does not

The only thing that causes you to turn triangle is actually using the interdictor
So why are ships that are not interdicting, and often dont even have an interdictor on board, show as a triangle every now and then?
Its a bug. Pure and simple.
And that was the point of my post up there.
 

Krieger

Krieger
What I described is how it has worked since release. In the early days there even appeared a message in the upper right info panel saying "deploying hardpoints" (or something similar) and when you issued 'retract weapons' it said "retracting hardpoints" (despite only scanners were deployed in supercruise). The latter message also appeared if scanners were deployed in supercruise and the FSD started charging. Those messages were removed a long time ago but the mechanics remained the same.

Having said that, it's certainly possible bugs have crept in lately. (I haven't noticed to be honest.) If you are sure it's become bugged, please report it via the Issue Tracker.
 

Hossi

Hossi
Lol, you actually brought me to an idea there. I ran another test right now.
And behold: Honking DOES trigger an triangular icon, but ONLY if you activate 'Firing deploys Hardpoints'.
Apparently that option (that I never use normaly) triggers an deployment of hardpoints in supercruise, even though hardpoints can't be deployd in supercruise.
 
Last edited:

Krieger

Krieger
That was a good idea. Indeed I've always used 'Firing deploys hardpoints'. I think most players do, hence the persistence of the "scanning causes a triangle" reports. Good thing that is clear now.
 

McGyverCP

McGyverCP
Alain Escher said:
@Hossi: Wow, did you build your own panel? Show us the rest of your cockpit!
Click to expand...
I second that request! I'd love to be able to have a set up like that...Just takes time and money...time I got, Money, well I just spent $5,300 US on a new Heat pump unit for the house. Phoenix is no place to NOT have a working AC in your home. Like warping in too close to an O CLass and not having a heatsink.
 

Para Handy

Para Handy
Alain Escher said:
@Hossi: Wow, did you build your own panel? Show us the rest of your cockpit!
Click to expand...
McGyverCP said:
I second that request! I'd love to be able to have a set up like that...Just takes time and money...time I got, Money, well I just spent $5,300 US on a new Heat pump unit for the house. Phoenix is no place to NOT have a working AC in your home. Like warping in too close to an O CLass and not having a heatsink.
Click to expand...

You will find a thread all about the status display panel by @Hossi here: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/status-display-hardware-edition.525448/

I don't know if there was a thread about the switch panel, if there was one in the old hardware forum it might have been lost.
 

McGyverCP

McGyverCP

Lord Maniac

Lord Maniac
Wow. THIS is impressive!

aaaand another project to gleefully waste money and time on!
And another thing for my wife to think i´m crazy.
 
Last edited:

Hossi

Hossi
Yeah, I made a thread for the switch panel when I finished it. But that was two or three years ago.
Compared to the display panel, the switch panel was really easy. Its basically just an old sub-keyboard. I just took the controller out, threw away everything else, and soldered these switches to the connectors that where once rigged to the keys.
A couple of relais and leds on top, and a blinker-relais for the 'chaff' switch (drops a chaff every 13 seconds).
Fun fact: The original reason I started to build that thing was, I was tired of holding the fire button while mining. The first plan was to solder a switch to the T16000. From there the project grew a bit.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom