Just brainstorming. Much of these ideas have been suggested already, I'm just sketching them on the HUD.
PIC 1
- Orbit lines that do not disappear for lack of speed or switching to normal cruise
- Orbit direction
- Body number/letter. Body count is made with a honk of ADS, so I see no reason not to disaply it right away, and having it on the HUD would prevent one from constantly switching to System Map
- Permanent display of next plotted jump + distance + primary star type. Allows for anticipation: one doesn't have to spool the FSD or open the GalMap to know what's coming next
- Star type and luminosity class. Instead of having to open the GalMap...
PIC 2
- Orbit lines, orbit directions, body letter/number
- System plane layout, with distance indicators (red)
- Angle indicator for in-system ship coordinates (green; arrow means clockwise)
- Coordinates of ship's localisation in the system (degrees+elevation relative to system plane in light-seconds; + or -)
- Schematics of the system map on the left, with current targetted object, landables in green, current localisation (if within x distance of a body); could be filtered for starports only, etc.
- Body indicators for an easier and quicker navigation (in purple); could be adapted for starports
PIC 3
- Ship coordinates, system schematics
- Body type that does NOT disappear when the surface approach thing appears
- Quick snapshot at what rare mats are available on the body (or something)
- Equator and poles displayed
- Surface marker
- Distance counter to marker
- Direction indicator for surface navigation
Previously mentionned stuff:
- Nearby bodies indicators
- Next plotted system info (dist. + star type) in the bottom left hand corner
- Direction and distance indicators for surface markers
- Deep space ship coordinates
Cleanup from the game HUD:
- Removed all 'NONE' bits, because useless
- Removed the next system info box displayed when charging the FSD when outside the bubble, because it's then useless
- Removed 'INFO' from the info tab (top right), because useless, and moved the clock next to the ship name; which is limited in character number, so shouldn't be a problem
- Moved the warning to the top center of the HUD, so it doesn't mask info anymore
- Removed the useless '1 year' from the target indicator, replaced with a more useful star type, for a quick check at the last second if not done before without needing to cancel the jump
- Removed the HEAT and SCOOP RATE bars; HEAT is redundant, and RATE has been moved to the bottom right corner; colour-dynamic, green indicates optimum rate
- Removed the USELESS lamps on each side of the dashboard, as well as the two LED-something rectangles on the left and right edges of the dashboard. Who drives their car at night with the interior light on?....
New stuff from left to right:
- (invisible) Comms box designed for legibility and message stacking, not NPC avatar gallery
- Simplified and dynamic system schematics. When targetting a star, it shows the stars in the system; rest of the bodies (if any), indicated by a body icon and '...'. When targetting a planet, stars disappear and leave room for a list of bodies (see previous mockups), with '...' if room is lacking. The green indicator shows the presence of body/ies (or, if in planet mode, which body/ies) matching the schematics filters: say one wants to find ELWs, they check the 'Water presence' filter, and if some is present in the system, it will show up on the schematics (and on the Nav panel - I should mock it up soon). A simple honk gives us a visual map of the whole system, so no reason not to be able to detect water that way. Would tag GG with water-based life, WWs, ELWs; same principle with metal, ammonia, etc.
- Summary of astronomical info of the targetted (and scanned) body. Class, subclass, luminosity class, full name; age, mass, radius, temperature, orbital period, semi major axis > stars. Type, radius, mass, blah blah and RARE MATS at least > landables. All values rounded up if needed to save room.
- Tagged/untagged indicator. All in the name of opening the SysMap as a last resort!
- Longitude/latitude indicator. More legible and simpler with dynamic +/- indicators to help orientate the ship, relatively to its direction. Supplementary to surface markers, when not used.
- Clear and difficult-to-miss gravity indicator. Because what's the nonsense behind hiding one of the most vital information when flying a spaceship on dozens of planets. Colour-dynamic: green up to 1G, orange from 1 to 2G, red from 2 onwards.
- Boosted jump range estimates for all boost levels, based on the availability of at least 2 boosts (forward and back, just in case, because we want SMART ships) and the current base jump range. So it varies with the amount of fuel in the tank. Which should prevent explorers to grab their calculator or do approximate math when trying to reach very distant systems.
- Fuel Warning indicator. Checks that the ship can jump at least twice the full-tank jump range with the current amount of fuel. If not, warns.
I also thought (but forgot to mock up) of a sort of 3D corridor, like a simpler version of the docking corridor for SLFs, that would show the optimum trajectory for fuel scooping. 'Cause why not.
- I shall mock up the Nav panel soon, but basically, the main thing would be to remove the system name from bodies names when in a system (clogs up the planel for no reason at all, really), leaving only A1, A2, even if the body hasn't been scanned (see previous mockups).
- Take advantage of the room to display the body type once known (although as mentionned, the honk as it currently is should be able to provide a very basic indication of it), and then, for example, the rare mats. Smart ship, once again.
PIC 4
- No biggie, just the star class and luminosity class on the Sysmap
- The distance for ALL orbiting bodies, which includes the brown dwarfs!
PIC 5
- Useless info removed when not pertaining
- Star types in the system added on the map, to avoid constantly switching from Route to Info tabs and back
- Bit of vertical grid (no reason not to!)
PIC 1
- Orbit lines that do not disappear for lack of speed or switching to normal cruise
- Orbit direction
- Body number/letter. Body count is made with a honk of ADS, so I see no reason not to disaply it right away, and having it on the HUD would prevent one from constantly switching to System Map
- Permanent display of next plotted jump + distance + primary star type. Allows for anticipation: one doesn't have to spool the FSD or open the GalMap to know what's coming next
- Star type and luminosity class. Instead of having to open the GalMap...
PIC 2
- Orbit lines, orbit directions, body letter/number
- System plane layout, with distance indicators (red)
- Angle indicator for in-system ship coordinates (green; arrow means clockwise)
- Coordinates of ship's localisation in the system (degrees+elevation relative to system plane in light-seconds; + or -)
- Schematics of the system map on the left, with current targetted object, landables in green, current localisation (if within x distance of a body); could be filtered for starports only, etc.
- Body indicators for an easier and quicker navigation (in purple); could be adapted for starports
PIC 3
- Ship coordinates, system schematics
- Body type that does NOT disappear when the surface approach thing appears
- Quick snapshot at what rare mats are available on the body (or something)
- Equator and poles displayed
- Surface marker
- Distance counter to marker
- Direction indicator for surface navigation
Previously mentionned stuff:
- Nearby bodies indicators
- Next plotted system info (dist. + star type) in the bottom left hand corner
- Direction and distance indicators for surface markers
- Deep space ship coordinates
Cleanup from the game HUD:
- Removed all 'NONE' bits, because useless
- Removed the next system info box displayed when charging the FSD when outside the bubble, because it's then useless
- Removed 'INFO' from the info tab (top right), because useless, and moved the clock next to the ship name; which is limited in character number, so shouldn't be a problem
- Moved the warning to the top center of the HUD, so it doesn't mask info anymore
- Removed the useless '1 year' from the target indicator, replaced with a more useful star type, for a quick check at the last second if not done before without needing to cancel the jump
- Removed the HEAT and SCOOP RATE bars; HEAT is redundant, and RATE has been moved to the bottom right corner; colour-dynamic, green indicates optimum rate
- Removed the USELESS lamps on each side of the dashboard, as well as the two LED-something rectangles on the left and right edges of the dashboard. Who drives their car at night with the interior light on?....
New stuff from left to right:
- (invisible) Comms box designed for legibility and message stacking, not NPC avatar gallery
- Simplified and dynamic system schematics. When targetting a star, it shows the stars in the system; rest of the bodies (if any), indicated by a body icon and '...'. When targetting a planet, stars disappear and leave room for a list of bodies (see previous mockups), with '...' if room is lacking. The green indicator shows the presence of body/ies (or, if in planet mode, which body/ies) matching the schematics filters: say one wants to find ELWs, they check the 'Water presence' filter, and if some is present in the system, it will show up on the schematics (and on the Nav panel - I should mock it up soon). A simple honk gives us a visual map of the whole system, so no reason not to be able to detect water that way. Would tag GG with water-based life, WWs, ELWs; same principle with metal, ammonia, etc.
- Summary of astronomical info of the targetted (and scanned) body. Class, subclass, luminosity class, full name; age, mass, radius, temperature, orbital period, semi major axis > stars. Type, radius, mass, blah blah and RARE MATS at least > landables. All values rounded up if needed to save room.
- Tagged/untagged indicator. All in the name of opening the SysMap as a last resort!
- Longitude/latitude indicator. More legible and simpler with dynamic +/- indicators to help orientate the ship, relatively to its direction. Supplementary to surface markers, when not used.
- Clear and difficult-to-miss gravity indicator. Because what's the nonsense behind hiding one of the most vital information when flying a spaceship on dozens of planets. Colour-dynamic: green up to 1G, orange from 1 to 2G, red from 2 onwards.
- Boosted jump range estimates for all boost levels, based on the availability of at least 2 boosts (forward and back, just in case, because we want SMART ships) and the current base jump range. So it varies with the amount of fuel in the tank. Which should prevent explorers to grab their calculator or do approximate math when trying to reach very distant systems.
- Fuel Warning indicator. Checks that the ship can jump at least twice the full-tank jump range with the current amount of fuel. If not, warns.
I also thought (but forgot to mock up) of a sort of 3D corridor, like a simpler version of the docking corridor for SLFs, that would show the optimum trajectory for fuel scooping. 'Cause why not.
- I shall mock up the Nav panel soon, but basically, the main thing would be to remove the system name from bodies names when in a system (clogs up the planel for no reason at all, really), leaving only A1, A2, even if the body hasn't been scanned (see previous mockups).
- Take advantage of the room to display the body type once known (although as mentionned, the honk as it currently is should be able to provide a very basic indication of it), and then, for example, the rare mats. Smart ship, once again.
PIC 4
- No biggie, just the star class and luminosity class on the Sysmap
- The distance for ALL orbiting bodies, which includes the brown dwarfs!
PIC 5
- Useless info removed when not pertaining
- Star types in the system added on the map, to avoid constantly switching from Route to Info tabs and back
- Bit of vertical grid (no reason not to!)
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