Asymmetry (in the cockpit), flying, and the possibility of getting custom ship seat placement

[Thanatoast]

Hello fellow commanders,

I don't know if I'm alone in this or not, but one of the main factors for me forgoing certain ships (Say for example, the cobra mk III) in my bounty hunting/trading career would be the asymmetry in the cockpit of ships. Not only is it visually uncomfortable (OCD, not even once), it's also quite annoying to try to navigate into the letterbox into the station docks. While doing a cursory search of the forums did not yield this topic, I feel it's still a nice customize-able option to have, and could potentially make us feel a bit more attached to our ships (other than the insurance costs/time spent with said ship of course).

So, I'm hoping someone in frontier would be kind enough to at least think about custom placements of pilot's seat/co-pilot's seat in the near future. Hopefully, even potentially having this as a feature in the game!


Here's to hoping, and fly safe

-Toast

 

[Blackcompany]

Agree completely.

I could not stand the Adder for this reason. The cockpit placement is horrible. Makes TrackIR almost pointless, as you cant see anything anyway. And its difficult to fly or dock.

I also believe the Fer de Lance is awful. I mean, one of the canopy edges cuts a vertical line through the line of sight of your right eye. That's...awful. Its a bounty hunting ship; give me a single, centered seat.

 

[Asp Explorer]

I really cannot agree here. If I get in my car, I have a choice of four seating placements. I can only really control the car in one of them. That is the one with the controls, and as the cockpits are designed as "spaces", it'd take a lot of work to fit them all for "foreign-drive"

 

[Psycho Romeo]

I really cannot agree here. If I get in my car, I have a choice of four seating placements. I can only really control the car in one of them. That is the one with the controls, and as the cockpits are designed as "spaces", it'd take a lot of work to fit them all for "foreign-drive"

Unusually, this one has a good point.

As a counter argument, some of these ships aren't commercial automobiles - they're fighters. Like how predators have forward facing eyes, fighter jets have centralized seating.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Like how predators have forward facing eyes, fighter jets have centralized seating.

Usually because an atmosphere is involved. Multiple combat aircraft have a tandem arrangement: Su-24, F-111 spring to mind - although I'll leave it to the jet-guys to explain it better than me. Outside an atmosphere, you don't have the same stresses on a frame, so your pilots can pretty much sit wherever they like - provided they have the controls to do so.

 

[Psycho Romeo]

Usually because an atmosphere is involved. Multiple combat aircraft have a tandem arrangement: Su-24, F-111 spring to mind - although I'll leave it to the jet-guys to explain it better than me. Outside an atmosphere, you don't have the same stresses on a frame, so your pilots can pretty much sit wherever they like - provided they have the controls to do so.

Whelp, you got me there. My only retort is that those two aircraft are probably heavily supported by systems such as seeking missiles - there's very little need to line up and aim the nose of the aircraft with as much precision as is needed in ED. Something like a biplane would be different.

 

[Magic Man]

The ships are designed as they are, I don't see what the problem is - seating position makes no real difference other than the slight difference in perspective of the cockpit frame.

You sit in the pilot's seat, whether that's left or right, just like in our world, you don't get to ask for an opposite hand drive...

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...there's very little need to line up and aim the nose of the aircraft with as much precision as is needed in ED. Something like a biplane would be different.

There is absolutely no need to line up the centre line as such in ED, there is no parallax error and none of the ships have such a wide distance between left and right seats to make flying them any different at all from either.
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fighter jets have centralized seating.

That's because, by majority, they are single seat anyway.

 

[ayures]

I really cannot agree here. If I get in my car, I have a choice of four seating placements. I can only really control the car in one of them. That is the one with the controls, and as the cockpits are designed as "spaces", it'd take a lot of work to fit them all for "foreign-drive"

Then give me some (useful) NPC to ride shotgun. Hell, if I could hire a guy who could function like an autopilot, autodock, and/or some other feature(s) without taking up a slot on my ship, I'd pay bank for him and feel like I have a second seat for a reason..

 

[DocLooshkin]

I don't have an opinion on the main idea in this thread, but regarding the fighter balance and atmospheres thing, all of the playable ships are supposed to be able to fly and fight in planetary atmospheres. That functionality - along with planetary landings - is planned / hoped for by the devs, but just hasn't been coded yet. Having said that, I'm not sure a pilots weight is going to be important when we're essentially flying a small building made of heavy metal.

 

[Thanatoast]

I really cannot agree here. If I get in my car, I have a choice of four seating placements. I can only really control the car in one of them. That is the one with the controls, and as the cockpits are designed as "spaces", it'd take a lot of work to fit them all for "foreign-drive"

While the car analogy is, for the most part, true, there are modifications that can be done to vehicles to make them drive on the opposite side. So that's really a moot point. Seats are designed as spaces within the cockpit, but I'm just hoping for an option of an in game modification that can be done at starports so I can re-arrange the spaces within my ship's cockpit to my personal preference.

The ships are designed as they are, I don't see what the problem is - seating position makes no real difference other than the slight difference in perspective of the cockpit frame.

You sit in the pilot's seat, whether that's left or right, just like in our world, you don't get to ask for an opposite hand drive...

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There is absolutely no need to line up the centre line as such in ED, there is no parallax error and none of the ships have such a wide distance between left and right seats to make flying them any different at all from either.
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That's because, by majority, they are single seat anyway.

There is a very good reason to line up the "nose" of the ship to the target especially during dogfights in space.

Centralized seating isn't just because most airplanes are single seaters. Take the F15, it's a 2 seater that also have a centralized seating in its cockpit. From what I can tell, having a centered view of a ship/plane is simply an easier way for the pilot to get used to the new environment.

Usually because an atmosphere is involved. Multiple combat aircraft have a tandem arrangement: Su-24, F-111 spring to mind - although I'll leave it to the jet-guys to explain it better than me. Outside an atmosphere, you don't have the same stresses on a frame, so your pilots can pretty much sit wherever they like - provided they have the controls to do so.

The Su-24 and the F-111 are both primarily an air to ground aircrafts, rather than dogfighting (AKA air superiority fighter) vessel. In the case of air superiority fighters, most (if not all) of the planes have a centralized pilot's seat.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Take the F15, it's a 2 seater that also have a centralized seating in its cockpit.

Kind of - the F15 has both single and dual-seat configurations, and I think that most single-seat combat aircraft have dual-seat training versions. Again, I'll let the jet-guys explain it better than me, as there is a whole spectrum of models and types and I don't know much about most of them.

The Su-24 and the F-111 are both primarily an air to ground aircrafts, rather than dogfighting (AKA air superiority fighter) vessel. In the case of air superiority fighters, most (if not all) of the planes have a centralized pilot's seat.

Well, the primarily combat ships in Elite follow your line of thinking, the Eagle, Viper, Vulture are all primarily combat ships. Other ships are not, and their cockpit design reflects this I think. If FD were to enable cockpit seating relocation, either in-game shipworks or perhaps as an addon, I don't see anything wrong with that.

 

[Psycho Romeo]

Well, the primarily combat ships in Elite follow your line of thinking, the Eagle, Viper, Vulture are all primarily combat ships. Other ships are not, and their cockpit design reflects this I think.

I would agree with this, but the FDL is notably missing frmo that list.

I find the off center seating to be just as annoying as third person shooting (which admittedly isn't very annoying). It can be accouted for and corrected, but it's also a pain to deal with sometimes.

 

[avow555]

I have no problem with the offset Pilot seats as it adds some variety to the game.
All game aspects are unaffected with offset seating, 5 mins of combat and you should be tuned into whichever ship you are flying.

P.S.
Anyone here played any of the X-wing Games or Star wars Galaxies and you got to fly the YT1300 (Millennium Falcon).
I bet you never batted an eye with the offset cockpit in that ship, you would just be delighted to fly the iconic ship...

 

[Cosmo Bozo]

It's also worth pointing out that the closer you sit to the centre line of rotation the lower the G forces experienced in combat would be....

That said, I do like the fact that some ships have offset cockpits, there are plenty that don't for those who don't like it.

 

[Thanatoast]

Kind of - the F15 has both single and dual-seat configurations, and I think that most single-seat combat aircraft have dual-seat training versions. Again, I'll let the jet-guys explain it better than me, as there is a whole spectrum of models and types and I don't know much about most of them.




Well, the primarily combat ships in Elite follow your line of thinking, the Eagle, Viper, Vulture are all primarily combat ships. Other ships are not, and their cockpit design reflects this I think. If FD were to enable cockpit seating relocation, either in-game shipworks or perhaps as an addon, I don't see anything wrong with that.

I would love to see the addition of a ship-shop (or in your terms, shipworks) in ED, it would definitely be a way to integrate more skins/custom skins into the game.

 

[Jackie McMackie]

Personally I believe it's more realistic like this, maybe it gets on my OCD nerves a bit but hey, I drive cars too.

 

[Kyokushin]

I love asymetric cockpits. And this one in FDL is my favourite.

Every car is asymetric, so this is not a problem. I like it, ships are different.

P.S.
Millenium Falcon is asymetric too.