The title pretty much says it all. Many people are bothered by off-center cockpits, usually in the ships with two seats, But then there are people like me ( and many others ) who have OCD on top of this and literally can't fly the off-center ships at all due to it.Plus, if it were only a couple of ships that were not in endgame territory, it would be finee. But usually the ships with the most off center and OCD inducing cockpits are the most expensive 'endgame' tier, basically best ships in the game ( Fer De Lance , Cutter, Python etc.), the ones you really really should get, to enhance what you do in this game ( Combat, Trading, Mining etc. ).
Now I know the regular argument about cars having the drivers seat off to one side , it being immersion breaking etc, and it would be maybe understandable if Elite Dangerous was a VR only game ( as having your complete vision be the ship's cockpit would change the circumstances ) but since its not, and since the vast majority of people, even if they use a HOTAS, use monitors and TVs instead of VR helmets, this argument doesn't really stand. Plus if anything it would ADD to the immersion as your in the center and all the action is unobstructed by the support beams of the cockpit.
Secondly, even if you think about this from a piloting perspective, ship cockpit setups like the one in the Cobra MKIII don't really make sense. Since you can't really separate flight and fire controls ( whether it be weapons or mining lasers ) between pilots ( as otherwise its hard to really aim in dogfighting if you don't really know where the ship is gonna go, the type of knowing that can only come when you're also the one piloting the ship, and say if both the pilots had flight controls, one might want to go to the right while the other wants to go left .... explaining it in this way doesn't really do it justice, so I hope you can understand what I mean).
So the copilot really has no business sitting in the front, the only controls the co pilot can really have are secondary systems and controls ( Chaff, pip management maybe , heatsinks etc) which should be accessible from anywhere in the ship, and the main thing he can do to help is basically call and alert the pilot to his surroundings, the radar, thermal overload etc , which should actually be the main function of a copilot in ships like these. So basically copilot seats can be recessed in the back, maybe facing to the side ( think extreme version of Fer De Lance ; also what is wrong with that ships cockpit ) and it won't hinder any of what his functions should be, leaving the front of the cockpit free to the pilot and OCD friendly. ( Of course, if a ship has a fighter bay, the co pilot has that responsibility, but that doesn't really affect this ) This can also be easily extended to 3 pilots, and centering the cockpit shouldn't really have an effect on Multicrew, buggy and rarely used though it is.
Now I know centering the cockpit is a bigger challenge and might require model changes to the ships themselves, and that this is a big request, but I can't help but ask it all the same. If not to all the ships ( which is fine ; the Adder can have that cockpit ) then at least to the heavy hitter, endgame tier ships like the Ferdie. OCD sufferers, like myself have real problems with this ( think loose wires for The Yamiks but the reaction is 100% genuine and heartfelt and right in front of your eyes the entire damn time ).
Now obviously Frontier can be an absolute angel and do this to the ships for free, but if that is not possible, can they at least add centered cockpits as customization options in the Livery purchasable through Arx? If they can go through all the trouble of new COVAS simply for pure customization options ( and of course immersions into the universe ) then I really hope they can add centered cockpits to help OCD commanders. Even charging a lot would be fine if people like us just had the option, which ties back into the fact that the 'main' off center ships ( Ferdie, Cutter , Python ) are really must-have ships, and as of right now, we just have to either suffer and not use those ships, or suffer and use those ships.
Now this did turn into a rant, but let me just make it clear, this is a beautiful game with a magnificent universe, and despite this, I really do love it.
Fly safe Commanders!
Now I know the regular argument about cars having the drivers seat off to one side , it being immersion breaking etc, and it would be maybe understandable if Elite Dangerous was a VR only game ( as having your complete vision be the ship's cockpit would change the circumstances ) but since its not, and since the vast majority of people, even if they use a HOTAS, use monitors and TVs instead of VR helmets, this argument doesn't really stand. Plus if anything it would ADD to the immersion as your in the center and all the action is unobstructed by the support beams of the cockpit.
Secondly, even if you think about this from a piloting perspective, ship cockpit setups like the one in the Cobra MKIII don't really make sense. Since you can't really separate flight and fire controls ( whether it be weapons or mining lasers ) between pilots ( as otherwise its hard to really aim in dogfighting if you don't really know where the ship is gonna go, the type of knowing that can only come when you're also the one piloting the ship, and say if both the pilots had flight controls, one might want to go to the right while the other wants to go left .... explaining it in this way doesn't really do it justice, so I hope you can understand what I mean).
So the copilot really has no business sitting in the front, the only controls the co pilot can really have are secondary systems and controls ( Chaff, pip management maybe , heatsinks etc) which should be accessible from anywhere in the ship, and the main thing he can do to help is basically call and alert the pilot to his surroundings, the radar, thermal overload etc , which should actually be the main function of a copilot in ships like these. So basically copilot seats can be recessed in the back, maybe facing to the side ( think extreme version of Fer De Lance ; also what is wrong with that ships cockpit ) and it won't hinder any of what his functions should be, leaving the front of the cockpit free to the pilot and OCD friendly. ( Of course, if a ship has a fighter bay, the co pilot has that responsibility, but that doesn't really affect this ) This can also be easily extended to 3 pilots, and centering the cockpit shouldn't really have an effect on Multicrew, buggy and rarely used though it is.
Now I know centering the cockpit is a bigger challenge and might require model changes to the ships themselves, and that this is a big request, but I can't help but ask it all the same. If not to all the ships ( which is fine ; the Adder can have that cockpit ) then at least to the heavy hitter, endgame tier ships like the Ferdie. OCD sufferers, like myself have real problems with this ( think loose wires for The Yamiks but the reaction is 100% genuine and heartfelt and right in front of your eyes the entire damn time ).
Now obviously Frontier can be an absolute angel and do this to the ships for free, but if that is not possible, can they at least add centered cockpits as customization options in the Livery purchasable through Arx? If they can go through all the trouble of new COVAS simply for pure customization options ( and of course immersions into the universe ) then I really hope they can add centered cockpits to help OCD commanders. Even charging a lot would be fine if people like us just had the option, which ties back into the fact that the 'main' off center ships ( Ferdie, Cutter , Python ) are really must-have ships, and as of right now, we just have to either suffer and not use those ships, or suffer and use those ships.
Now this did turn into a rant, but let me just make it clear, this is a beautiful game with a magnificent universe, and despite this, I really do love it.
Fly safe Commanders!