Conde, thank you for the additional information. This game would be toast if not for the patience by Fans with noobs.
I don't know if I can come to terms with the simple fact that this game makes no attempt to make basic information available. So many procedures and techniques to know yet ZERO official literature on Standard Operating Procedures from ED Dev's.
I often think it would be nice to be a bounty hunter, I then start looking for information in the game, only to realise that there's no information within the game, it requires stepping away from the game, breaking immersion, and spending hours on the net trying to get information to do the basics of whatever I want to do. I WANT TO LEARN, I WANT TO try something new yet the only information, (mostly unreliable), available is from other players scattered around the net. Is the "game" in this Game looking for information with which to do the next step, that's gameplay ?......... My HUD question illustrates this point, I must spend hours in real time trying to establish what the cockpit does, the nerve center of all ED game play and I still only THINK that I understand the cockpit, I don't know for certain.
I would like to give the ED dev's the keys to a B747 and say "there you go, fly it". In real life It takes four months to train a qualified pilot to fly another type of aircraft, ED dev's expect non aviation qualified folks to just "pick things up" from the web, what are they smoking......
The docking Simulator is excellent, as is the Combat Sim, but they need to create a Simulator for the nerve center of this game, the Flight Deck/Cockpit. detailing the contents AND how the different systems are utilised and linked, Navigation, Communication, Systems, how they are tied together and how to use them efficiently and correctly. e.g. how to use the NAV panel for signal missions, etc.
My wish is for the Dev's to go to any major airline pilot training center with Airbus or Boeing Simulators to see how a real flight is executed, just one flight from beginning to end, see how aircraft NAV computers function, how intuitive they are, how easy it is for route deviations, waypoint changes, diversions, course resumption, etc.