I want a directional indicator!

[Valorin]

"Elite 2 Frontier" had it and "Frontier 2 First Encounters" had it too. I want one for ED!
Crosshairs that indicate the direction your ship is going.

To illustrate this, two pictures from Elite 2 Frontier. There are two crosshairs, one roughly a "+", the other made of diagonals.
Here the ship points into the direction it is moving. Crosshairs perfectly aligned:

Here though they are not aligned, one is fixed in the middle, where the ship points at, the lower one telling you the direction the ship is actually going!

I want this second crosshair and maybe a compass like thing to at least roughly estimate my ship's trajectory when moving "backwards" and the directional marker is not in view.

It would be I N C R E D I B L Y useful for FA-off flying and I think also something a space ship should have by default.
At the moment the only indicator for where my ship is going, would be the (totally unrealistic) space dust which is often not easy to see as well.

So... pretty please with cherry on top?!

 

[Dagwit]

I've often thought that a second compass on the right matching the one on the left but showing the ship's vector would be nice.

In fact, given the symmetry it would add to the cockpit design I've wondered if such a thing did exist at one point in development but got dropped in favour of the space dust.

 

[digitus impudicus]

There is an indicator for that. The debris we all fly through all the time shows in which direction you are actually moving.

 

[galahad2069]

It's totally unnecessary tbh

 

[Valorin]

There is an indicator for that. The debris we all fly through all the time shows in which direction you are actually moving.

That unrealistic space dust you can barely see at high speeds and some environments I mentioned in my original post? Yeah... An actual marker as part of our ships' instruments would be great.

It's totally unnecessary tbh

For flying with flight assist on it absolutely isn't, yeah. If you toggle it off though, exactly knowing where your ship is going is very useful.

 

[Cmdr IVDEX]

I have that indicator. It's a small arrowhead shwowing whre I move my mouse to. But maybe it's exclusive for playing with mouse and keyboard....

 

[galahad2069]

For flying with flight assist on it absolutely isn't, yeah. If you toggle it off though, exactly knowing where your ship is going is very useful.

It's totally unnecessary for FAoff as well, lmao

 

[Sakashiro]

"Elite 2 Frontier" had it and "Frontier 2 First Encounters" had it too. I want one for ED!
Crosshairs that indicate the direction your ship is going.

To illustrate this, two pictures from Elite 2 Frontier. There are two crosshairs, one roughly a "+", the other made of diagonals.
Here the ship points into the direction it is moving. Crosshairs perfectly aligned:

Here though they are not aligned, one is fixed in the middle, where the ship points at, the lower one telling you the direction the ship is actually going!

I want this second crosshair and maybe a compass like thing to at least roughly estimate my ship's trajectory when moving "backwards" and the directional marker is not in view.

It would be I N C R E D I B L Y useful for FA-off flying and I think also something a space ship should have by default.
At the moment the only indicator for where my ship is going, would be the (totally unrealistic) space dust which is often not easy to see as well.

So... pretty please with cherry on top?!

SC has such an indicator. So I'd say our chance of getting one in ED is close to zero. Same for the long requested relative mouse toggle.

I guess FDev wants FA off to be seen as some sort of hardcore game mode. So they keep it as inaccessible as possible. Space dust that is hardly visible, and mouse behavior that's either good for supercruise or for FA off, but not for both. It's by design.

 

[leeG]

If you enable “Show Mouse Widget” you get a small square target point displayed on the canopy showing the direction the ship is pointing relative to the pilot’s seat. Very helpful with seats offset from the ship center line.

 

[Sakashiro]

If you enable “Show Mouse Widget” you get a small square target point displayed on the canopy showing the direction the ship is pointing relative to the pilot’s seat. Very helpful with seats offset from the ship center line.

The mouse widget basically shows the position of a virtual flight stick controlled by the mouse. It does not indicate the direction the ship is going.

 

[zeta]

"Elite 2 Frontier" had it and "Frontier 2 First Encounters" had it too. I want one for ED!
Crosshairs that indicate the direction your ship is going.

To illustrate this, two pictures from Elite 2 Frontier. There are two crosshairs, one roughly a "+", the other made of diagonals.
Here the ship points into the direction it is moving. Crosshairs perfectly aligned:

Here though they are not aligned, one is fixed in the middle, where the ship points at, the lower one telling you the direction the ship is actually going!

I want this second crosshair and maybe a compass like thing to at least roughly estimate my ship's trajectory when moving "backwards" and the directional marker is not in view.

It would be I N C R E D I B L Y useful for FA-off flying and I think also something a space ship should have by default.
At the moment the only indicator for where my ship is going, would be the (totally unrealistic) space dust which is often not easy to see as well.

So... pretty please with cherry on top?!

The link below is from the Newton's Gambit folks. The mod let's you adjust visibility of space dust. It only works for Horizons and must be reapplied after each update/reinstall:

Elite: GET MOAR SPACE DUST!!!111eleven

Elite: GET MOAR SPACE DUST!!!111eleven. GitHub Gist: instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

gist.github.com

It helped me a great deal with faoff.

 

[CMDR Alice Meco]

You'd think an advanced spacecraft in 3308 would have a HUD element that you can find in space- and aircraft these days already. In fact, it would be great if we could choose between having a TVV indicator (total velocity vector) and the space dust, choosing one, the other, or both. I'd love to be able to fly around without that dust sometimes...

 

[leeG]

The mouse widget basically shows the position of a virtual flight stick controlled by the mouse. It does not indicate the direction the ship is going.

I see what you mean. I use dual joysticks for control, not the mouse, so for my setup the widget always points straight ahead. Which is usually, but not always, the direction I’m heading.

 

[galahad2069]

I see what you mean. I use dual joysticks for control, not the mouse, so for my setup the widget always points straight ahead. Which is usually, but not always, the direction I’m heading.

What kind of control method you are using is totally irrelevant. That dot always indicates the direction in which the nose of the ship is pointing, which has literally nothing to do with what the OP was talking about.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

"Elite 2 Frontier" had it and "Frontier 2 First Encounters" had it too. I want one for ED!
Crosshairs that indicate the direction your ship is going.

To illustrate this, two pictures from Elite 2 Frontier. There are two crosshairs, one roughly a "+", the other made of diagonals.
Here the ship points into the direction it is moving. Crosshairs perfectly aligned:

Here though they are not aligned, one is fixed in the middle, where the ship points at, the lower one telling you the direction the ship is actually going!

I want this second crosshair and maybe a compass like thing to at least roughly estimate my ship's trajectory when moving "backwards" and the directional marker is not in view.

It would be I N C R E D I B L Y useful for FA-off flying and I think also something a space ship should have by default.
At the moment the only indicator for where my ship is going, would be the (totally unrealistic) space dust which is often not easy to see as well.

So... pretty please with cherry on top?!

The game would need a much better newtonic flight sim to justify that.

 

[galahad2069]

The game would need a much better newtonic flight sim to justify that.

Not even then tbh. Actually the flight model of ED is a brilliant piece of work, it's a very good compromise between realism and enjoyable gameplay. The game has a LOT of serious problems, but the flight model itself is definitely not one of them.

I'm pretty sure that they deliberately did not provide us with a velocity vector indicator because they did not want players to mechanically chase some moving X on the monitor, instead of watching their surroundings. And it's not even necessary in the least, since the benefits would be virtually nonexistent.

1. While you are flying near static objects like rocks and stations, you can literally see where you are going.
2. When there are no such static objects nearby (in open space), what actually matters is not your absolute velocity vector, but your velocity relative to your target (e g. the opponent's ship).

BTW the space dust provides you with sufficiently accurate information on your velocity relative to the local frame of reference, if you absolutely want to know that. If that information is not precise enough (like when you want to line up with an escape vector), literally all you need to do is press boost once.

 

[Robert Maynard]

I'm pretty sure that they deliberately did not provide us with a velocity vector indicator because they did not want players to mechanically chase some moving X on the monitor, instead of watching their surroundings. And it's not even necessary in the least, since the benefits would be virtually nonexistent.

From memory regarding Mike Evans' comments on the flight model in general and indicators in particular, this. Similarly regarding a "target is in this direction" indicator (when target is not visible) which was consciously not implemented. Same with requests for semi-FA-Off, i.e. rotational damping still active.

 

[V'larr]

From memory regarding Mike Evans' comments on the flight model in general and indicators in particular, this. Similarly regarding a "target is in this direction" indicator (when target is not visible) which was consciously not implemented. Same with requests for semi-FA-Off, i.e. rotational damping still active.

That's silly, in my honest opinion. Functional HUD information is part and parcel to what makes vehicular operation so fun and rewarding. Intentionally obscuring information defeats that (and is so very Fdev, when it comes to trying to hinder their own game's fun).

 

[Elpapo]

At the moment the only indicator for where my ship is going, would be the (totally unrealistic) space dust which is often not easy to see as well.

Space dust is fine as it is. I dont have problems with seeing it no matter of speed, in fact, more faster you go, it gets more visible, atleast for me. Im saying this as PVP veteran who mastered faoff years ago. There was time, when it was very barely visible and much less dense compared to now, but that was long time ago, and even at that time, had zero problems with it.


But some might not like it, and thats fine too, but my point is, that dust is fine, in that regard, that it allows to very accurate indicate a direction. And its subtle enough, but not to point where one can have trouble to seeing it... atleast for those, who are used to it.

 

[galahad2069]

That's silly, in my honest opinion. Functional HUD information is part and parcel to what makes vehicular operation so fun and rewarding. Intentionally obscuring information defeats that (and is so very Fdev, when it comes to trying to hinder their own game's fun).

That's not stupid, those were very good decisions.

You know what's stupid? Horizons 4.0 players not allowed to instance with Odyssey players, leading to further fragmentation of the playerbase, now that would be beyond stupid.