My favorite space game of all time is Freespace 2, a gem of a game I impulse bought out of a bargain bin, and it was one of the best game purchases I've ever (accidentally) made.
It pulled of 6DoF fighting very well, was incredibly fun, and had very capable and fluid control mechanics. Of these, it had many capabilities for targeting, and I would really like to see some of them implemented into Elite Dangerous. There is also the issue of the target hologram on your ship showing the "wrong" angle of your target, but I'll get to that in a moment.
ED has only two targeting options: target next ship, and target next or closest hostile, although I think it might prioritize who's shooting at you, I'm not sure. I would very much like to have keys for: target closest ship, target closest object, target target's target, and target target's attacker.
Additionally, the hologram of your target shows an image of your target from the perspective of your scanner instead of the perspective of your ship, the first time I've ever seen this in a game, and it's irritating and not nearly as helpful as the more conventional approach of the latter. For example, if you were to target a ship directly 1km behind you, it would show the backside of that ship in your target holo. If this same ship was 1km in front, this would not change. This means that in order to get an idea of which way the ship is moving in relation to your own, you need to look at the holo and then at the scanner. In the conventional approach, doing the same thing with the target directly behind you would show the ship in the hologram pointing at you (at the pilot's seat). Using the conventional approach for doing the same with the target in front would show the ship pointing away from you. This is phenomenally more helpful, as you can determine which way a target is pointing/aiming in relation to you without worrying about mentally transposing what you see on the holo to where you see it on the scanner.
If a ship is pointing at yours, using the conventional method, the ship will always point at the pilot's seat on the holo, making it abundantly clear. In the current system, if a ship is at my 4 o clock high and heading for me, the holo shows a ship pointing down and to the left, and I won't know whether it's pointing at me or something else until I check the scanner to see where exactly it is. I would much rather have the conventional system as I find it much more intuitive and quickly helpful in battle than the targeting system currently in place.
It pulled of 6DoF fighting very well, was incredibly fun, and had very capable and fluid control mechanics. Of these, it had many capabilities for targeting, and I would really like to see some of them implemented into Elite Dangerous. There is also the issue of the target hologram on your ship showing the "wrong" angle of your target, but I'll get to that in a moment.
ED has only two targeting options: target next ship, and target next or closest hostile, although I think it might prioritize who's shooting at you, I'm not sure. I would very much like to have keys for: target closest ship, target closest object, target target's target, and target target's attacker.
Additionally, the hologram of your target shows an image of your target from the perspective of your scanner instead of the perspective of your ship, the first time I've ever seen this in a game, and it's irritating and not nearly as helpful as the more conventional approach of the latter. For example, if you were to target a ship directly 1km behind you, it would show the backside of that ship in your target holo. If this same ship was 1km in front, this would not change. This means that in order to get an idea of which way the ship is moving in relation to your own, you need to look at the holo and then at the scanner. In the conventional approach, doing the same thing with the target directly behind you would show the ship in the hologram pointing at you (at the pilot's seat). Using the conventional approach for doing the same with the target in front would show the ship pointing away from you. This is phenomenally more helpful, as you can determine which way a target is pointing/aiming in relation to you without worrying about mentally transposing what you see on the holo to where you see it on the scanner.
If a ship is pointing at yours, using the conventional method, the ship will always point at the pilot's seat on the holo, making it abundantly clear. In the current system, if a ship is at my 4 o clock high and heading for me, the holo shows a ship pointing down and to the left, and I won't know whether it's pointing at me or something else until I check the scanner to see where exactly it is. I would much rather have the conventional system as I find it much more intuitive and quickly helpful in battle than the targeting system currently in place.