New Module: Hud on windshield

[ColdFusion]

Good evening, I was just thinking that it would be cool to have a module that you could install perhaps under the life support module section that allows the player to close an armored blast screen over the windshield during a "compromised hull integrity situation". Here's how it would work:

- I take heavy damage, cockpit glass breaks.
- If I have purchased / installed the module I can close a metal bast shield over the windows, temporarily unable to see externally.
- Atmosphere restores
- HUD pops up so that I can still fly my ship visually. This can be done simply with the idea of an external forward facing camera, the camera image would be projected on the blast screen.

This would add a cool layer of realism, I wouldn't think it would be too hard to program either since you could just shrink the players FOV and project it on the blast screen. Finally, because it would restore your atmosphere it would have functionality beyond just looking cool.

What do you guys think?

 

[Broken_Wolf]

i like the idea. but what would keep people from just using this as normal view and negating canopy damage in general?

 

[Similon]

i like the idea. but what would keep people from just using this as normal view and negating canopy damage in general?

Without intending to speak for the OP, I'd guess a Greatly diminished Field of View. Perhaps even make them the traditional Sci-Fi cameras, with remarkably high latency, and crazy amounts of distortion?
Should be a good enough deterrent.

 

[Tryst]

Without intending to speak for the OP, I'd guess a Greatly diminished Field of View. Perhaps even make them the traditional Sci-Fi cameras, with remarkably high latency, and crazy amounts of distortion?
Should be a good enough deterrent.

I'd go for that. Low res view and not too much distortion or latency since it would be hard to land a ship on a station or outpost if it was too bad. A very narrow FOV would dissuade players from using it in combat too, maybe just the two curved vertical lines in your HUD completed as a circle is your total view area. Maybe it could not be used if the canopy is intact as it would normally break the canopy if it's activated so activation is disabled by the onboard computer until the computer detects a loss of atmosphere in the cockpit.

However, it should not have a keybind as it is an emergency measure that requires activation from the modules pane on the right.

This would be invaluable for explorers who cannot get to a station in time. They can still return home for repairs without losing all their exploration data.

 

[Broken_Wolf]

what if this was made into a super cruise only setting. automatically closing when entering and opening again when coming out. i would also go as far to say no camera when it shuts, so you end up completely blind with only your instruments to guide you.

 

[Magic Man]

Probably overthinking things... you could go down that route for nearly everything.
A module that deploys a backup thruster in case your thrusters are put out of action
A handheld scanner in case your ship scanner is damaged
An extra oxygen bottle to top up your supply.

If you are going to design and make available a blast shield to replace broken windshields then why not make it out of the same stuff as the original windshield...
...and then have another one to replace that...
...and another one...

 

[Psycho__99]

I'm still wondering why an advanced civilisation that possess hologram projection and long range scanning, still use windows to sight exterior on combat ships, wich is a structural weakpoint. Any stupid soldiers would have thinked about blast screen in case of pressure lost by something as stupid as a broken windows.

 

[Psycho Romeo]

A coworker and I were discussing this. Blast doors that shut when your canopy blows.

Then until you got it repaired, you had to play like this.
View attachment 31942

But Magic Man brings up a good point. Instead of closing metal blast doors, why not close glass blast doors?

 

[ColdFusion]

These are all good points. I appreciate the discussion. To the point of having backups for backups for backups for everything, I see where you're coming from but the reason I was addressing the cockpit integrity is because there's just something about flying through space/supercruise/hyperspace that doesn't feel right with a giant hole in the window. Especially considering you pop out next to a sun when you jump away frantically looking for a station before you run out of oxygen.

I mean don't get me wrong, I love the damage modeling. I was just trying to think of something that wasn't as immersion breaking. Thrusters can get shot up and go offline, I can lose scanning capability, run out of oxygen, none of which "feels wrong" to me as much as the "I'm flying around with a hole in cockpit window" does. I like psycho's idea too haha.

 

[666Savior]

I think this idea makes sense. I get the reluctance to add backup systems because then you get that "well why don't you add a backup to that backup?"

However, in many popular science fiction movies, they actually have something similar to this.

And the main reason it would be metal and not glass? More protection, metal is harder to get through than glass (i know there are exceptions to this). The reason why we don't all fly in ships that have no glass on them is because the lag of the live feed and the limited view. Having a glass canopy gives the pilot better view and feel for whats going on around him.

The idea is that if this deploys it's time for you to bail and go someplace to repair. Barebones, fly by live camera feed, that's it. This back up module would have the sole purpose of protecting the pilot until they can get to a station and repair. Another possible idea is that the camera could get knocked out if you get hit in the right place then you would have to rely on sensors to "draw" a view of what's in front of you.

 

[Psycho Romeo]

The reason why we don't all fly in ships that have no glass on them is because the lag of the live feed and the limited view.

This isn't a problem in the twenty first century and this isn't a problem in the thirty fourth.

I can't believe you just said that while looking at a computer screen.

 

[DocLooshkin]

Having glass in a spaceship makes sense when you consider that the on-board sensors are fairly useless: they can't detect a dirty great spaceship painted bright pink and hovering in silent running mode just a few hundred metres away. That's to say nothing of the cloaking devices which we know exist in the Elite universe, even if they haven't as yet appeared in ED.