I have noticed that very little attention has been given to the radar system. The things to consider is making more usable. First the radar should be able with or without engineering to be able to scan 360 degrees around the ship, turning to scan a ship makes no sense, heck the interdictor can do that. Second the zoom is virtually useless and shows virtually nothing close to the ship or if it does its hard to determine how close. I am sure other thing could be add to it to make it more useful.
Radar not very useful
- Thread starter Incurable Rash
- Start date
A co-pilot sat in that spare seat telling me what it all meant would be good.
I do not follow here.
The radar shows all ships around you with a certain distance (which depends on your sensors, and what engineering), this distance from your ships is a spherical shape, so you can see ships front, behind, above, below your or any other placements relative to your position within sensor range.
If you are talking about the scanning of a particular ship, then that is a different thing, that has nothing really todo with the radar... and is most likely made so you have to face the ship from a gameplay perspective.
Now the actually usability and readability of the actual radar screen is a whole different story... it took quite a while for me to learn to read the radar, and it wasn't before I was notified about the option to change to logarithmic scale that the radar started to make sense for me. Zooming the radar is useful at times, but I do think the lack of details in the radar display takes away the usefulness of the zoom, and I do not think making the radar more detailed with finer graphics, etc, would make much sense, based on where Elite is played today, including VR, as VR already have its challenges with UI being hard to read. I also can see console players that despite playing on big screen TVs, are equally sitting further away from the screen, making the use of to detailed graphics hard to read here as well.
The radar is a pretty standard setup for space games.
-Be Corvette
-literally 160 metric tonnes of sensors
-can't look behind me
-mfw
Some ships have a rear view scanner... Lol
It's important not to confuse radar with scanners. Craft of today have radar, but scanning a ship for it's callsign, ownership, legal status, faction status and current pilot? Those are well outside the scope of what radar is supposed to do. I know, I know, centuries into the future and all that but there's a reason that "scanners" and "radar" are two different words.
As to the scaling weight of sensors on ships (which do NOT affect performance in any way?) That one just doesn't make sense to begin with other than the increased integrity of subsystems; Corvette sensors do exactly the same thing as eagle sensors at exactly the same performance level so blah.
As to a scan being conclusively definitive? THAT is something that should depend on some factors, like time spent scanning, distance to target, quality of sensors and, dare I imagine it, efforts on the part of the target to mask such information.
As to the scaling weight of sensors on ships (which do NOT affect performance in any way?) That one just doesn't make sense to begin with other than the increased integrity of subsystems; Corvette sensors do exactly the same thing as eagle sensors at exactly the same performance level so blah.
As to a scan being conclusively definitive? THAT is something that should depend on some factors, like time spent scanning, distance to target, quality of sensors and, dare I imagine it, efforts on the part of the target to mask such information.
There are two scales for the scanner - logarithmic and linear. Personally, I find the logarithmic range positioning best for providing basic situational awareness but zooming provides little or no benefit with that setting. As for being able to scan 360 degrees... it does so already. With all due respect, it sounds to me like you need to learn how to read the instrumentation that is there.
The oval shape of the scanner represents the elliptical plane centred on (and aligned with) your vessel with the point of the point of the wedge representing your cockpits visual arc (I think). Either way, the point of the wedge is where your ship is (with the fan of the wedge indicating your forward arc) and the "blips" have lines to the elliptical plane to indicate if they are above or below the plane. The representation is standard for at least most space games.
The logarithmic range setting always renders out to maximum range with zoom affecting the shaping of the logarithmic range curve for near objects. The linear range setting gives a truer representation of distance but the displayed maximum range is dependent on the current zoom level.
I’ll agree that the inability to scan things from any angle is kinda lame.
Once you learn to read it, I think the sensor panel itself is a pretty handy tool, especially for combat.
I’m not too concerned about knowing the exact distance between me and any hostile ships, as long as I know roughly where they are, I can react accordingly.
Once you learn to read it, I think the sensor panel itself is a pretty handy tool, especially for combat.
I’m not too concerned about knowing the exact distance between me and any hostile ships, as long as I know roughly where they are, I can react accordingly.
If I may interject.
Your sensor panel is not a "Radar".
It is actually a passive sensor that absorbs emissions from the things around you, unlike Radar, which absorbs reflections of your own active emissions, which bounce off a reflective object and travel back to you.
When you make an "active" scan, however, the target needs to be within the requisite angle from your ship's nose for it to be effective.
Hopefully, that had cleared up any confusion.
And hopefully it is more understandable that the way that it is now is sensible and works as it "should".
Slàinte Mhath
Mark H
Your sensor panel is not a "Radar".
It is actually a passive sensor that absorbs emissions from the things around you, unlike Radar, which absorbs reflections of your own active emissions, which bounce off a reflective object and travel back to you.
When you make an "active" scan, however, the target needs to be within the requisite angle from your ship's nose for it to be effective.
Hopefully, that had cleared up any confusion.
And hopefully it is more understandable that the way that it is now is sensible and works as it "should".
Slàinte Mhath
Mark H
My take is that the radar is basic, but it's based on the original game and for me it's good to see it relatively unchanged. It was ahead of its time compared to other similar games / flight sim and (like Sylow) still works ok for me. Personally with the enhancements in the game today I'd like the radar to struggle more when seeing smaller ships, or those ships blocked by asteroids, planets etc. Also perhaps in a future ED update introduce the ability to pretend to be another ship when scanned through (say) a special module whilst in silent running. My only angst with the radar is how asteroids compared to a large ship or space station are presented when close to you.
Yes and no. I've seen an implementation of radar in a lot of space sims where targets show as dots/arrows along the periphery of the screen in the direction that the player needs to turn to face them. I actually prefer this method and would like to see it added as an option to supplement the standard radar display. That method, however, only shows the heading needed to point one's nose at the enemy. The current radar is better for a quick snapshot of the surrounding sphere of space and relative distances to objects, but requires a bit more skill to get used to reading.
I'm not sure what I think about the need to face a ship to basic scan it. I don't really like the current radar setup but it's hard to put a finger on exactly why.
I do know I'd like to see a soft lock, where the current target doesn't just get completely hard-dropped the instant it passes out of sensor range. If you can still see it visually, you'd think your sensors would be able to still track its location and trajectory.
There is, you just need to learn how to interpret the information (the closer they are to the centre of the projected plane and the shorter the lines the closer they are to you). Ultimately though, the EXACT numerical range is moot unless it is your current target and that information is presented on the HUD.