ED Concepts:
With the coming of Wings and a more adapted “Cooperative” gameplay experience, a common problem found in most Space Flight Sims is the concept of Orientation and Position in any given location.
It’s rather easy to tell a friend in which system you are.
It is has easy to tell them at which station or body within that system you are.
But when you are fighting in this kind of environment, things get a little more complicated.
The “tactical radar” provided in every ship barely tells the story.
Squares, Triangles and colors are fine. But most of the time, you still need to take a long look at it to figure out where your Friends and Foes are.
In real aeronautics, commercial and combat planes alike use various methods to identify friends, foes and position.
Without boring anyone with complex arithmetic, there are a few things that could help ED (and any other space flight sims alike, for that matter).
1. IFF transponders – The concept, rather than the complicated functionality.
Simply put, an IFF code is determined and declared by each plane. So as to differentiate one from the other easily. The plane’s computer then knows that “x IFF” is friendly (for example).
It also serves to identify different planes (all friendly or foe) from one another.
Example: Set all IFF 44xx to friendly
Friend 1: George set his IFF= 4401
Friend 2: Doris set her IFF= 4402
On the Radar, it becomes easy to recognize both friendlies because they are
1: Green (already the case of course)
2: Have their IFF displayed (little triangle with a 4402 next to it).
In a situation like this, where George might call for help, this makes things much, much easier to manage and actually help.
2. The concept of Poles in Astronomical bodies
Every astronomical bodies have a North and South Pole. In most Science-Fiction materials, these are used to determine what is up and down in a system. A lot of people always blame shows like StarTrek with spaceships always finding themselves in the same orientation… well, simply put, that is why. Heads “up north” in a system.
The same should apply in ED. It is rather difficult to give directions to friends and declare enemy or focus of interest to friends right now, because there is no concept of up/down.
3. Vectors/Headings
As of now, there is no concept of Vectors implemented in the “aviation” or “navigation” sense. You fly in a “generic” direction. There are no headings, not proper orientation to give. Without getting this too complicated, planes always have an orientation so that pilots know “which way” they are flying towards. So if a pilot says “Heading 030”, it’s rather clear that he’s going somewhere North/Northeast.
In 3D space, the Headings are doubled to include the vertical vector as well. Something like “Heading 030 by 180” would be a heading of “north/northeast, straight “down” (referring to point 2).
Again, most shows and books include this kind of vectoring and orientation jargon, but in most cases, they paint a very clear picture. And this makes things much easier to communicate.
4. Bullseye
Brevity Code description: An established point from which the position of an object can be referenced; made by cardinal/range or digital format.
Essentially, a Bullseye is used in Theaters of Operation to identify a pre-determined fixed location, which all pilots use for point of reference.
Technically, this can be done without a software-side support (aka the game mechanic), but in most environments in space, this becomes near impossible, since in the vast majority of times, players are in empty space, or an asteroid field.
Having the ability to set a Bullseye and refer to that point in space at all time would also greatly help.
Using what is described in this post would make a difference between:
“I need help, I’m near a big asteroid that spins quickly”
To
“I’m at Bullseye 080 by 130, heading 310 by 180, need help”
(the player is “east” and somewhere “under” the bullseye, heading “northwest” and “straight down” from it).
I understand that most of those concepts are difficult to grasp at first, but I’ve found myself in a few situations where it was near impossible to tell where my friends were (minus the not being green on radar, which is ok if you’re careful). These kind of orientation tools would have been of great help. And with the Wings concept coming along, I’m sure we can expect a lot more large player party combats, especially with still rather dormant capital ships and such…
Btw, Capital ships which stay stationary can be a great Bullseye… for now.
Thoughts?
Cheers,
With the coming of Wings and a more adapted “Cooperative” gameplay experience, a common problem found in most Space Flight Sims is the concept of Orientation and Position in any given location.
It’s rather easy to tell a friend in which system you are.
It is has easy to tell them at which station or body within that system you are.
But when you are fighting in this kind of environment, things get a little more complicated.
The “tactical radar” provided in every ship barely tells the story.
Squares, Triangles and colors are fine. But most of the time, you still need to take a long look at it to figure out where your Friends and Foes are.
In real aeronautics, commercial and combat planes alike use various methods to identify friends, foes and position.
Without boring anyone with complex arithmetic, there are a few things that could help ED (and any other space flight sims alike, for that matter).
1. IFF transponders – The concept, rather than the complicated functionality.
Simply put, an IFF code is determined and declared by each plane. So as to differentiate one from the other easily. The plane’s computer then knows that “x IFF” is friendly (for example).
It also serves to identify different planes (all friendly or foe) from one another.
Example: Set all IFF 44xx to friendly
Friend 1: George set his IFF= 4401
Friend 2: Doris set her IFF= 4402
On the Radar, it becomes easy to recognize both friendlies because they are
1: Green (already the case of course)
2: Have their IFF displayed (little triangle with a 4402 next to it).
In a situation like this, where George might call for help, this makes things much, much easier to manage and actually help.
2. The concept of Poles in Astronomical bodies
Every astronomical bodies have a North and South Pole. In most Science-Fiction materials, these are used to determine what is up and down in a system. A lot of people always blame shows like StarTrek with spaceships always finding themselves in the same orientation… well, simply put, that is why. Heads “up north” in a system.
The same should apply in ED. It is rather difficult to give directions to friends and declare enemy or focus of interest to friends right now, because there is no concept of up/down.
3. Vectors/Headings
As of now, there is no concept of Vectors implemented in the “aviation” or “navigation” sense. You fly in a “generic” direction. There are no headings, not proper orientation to give. Without getting this too complicated, planes always have an orientation so that pilots know “which way” they are flying towards. So if a pilot says “Heading 030”, it’s rather clear that he’s going somewhere North/Northeast.
In 3D space, the Headings are doubled to include the vertical vector as well. Something like “Heading 030 by 180” would be a heading of “north/northeast, straight “down” (referring to point 2).
Again, most shows and books include this kind of vectoring and orientation jargon, but in most cases, they paint a very clear picture. And this makes things much easier to communicate.
4. Bullseye
Brevity Code description: An established point from which the position of an object can be referenced; made by cardinal/range or digital format.
Essentially, a Bullseye is used in Theaters of Operation to identify a pre-determined fixed location, which all pilots use for point of reference.
Technically, this can be done without a software-side support (aka the game mechanic), but in most environments in space, this becomes near impossible, since in the vast majority of times, players are in empty space, or an asteroid field.
Having the ability to set a Bullseye and refer to that point in space at all time would also greatly help.
Using what is described in this post would make a difference between:
“I need help, I’m near a big asteroid that spins quickly”
To
“I’m at Bullseye 080 by 130, heading 310 by 180, need help”
(the player is “east” and somewhere “under” the bullseye, heading “northwest” and “straight down” from it).
I understand that most of those concepts are difficult to grasp at first, but I’ve found myself in a few situations where it was near impossible to tell where my friends were (minus the not being green on radar, which is ok if you’re careful). These kind of orientation tools would have been of great help. And with the Wings concept coming along, I’m sure we can expect a lot more large player party combats, especially with still rather dormant capital ships and such…
Btw, Capital ships which stay stationary can be a great Bullseye… for now.
Thoughts?
Cheers,